Olimp 1/72nd Curitss Jenny JN-4A/D (early) By Dennis Ugulano

Introduction

I will start this build article with a thank you to Matt Bittner for asking me to build the kit and OLIMP MODELS for providing the kit.

This is an easy, basic kit to build. The instructions are easy to read, providing two color schemes. There was no flash on my kit and the sprue attachment points are small and easy to remove. However, there are a few places that will cause problems and I will point those out as we go. Another modeller and I were building the kit at the same time and we both ran into the same problems. Enough talk; let's model.

Wings

The wings are multi pieces with five pieces for the top wing and three pieces for the lower wing. The parts do not fit as good as they could. Care must be taken to sand the ajoining surfaces flat to get as good a fit as possible. Then the parts were laid on a flat surface, glued together and left to dry for a day. The control surfaces do not fit in very well so dry fit several times before the glue. A little putty is necessary at the main joints and the final results are good. After the wings are dry, I drilled all of my rigging holes. The control horn locating hole on the control surfaces have to be moved one rib outward as in their molded in position, they will conflict with the upper wing supports. After my wings are sanded and to my satisfaction, they were painted, glossed and decals were applied. I always apply decals prior to assembly and the roundels went on flawlessly.

Decals

While on the subject of decals, here is one of the problem areas if you are not alerted. Coat the decals sheet with some sort of gloss coat or varnish. The roundels will present no problems but the instructment panel and Love Field decals will float away after a very short time in the water. I would assume the Royal Naval Air Service "B 1934" will do the same. Also, the decals are very brittle, and will not tolerate any effort to make them go around an edge such as the rudder decals. When dry, they broke and chipped as if they were very old. Since that is not the case because the kit and company are brand new, I have no explanation for the way the decals reacted. Other than that, the decals are very thin and look good when finished.

Interior

The interior parts are very straight forward with minor fit problems. Assemble the floor board section and then dry fit as a little sanding is necessary when you close up the fuselage. It is a very minor problem and after painting, the interior is very convincing. The engine does not have a positive location system so dry fit using the engine cover to locate the engine so it will be equally spaced back and front with the engine cover. I got my back a little too far and had to trim the cover for a better looking nose.

Fuselage

Not the best fitting parts but no real problem. A light sanding of the edges is necessary. There are no locating pins but that seldom is a problem. Match up the halves as close as possible and let dry. The cockpit section will need a little work but the fit is reasonalble and takes only a few minutes of sanding to get it looking good. The main concern will be the engine cover. It's a little big in the front so be careful and let your glue dry before letting go the the part. With the engine cover attached, sanding will be necessary to get the angle right for the radiator. The radiator will be a little too big so I lined up with the upper section and a little sanding on the bottom made the world right. Well, not actually the world but my kit anyway. A fair amount of putty and sanding will be necessary for the fuselage. Increase the notch for the tail piece and trim out for the lower wing and the fuselage is complete. I attached the lower wing at this time so as to accomplish all of the sanding at one time.

Undercarriage

I am making this a separate section because of a problem that both of the builders ran into in this section. As I'm writing this I think I know the problem and the solution. The kit provides you with two sets of undercarriage supports. If you use both legs from one sprue, which is the accepted practice, the leg width will be different. There are no front locating holes for these parts so generally you make both holes with the width of one part. If you do that, the holes will be different for each leg. My suggestion is to cut out all four undercarriage supports and match the two that are the same width. I think that will solve the problem. After that excerise, the undercarriage fits good and looks good when completed.

Upper Wing Attachment

This did not present any problems. The struts are all the same length with a very nice locating pin at the end of each strut. Make sure all locating holes are drilled out as they are too small to accept the strut. I attached the struts to the lower wing, flipped the model over and attached each strut one at a time. With a little tweaking I got the wing in the position I wanted and then added the cabanes. The cabanes look like they are different lengths but they are not. The flared section on two of them is slightly smaller than the other two. Since I could live with this defect, I did nothing to change it. With that, the model is complete and ready for rigging. I have not added the propeller or the exhausts yet as they get in the way of the rigging. They will go on last.

Rigging

During construction, I have drilled all of my locating holes so I can thread my rigging through these holes using "DURAS". The main rigging is "Clarks" Transparent Nylon and I switched to "Merlin's" Invisible Thread for the control lines. The Jenny has a fairly complex rigging system and this took me a little longer than normal. After all of the rigging is in place, I attached the final parts, did touch up painting and the model was complete.

Conclusion

This was a pleasant kit to build. No real surprises with the exception of the decals but that can be solved with a little varnish. The kit is basic but gives a great foundation for the person who wants to super detail the kit. I did not check with any reference material to see if the dimensions are exact or if the "do hickey" on the left side under the pilot's seat was the right size. I will leave that to the person that has terminal AMS to determine. But I will visit that person regularly as he or she is recovering. Total building time about 10 hours maybe a little more due to the rigging. OLIMP MODELS is to be commended for a nice kit and their ambitious plans for three more Jennys.

References

AIRCRAFT ARCHIVE "AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR ONE" Volume 3, pages 90 - 92