History

The Northrop A-17, a development of the Northrop Gamma 2F was a two-seat, single-engine, monoplane, attack bomber built in 1935 by the Northrop Corporation for the U.S. Army Air Corps. A-17s used by air forces of the British Commonwealth designated the aircraft as the "Nomad."

The RAF assessed the Northrop Nomad Mk Is as "obsolete" and sent them to South Africa for use as trainers, serialed AS440 to AS462, AS958 to AS976 and AW420 to AW438.

The Royal Canadian Air Force received 32 Nomads that had been part of a French order of 93 aircraft. When France fell in 1940, this order was taken over by Great Britain who transferred 32 of the aircraft to Canada where they were used as advanced trainers and target tugs as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. These were serialed 3490 to 3521; all were assigned to No. 3 Training Command RCAF.

In the box

This kit was released way back in 2002 by MPM and has been updated with new parts and decals at least 7 times since. This is the latest release with a choice of decals for two Canadian, two British and two South African machines.

The kit comes on two light grey sprues, one clear sprue and comprises of 47 parts including the one piece canopy, and two resin parts.

This is a typical short run kit, with basic internal detail, and no locating tabs for the fuselage and wings. The exterior detail is pretty good though with recessed panel lines and recessed perforated flaps.

Ejector pin marks are a mix of raised and recessed and on a quick glance don't look as though they will be seen. Flash is non existent, which is surprising considering the age of the moulds.

As already mentioned the interior detail is basic and is made up of around 14 parts.
Detail is moulded onto the fuselage halves for the sidewalls, and separate cockpit floors are supplied which have some detail moulded onto them. A small instrument panel with recessed dials, which will need painting as no decal is supplied, along with a control stick complete the pilots station.
The co pilots station is separated by a bulkhead and features a seat, along with a rear bulkhead and a channel for the gun which isn't used in this boxing. A couple of boxes, one for a radio I would imagine, for the rear bulkhead and sidewall finish the interior.
Once painted and installed will the cockpit will look adequate, although a set of harness's (not included) for the two seats would improve matters. Looking a pictures of the cockpit of the real aircraft you could scratch a few cables and other items to really detail this area up with a bit of effort.

The cowling is in two parts, with the engine as a front relief, which has sufficient detail for the purpose.
The three bladed propeller has a resin hub and separate blades, no jig is supplied so lining the blades up will be tricky.

Like the real aircraft the undercarriage is pretty basic, with each leg and wheel made up of three parts, the leg strut and two part wheels. Adding oleos and brake lines will improve the look.

The wings are made up of five parts, with a central lower section for the fuselage and lower portion of the wings, and two each of the upper and lower wing sections. This is so the correct
dihedral is ensured. Two small inserts for the inner wing sections are also used.
The stabilizers are moulded as solid right and left halves. The control surfaces are moulded into each part in the neutral position.

The rest of the parts are for antennas, scoops and a two piece tail wheel.

The two resin parts, one as already mentioned, is for the propeller hub, and the larger part is the exhaust manifold, which is only used on the RCAF and SAAF versions.

The one clear part is for the double canopy, and is in one piece, so an open canopy is not an option, unless you fancy cutting it up.
The part is quite thin and pretty transparent, and has raised framework. Painting this part will be the hardest part of the build.

No weapons are supplied but the RAF and SAAF versions do have 4 machine guns located in the wings. None are supplied and the instructions state to use 4mm long by 1mm diameter plastic rod. Holes will have to be drilled out in the wing leading edges to accommodate them as no marks are inscribed on the plastic.

Instructions, decals and markings

The instructions are printed on a folded A4 size paper, and consists of 11 pages. The booklet is glossy and in colour for most of the build and the six profiles.

The build sequence is over 11 steps and is easy to follow with internal paint numbers for Gunze and Mr Color range of paints (why is it always Gunze and Mr Color???). A handy drawing of all the internal parts in situ is given after the cockpit assembly to help with each parts location. A front on drawing is also shown showing the correct angle the undercarriage should be place at.

The decals are printed by Aviprint, are in register, and have a glossy sheen to them.

The six marking options are -

• Nomad Mk.1, 3496/53, No 9 Bombing and gunnery school, No 3 training command, RCAF, Mt. Joli, Quebec, Canada, 1943.
  Yellow with black stripes.
  
• Nomad Mk.1, 3513/59, No 9 Bombing and gunnery school, No 3 training command, RCAF, Mt. Joli, Quebec, Canada, 1943.
  Yellow with black stripes.
  
• Nomad Mk.1, AS441, Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, RAF, Boscombe Down, 1940.
  Dark green and dark earth uppers with Sky undersides.
  
• Nomad Mk.1, AS974, No. 48 Maintenance unit (most likely), Hawarden, Chester, 1940.
  Dark green and dark earth uppers with black and white lowers.
  
• Nomad Mk.1, 1246, unknown training unit, SAAF, 1941.
  Dark green and dark earth uppers with Sky undersides.
  
• Nomad Mk.1, 1262/D17 (probably), No.42 Air school, SAAF, South End, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1941.
  Dark green and dark earth uppers with yellow undersides too half way up the fuselage sides.
  

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