Im trying to undertake an ambitious project. I am trying to create a HO scale airplane load for a flat car based on the US Navy or US AAF fighters of WW II. Is there anyway I can make a resin or scratch build models for this, or are there any HO scale models with folding wings that I can use as a flat car load. Most airplane models I noticed is in 1/72 scale. I do not want to use this scale on my HO train but may have to if I have no other alternative. What would be the best way if any to approach this?
If you can find a model F4F or F6F with foldable wings, it could be carried in a suitable cradle with the wheels retracted and the wings folded. The horizontal stabilizers are still a bit wide.
Most WWII aircraft make poor flatcar loads, due to their construction. When new, they were almost always flown from factory to seaport - frequently by female pilots - and then carried as deck cargo if they lacked the transoceanic range to fly on. Navy aircraft bound for the Pacific usually left port aboard escort carriers.
Of course, if you’re shipping a wreck or a scrapped aircraft, it might have been dismembered with a cable after being stripped of props, engines and other still-useful parts. The result would look like airplane-shaped and colored chunks of scrap aluminum - and would probably have been a gondola load.
Chuck (Former aircraft maintenance type modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Why does this topic sound familiar to me?
Hmmmmmmmm, oh yeah: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/139805/1559623.aspx#1559623
How about an A-1, or a TBF or SBD with “stingers”?
Am I mistaken, or wasn’t it common for the major components (engine, wings, body, guns, etc.) were shipped in separate crates and planes assembled at the war theatre?
Mark
Walthers produced some HO scale P-51 Mustangs and C-47 cargo planes a few years ago. Not sure how often they turn up but you never know.
Ricky
I do remember seeing planes disassembled as deck cargo on merchant ships going to Russia but I think these were mostly British planes. I can’t remember seeing American planes shipped via rail at all. The vast majoirty were flown from the factories to their staging areas for deployment.
However since we suspend reality all the time why not?
The only models that are going to be close to HO scale is the British “OO” scale and Airfix used to have a pretty extensive line of soldiers are related items I don’t remember seeing any planes.
But even if you go this route you are going to have to do some extensive kitbashing inorder to get the plane looking ‘finished’ but not having the wings and prop attached. Also the plane would be delivered (with at most) only the national symbols and serial numbers on it. Since the plane is not going direct to a unit there is no way that specific ID info would be on the plane.
Fidelis Models shows a 1/87th scale BF 109 in stock.
http://www.fidelismodels.com/category/Walthers.html
A FW 190D:
http://www.fidelismodels.com/ArsenalM_Planes/ArsenalM_122700501.html
And another BF 109:
http://www.fidelismodels.com/Busch_Aircraft/Busch_25001.html
I guess if you want to move a captured German aircraft across the country by rail you could use one of those…
Jeff
A quick google search for search terms “1:87 scale airplane” (without the quotes) finds that you can get at least die cast Dauntless SBDs and Wildcats (F4Fs) in 1:87 scale (plus various German airplanes).
Want to make folding wings? Use a saw, cut wing, reattach in folded position (preferably back along the fusilage rather than in an A shape above the cockpit).
Folded wings might not be all that prototypical for the SBDs, but on the other hand - most people wouldn’t know an SBD from a SB2C (Helldiver) or a TBF (Avenger) by sight - they would just think “US WW2 carrier airplane”.
Of course - it is not very prototypical to ship assembled airplanes by rail, either, but if that is what you want, then that is what you want.
Smile,
Stein
Speak fur yerself, sir. By the way, TBF wings folded close to and parallel to the plane’s body (see previous photo), though I doubt it was ever shipped that way. Furthermore, a TBF is huge (with an electric-powered rear turret and large internal bomb bay) while an SBD is compact (while carrying bombs externally) even though both are single-engined planes.
Mark
Lots of P-39s were sent to Russia. In fact, one Russian pilot flying P-39s shot down more planes than any other American-built plane by any pilot, anywhere. While disdained by Americans, Russians held them dear.
Mark
The ‘fold and roll’ close-to-the-fuselage wings were features of the Grumman designs (F4F, F6F, TBM/TBF*) while other manufacturers went the ‘tent’ route. You would really have to work from a photo to get the wings right - the joint line was a complex curve. not a straight line.
I still say that F4Fs and F6Fs built at Bethpage, LI, NY, were flown out after Navy acceptance trials. I was living under the test flight airspace, and still remember the screaming snarl of a steeply-diving Hellcat. (If the Stuka was louder or more frightening, it must have been scary indeed.)
*Why TBM? Grumman only built a few prototypes. Production was in the hands of General Motors. One of the prototypes was assembled with clips instead of rivete, so the UAW members could see how the aircraft went together. That ONE airframe might have left Bethpage on the ground, but probably under tarps in a truck convoy with armed security. It was, after all, a brand-new design.
The bF-109 standing on its wheels on a German-design flatcar never ceases to crack me up. That bird was notorious for landing gear failures, and for its very narrow track - highly conducive to ground loops. I’m sure that it would have been shipped in a cradle with the gear retracted. I’m equally sure that it would have been shrouded in tarps or camoflage webbing, since it would have been a magnet for ground attack planes like the T’Bolt and the Hawker Typhoon which were patrolling the railroads lookng for targets…
Historical aside, slightly [#offtopic]. Since the TBM had the same basic shape as a Wildcat, Saburo Sakai was confident he was attacking single-seat fighters from the six and couldn’t understand why they were bunching up rather than scattering. Then those .50 cal stingers started taking his A6m Zero apart… (He survived, and nursed the cripple home, but lost the sig
Ala TBF/M stinger:
Here’s an idea. It’s quite unlikely aircraft would have been shipped as open freight. Build a balsa form that roughly approximates your choice of aircraft. Cover it with stenciled, (military style), tarps. Claim whatever you like is under the tarps…[tup]
