Pulp Plane Library

[mysteriousbill]

The Vega is about 1:32 scale
The Orion is about 1:46 scale
The Buhl is about 1:43

[warrenpeace]

1929 Curtiss Robin diecast coin bank. Since I don't have any 28mm figures handy, I put a stapler and a pair of glasses in the photo to give an idea of size.

[carlos marighela]

Ah! But how do we know you don’t have a massive head and glasses sized proportionately? Or really tiny hands and a stapler to match?

[mysteriousbill]

The Robin is about 1:43. Neat note: this is the plane Wrong Way Corrigan used when he "accidentally" ;)flew the Atlantic instead of to the West Coast.

[FramFramson]

Found a Buhl Whirlwind for $25 Canadian and free shipping to boot, so for that price I figured I'd take a gamble on one. I think if I re-clad the top and sides of fuselage with thin corrugated sytrene, rework all the windows with proper frames and plastic "Windows" and possibly also add two smaller outboard motors, it'll easily pass for a 1:62-ish Trimotor of some variety (mainly by using smaller windows).

That will hopefully finally give me a transport plane, without having to build one entirely from scratch. 

[warrenpeace]

Fram, why mess up a perfectly good Buhl Whirlwind in order to turn it into something that looks sort of like a Ford Tri-Motor? The Buhl Whirlwind is a fine 1929 airplane for Pulp, which can carry some passengers and/or cargo.

For a Ford Tri-Motor, one can get a 1:72 scale ERTL for between $30 and $45 US. Is it a bit small for use with 28mm? Yes. But I've seen it used that way in a Pulp Casablanca game, and it took up a reasonable amount of the playing area. There's several available on eBay now, including this one for $40 US (but I've already spotted two for less):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ERTL-Prestige-Series-Phillips-66-Ford-Tri-Motor-Diecast-Airplane-Model/222817647187?_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D50998%26meid%3Dcbe6e2bd7a894252b87b24d21917f47b%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D2%26sd%3D162780385460%26itm%3D222817647187&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

If you really want one in 1:48 scale, already built, there is this one handcrafted from Philippine mahogany for $127.41 US:

https://www.opentip.com/product.php?products_id=3906807&ats=product_landing

A cheaper and lighter solution would be this 17.5 inch light wood kit for $19.99 US:

http://modelexpo-online.com/DUMAS-Ford-Tri-Motor-17-12-Airplane-Kit_p_1168.html

[carlos marighela]

Oh, the joys of dope and tissue modelling!

Apart from the expensive Hobby Boss offering, can anyone think of a 28mm ish PT-17 Kaydet? I know Revell do a 1/48 kit and that might be my best bet but open to other suggestions. It’s going to be a proxy anyway.

[warrenpeace]

Carlos, if you want a PT-17 Kaydet, why not just buy the ERTL diecast Stearman biplane?

[warrenpeace]

Bill, the Spec Cast version of the Lockheed Vega seems more like 1:43 scale to me. The dimensions of the Vega and Orion were very close, but the Orion was about 50% taller. These two Spec Cast models don't show that height difference. The Orion seems only slightly smaller in scale than the Vega.

Perhaps ERTL has a bigger diecast version of the Lockheed Vega, but I haven't seen one. There are a lot of diecast Lockheed Air Express models out there, but since only 6 were ever built, I didn't acquire one of those.

Thanks for the reference to "Wrong Way" Corrigan. I looked up the story, and it's another amazing feat of early aviation. Love that he was a mechanic for Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis, which cost $10,000, and that Corrigan was able to cross the Atlantic in a Curtiss Robin that cost less than $400!

[tin shed gamer]

Fram,

Tri motors ,are piece of cake. If I can knock one up with the help of Mr Kellogg's.Why haven't you a tri motor kit bashed yet.

If only I could remember who provided me with the line drawings to build both the Fokker ,and the Ford tri motors in the first place.?   

Joking aside I've seen the die cast version on a club table.its not strictly 20mm more a looser 25mm. As the die cast parts are a little chunkier than a scale model for obvious reasons which aids/acts as, scale compression rather
Than looking totally undersized. Especially if its the only plane on the table.

[warrenpeace]

If anyone really wants a big 1:48 scale tri-motor 1930's airplane, but isn't stuck on it being a Ford, then check out the Franklin Mint French version of the Ju-52. There's a couple available on eBay. Not cheap, but spectacular:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Franklin-Mint-Collection-Armour-French-JU-52-Die-Cast-Plane-In-Box/311925048949?hash=item48a02e8675:g:PQ8AAOSwf~ZZa-kJ

[FramFramson]

Haha, it's been years since I made a doped wood-frame model. They were fun when I was a kid though!

