Models

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.

Model and photographs by Ted Bayliss