In 2007 according to a poll of three thousand members of the American Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Beechcraft UC-43 Staggerwing was voted the Most Beautiful Airplane of all time. Roden never sleeps and they have given us an very decent 1:48 mold of this little history maker.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hi Stephen

It's a bit worrying that so many American pilots need to get their eyesight tested! I've really liked the Staggerwing since I was a kid, but "most beautiful airplane of all time"...? Seriously, though, it's great to see Roden release this at last. I've been looking forward to this one more than any of their other recent kits.

All the best

Rowan

The bit of historical research is fine, but not much about the kit itself
tom

Looks like a nice and interesting kit. Is my impression correct that this is the first kit of the Staggerwing in this scale?
I have to build at least one as a Finnish bird some day.

Now I'm not an expert on the Staggerwing, but is that engine correct? 18 cylinders, 9 cylinders per row. Makes me think of an R-2800 Double Wasp. Looking at the wikipedia article, it seems the engine closest to the kit parts would be the Cyclone (9 cylinders, single-row), but then you'd need to do some modifications.
Anyways, fortunately there are aftermarket engines (e.g. Twin Wasp Junior) available. Even the Jacobs L 4 that I doubt to be covered by any manufacturer, seems to be of pretty traditional American radial engine design and shouldn't be hard to replicate with other engine parts.

Hi Eetu

Looking at Stephen's photo of the instructions, Roden have moulded the cylinders in two halves, so it's actually only a single-row radial.



All the best

Rowan

Oh, of course... :facepalm:
I should have looked at that for that little while longer to figure it out. Sorry.

Well, it's going to require an engine change anyway to make either of the two aircraft used in Finland, as one powered by a Wasp Junior and the by a Jacobs L 4.

For an "in the box item" (see the tag by the header image), There is little in the way of fine build points you can do. That would be ideal for a blog. Now the images do show the wing and fuselage halves temporarily attached . This and the comments will give you an idea of the general fit of the major kit parts.

By the way this kit will be in a future blog by our friend and fellow Aeroscale member Jean-Luc.

No worries! Questions and answers are what we do.

Hi Stephen,




Thanks a lot for sending me the kit. I'm looking forward to the Staggerwing! I have already made some room on my workbench for it...

Jean-Luc

Hi folks
I just started up this build and must say,GET IT, just that Art Deco style. Iff it´s okey I´ll be back with pics from the builkd.

//Larsa

Emeritus,

Actually AMT released a 1/48 kit of the final production Staggerwing, the G17S, back in the seventies. A decent attempt for its time (once you removed all of the "positive location" features so you could get the parts to fit) it mostly suffered from a poor engine and very shallow wheel well.

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Staggerwing.html

Compared to the Roden kit - the ESCI/Ertl kit is almost prehistoric.

"Dear Mr. Stephen Lawson,
Greeting from sunny and very hot Kiev! With this message I inform you that a parcel with a new model 1:48 Beechstagger wing GB - 2 kit (# 447) has been sent to your address yesterday. Please, let me know as soon as you receive it.
Sincerely,
Olga"

Hi all,

Here are pictures of the Staggerwing Stephen has kindly sent me. I admit it took me some time to build it. The reason wasn't the Roden kit but rather a certain Tamiya Mustang which had priority. Anyway, now the UC-43 is done. I will try to write a short build feature for it in the next couple of days.











Jean-Luc

Wow Jean - Luc! You did a fine job in it.

Nice one, Jean-Luc

I'm looking forward to seeing your article. I started tinkering with the kit, perking up the interior a bit and scratchbuilding a proper instrument panel, but I got otherwise distracted - as usual...

I have to admit I was very disappointed by the decals - rather smudged in my kit and generally a bit "soft".

All the best

Rowan

Jean Luc, you did a great job, nice staff car also.
(One of the crazy yanks who thinks this is one of the nicest looking aircrafts ever made.)

Just found this and thought it belonged here.