Sword 1/48 Northrop N-9MA
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History
Northrop and flying wings go hand in hand, and the N-9MA was one of
the first experiments developed by Jack Northrop. Built as a test platform
for the upcoming B-35 flying wing, the N-9M serieswas designed as a midget
B-35 to discover all the aerodynamic personalities of that huge bomber.
Three N-9Ms were built, with the first being the N-9M, the second being
the N-9M2 and the final one being the subject of this kit, the N-9MA.
A fourth N-9M was built to replace the first N-9M, which had crashed,
and this one was referred to as the N-9MB. All of the N-9M series flew
and provided countless amounts of research data on the subject of flying
wings, with the culmination in today's B-2 Stealth bomber.
The Kit
Sword announced this kit a while back, after their release of their
1/72 kit. As such it was pretty apparent that what we'd get would be
a scaled up example of the 1/72 example. While this is basically true,
it's not a direct scale-up and there are several differences between the
two in terms of parts breakdown and construction. Like most recent Sword
releases, this kit comes molded in a gray plastic, with a vacuformed canopy
and three resin pieces making up part of the spinners and the tail wheel
well.
 Starting
with the cockpit, this is a fairly complicated assembly made up of the
sidewalls, floor, and a two-piece rear bulkhead. Rudder blocks, instrument
panel, a two-piece control yoke, and the seat round out the rest of the
cockpit. Some of the detailing on the sidewalls is a bit soft, but overall
it should really look nice painted up.
Once the cockpit is built up, you'll move to the rest of the 'fuselage'
innards. The wing is split into six pieces with a center section and
outer wing panels. The center section incorporates the intakes, wheel
wells, and cockpit. Inserts are provided for the nose wheel and tail
wheel, while the intakes are blanked off with separate pieces for the
splitters. No main wheel wells are provided, resulting in a very large
opening underneath. Not being sure of what the real thing looks like,
I wouldn't know what the fix here is, but I'm sure at the very least there
would be something between the wells. The upper 'fuselage' gets a headrest
piece and the back half of the engine nacelles. These are split into
right and left halves and match up to the forward fairings, so you'll
want to be careful in cleaning these parts up so you don't end up with
them being too small and not matching up.
 The
landing gear is sturdy, with the main gear struts featuring separate oleo
scissors and retraction arms. The main wheels are split into right and
left halves and feature nice hub detail and tread. The nose gear strut
also has separate oleo scissors and retraction arm, and the nose wheel
is molded as one piece to fit between the forks of the strut. The last
piece of undercarriage is the tail wheel, made up of a separate wheel
and a one-piece arm/door. The wheel doors are fairly thin, but could
probably be thinned down some.
Once the center section is finished, the rest of the assembly is very
straightforward. The wing outer panels are split into upper and lower
halves and fit onto tabs in the center section. There are a couple of
problems with the outer wings, though. The first is the tip washout.
Since there are no vertical control surfaces, the N-9MA had a twist put
into the wing to improve stability. This should be fairly easy to fix
with some hot water, but the challenge will be in getting the two sides
to match. The second problem is with the fixed slats. On the 1/72 kit
these are featured as indents in the upper wing. On this kit scribed
lines represent them. In this scale this is a very noticeable omission
and you definitely will want to fix this.
 The
propellers are made up of the resin hub, a one-piece prop, and a separate
spinner. Two scoops on the underside are made up from right and left
halves, fitting on the outboard side of the main intakes. The last step
is to add the canopy. You'll want to find some photos of the canopy in
the open position if you want to display your kit that way, as it doesn't
just hinge open.
The decals are simplistic, but then again the real thing didn't have
much on it. You get two stars & bars and the Northrop logo. The
paint job is trainer yellow over trainer blue, a very striking scheme
that will be simple to paint.
Conclusion
This is very likely going to be the only choice for a 1/48 N-9MA available
in injection plastic, and for the most part it's a very nice kit. While
there are some trouble spots, it should build up fairly quickly and will
really be quite striking in that yellow and blue scheme.
Our thanks to Squadron for the
review sample. | 
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