Kenny's Old Time Model Airplane Magazine:
January 2002

Editorial

Hello Gang, and any newcomers to the fourth edition of my on line magazine. Welcome to the year 2002. Didn't it just seem like yesterday that we were all excited about the Y2K bug...?

When I began this on line adventure, I promised myself that I would get a new edition out on the first of each month whether it was ready, or perfect, or not. Though I am still holding out that I may have to keep it to ten issues a year, giving myself a bit of a break in the summer, I have been true to my self imposed deadline. You see, it seems that I need these deadlines to get anything done. Well, here and now, I am going to make a public promise, dare I even say resolution, to build and finish and fly more airplanes this year. I start them well enough, but I often get sidetracked with other things when the going gets difficult. The back page editorial of the December Model Flyer said it best, "enough excuses, just do it."

I've had a difficult time holding resolutions in the past, but heck this should just be fun. As the financier says, "Pay yourself first." Let's all this year look after ourselves, remember to play, enjoy the company of others, and quit winding at that sweet spot, no sooner, and please, no later.

Be well, and enjoy Vol. 1 No. 4.

The Story

This month's story features the most popular of the recurring pulp fiction characters in the great Flying Aces magazines. Though so many other characters came and went through this magazine, Phineas Pinkham, the Boonetown Bam, was a sure thing, month after month, year after year. Whether in the skies in his Spad, or on the ground with his own men, you didn't want to go up against this warrior/trickster.

Often Joe Archibald, the author and illustrator, would encorporate current happenings into these stories, and this story is no exception. In November, 1940, the facists of Germany, Italy and Spain were obvious targets. The awful puns, and slang can make the odd Phineas yarn hard to read, but this one cracks me up. I think it did crack up my spell check... it'll never be the same again!

Enjoy, Bull Flight.

The Rubber Powered Model Airplane Plans

Though I live in the most northern biggish Canadian city, Edmonton, (pop. including surrounding about 900,000) and yes I know from cold and snow, I'm going to have to dedicate this model to our friends in Buffalo New York. Something like six feet of snow in the last week of Dec 2001! That's nearly two meters! That's lots more than yours truly. I suspect that it's not the nice light fluffy snow that comes with bitter cold, but that bust your back juicy stuff. So for the survivors of Buffalo, I present Alan Orthof's Snowbird Stick, a stick and sheet balsa R.O.Snow model, skis for landing gear and all!

Phineas Pinkham flew a Spad... so should you! And with the help of the great Henry Struck it should be no problem. This model was number 8 in a series of Trail Blazers of the Air that Hank published in Flying Aces magazine during the late thirties. I hope to have more from this series on these virtual pages in the near future. Heck I can even convince the guy in charge to have Anthony Fokker's D VII up next month. That'll give you a chance to have the Spad ready before its nemesis flies in.

Thermals.

The Solid Model Airplane Plan

This month's solid model is Col. Rickenbacker's Spad Type 13 C.1. I just thought that you couldn't have enough Spad models, so along with the rubber model, I've included this nice solid by Alan F. Kitchell. It is a step forward on the complicated scale from the low wing racers I've posted over the past couple of months, but I suspect that we're all up to it. Phineas would be proud. This one originally appeared in the March, 1942 issue of Model Airplane News.

How To

This month I'm adding a "How To" article. Propellers are one of the most important aspects of a successful model, and with the availability of good plastic ones, these days one of the least understood. In the days of olde, prop carving was just another part of creating one of these models. Frank Ziac, he of the orange yearbooks, wrote this piece for the March, 1938 issue of Air Trails. A nice intro by a master modeler, writer, and draftsman.

The Advertisement

This month's ad, Megow's Solid Models for Spotting Enemy Planes , is taken from the March, 1942 issue of Model Airplane News. The United States had just entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor a few months earlier and the "troops" were rounded up to provide models for the serious business of war. Six models for 50 cents. Such a deal!

Many of the documents I will be sharing will be in .pdf format