Even more flying stuff - a little Curtiss-Wright CW-21B

The aircraft that "our own" Fokker factory made in the late thirties weren't enough to fit the needs of the Dutch armed forces. Especially in the Dutch East Indies they desperately needed more planes to defend the borders of the big colony. Fokker struggled to build enough flying military stuff for the homeland, so the government turned to the US for some help.

The Curtiss-Wright company had this little fragile looking plane for sale called the CW-21 Demonstrator, or Interceptor or even Demon. It was a Radial-engined fighter plane with a slightly swept back wing and a fuselage that ended in an almost wasp-like narrow point where the empennage began. Small, but nevertheless an elegant plane. The newest version also had retractable landing gear and was quite fast in a climb. But it lacked self-sealing fuel tanks, the planes weren't adequately armoured, and all i all quite fragile.
They were no match for the Japanese Imperial air force. So in the end the 24 little planes the Dutch East Indies had contributed close to nothing to the defence of the country.

But elegant they were.

 

The model is designed by Der Kampfflieger, Roman Vasiiyev, and is originally in 1/48.
I rescaled it to about 1/72. The landing gear wheel wells are articulated and the prop spins.

More photos after the jump.

 

I made a little mistake here, by glueing the original crescent-shaped part over the location where the wing and the engine cowling meet. It was meant to be as a sort of exhaust cowling so I cut out another one. I love the actual wheel wells in spite of it being such a little model.

Especially the little bend in the gear doors. It gives the plane that little bit extra detail.

Now look at that utterly small wasp tail.

Now it looks a little crooked here but I can assure you it isn't. (-:

Well. That's it for now. Apparently Google has solved its little problems and all is working again. I erased the last post I made about the problems, but it doesn't mean the idea of moving to a place to call my own is from the table. It is more a question of finding the moment to actually do it. And that moment is not now.

So there you have it.

Until the next time,

stay safe, be kind.

--PK.