SPA Modeler

Another great update with amazing pics and useful information. Thank you again, for posting this build log. I’m impressed by your process, I’m learning a lot, and generally enjoying the Hell out of it.

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That’ can be a conundrum. I had a similar issue trying to match the green for the cockpit of that Warhawk I did.

Now, what you’re talking about, the interior green X bronze green X dull green, that’s going to look rad in your model’s cockpit. And I dig how extensively you’ve researched it, too.

North American Aviation
by Sam Gnerre

Incorporated on Dec. 6, 1928, North American Aviation’s formation followed the founding of the Boeing Company in 1916 and Douglas Aircraft in 1921. For its first few years, North American operated as a holding company, owning parts of many other aviation firms, including Douglas and General Aviation Manufacturing Corp. in Dundalk, Maryland.

In 1934, federal antitrust legislation required that the company give up its holdings in other aircraft companies. At that point, under engineer Dutch Kindelberger and designers Lee Atwater and J.S. Smithson, North American became an aviation manufacturer, moving into General Aviation’s plant at Dundalk.

Its stay there would be temporary. After the company won its first airplane contract for 42 NA-16 trainers in 1935, Kindelberger began moving North American’s manufacturing operations west.

He built temporary quarters in El Segundo near the southeast corner of Mines Field, more than a decade before it became Los Angeles International Airport. The company rented 20 acres there for $600 a month. A permanent factory was finished on the site and occupied in January 1936, with 250 employees.

North American’s location has been confused over the years by the company’s use of an Inglewood mailing address. Also, it eventually would build facilities on property both in El Segundo and in the city of Los Angeles.

The NA-16 trainer, the first U.S. military plane to have an official model number, which would evolve into the BT-9 and then the AT-6 Texan, became an important aircraft in the training of American and British pilots. The company focused on such smaller planes at first, choosing not to compete with larger operations which could produce bigger, multi-engine planes.

These trainers became essential with the outbreak of World War II and the resultant need to train thousands of men quickly to become pilots. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, North American’s employment had risen to 23,000 people, and it was producing more than 300 aircraft per month.

In 1939, North American had begun developing a twin-engine bomber that eventually evolved into the B-25 Mitchell bomber. Named after the late air warfare pioneer Gen. Billy Mitchell, the planes went into production in 1939.

The B-25 became famous when Col. Jimmy Doolittle used them in his famous raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Immortalized in the book and film “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” The Doolittle raid was the first U.S. air attack on the Japanese mainland and was an important morale booster early in the war effort.

Perhaps the company’s most outstanding wartime achievement was the development of the P-51 Mustang fighter. The plane grew out of Great Britain’s desire to purchase more P-40 Flying Tiger fighters from the U.S.

Lee Atwood convinced the British that North American could provide it with an even better fighter. A prototype of the proposed new design was rushed into production and first flew on Oct. 26, 1940. Britain had the planes in service by April 1941. Its first engine had performance problems, but once Rolls Royce engines began to be used in the P-51s, their superior performance made them one of the most important Allied weapons of the war. By war’s end, more than 5,000 P-51s were in service for the U.S.

That's a good bit of reference and information that you posted there Bruce!! Wow!

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Good progress, Bruce! So... what is your philosophy when it comes to aftermarket stuff? Obviously, the wheel wells are incorrect on this vintage molding But what's there looks decent enough. Not necessarily accurate but decent. Do you fix it? Or leave it as is?

John,

I dunno about cutting out the wheel well wing spar side on this ole Hasegawa kit just to make it a bit better. I think you hit it when you wrote, “decent.” I think adding back all the plumbing details will disguise the issue to an extant. All the tasty brass wire gets put to use! I also have to scratch the landing light which seems missing from the kit. My main concern is dropping the flaps. Cut these off, modifications to the edges, trims to the fuselage wing roots.

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