Pre War 1930's Airplanes - What Subjects Are a "Must Have" for a collection?

The Curtiss P-6E Hawk is the one you're thinking of. Lots of others such as the Boeing F4B/P-12, the Vought Corsairs, Curtiss Helldivers, and later on the Boeing P-26 if you just want to count US fighters.

Cookie Sewell

the Corsair? I have an old airplane book of my dads, I think from

thx much - Craig

" snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@e34g2000pro.googlegroups.com:

I think he meant the 1930s era biplane scout float plane.

Frank

I did have the Willaims Bros. B-10 way back around 1975 when I was 16 yrs old. And as everyone has bought the thing, it never got finished. I think it met its doom with paint thinner, a match and the good ol' Daisy.

Craig

i saw an actual build in a magazine. seemed real.

'Corsair' was applied to several designs from Vought, the F4U being just one of them. That said, I believe the XF4U may have had yellow wings but remember that it also had a cockpit farther forward than the production types.

OTOH I don't think I've ever seen a yellow-winged P-38 except as an artist's rendering.

I'm sure that you do have a Martin B-10 in your collection. That was the quintessential prewar US bomber. And they're mon-kee approved. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Then there are those planes that were important pre-war designs that soldiered on in WWII. Macchi Cr32 and Cr42, Gloster Gladiator, Bristol Bulldog, Poliparkov I-16, I-153...etc etc. These are just single engine types...

In short, there are a LOT of must-haves.

---Stephen

I've seen colorized photos in old "Air Trails" magazines that showed the earliest Corsairs with yellow wings, a grey fuselage, and as you said, the cockpit much further forward than later production models. Also the earliest P-39 and P-38, although these might have been flight test vehicles.

The Inpact/Pyro/Lindberg big four (eight): Bulldog, Flycatcher, Fury and Gladiator--great kits cast before you were born. The decals? Eh, but the SMER/Merit Bulldog has a great set for the Inpact Bulldog, and the kit & decals cost less than most aftermarket sheets.

Had a friend who converted the Gladiator into a Gauntlet, the Fury into a Nimrod and was looking into conversions for the other two as well when I last talked to him. Kitbashing can be fun (if it doesn't drive you crazy).....

Well, they would be awful big for 1:32 scale, but any thirties collection should include the DC-3, the Lockheed Electra, and the Beech D-18/C-45. Also, how about Stinson Reliant, a beautiful airplane with a big round engine. Piper cub is also an important airplane of the thirties.

Don't get the idea that the only important planes of the thirties are military- there are any number of interesting civil planes. I have started a collection of commercial flying boats- the Boeing 314 and the Martin clipper. Would like to see a nice kit of the big Sikorski boat.

thx for the other names. I'm open to just about everything. Some of the lines on planes of the 30's were just beautiful.

Craig

Speaking of 1:48 racers and civies, don't forget the ones from Lindberg back in the day. Peguso has repoped them and they go nicely against the Hawk models, especially the Howard "Pete" (forerunner of the "Ike"), the Vernon Payne "Knight Twister", the Velie "Monocoupe" (get two and undo the clipped wings) and the Ercoupe Club- Aire - they're all from the 1930s.

Williams also had a 1/72 Northrop Delta(?), Boeing 247 and the 1/32 GeeBees and other racers. In 1/48, Hawk had more racing planes - simple, but not much repeated elsewhere.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Flew that way too. A lot of the old timers regretted the day that canopies were put on fighters. BTW, check HLJ for some interesting new kits of Japanese 30's fighters.

That is why so many people refer to it as the Golden Age. Several books (photo, coffee table type) of Golden Age aircraft exist.

There may have been many pictures, but I'm certain they were of only one plane - the original XF4U-1. IIRC, only the prototype lacked the familiar long nose Corsair layout.

WmB

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Prolly right, and don't forget that other Vought prototype, (173? - looked kinda like a Curtiss P-36 Hawk) that was lost early in the flight testig phase when it flew out over the Pacific and was never seen again. Colorized photos that I've seen of that one show a grey fuselage with chrome yellow wings.

You'd be hard pressed to ever beat the lines of the Hughes H-1 racer: