[chris190]

Another addition to my extensive collection of models of obsolete technology, this time from a Schreiber kit, the design of which I believe dates from 1994.

This aircraft is such an icon of what we are lead to believe from the posters and publicity of the time as being the height of luxury travel; I did, however come across just one picture on the internet - one only - of the passenger quarters which hadn't been cropped to omit the aluminium bowls under each very comfortable looking seat for airsickness relief! The reference on Wikipedia to the flight characteristics of the HP 42 also take the edge off the nostalgic glow but it was quite an advanced design for the time, being both reliable and profitable to operate.

As I already have a Schreiber Junkers G38 at 1/100, for consistency I got the kit copied down to this scale on 160 gsm card. Generally all went together quite well, although the fuselage needed adjustment at the cockpit end where I added extra parts below the cockpit to get a good curve to the underside - it looked a bit "chinless" without.

The interplane strut installation resembled what I would imagine putting shoes on a spider to be like; the trick seemed to be to glue in the outer struts to the lower plane, then fix the upper plane without too much difficulty. The struts from the nacelles and the top of the fuselage can then be inserted into a relatively rigid structure by pushing up and pulling down, according to how much structure there is internal to either wing or nacelle.

In this regard, I found that the slots in the nacelles for some of the struts were in quite the wrong places and I needed to cut and patch to suit, in order that front and rear struts were in the same angled alignment as per the prototype.

The last hurdle was the engines which needed the annular exhaust ring redrawing to a much closer fitting cone shape, and the rectangular cylinder head covers were another addition; exhaust pipes are 1.25mm styrene rod.

Not sure how keen I am on the smaller scale aircraft models, although I have found 1/50 difficult to handle; however, 1/100 does help in displaying them without too much upset. I've included the G38 in the photos and I think that the HP 42 is a fitting companion. (The DO-X in the background is a 1/144 plastic model I made many years ago from a Japanese kit).

All the best

Chris