Strombecker P-61 & New Member's Gallery

[Lotus-14]

Hi Solid Dudes,

Sounds like a greeting from the '60s ;-)

I have started a gallery with some photos of a Strombecker P-61 I plan on restoring.
The first pictures show the model as I received it, and the last shows the model dismantled.
I soaked the joints in acetone to soften the old cellulose adhesive (model airplane cement) and it came apart in no time. Most of the paint came off too, as it was probably model dope.
This is actually one of the advantages of those old adhesives, they are reversible.  I worked in museum restoration work for awhile some years back, and a highly refined version of non-yellowing model airplane cement is used to repair items such as pottery.  The reason is, you never do anything that cant be reversed without harming the artifact as maybe someday in the future, a better way of doing the job will be found, or as in the case of archaeological finds, that missing piece might pop up and you need to take things apart to  fit it in place.
Of course this is not so necessary with models, but it sure helps with old models you plan to restore. For that reason I rely on many of the obsolete materials, as some day someone might want to do a better job than I.
An unusual feature of this model is the poor outline of the nose section and cockpit area.  This is not the fault of the original builder, because after I looked at the wood, you can see the machining marks from the factory.  It seems the tracer was probably out of align.  I built a couple of these models as a kid (My dad was a flight instructor in P-61s), and I know the nose was usually closer to the right shape.
The model is 1/72 scale, so I matched it up to some 3-views I have, and plan to adjust the shape of the nose.
The model is very close to the correct scale and not bad in outline; in fact it is better than some of the 3-views I have.
If you look at the photos, you can see this model was probably built by a youngster, as there was no attempt to sand anything to shape.  The model was in surprisingly good shape, and was missing only 3 parts; a nose wheel door, and two little "fingernail" shaped parts that were suppose to fill the rear junction between the nacelles, and the wings.  It was obvious that the two parts were left off because the wing was not tapered to a trailing edge.
That's it for now, but I still need the decals, so if anyone can scan them it would be a big help.

Tim

[lastvautour]

Looks like a labour of love about to bear fruit.


Good luck on your project.

Lou

[Falsemuzzle]

hey lotus,
have you worked on this yet? i'm just curious...want to see how things are progressing.