No shame in taking the easy way out! 😉

Greg @gkittinger, Right? I am pretty certain there was not a window in the top of the UC-64's used by the U.S. Military. Funny thing, if you look at the Revell 1:72 kit from 2009, it has the roof window included in the build, but the diagrams showing the paint and decals doesn't show it. Of course, this was just a re-boxing of the Matchbox offering.

The Norseman was pretty much built to order for the Civil versions, so if someone wanted a window in the top, they probably got it.

Weekend update. Doesn’t look like much, but quite a bit of modelling transpired over the last few days. Finished the seams on the fuselage, added the rigging to the horizontal stabilizer using piano wire. I was afraid it might look a little thick, but to scale it is close to ¾” diameter which felt about right to me.

Here is the fuselage after final sanding:

I installed the landing gear struts. The main struts are used in all versions with floats, skis or wheels being interchangeable. I then gave it a light coat of paint. A few imperfections became apparent, but nothing unsettling that cannot be remedied. I also realized that the rigging may become a problem spot when I go to apply the underside paint and the tail numbers. I think I will remove them prior to that and reinstall later.

Here is the fuselage after first coat of paint:

I also assembled the wings and gave them a coat of paint on the topsides.

Like I said, doesn’t look like much but I did get quite a bit of the sprues off the trees and prepared for paint and installation.

For now, I will concentrate on getting the rudder prepared for its identification stripes and tail numbers. Since there are no decals representing 44-70285, I will be using stencils from Maketar Paint & Masks. This will be my first time using their products.

It may be a week or more before the next update. Next weekend is a big Airshow Weekend here, weather permitting, so I will be away from the bench for that few days.

MTC………James B

Update 10/17/19

I recently reached out to my previous contact at the Twinwood Aviation Museum with a few questions regarding the Twinwood Control Tower during war times. Specifically, was the fencing present in some of the photographs typical of the period and what was the purpose of the building located to the west of the Tower? I was playing around with possibly enlarging the base size for the Diorama and maybe including another structure.

Not receiving any response after seven days, I found another point of contact through the Museum’s Facebook Page. A gentleman by the name of Robert graciously responded rather quickly and offered some great insight.

This recent correspondence with the Twinwood Aviation Museum has brought to light that I made a mistake in believing the Control Tower was painted during war time. It in fact was only painted during the renovation period (between 2000 to 2001) to protect the brickwork from weathering and further deterioration. Really feel a little ignorant for making this assumption now. The building was clearly not painted in some of the photographs prior to the renovation.

This new piece of evidence will clearly add some time to the process. Instead of one color being applied to the exterior of the structure, I will now be dealing with several shades to correctly portray the brickwork.

I will have to work on this pretty soon and will share some of my lessons learned in the next article covering the construction of the Tower. Stay tuned.

To refresh, here is what the tower looked like before the restoration:

MTC………James B

Hey Louis @lgardner, Yes this is where the Fire trucks were housed.
Airshow was hot on Saturday and didn't shoot much since I was babysitting Momma and Future Momma in the VIP Tent. Sunday, totally different animal. It's going to be a bit before I have the images posted. Stay tuned.

Update 11/11/19

After successfully resolving the paint problems with the tail, I decided that the underside or lower color looked a bit dark (see previous images).

The information covering the colors are based on Modelcraft’s instructions and I have not been able to find any reliable sources concerning the colors used on the exact aircraft at the time. The one color photograph I do have of a UC-64 during the war (previously posted) shows several planes, all appearing to be a silver dope color, strangely enough with invasion stripes. The photo reportedly was taken well after the invasion. Based on one of the best black and white images I have (see lead off image on first page), it appears to me that the lower color was a lot lighter than the ‘Olive Drab’ upper color, so I selected a lighter gray and sprayed the lower sides of the plane and the struts which have not been installed yet.

I picked up a Vector Resin engine with a lot more detail than the Modelcraft offering, but I’m not sure if it’s going to fit inside the cowling. I will have to assemble it first and check the fit.

I used copies of the original Noorduyn drawings to layout the ‘wavy’ line between the upper OD and lower Light Gray colors. I will prepare a mask based on this and apply the final paint to the body next.

MTC………James B

Update 11/17/19

Although it doesn’t look like much, quite a bit has been accomplished. I assembled the Resin engine and painted with a base coat. Here is an image of the Resin engine next to the kit engine.

And a more detailed view of the Resin engine after the push rods have been trimmed, ready for final paint.

I finalized 90% of the painting, moving towards assembly. Retouching the body and horizontal surfaces, the wings and elevators. Given time to dry, I removed the masking from the fuselage to reveal the tail markings and split between the upper OD and the lower light grey.

Over all, I’m pleased with the masking of the tail numbers. Could have been a little straighter but it’s not bad and the Ident number colors match the tail stripe colors. Here is a photo of the engine after painting, the fuselage and the engine cowling. The engine needed a lot of work on the back end in order for it to fit. It has been test fitted and close to install.

Some cleanup will be required due to the multitude of masking required, but I’m confident she’ll look great when done. I’ll add a little weathering to the undersides, wheels and wheel struts since this plane operated on both hard surfaces and grass fields. It was basically a Jeep of the air for the USAAC.

Next task, clean up and finalize for assembly and decals. Hope to get this done before the next holiday so I can turn my attention to the other vehicles and Control Tower build.

Stay tuned!

MTC………James B

Tom @tcinla, the guys in the paint shop must have been under the influence. There should be a 4 leading. Looking at all the numbers for different A/C, sometimes there were 6 numbers and sometime there were only 5.

From the Noorduyn records:

"NA No. 550
USAAF No. 44-70285

Delivered to the USAAF as aircraft No. 44-70285 on July 5, 1944 and flown to Newark, New Jersey the same day. Shipped to the 8th Air Force in Europe on July 14."

In my haste, I wrote down the last 5 digits when making notes and missed the leading number. Looks like it's going back to the paint shop. I'll probably have to switch to 6" numbers instead of 8" now, both sizes are apparent in photographs.

Good catch, thanks for the keen eye.