ClareWentzel Posted March 9, 2013 Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 Here is my OOP photo. It is a Rareplane YP-37. I call it a NIP because I don't believe that it was ever in production other than a Rarebit. I met Gordon Stevens of Rareplanes during a few business trips and again corresponded with him while I lived in South America. On one of my trips, he gave me the vac-sheet for this model. It used the wings and tail from a P-36 or P-40 and provided the unique fuselage. It was one of my earliest attempts to show different metal tones. It looks kind of garish now but was fun. While I was getting ready to post this pic, I did some research and found the following story about Rareplanes in Gordon's own words. He was really one of the pioneers of our hobby. Here is the article; http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=4305 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted March 10, 2013 Report Share Posted March 10, 2013 Nice! Very eye-catching and Unique Clare. A buddy and I were discussing today on the drive back from the Atlanta show how different the perspective is on kits and the hobby for we "oldsters" exposed to Rareplane vacs (and such) as opposed to those who've only been building the last 15-20 years and have only built the "80s generation" and later injection molded kits. Congrats! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGronovius Posted March 10, 2013 Report Share Posted March 10, 2013 I've never finished a vacuformed kit. I started an Armtec 1/76 scale Hetzer. Yours looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipmsusa2 Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 Going even further back, anyone remember the scratchbuilt 1/72 XB-35 the Lloyd Jones built from sheet styrene? Compared to that, Rareplanes is a piece of cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClareWentzel Posted April 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 Yes, Richard, I remember the XB-35 from sheet. Also, compared to the majority of other vacuforms, Rareplanes were a piece of cake. They were well engineered and Gordon always build a sample for photos etc. I was surprised to find out that he rarely added decals to the far side of the model to be photographed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipmsusa2 Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 Clarence, only finishing one side of a model is an old trick. Mainly done to make deadlines or get a specific photographic result when you really don't care about the subject. Believe it or not, the original Enterprise model from the original Star Trek series was finished the same way. There's one episode where the ship is going right to left instead of left to right. It was a fairly distant shot, but the hawkeyes in the crowd saw that the lettering was backwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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