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Glencoe
Curtiss JN-4D Jenny |
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Parts presentation are a mix of three sprue and the remaining parts loose. Everything is molded in a light cream plastic, except for one black sprue containing the wheel/tires, prop and engine components. This Curtiss JN-4D Jenny was first produced by Aurora in 1957, reboxed a couple of times by Aurora and Playcraft Aurora and...in 2022...repopped by Glencoe Models. Those of you who go back far enough to be familiar with Aurora kits, this is what you get. Aurora parts, insructions and new decals by a modern manufacturer. Not familiar with Aurora kits? Let's take a brief walk down memory lane. Most manufacturers who repop old kits do a generally good job of cleaning up old molds, but there are always limits to what can be done. Sometime you have to live with the problems and always it depends on what you, the modeler, finds acceptable. For example, this Glencoe effort gives you parts that are clean, crisp and with minimal flash. Fit is normal for the time period and it's quite possible to build your Jenny with little if any putty or seam work...except for the bottom of the fuselage. Auora built their kits with a rectangular slot in the belly, designed to fit an included stand. No stand is offered by Glencoe, but the open slot remains. It's your choice if you want to eliminate the slot or not. Also, if you look close you will find several very slight sink areas on fuselage sides. This is the result of the locators inside the fuselage for the seats. Not that big a problem, but you might want to swipe a tiny bit of putty over the sink areas and then sand smooth. It won't take much and there's no detail to eradicate. Surface detail is fairly typical for the period, including some extremely light recessed detail on both the upper and lower surfaces of the horizontal tail. Yet the undersides of the wings have no detail whatsoever. Granted, you won't be able to see the underwing detail after the model is built and placed on its landing gear, but that would still be a surprising omission to many. And no windscreens were included by Aurora. The biggest challenge to this kit...and the majority of biplane kits whether new or old...is installing the top wing on a forest of struts. Some manufactuers...notably Lindberg and Monogram I believe...came up with methods that made things at least a little easier. Most of the others? Not so much. Finally, thanks to Aurora including a small piece if groundwork with built in wheel chocks and two or three figures in their original biplane kits...three for the Jenny...it's possible to create a rather nice vignette. ********** Page 1, 2, back to home page
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