SWORD 1/72 NORTHROP N-9MA

Reviewer: Myself  (braithy@bigpond.com)

This is the first kit produced by new Czech modelling company, 'Sword', and has been reboxed by Hasagawa for the Japanese market. It depicts the flying wing trainer built by the Northrop company N-9MA.  It's purpose was to provide flight data for the Northrop "Flying Wing" heavy bomber project - which resulted in assisting with the XB-35 and later XB-49 flying wing bomber prototypes.  Northrop produced four scaled down N-9M research aircraft with two low powered pusher propeller engines and retractable tricycle landing gear.  The first prototype was first flown in 1942 but was lost in a fatal crash early the following year.  The first two of these types were N-9M's, the third was the N-9MA and the last was the N-9MB.  The "A" had the same powerplant as the first two prototypes but with modified controls while the "B" was powered by more powerful Franklin engines.  The three surviving aircraft flew for three years to provide pilots with flying wing experience and allow development of the XB-35 autopilot system.  At least one of them is now preserved in an American Air Force museum, for those interested, you should be able to track this down through an Internet Search engine (or post a query in the rec.models.scale newsgroup).

When you get the model don't let the box deceive you - it is huge (the box that is)!   In fact you could fit at least five of these kits into the one box so there's no value to be had here.  It also makes the unwary purchaser mislead into thinking that it's going to be a big kit but it's not, in 1/72 scale it's span measures just 10" and length 3" (approximates).  Inside the box you will find just one sprue with 28 injection moulded parts in medium grey.  The quality is quite reasonable, very clean and no flash to speak of.  There are extremely finely engraved panel lines that will soon disappear under a coat or two of paint and overall there's not a lot of detail.   You are also given four resin parts, which consist of the wheels, a cockpit "bath tub" and the nose wheel- well but be prepared for some trimming to fit these into the aircraft as there is a little bit of flash on each, and all are slightly oversized.  There is one thin vac-form canopy that you will need to cut and affix to the model and it's also crystal clear that looks very nice on the finished product.

The instruction sheet is set out on one A4 sheet of paper folded to make an A5 mini booklet with the centrefold acting as instructions.  There are four steps and although the instructions are adequate you will find them a bit vague because none of the parts in the kit are numbered.  You can only go by the diagram's sketches to be able to identify the part on the sprue.  It's not that difficult but I would still recommend dry fitting before glueing parts into place.  The front page of the booklet features a history on the aircraft (what I have detailed above is not taken from this) in both English and I assume Czech, as well as a notation that the kit reproduces the N-9MA prototype (the third of the N-9M project). On the back page the colour scheme is noted which I will come to later in the review.

Construction starts with affixing the cockpit to the upper wing (the whole N-9MA wingspan is just two parts, upper fixed to lower) and since the cockpit unit is resin it is an all in one affair.  It says also to affix a steering wheel onto a strut according to the instructions but after some time looking, I decided there was no strut in the kit and had to use some stretched sprue.  The cockpit is upside down in the diagram, so you only see the bottom and where it relatively fits against the upper wing so some judgement is needed to get this right.  There is no painting guide to go by (apart from the external colour scheme of the model) so you will need some reference books handy while doing this kit.  You will also need to make your own judgement on detailing the cockpit area since there is no assistance provided by the kit.  I ended up painting the interior in a cockpit green colour that is indicative of that era aircraft.   Perhaps check with some rms'ers for opinions or if you're able to visit the aircraft in the museum have a look first-hand.

Once the cockpit is in place you encase it, and the resin nose wheel well, inside the wing halves - of course there is no fuselage on this aircraft.  Clamps were needed to hold the wing halves together and the wheel well needed quite a bit of trimming to fit properly.  I then put on the canopy and attached the propellors whose blades are simply cemented against the rear spinners (see next para). Most parts fit reasonably well but you will need some patience and coaxing to ensure you get it right.  The canopy will need a bit of work to fit correctly, and since it's vac-form you will need to do the cutting yourself. The vacform itself is a bit vague where you cut so you will need to do it a few times, gradually wearing it down to ensure a proper fit - if successful it will sit nicely over the pilot-less cockpit.  The effort is worth it because the canopy is crystal clear and looks impressive! I have no reference photos of an open canopy and being vacuform, a closed canopy was really the only option.

The props are quite disappointing with no ability to rotate them.  The kit provides four blades that you simply affix two to each cone in a permanent position.  This proved to be difficult as there is nothing but a tiny indentation to mark the spot where it goes - and the instructions are vague in both placement and the correct profile (the way it should face).  This will take a bit of patience.  I had already put the whole propellor unit onto the engine before I affixed the blades, but in hindsight you might find it easier if you attach the blades onto the spinner part first, before assembling and subsequently attaching the whole propellor unit.

In the final step you affix all the parts to the underside of the aircraft including underwing pods/intakes, tricycle landing gear and trainer wheel (which looks more like an arrestor hook!).  You have the option of attaching the wheels in the kit or the resin wheels provided separately.  Again a bit of care will be needed but these parts were generally straightforward to affix.

Since the kit replicates only one aircraft, there's just one tiny Propagatem decal sheet that contains only three items.  Two blue/white star/band USAAF insignia of World War II fame and a small triangle to affix to the nose in front of the cockpit.  This triangle is apparently the Northrop insignia.  The colour scheme of the aircraft according to the instruction sheet was initially painted Trainer Yellow upper, and A-N Blue lower sides, but it also states that this scheme was later reversed and evidence in reference material confirms that the N9MA wore both schemes.   It's unclear exactly what the depiction on the back cover of the instruction booklet showing the colour scheme is actually representing (the initial scheme or the later reversed scheme?) because the shades aren't clarified, so you will have to make up your own mind on which one to go with since both are technically correct.  To me, yellow upper and blue lower just doesn't look like a military aircraft's scheme, so I chose the later reverse scheme using Trainer yellow and a darker almost royal blue upper.   The propeller blades are supposedly natural metal.  The box cover shows a very dark coloured aircraft (see image above) and obviously replicating the "reversed scheme" - I don't think these colours are very accurately depicted.

I found difficulty in getting hold of colour photos for this aircraft.   Some helpful people in rec.models.scale newsgroup pointed me to a web site that contained colour shots of an N-9MB and these were useful in getting some idea of exact colour tones.  A copy of a recently acquired Hasegawa model pic appears below. My references (black&white) show quite clearly that N-9MA's photographed had an upper blue scheme and a lower yellow scheme on nearly all occasions.

I can't comment on the accuracy of the kit in both length and detail but as previously mentioned there is not a lot of external detail provided.  Some of my references about the aircraft conflict in measurements so I would not confirm nor deny the accuracy of the kit's reproduction in this regard.  Given that an N-9M is understood to have been preserved in an Air Museum in US (and if you have access to get there) it might be a good place to check out the details first hand. 

Overall, it must be said that this kit will provide you with a few challenges to ensure satisfaction with the finished product. But it was nevertheless straightforward and did not take a great deal of time to assemble (since there are only 30 parts at most).  With a little bit of effort you can make it into a unique and distinctive model to add to your collection.  The parts were good quality and I would certainly  recommend it to those of at least the intermediate skill level.

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A completed model from the Hasagawa boxing of Sword's N-9MA