Northrop Northampton B(PR)1 - the model

[trickyrich]

very nice 

it's great to see one of these done up in an "actual" scheme rather than the boring old prototype NMF. The next step would be to evolve it into a later model with the wrap-around scheme!

[Mossie]

Liking the Northampton very much, but that's half the SIG's table allocation gone in one fell swoop!

That's put the idea of a B-45 (Northumberland?) in anti-flash into my mind, not that I've got one.

[PR19_Kit]

Liking the Northampton very much, but that's half the SIG's table allocation gone in one fell swoop!

That's put the idea of a B-45 (Northumberland?) in anti-flash into my mind, not that I've got one.

I have. 

Or did you mean a B-49 perhaps, the jet B-35?

[Mossie]

Whoops, slip of the fingers!  Yes, B-49.

[PR19_Kit]

I've just uploaded the lengthy backstory in the Alternative History area.

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=39554.msg655892#msg655892

[McColm]

What scale is the model Kit?
I had the 1/72 for a few months and it was massive.

[Mossie]

Got to admit, with the size of it I'm surprised Kit hasn't hacked it in half and stuck it on something else!

[PR19_Kit]

Yes, it's the AMT 1/72 scale kit, it's just over 2 feet wingspan, and by far the widest span model I've got.

It doesn't come anywhere NEAR 'The Monster', my 777-900, for length of course. 

The chord is so deep, and the wing so thick, that grafting it onto anything else would be difficult, at least in 1/72. I imagine that you could use one to Whiff a 1/32 model maybe.

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice! The color scheme actually suits the thing VERY well.

[PR19_Kit]

Nice! The color scheme actually suits the thing VERY well.

I was surprised at that too, I thought the weird toned down colours would look strange, but to my eyes they work better than the more vibrant  Dark Green and Sea Grey Medium of later years.

[McColm]

Great background story and build.

[Tophe]

Nice model! It would have been great in Eureopean skies, yes!

[sandiego89]

Looks great, I too like the cammo uppersurfece and the NMF on the underside.  I loathe NMF. Well done.   

[PR19_Kit]

I wanted to make the props on the Northampton plug-in units as there's no fin or anything else to protect them from the trials and tribulations of being carried to shows. In fact the props ARE the highest parts of the model! AMT/Ertl in their wisdom have made the prop shafts quite thin and the bearing area to support them in the shaft housings very short so without the supplied collars to fit on the inside of the bearing area they wobble like crazy.

So I glued some styrene tube over the shafts to lengthen them and I had intended to glue some suitably sized brass tube into the shaft bearing area to take the shafts. It then occured to me that this would be a 'one shot deal', if the tube didn't fit and glue exactly I'd not be able to get it out again as the end of the tube would be flush with the end of the bearing! And if I pushed it in too far it would fall inside the shaft fairing and would never be seen again. 

So Plan B was formulated. I cut the brass tube into four lengths, around 3/4", filed the ends flat and reamed them out to take the thickened shafts and superglued them into small square pieces of 20 thou styrene sheet. Then I marked, cut and filed the sheet to the correct circular diameter and test fitted each one into it's appropriate housing. That took about 100 times longer to do than ity did to write, it was a long, arduous and VERY frustrating job, and I had to scrap out two of my attempts as the tubes weren't perpendicular to the styrene sheet.

But at last I managed to make four of the little blighters and three of them are glued into place with some putty around the joint. I'll sand that down and paint up the ends of the shaft fairings later today, but in the meanwhile here's a pic of the last remaining bearing to be fitted together with its companion shown already in place.

[kerick]

That's a good idea!