It seems like forever since I posted anything, but I have been trying to get some work done on my N Scale model railroad.

Once I reached a good stopping point, I decided I wanted to use a little imagination building something airplane-like I could do with what I had on-hand. Now that we are in the midst of a public health crisis, I wanted to build something that would definitely take my mind off the real world. For a lot of you that means to get wrapped up in something really realistically detailed. For me, I like to let my imagination fly and build something that isn't based on any actual prototype, but it could have been. I just finished reading an article about the civilian pilots who joined the Civil Air Patrol during World War 2 and used their personal airplanes to search for enemy submarines off the coast of the US. So, my garage yielded an old 1:48 AMT Stinson SR-9 Reliant, which is perfect for what I want to do.

I also found a set of B-25 seats which would look cool in my plane, as well as some aerial depth charges from WW2.

I had to come up with a backstory that would allow me to merge my civilian plane with some military gear, so I did some research and managed to find some great pictures of military and civilian versions of the Reliant in WW2, as well as some good pictures of the WW2 CAP aircraft insignia that I would need for the homemade decals.

So, here is the backstory I imagined for my plane. Joe was a civilian pilot who owned a Stinson Reliant. When the war started, he immediately volunteered himself and his plane for the Civil Air Patrol. He did a lot of searches for submarines, and managed to find a couple on the surface. Joe was frustrated that all he could do was report the position of submarines that were long gone by the time the Navy or Coast Guard could show up. The Navy authorized the arming of the plane with aerial depth charges which would allow Joe to carry out limited attacks on the submarines. Joe was happy with this arrangement, but soon found out that the submarines would often fire back. As more search equipment was added to the plane, it became obvious that the interior of the plane just wouldn't work anymore. Joe authorized the CAP to tear out the civilian interior and replace it with what essentially amounted to the interior carried by the military Stinsons. Joe and his plane managed to score a couple of near-misses on some subs by the end of the war, but never actually managed to hit anything dead-center. Plane and pilot survived the war, although the Stinson was clearly worn out from the frequent and hard use. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

This AMT kit is not bad considering its age, and includes a pretty good interior. The first thing needed was to use my Dremel to remove all of the molded-on features on the fuselage sides. A little green putty (remember that stuff?) smoothed out the sides, followed by some plastic strip and rod to build up the structure.

I replaced the plastic floor with thin basswood which was easy to cut with an Xacto and will look great with a little distressing.


I spent some time with my spare parts bin and managed to find some stuff that would look great as equipment that would be added to the interior.


It shouldn't take too long to get the interior ready to close up in the cockpit. I am thinking about getting rid of the spats, so I need to figure that out. I hope to be back with some updates on the build soon. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy during this trying time. Cheers.

Thanks, James. @jamesb You would be surprised how thin the walls get when you get that burr going full blast in your Dremel and then lose control a few times. I still find it a struggle to get the floor and rear bulkhead and all that stuff aligned before gluing the sides together. It would have been easier to glue the floor in 1st and then the bulkhead, but I wanted to glue them together and still have them free of the fuselage to detail them.

I'm along for the ride on this interesting project! and with a few quotes;

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

and the words; Featuring Positive Alignment Locators on the box, the scene is set!

I had been thinking to ask if anyone would be interested in either a "military in civil clothes" or a "interwar civil" Group build - this is the opposite and very interesting indeed!

Here is a quick update. Progress is slower than I expected, partially due to the fact that it is hard to keep my mind focused with the health crisis going on. My other problem is that I tend not to keep my work area very tidy, so sometimes I spend a lot of time looking for something that got lost in the forest. Not really lost, just misplaced. Daniel Boone, the American frontiersman & explorer, was once asked if he had ever been lost. He supposedly replied that he had never been lost, but that he had been a might bewildered for a week. Well, that's me.

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It seems to take a lot longer trying to imagine what the interior of the plane should look like than it would be to replicate a real plane. My first revelation was that I built the wood floor for my cabin upside down. I wanted to add a small well for the pilot's feet and rudder pedals. Well, I attached the back cabin wall upside down. So, I i***t-proofed the floor by making it perfectly flat. I sprayed the floor color on the wood, and then sanded it with fine sand paper until it looked suitably distressed.

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I then added some parts taken from my spare parts, hopefully looking like some black boxes, a flare dispenser with two flares, and a few other things. I also scratchbuilt a fold-down door on the aft cabin wall.

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I did some work on the cabin walls, including the addition of some framework, and some other stuff.

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The photos that I had of the militarized Stinson showed that the throttles, normally located on the center of the instrument panel, were moved to throttle quadrants on each side of the cabin.

