HO scale Piper J-3 Cub

I thought I’d be starting on a new layout about this time, but things have gotten a little chaotic, so I thought I’d drift a bit and just build and write whatever struck my fancy. I had a laser cut wood kit of a Piper J-3 Cub in HO scale by Osborn Model Kits  I bought at a train show a year or two ago sitting on my shelf, so I thought I’d give it a go.

The Cub is one of my favourite airplanes, and when I started the kit I pulled this old issue of Model Builder from February '83 out for inspiration. I love model building magazines that have few words on their covers. That cover painting is by Mr. Bob Benjamin and there's a short note in from Bill Northrop's workbench about the plane and painting.

While I was feeling all nostalgic, I thumbed through this issue of Model Airplane News from January '83. Turns out there is a great article inside by Clyde P. Matteson and Bob Tyhurst about building 1/96 scale solid model airplanes.

The article explains how to build some amazing fine-scale 1/96 model airplanes from scratch. The article mentions 1/96 scale was chosen because many model airplane plans were available in 1/48 scale, and they could easily be made smaller by reducing them by 50% on a photocopier; hence, 1/96 and not, say, 1/87.

This little Cub model isn’t fine scale, but it’s quite handsome when done. I found it a little tricky to build and I’d say it isn’t for absolute beginners, but if you’ve got a couple of simple laser cut kits under your belt, you should be fine.

I won't explain how to build it - the instructions are good. 

Although I will say that fumble-fingers me managed to break the landing gear and an engine cylinder-head and the engine cowling during assembly, but more-or-less fixed them. No doubt because the components are crisp and could be glued back together without too much trouble. 

I used good old acrylic paint on this model. The decals are self-stick items. They don't look too bad. Overall, a pleasant little project and a nice, brief trip down memory lane.