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Grandson of Beech

Stoneboat

Member
Well, I've done Beech, namely this one...
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...And Son of Beech...
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…So what's left except Grandson of Beech?
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Grandson of Beech will be a King Air C-90, one of the first editions of the long running King Air series from Beechcraft. (I think they're up to the series 350 now.) It will be a model of C-GDOM, a C-90 in Dome Petroleum colours, an attractive white, blue, gold and black scheme. I'm building the model for my friend Mike who flew it for a small western company called Aklak Air, based in Calgary. This is a small model, a 1:72 version of an already diminutive airplane. To me that might as well be Braille scale, but Mike and I go back a ways so I'm willing to tackle it.

The King Air C-90 is a follow on of the Beech C65-80 Queen Air, essentially a Queen Air with turbines. I've flown the Queen Air and I can say it is the only airplane I have ever disliked, with disliked maybe being too mild a word. It was underpowered in the early version, but later someone obtained a secondary type certificate and installed 400 hp engines in the suckers and made a honest machine out of it. By that time I had moved on to other things, so I never had the chance to compare the two.

The kit is a limited run resin offering from RVHP, a Czech company. The parts themselves are pretty much flash free, but the door and window openings have to be cut open. The word that comes to mind to describe it is dainty. Here's a look at the parts.
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And here's the instruction sheet. Not too bad I suppose, since I usually treat instructions as somebody else's opinion, but they are rather sparse. :D
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One must start somewhere, so I began with the cockpit. I painted the instrument panel a light beige, drilled out the panel instrument faces, and slathered some epoxy on the back of the panel so's it would run into the holes, thus representing the glass instrument face.
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The kit came with two control wheels, but one was broken on the sprue and the other one went PLICK! off the end off my tweezers and into the fourth dimension after I'd sawed it off the sprue, which created yet another episode in the long running "What are you swearing at up there' series. Not to be outdone, I made another one from scrap wire and plastic.
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After painting the seats and cobbling together some harnesses from masking tape coloured with a Sharpie, I added a bit of decal material from a HO scale locomotive sheet to represent the weather radar and other bits and bobs on the console, and a couple of tiny bits of wire for the power levers. Viola! one cockpit.
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And that is where it stands right now. I have J-Bot on the line for a complete set of decals, since there is no way I can paint the gild pinstriping and black stripes.
 
I never flew a Queen Air but I flew every one of the 90 series King Airs. The first one, the 90, was not nearly as well developed systems-wise, but by the time of the C-90 they were fine airplanes. I also flew the 200 and B200, and they were excellent in every respect. I guess I should find some photos. Three C90's I flew a lot were N1974H, N181JH, and N440KF. The nose of the model looks kinda skinny in the pictures. More like a 99.
 
Nice to see (I’ll be following along) another one of your masterpieces in progress James!
I’ve bought a few of the RVHP Beech 200 kits planning to do them in Westwind colours but have parted company with westwind and lost all interest in those projects. I will definitely enjoy watching your progress though!
 
Nice one Jim. J-bot is still producing decals? And how many decals are on that HO sheet, you've been using it since forever ;)
 
Wow, this is so cool! You make building resin models look easy! I always wanted 1/72 scale versions of these planes but I hate working with resin because I always mis-align something when I hit it with kicker and then cut myself deeply when I try to separate the parts to re-glue properly.

By the way, in armor modeling circles; 1/72 scale is referred to as Braille Scale! Welcome to my world man!
 
Thanks for the kind comments fellas. (y)

John, the nose does look a little too pointed for a 90, but after a bit of fettling with some sandpaper...

Christian, I've never flown a King Air, got a bit of time on a Queen Air, one of the early ones. Always thought it was underpowered.

Chris, where are you now, send me an email with an update, I lost yours awhile back when my desktop threw a fit and I had to install W10. Lost all my email addresses.

Uros, Jim still does some decal work. If you need something, contact him and tell him I sent you. He and I go back awhile.

Duke, I know what you mean about 1:72. This is about as small as I want to get while adding extra detail.


Anyway, onward and upward. I've got the interior in, the fuselage closed up and the wings and nacelles completed and primed. Here's a few pix.

This thing is pretty small, as can be seen by these two shots. The fuselage is barely 6" long, and the wingspan is just over 8".
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I completed the interior by painting the headliner and side walls and adding five seats, two single club seats and a sideways mini divan opposite the airstair door. There's another, smaller side facing seat that I presume is a potty, but when dry fitted I found it crowds up the cabin too much, so I left it off.
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Once buttoned up, I installed the cockpit greenhouse. There really should be two greenhouses come with the kit, as they are a right proper PITA to cut and install, but after much firkytoodling...
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I installed the nacelles and gear doors next. This model will be on a stand with the gear retracted. The main wheels protrude outside the wells, and there is a cutout in gear doors to accommodate the disc brake pucks. I'll knock out a few tiny circles of plastic and glue them to the inside of the wheel to represent those. The flaps are separate units, and it took a bit of fettling with a sanding stick to get them lined up properly. The flaps will not be in the retracted position, but down ten degrees. It'll look better on the stand that way. The hole in the wing center section is where the pin on the stand will fit.
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The airplane has a ventral fin and one comes with the kit, but it is pretty well useless, being about the thickness of a sheet of paper, so I made a new one from a strip of .015 styrene. I also use more of the same material to close the gaps between the inboard ends of the flaps and the flap wells. Also, one inboard flap was noticeably shorter than its mate on the other side, so more of the same treatment was called for. I shall paint the model before final assembly, then repaint the belly after those gaps have been filled.
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Dry fit time!
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Taking shape nicely :good:

I'm not sure what that particular Beech that was but my neighbor in Germany went to the The US in the mid 70's to transition from the Saber liner ( T-39 ) to the Beach .
Anyhow , he thought that was a wonderful aircraft . I have always thought they looked like a great product .

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Your airplanes never fail to astound me! That's from the Heart. I'm not trying to hump your leg! :rotf
I truly enjoy watching your builds.
:ro:
(y)
:good:
 
Thanks for the kind comments fellas.
Christian, if your friend was transitioning from the Sword, it was most likely to the Beechjet 400, a nice little short range airplane. It was originally a Mitsubishi design, I believe.

<<I'm not trying to hump your leg!>>
Momma don't allow no leg humpin' 'round ye-ah. :rotf
 
There is light at the end of the tunnel and it ain't ol' 97. I do believe this will be a presentable model, once I get the props on and the wheels in the wells.

J-Bot outdid himself on the decals, and they went on without a hitch. Jim's decals are full sheet, which means one must cut them as close to the outline as you can to eliminate any excess carrier film. Also, I always brush on a coat of undiluted Future over the full sheet before I begin cutting and I use a water bath that is decidedly on the warm side of tepid. Once the decal has been slid into place to my satisfaction I remove excess water by rolling a Q-Tip back and forth over it, then dip the Q-Tip in undiluted Future and roll it over the decal once more. Once the Future has dried I brush on a second coat, diluted with a little Windex. This produces excellent results for me. Anyway, here's what the Grandson of a Beech looks like at the moment. I'm quite pleased with it. The wing to fuselage fairing needs a little work, there's a gap that I shall fill with epoxy.

John - or anyone - got a quick question for y'all. Where were the pitot tubes located on this beastie? I seem to remember the pitots on the QA were up front on either side of the nosewheel doors. Were they in the same place on the KA?

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No , don't think so . The Mitsubishi was high wing while these were low wing.

I believe it was a late 70 's Super King Air .

Your bird looks really good by the way :good:

Cheers, Christian B)
 
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