Brengun 1/144 VZ-9-AV Aerocar
By Matt Bittner
Introduction
Taken from Wikipedia:
"The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer.
"Originally designed as a fighter-like aircraft capable of very high speeds and altitudes, the project was repeatedly scaled back over time and the U.S. Air Force eventually abandoned it. Development was then taken up by the U.S. Army for a tactical combat aircraft requirement, a sort of high-performance helicopter. In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in September 1961.
"Through the history of the program, the project was referred to by a number of different names. Avro referred to the efforts as Project Y, with individual vehicles known as Spade and Omega. Project Y-2 was later funded by the U.S. Air Force, who referred to it as WS-606A, Project 1794 and Project Silver Bug. When the U.S. Army joined the efforts it took on its final name "Avrocar", and the designation "VZ-9", part of the U.S. Army's VTOL projects in the VZ series."
The VZ-9 has been refurbished and is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, USA.
The Kit
The Brengun 1/144 Aerocar consists of four pieces of resin, two vacuum-formed canopies, and a photoetch fret consisting of two hand holds used to open each canopy, two seats and seatbelts for them. There is a set of decals for serial number 58-7055 (and marked as AV-7055 on the vehicle itself), as it's currently displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The decals look to be in register and aside from being small, should not be difficult to apply.
The most work you'll perform on this model – aside from the painting – is folding the photoetch seats and cutting the vac canopies from their sheets. Everything else should go smoothly and quickly. I would leave the wheels off until you're finished with the entire model (unfortunately one of my wheels broke in transit, so I'll have to fix it) and make it the very last step in construction.
Once the photoetch seats are folded and painted, the photoetch seat belts are then attached (after painting as well) and the seats can be inserted into each cockpit "hole", once those are also painted. Depending on the fit, you may want to leave the canopies off until after painting and decaling. The cockpit hand holds might also be better left off until after painting.
It appears the majority of the vehicle was left natural metal, except for black around the cockpits and some gray around the air intakes. So painting this will also be a breeze.
Conclusion
If you need to break out of a bout of AMS, then Brengun's 1/144 Aerocar is the perfect antidote. It shouldn't take long to build, and you'll spend most of your time on the photoetch and painting. It's a unique enough vehicle that you'll definitely be having discussions with your fellow modelers over this one.
Many, many thanks to Brengun for sending this in to review.