KIT #:	442
PRICE:	$
DECALS:	Three options
REVIEWER:	Chuck Horner
NOTES:

HISTORY

The Beech Aircraft Company came out of the partnership of Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman who formed the Travel air company in 1924, which was then absorbing into the Curtiss-Wright Company in 1929. Walter Beech left Curtiss to formed his own company in 1932.

Beech Aircraft Company’s first product was the Model 17, Staggerwing, so called, because the upper wing was behind the lower wing. The aircraft was a luxury high-speed cabin bi-plane -- the Gulfstream of the 1930’s. The company sold 424 Staggerwings before WWII.

As the outbreak of the war was near, the US Military saw this as an excellent liaison, VIP staff transport. By war’s end, the Air Force had purchase 352 UC-43’s and the Navy, 67 GB-1’s and -2’s. After the war, Beech produced another 16 civilian model 17’s before switching to Bonanza production in 1947.

This is my first Roden kit and I am pleased with it. I had no real trouble assembling the model.

The interior is luxurious, even on the military versions, with leather seats. I paint the interior in two-tone, leather-brown. The engine is detailed enough for what can be seen through the front of the full cowl. The landing gear is fiddley, with small thin pieces but the fit is good all around.

The windshield, on the other hand, was slightly too wide. Since it raps around the front of the model, I was able to squeeze in the edges, tack-glue them with super glue and use Tamiya liquid cement around the rest. Squeezing the edges caused the front to budge out a bit, but this is less noticeable than having edges sticking out on either side. I filled in the gaps with white glue.

I cut out and lowered the flaps, drooped the elevators and repositioned the rudder.

Alignment of the bi-plane wings was easy since they form the top and bottom of the fuselage. For the rigging, Roden molds the wire attach points on the wings. I used nylon monofilament painted silver for the wing rigging and nylon thread (thinner), painted black, for the aerial wire.

I had pre-painted the wings, yellow and before I glued the them together, I drilled out the attach points – only the lower half of the top wing, but all the way through the bottom wing. I super glued the monofilament to the top wing and assembled the rest of the wings to the fuselage. I then pulled each thread tight, through the bottom holes and super glued that point. After clipping the thread, a dab of yellow paint hid the hole.

What I didn’t realize until it was too late is that Roden has placed the inner wire attach points too far back on the wing. When I went to attached the door, the wires were in the way and would not allow the it to open. There was no way to fix this at this late stage, so I mounted the door in the fully open position, beyond the wires.

The kit offers three markings option: two Air Force UC-43’s in silver dope markings (the plane is fabric so no “bare metal”) and the blue and yellow YC-43 as assigned to the American embassies in London in 1939.

I really liked the YC-43 as it is colorful and different. I used Testers Chrome Yellow and Tamiya blue liquor paints over all.

The Roden decals are pretty good. I had no issues except for the rudder strips. I should have painted these. The decal chipped along the trailing edge and I had to carefully apply white and red to these areas.

The Staggerwing has been on my “To Build” list for some time. I’m happy that Roden included these alternate colorful marking. Otherwise, I would have built a civilian version rather then a plain silver military plane.

There are still a few Staggerwings flying, mostly from the post-war production. I think they are even more rare, here in the Northeast, but I have seen a couple. It’s really an excellent looking airplane and will usually draw a crowd at any event.