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Reviewed by Paul Kirsopp
The aircraft…
Designed in 1934/35 the Norseman was rugged machine able to cope with the rough airstrips in the wilder parts of Canada and was used to supply outlying areas and as an air ambulance. The Saskatchewan Government bought two aircraft to be used as air ambulances and in the first year over 250 people were flown to hospital and one baby was born in the air. WW2 brought an order from the USAF for more than 700 machines as well as an order for the Canadian air force. In 1946 the Canadian Car and Foundry Company bought the production and sales rights and continued production until 1953. 35 Norsemen are thought to still be airworthy, mostly in Canada.
- Engine: Wright R1340 of 550HP. Wingspan51’6’’ (15.70m) Length 32’4’’ (9.85m)
- Maximum speed 143mph (231kph) Range 1580 miles (2542Km) 1 Pilot, 8 passengers or four stretchers and 1 medic.
The kit…
This is of course the old Matchbox kit. Revell have seen fit to grind the Matchbox name and date off the inside of the wing but one review I’ve seen states the kit is more than 30 years old. While that may, if true, disappoint some buyers who are expecting a well detailed state of the art kit, what you are getting is a basic, but I believe accurate, outline and if you wish the starting point for a super detailed model.
The moulds might be 30 years old but they’re still in good condition as the kit has very little flash. There’s 78 parts in the kit and the choice of wheels, skis or floats. The “rib and fabric” wing is rather overstated but as this is an out of the box build I’m not even going to try to do anything about it. Let’s see what it looks like when finished.
The model should go together with no bother and if you want to you can go to town on the interior but I doubt much would be seen through the small windows.
The instructions are the usual Revell format and the decal sheet is small but well printed giving a choice between a USAF machine finished in green over grey with a yellow & black check cowling and one operated by the Saskatchewan Government in Canada as an air ambulance finished in green and yellow.
The US machine. Now the information on the front of the instruction sheet tells you that Glen Miller set out on his fateful flight in a Norseman operated by this squadron but they don’t say if this is the actual machine.
The build…Day 1
No surprises here, we start in the cockpit. This is made up of the floor, rear bulkhead, two seats, one stick and the instrument panel. I glued the seats, stick and bulkhead to the floor and set the assembly in the fuselage until the glue dried.
This left me with nothing to do so I sanded the rather poor detail off the instrument panel as I had decided to use the supplied decal. The instructions would have you paint the panel black, the same colour as most of the instruments on the decal so I went with light grey. A quick look on the internet shows the instrument panel to be finished in either grey or black.
Assembly of the undercarriage fairings and the main wings followed. The parts fit well and I had no problem dealing with sprue tags or the tiny amount of flash.
Next I started to hollow out the air intake on the cowling. As you can see I used a drill for the first part of the job and I need to get in there with a file to square it off a little.
By this time I’d spent about one whole hour on this model and with nothing left to do until the various glued bits dried I left off for the day.
To be honest all the sub assemblies are done (All three of them, wings, interior and spats).
This really is a simple kit.
