Special Hobby 1/72 Lockheed C-60 Lodestar

SPECIAL HOBBY 1:72 LOCKHEED C-60 LODESTAR

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 9 October 2009

Kit Details:

Special Hobby 1/72^nd scale Lockheed C-60 Lodestar (Kit N° 72112 ). Produced in the Czech Republic.

Aircraft History:

The design and development of the Lodestar started due to underachieving selling targets achieved by the Lockheed 14 Super Electra. The Lodestar’s maiden flight took place on 21 September 1939. It was basically a converted Super Electra, featuring an elongated fuselage able to accommodate 15-18 passengers. Some exemples in “high density” configuration could carry up to 26 guests. Different radial engines from Pratt & Whitney and Wright were used.

Despite the benefits in comparison to the Super Electra, the Lodestar could not conquer the American market, strongly dominated by the Douglas DC-Series. Nevertheless, it was well accepted in the export field, being used in some European, African and South American countries. Suddenly, with the outbreak of WW2, the USAAF showed interest for the Lodestar, and when the production was ceased 625 exemples had been produced. Unlike the Hudson (also a derivate from the Super Electra), the Lodestar was never used in combat, but it played a very important role as a mid-range transport plane. The Lodestar continued in civil service with small companies many years after WW2, some even being converted to executive planes by Howard Aero and Lear Inc.

The Kit:

Inside a really sturdy, full packed top-opening box (Revell and Airfix surely would have used a box at least twice as big J.) you get a bag containing 6 sprues (labeled A, B, C, E, H and “a”) with some 200 (!) ocean grey styrene parts, 1 sprue with 20 transparencies, 12 identical resin pieces and a small PE-fret. Of course all delicate components are bagged separately. Sprues A, B, C and E come from the MPM Hudson Mk I/II kit (also issued as Mk. IV/V by Italeri -> Twin Wasp engines), and have a shinny surface appearance, while sprues H and “a” are specific for the Lodestar (e.g. fuselage halves, stabilizers), showing the typical, rather matt Special Hobby surface. Up to aprox. 90 parts are not used for this subject (mainly designated for the impressive Hudson’s interior). Although sprue “H” is specific for the Lodestar, it also contains some “not for use” parts, mainly seats. Maybe a civil Lodestar in the future?

All parts are finely molded, flash-free, with beautiful and consistently engraved panel lines and covering a complete and well-detailed interior, the sprues attachment points being not thicker than mainstream standard. The only remaining reason to call this kit “short run” is the lack of alignment pins on some parts. Otherwise the quality is very close to “mainstream state of art” (IMHO).

Instructions:

The usual A4 booklet, with History in Czech and English on side one, sprues layout on side two, 17 construction steps on sides three to six, and 4-view coloring/decaling diagrams for three versions on sides 7, 8 and 9. Finally, the usual publicity decorates side 10. Detail painting instructions are given throughout, with color callouts for the Gunze range.

Construction:

I started with the interior subassembly, which is really busy (instead of reading a long and boring description please take a look at the instruction's scans). There are many different possible sequences for this job, so that each modeler can chose his own way. I glued the floors and bulkheads together one piece each time and used the starboard fuselage half as a guide. When the subassembly was ready I glued it to the mentioned half, and the next day I trimmed a few edges and borders to achieve a good dry fit in the port fuselage half. The interior bits (control sticks, seats, benches, radio and navigation instruments, WC) were hand painted aside and later glued to the interior, which was painted interior green (with Humbrol H158). The cabin windows fit flush with the fuselage (no “attachment step”) and I had to trim each window hole, a somewhat disappointing affair. Having no Krystal Kleer, I glued the windows with Contacta, and of course I splotched each one with glue. The 12 resin parts are very small roof lights, which I left off. In fact, very less of the beautiful interior will be seen unless you cut out the access door and glue the extra door opened. There is also a well detailed instruments panel but, curiously, these part was about 2mm too wide and needed heavy trimming. Finally the two fuselage halves could be glued together, leaving just a few small gaps to be filled and sanded. The perimetric recessed lines encountered precisely.

