Okay, I'm probably being silly attempting this, but here goes. This is Ardpol's 1/48 Martin Kitten, a lightweight fighter concept that was let down by its designer's inability to design an airplane that worked. The Kitten was to be a high altitude airship interceptor,and was to be armed with two Vickers machine guns. How Martin expected it to climb to any altitude at all on its paltry 45 Hp engine, with or without armament will forever be a mystery. In the event, it could barely get off the ground, reaching the lofty elevation of 10 whole feet! The Kitten's best contribution to the history of aviation was its retractable landing gear.

The Kitten seems to have had at least two configurations. The picture that graces the cover of the Datafile was apparently taken while it was still at the factory, and shows a considerable expanse of bare metal. This is also shown on the box.


As it exists today, the lower wheel fairings are missing and there is much less bare metal showing. This appears to be the configuration the kit parts represent given that there are no lower wheel fairings present. They wouldn't be terribly difficult to make for the adventurous modeller.


Here's the kit box and contents.





This airplane is tiny! It's barely half the size of my Albatros.

Jessica,
Not silly at all IMHO. Very unusual subject and unique for sure; I didn't know there was a a Kit. Looking forward to following this along.
Cheers,
Lance

Hi Jessie

Neat! I'm really pleased to see a build of this kit - I can't believe it was so long ago that I reviewed it!

here.

All the best

Rowan

Yes, this one's going to be an exercise in playing detective for sure. I'm pretty sure that I'll have parts left over after I'm done but if you don't tell, I won't

The first step in resin kit building:


So after a nice bubblebath, all the parts are air drying.

Hi Jessie

Looking at your shot of the preserved aircraft, do you reckon one of the reasons it hardly managed to fly is the propeller? The profile looks unlike anything else that comes to mind - my first thought was "completely cock-eyed"!

All the best

Rowan

It's a little reminiscent of the Albatros' airscrew, but I wouldn't put any kind of ineptitude past Capt. Martin. I think that the extreme lack of power combined with the tail-heavyness caused by Martin's insistence in using tube steel for the empennage was the real cause of the Kitten's reluctance to part company with the ground.

Jessica,
Not silly at all my friend. I think you should win a prize for the most unusual aircraft in this GB. Wonderful little kite and one I'm looking forward to following along with.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

Hi Jessica
I usually hang out on HF and on occasion here if I have a a/c question that needs answering.

AND they said the BEE shouldn't fly ( I know not quite right but works here)
Looking forward to the completed project.

Kiwi Chris

Jessica,
I have this same kit in my stockpile. It has beautiful detail and wing structure. However, the one area where Ardpol goofed was the upper fuselage section just forward of the cockpit. A photo in the Windsock mini-datfile clearly shows that this area was constructed of aluminum sheet with many large lightening holes and covered with natural linen. Ardpol depicted this area as a series of bumps. I plan to cut out this resin section and replace with a piece of aluminum soda can that has been perforated with a punch set. Then it will be covered with white model airplane tissue slightly tinted and varnished.

Oh, so that's what's supposed to be going on there. I had wondered what was up with that bit. I may try drilling out the dimples and see how that looks. It almost looks as though the lower portion of the nose has the same construction.

I can't tell whether the fuselage was left in its natural wood colour, or was covered in doped fabric. The colour pictues on the rear cover of the datafile are not as clear as I would like. I've also just noticed that one of them was printed backwards. There's a tear in the fabric near the trailing edge of the upper right wing in the top picture that's mysteriously in the left wing in the bottom picture.

What an odd plane, before your posts i'd never heard of the Kitten, very interesting build Jessie!

Mikael

Hi Jessie, what a little monster, everything not required in a fighter. Was this intended to be launched from a US airship, low power would not be a disadvantage in an aircraft that started with a height advantage. Cockpit view looks bad and I'm still trying to work out where 2 Vickers guns will go! Looks an interesting build, good luck I'll be watching

Hi, Jessica. Really odd but interesting subject! That spokes are so...artistic. Art deco, almost. So, good luck!

After studying the photos, it appears that the entire fuselage, with the exception of the metal screens surrounding the engine cylinders, was fabric covered and varnished. In the old photo, you can see that the fabric was quite translucent when new as you can see the lightening holes in the sheet aluminum around the cockpit and the three large lightening holes in the upper wheel fairings. The varnish has become much more opaque with age. I am planning to apply a wood grain finish to my model and then spray a translucent linen finish followed by a final clear coat. Experimentation on scrap plastic first.

Cool subject matter Jessica, looking forward to watching it come together.




I'm reminded of the description of the whale in "Hitchikers Guide" . . . hanging in the air in exactly the same way that a brick doesn't !

Cheers, D

Dragon's comment led me back to the photo in your opening post; I knew something was familiar there. The spokes are nearly identical to those on the "Treadle Wheel" of my Grandmother's foot driven sewing machine. I would spend hours (aged 3-4) marvelling at the operation of the foot treadle to treadle wheel to flay rod to the innards of the machine; today it would cause great problems as a Child Safety violation I'm sure!
Thus Mr Martin's secret may be out............... he designed a wonderful Flying (sewing?) machine?! I could go on however "nuff said".
"If ya can't have fun, what's the point???"
Looking forward to seeing your results, very unique Kit!
Cheers,
Lance

Confirmed. I just received a reply from Dr. Peter Jakab who is the Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian. He said that the entire plywood fuselage is covered with fabric.
As the Kitten was sheeted with plywood, then the external stringer detail on the kit's fuselage is incorrect.

Well guess who has to sand her model down back to nothing?
And here I had a nice woodgrain effect going...

Hi Jessie
You have plenty of time!:-

Subject: KotS GB 2102 Martin Kitten - Jessie_C

2102-2012 = 90 years to complete campaign.

Take you time.

That is one strange little aeroplane. It looks like it belongs in a Dick Dastardly cartoon!
How it was supposed to shoot down a Zepellin I would love to know.

I think that the Zeppelin crew were supposed to be so astonished that they would forget how to fly. Or maybe they would be so doubled up with laughter they'd incapacitate themselves.

Really, I don't think that Capt. Martin got that far in his thought process.

The glue hits the resin and the first problem appears. The upper deck is too wide for the fuselage. I used some strip plastic shims to force the top of the fuselage out.

I'll still need to do a little trimming.

Posed beside the wings; it looks like a kitten.


For scale, here's my faithful hobby knife.


Lots of cleanup still to do. The bottom of the fuselage is horrible. There's a huge gap and lots of air bubbles. I think that it's all going to be filler down there once I finish with it. The lading gear retraction area is missing the two triangular fairings that close up the gaps when the gear is retracted. I'll have to cut them from some plastic card.

Jessica,
Looks more like a Scratch Build by the minute. You've got a lot of work to do on this one however it's still "full points" for uniqueness! Keep those updates coming.
Cheers,
Lance

Jessica I have to agree with Lance. but I didnt realise just how small this was till I saw the craft knife. Oh my!
Keith