As for the conversion, the thing is, I would want to convert the Buhl Whirlwind to add detail anyway - those plain black painted-on "windows" are pretty crap, to be honest.

I may or may not add outboard motors (I do have engines and props!), but a very thin layer of cladding on the fuselage won't ruin the plane and once I shrink the windows a bit, the plane will appear to be a different scale, even though it will be physically the same size.

Fram,

Tri motors ,are piece of cake. If I can knock one up with the help of Mr Kellogg's.Why haven't you a tri motor kit bashed yet.

If only I could remember who provided me with the line drawings to build both the Fokker ,and the Ford tri motors in the first place.?   

Don't remind me! My terrible laziness was the death of that project (well, it was "on haitus" but if I can do a much simpler conversion, then that's a way of jumpstarting things by having 2/3rds of the work already done for me!). It's been so many years since I scratchbuilt an aircraft (I actually used to make my own wooden frames!), and every time I thought of getting started... well, you know how so many gaming projects go. 

Joking aside I've seen the die cast version on a club table.its not strictly 20mm more a looser 25mm. As the die cast parts are a little chunkier than a scale model for obvious reasons which aids/acts as, scale compression rather
Than looking totally undersized. Especially if its the only plane on the table.

A little while back in the thread I mentioned I'd bought a rare-ish He 111 model in the oddball scale of 1:64. When I compared it to the 32mm-ish figures I was using, it turned out that it was an absolutely perfectly-scaled model. Not so huge as to be out of scale with my buildings or cars, but not so small that it didn't look like the figures couldn't fit inside in a proper way (they wouldn't, if you measured genuine sizes, but it's close enough to pass muster at a glance). Of note, the He 111's wingspan in 1:64 is about 13.5", so the (I assume 1:48) doped Trimotor is clearly too big at 17.5".

So, my grail is to try and force things to that 1:64 scale. Unfortunately 1:72 is just too small - at that scale it becomes instantly and obviously clear my minis couldn't possibly fit inside them properly, though as you pointed out, they'd scale very well with true 25mm figures (and Lledo cars as well). On the other hand 1:48 dwarfs everything and takes up far too much room on a table.

I'm actually planning on simply looking at the Buhl when it arrives and basing my work on how it compares with my minis. If the bulk/wingspan is big enough, I'll do the full conversion, if it's too small, I'll just keep it mostly as-is (still need to fix those terrible windows though and maybe twiddle some other details) as a smaller 4-6 person plane.

Oh and no matter what, it's getting repainted, of course.

If anyone really wants a big 1:48 scale tri-motor 1930's airplane, but isn't stuck on it being a Ford, then check out the Franklin Mint French version of the Ju-52. There's a couple available on eBay. Not cheap, but spectacular:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Franklin-Mint-Collection-Armour-French-JU-52-Die-Cast-Plane-In-Box/311925048949?hash=item48a02e8675:g:PQ8AAOSwf~ZZa-kJ

That things a monster - it'd take up an entire table by itself (I've seen the kit - was considering it as an alternative before I did). 1:48 is just too, too big for anything but the smallest aircraft.

[Codsticker]

This a Gearbox Collectable Grunman Goose diecast piggy bank Murdock found for our Pulp Alley games:

[carlos marighela]

Carlos, if you want a PT-17 Kaydet, why not just buy the ERTL diecast Stearman biplane?

If it’s the coinbox one, it’s the wrong shape and IIRC that one is rather overscale isn’t it? I’m looking for something that looks like one of either of these:

[warrenpeace]

Fram, since you seem intent on sticking those two extra engines onto an existing model, I'll share with you a couple of tri-motor aircraft from the late 1920's that I ran across while cruising through aviation history on wikipedia:

Kreutzer Air Coach -  15 produced 1928/29  - the K-5 model especially looks similar to a Curtiss Robin or Curtiss Thrush with two extra engines placed in the wing braces. It had a crew of 2 and could carry either freight or 4 passengers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreutzer_Air_Coach

Bach Air Yacht -  21 produced - first flight 1927. This also looks quite a bit like a Curtiss Robin or Thrush with two engines placed in the wing braces. One thing that's different from the Kreutzer is that the three engines weren't the same size. There was a bigger engine in the nose and two smaller engines in the wing braces. It carried two pilots and 10 passengers. Check it out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach_Air_Yacht

Note that Curtiss Robin diecast coin banks of reasonable size and price can be easily found on eBay. Compare the photo of my ERTL Texaco version above and see how it compares to the look of the Kreutzer and Bach tri-motors.