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This is the Anigrand resin kit of an experimental bomber
built by Convair which lost out to the North American B-45
Tornado. Designed as a 3 place bomber, armament consisting
of 2 50 cal machine guns in a remote controlled tail
barbette. This armament was not fitted, and the aircraft
designated for use as a flying test bed. The aircraft first
flew in April 1947, with test flying being completed by
August 1949, although a delivery flight took place in July
1950 to Eglin AFB for ground testing in a climactic chamber
of the hydraulic system. After this, the nose section
was sent to the AF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB and the
rest of the airframe was scrapped.
The model consists of 4 fuselage quarters which are
slender in shape, with a central wing section fitting
directly onto the fuselage. The 2 engines pods are split in
half horizontally, joining with the wing sections in the
middle. The model I received had a badly distorted
rear fuselage halves, but soaking them in hot water and
encouraging them into shape sorted the problem out. There
were also a large number of small airholes in the resin
which were filled with superglue. The cockpit is very basic,
with 2 seats, 1 instrument panel, and 1 control stick, plus
a seat for the bombardier in the nose. The clear parts are
vacform and are very clear. Overall, the fits of parts is
reasonable, with some filler being needed between the front
and rear fuselage halves, and the rear wing/fuselage joint.
The undercarriage legs were beefed up by inserting a pin in
them and drilling a hole to take them, although the main
legs don’t really need them. The gear doors were fitted
last, with pins replacing the moulded attachment points.
Colour scheme is natural metal, the decal sheet providing
just the star and bars and the serial. Walkways were added
by spraying black, using thin tape to mask off where needed
then spraying the metal part. I decided to use a different
shade to differentiate the walkway. |
