Rare Bird: Percival Pembroke C, Mk 1

[papermodelfan]

This is an early post WW2 transport aircraft, that saw use in Europe. It strikes me as a handsome though rotund creature, that I only know of because it is on the list of early Lehrmittelinstitut models. Issued in the mid 1950's, and never reprinted after that. My source, an antique bookdealer in Kassel, has another for auction on ebay now. See item # 180789817828

The model is 1:50, and a silvery grey, in post war Luftwaffe livery. I reduced it to 1:100, so it would fit on my shelves, and built without modification.

The model design has a few singularities, and the fit is excellent.

The first few pix are of the fuselage parts. Note that there is a quirky "shelf" attached to the first full depth fuselage bulkhead that supports the smaller cockpit ring, (see third photo)

[papermodelfan]

Second round of build pix. the tail feathers are thick and solid feeling. the wing is supported by a spar that is set into the fuselage. The wing skins slide over the spar and just meet over the top of the fuselage.

[papermodelfan]

The engine nacelles are also quirky. A bulkhead and keel piece for the rearmost part of the nacelle is glued under the wing at the back. The nacelle fits around these, and has a truncated cone at the front that is the engine mount. The engine cowling has little inserts inside that support the rear disk (the black circle in the pic), at just the right distance. This is an obvious trick to solve the problem of getting the rear of the cowling disk square and truly mounted. I cannot recall seeing it before.

[papermodelfan]

And the finished Pembroke, along with a shot of the real thing, in a livelier color scheme.

[Zathros]

A very fine looking aircraft indeed. I don't know why but I expected it to be at least twice as big as it was. Nice job!! I like it. It is a wee bit rotund, maybe that's where she gets her charm?

[southwestforests]

Whoever designed that model sure put some work in to getting the wings to fit like that.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Hello Rob,

another gem from your treasure trove of models past, once in existence, no longer there...

Very nice build of that small but detailed and well-designed model. Have you by any chance seen the thread about Martin Sänger's 1/33 design of the Pembroke (at Kartonbau.de)? He almost got there but, alas, the model is not yet available at his site.



Leif

[cafe]

That's a really nice model!

[rmks2000]

Very handsome model and very detailed (sans cockpit) considering the time it was published. Interesting design of the parts.

[papermodelfan]

Thank you all for your comments. Thank you Leif, for the link to Martin Saenger's design report. That looks like a very nice one - with cabin interior and cockpit. I will look forward to it.

Looking at the photos of the real aircraft, I noticed that even with the wheels down, the main landing gear doors are closed. that is the way the model was also. I thought it was a design simplification - just leaving out the wheel wells, and keeping the doors closed, but it looks like that is true for the actual aircraft. There are tiny wheel doors, not much bigger than the diameter of the strut itself, that are modeled in the open position. This makes for an unusually clean aircraft. It seems that to retract the wheels, the main doors must open, and then close again. Cannot remember seeing another aircraft that did that - here are two photos that show this.