Special Hobby 1/72 Civil Vultee V-1A By Jim Schubert

History

Our esteemed Publisher covered the history of the V-1A in his review in the October 2003 issue of this magazine when the kit originally appeared under the Azur brand. At that time the only markings offered were for two Spanish Republican planes.

The Kit

The parts trees, the resin details and vac canopies in this reissue are exactly the same as in the 2003 issue. What is different is the re-branding, the instructions, the decals and the boxing. As presented, you can build three civil versions of the V-1A with the differences amongst them all being in the detail markings. The three planes are:

· c/n 6, NC-13768 in standard American Airlines livery. AAL ordered 20 V-1As but only took delivery of 11.

· c/n 8, NC-13770 in AAL markings but with Shell Oil Company logos as the plane was marked when used by Jimmy Doolittle for his trans continental US speed record on January 14, 1935.

· c/n 21, NC-14255 in AAL’s basic livery but with Crusader Oil Company logos and the option of adding the race-number B3 that it carried when company pilots William Gulick and William Warner, with a navigator and mechanic aboard, placed third in the 1936 trans-continental Bendix Race. This is the plane illustrated on the box.

All three of these planes ended up being destroyed in Spain during the civil war.

When Vaclav “Vaso” Hochmuth prepared the decal artwork he included a fourth airplane that is not addressed in the kit’s instructions even though the decals for it are on the sheet. That plane is:

· c/n 8, NC-13770, “Lady Peace” as flown by entertainer Harry Marshman and Eastern Air Lines’ Chief Pilot Dick Merrill on their round-trip trans-Atlantic speed record in September 1936. Richman had leased NC-13770, the plane previously used by Jimmy Doolittle, for the record flight. To ensure buoyancy in the event of ditching the plane carried 50,000 celluloid ping-pong balls entrapped in every viable cavity.

I suspect the reason “Lady Peace” is not included in the kit’s instructions is that it requires three parts that are peculiar to it. These are a single large exhaust on the right of the engine cowling and an RDF (Radio Direction Finder) globe under a small, clear blister atop the fuselage. You’ll also need to blank off five windows. For your convenience I’ve included an annotated copy of Vaso’s original artwork, intended for the instructions, and a couple of photos showing these details. And speaking of details, the kit is missing a few. There are no running lights, no landing lights, no taxi lights and no maker’s logos for the 10’ 3” Hamilton-Standard controllable pitch propeller. The prop, by the way is not very good and is better replaced with something from Aeroclub or your spares box.

Conclusion

Nitpicks apart, this is a great kit; made especially so by being all civil. Buy a couple for your cache of kits. I bought mine from Emil Minerich's Skyway Model Shop for about $27.00.

FYI: When Vaso was doing the decal artwork for this reissue he sought, and received a lot of good help from members of the Wings Of Peace internet discussion group. This group deals with civil aviation subjects up to WWII. They have a beautiful web site at…

https://wingsofpeace.net/

The discussion group is at…

wingsofpeace@yahoogroups.com

References

·Vultee Aircraft 1932-1947: Jonathan Thompson,
...............Markiewicz/Thompson, USA, ISBN 0-913322-02-4.
· Paul Matt Scale Airplane Drawings, Vol. 2: Paul Matt, Sunshine House, Inc., USA, 1991, ISBN 0-943691-05-2. NOTE: the V-1A was drawn for Paul Matt’s Historical Aviation Album by Rob Lambert in 1965.
· The Vintage Airplane, August 1980. This is a publication of the EAA.
· Two articles: “Jerry Vultee’s V-1” by Richard S Allen and “Lady Peace; the Ping-Pong Special” by Roscoe Deering, from Air classics, the dates of which I did not record.
. Several consultations with aviation artist/researcher John Amendola.
· Many postings of photos, etc. on the Wings Of Peace internet discussion group.