Now to the wings. Each lower half gets a wheel well floor to get this enclosed, and the landing gear legs must be glued from the inside at this point. The way this attachment was engineered is disappointing, because a lot of care must be taken to glue the legs in such a way that, with the wings glued onto the fuselage, the former are really vertical when viewed from the front, if you know what I mean (I misaligned mine). The attachment should also be reinforced with bits of styrene. There are two actuators for each leg which should be glued at this point. The wing halves were glued together (a good fit) and also the two-halves front sections of the nacelles (a bad fit). Once ready, each nacelle gets a two-part exhaust flat pipe, also a fit which required putty. The twin rudder tailplane was treated as a subassembly, including filling, sanding and rescribing. The wings were butt-joined to the fuselage, requiring some trimming to get the right dihedral (I only got it approximately). Also the tailplane subassembly was butt-joined.

The engines (9-cyl Wright Cyclone) are molded onto a blanking plate and are well detailed, this plate being trapped between two cowling halves. Later each cowling gets an upper air intake and a small lower oil cooler. The rear of the engine blanking will not touch the front of the nacelles, so that the cowlings must be somehow butt-joined to the front perimeter of the nacelles [*]. With the exhaust pipe there, I see no way to get this attachment centered. I solved the problem by blanking the front of the nacelles with plasticard and glueing a cylindrical extension onto them, which itself touched the rear of the engine blanking. The (very clear) canopy went on without trouble and fortunately it includes the cockpit roof, making things much easier. The last step before painting was to glue the flaps “arms” to the wings underside (5 arms each side). The flaps themselves are PE parts.

Having decided to do the (exotic) Norwegian version I sprayed the underside area between the nacelles with Humbrol H85 coal black. Also the wing leading edges were sprayed with that color. Having later masked this area, the model got an overall coat of Humbrol H166 satin light grey. The few decals went on superbly and later everything was sealed in with H135 satin clear. Not the most beautiful camouflage but really unusual. I partially ruined the good look while trying to pick out the panel lines with Citadel´s “Devlan mud wash” (hand too shaky!). Nevertheless, I´m very happy with the result.

Colour Schemes:

1) C-60 Lodestar G-AGIH, Norwegian Detachment of BOAC, operating the Leuchars-Stockholm route and flown by RAF personnel. Upper surfaces dark earth / dark green (in the instructions wrongly stated as “dark grey”), lower surfaces silver.

2) C-60 Lodestar “A”, 20^th Transport Flight, operating May 1945 until early 1946 from Oslo-Fornebu and flown by Norwegian BOAC personel. Upper surfaces olive drab (Gunze H52, presumably Humbrol H155), lower surfaces black.

3) C-60 Lodestar, 335 Squadron Royal Norwegian Air Force, 1948-1950. Overall BS627 light aircraft grey (Gunze H332, Humbrol H166), black undersides of wings and belly between the engines.

Decals:

Being printed by Aviprint, they have the good quality which one would expect from that producer. Performance was superb. No stenciling.

Conclusions:

Another great subject choice from the MPM-pool, being eons away from that what one usually associates with “short run”. Warmly recommended for middle experienced modelers and up.

References:

Footnote:

Fortunately and thanks to the MPM-Group, nowadays it is possible to make a complete representation of Lockheed's twin rudder family:

Model 10 Electra: Special Hobby N° 72015

Model 12 Electra junior Special Hobby N° 72023

Hudson Mk.1/2 MPM N° 72518

Mk. 4/5 Italeri N° 1253

Model 18 Lodestar Special Hobby N° 72112

PV-1 Ventura Minicraft N° 11615 and 11638

PV-2 Harpoon Special Hobby N° 72093

I presume a modeler more skilled than me could convert a Model 14 Super Electra from a Hudson.

[*] I can only imagine that this situation will not occur with the Twin Wasp engined Hudson Mk-IV, marketed under the Italeri banner, since their products are also targeted to beginners.

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