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I had some resin B-25 seats in my stash which I used to replace the kit seats.

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I used some spare photoetch to dress up the instrument panel. I also added a small extension on the top of the panel to simulate a glare shield. I dropped some Future into the gauges to simulate the glass. I added rudder pedals to the bottom of the panel, with two of them from old photoetch and two from the kit. I like the way the panel looks, but in retrospect the panel looks very cluttered and busy for a single engine airplane.

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The rod that attaches the control wheels to the panel looked very thick and clunky, so I replaced the rods with something more to scale.

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At some point in all of this "imagineering" I decided that I wanted to add some wingtip position lights so my scale pilots could fly formation at night. Everything was fine until I realized that I didn't have a piece of clear plastic large enough to fill the spot for the lights. A little pre-planning would have been great here. Measure twice, cut once, cuss, then go get some more plastic.

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So I will figure that out soon. I also decided the spats on the landing gear just didn't fit into the rugged use this plane has had, so I am working on coming up with something believable to replace the spats. You might be surprised how few pictures there are of a Stinson without spats (hint: None that I could find). I am getting really close to closing the fuselage up, so the next update should have something looking more plane-like. I am also working on the masters for my homemade decals, so those should be ready soon also.

Everyone stay safe in the trying time. As bad as this is, I keep thinking this is how the zombie apocalypse will strike also.

Interesting project, George. That’s one of those kits that I’ve always had an interest in, but never bought.

My problem with the wingtip lights is now solved. I have a box full of old brushes, and hidden inside was a long-forgotten toothbrush with a clear handle. All of those trips to the dentist and their free toothbrushes have finally paid off.

The cockpit floor is now attached to the right hand fuselage side, as is the instrument panel. Before I glued anything else, I cut some tape to fit over the holes in the fuselage for the rear windows and the doors. I had planned to stuff some foam into the holes, but I was worried that the photoetch I added was vulnerable. The plan is to simply push the tape in when done & pull it out the other side. (Fingers Crossed)

I built the custom decals in Microsoft Word & then printed them on a laser printer. I printed two sets, one with a clear background and one with a white background. You don't really need to seal the decals when you use a laser printer. I have tried it before and they work fine, but are really thin. I decided to spray a thin coat of clear gloss to make them a little easier to handle.

So long for now. Everyone stay safe.

Here is the next update. I am in that frustrating period where you paint or glue something and then have to wait a half day or more before you go to the next thing. I can usually fill the waiting time by pre-building something that will be added later, but all of the things to be added later have been completed. I got everything closed up and then did the filling and sanding required. Nothing too huge. I also spent some time thinning some of the parts, such as the fixed ladder that allow access into the plane. They were much too thick. I also decided to reposition the the control surfaces, as well as the trim tab on the rudder. Cutting out the trim tab and the elevators worked well, but then I noticed that the elevators and flaps didn't match on the top and bottom of the wing. Rather than doing a lot of filling, I decided to leave the rest of the control surfaces in place.

After everything was cleaned up I sprayed a couple of thin coats of Tamiya white primer directly from the can. I always prime with white if plane has either yellow or red as part of the paint scheme.

I had previously found a painting of an overall-yellow Civil Air Patrol plane dropping a depth charge on a U-Boat doing a crash dive and I decided my plane would be overall yellow. The yellow used Vallejo Sun Yellow directly from the spray can. I really like these paints and seem to always get good results directly from the can.

I toyed with the idea of using my airbrush to create some sun fading, but I think I will add the decals, spray a final coat of clear, and then fade the surfaces using dots of oil color. If you have never tried oil dots before, the technique is one used by armor modelers and is pretty easy to use. You can find a bunch of tutorials on YouTube if you are interested. The only problem I have had so far is with the decals. I printed the wing insignia on white decal paper. Printing colors other than black on clear paper usually ends up with translucent colors, so I use white decal paper to enhance the colors. But now I have to cut out the circular insignia. I tried cutting them out free hand, but this resulted in inconsistent roundness. I also tried using a large punch, which worked well, but I am concerned that I may have damaged the edges when they punched out. I also tried using a plastic drafting template which worked fairly well, but the template took some real hits from the sharp Exacto blade. Decals next!

By the way, it looks like some of the earlier pics may have disintegrated into electrons and disappeared. Don't know where they went, but if I get a chance I will try to reattach the missing pics. Everyone stay safe!

Hmmm...double post? The electrons are truly moving in mysterious ways. I do like the 109s with the yellow nose and wing tips.