The kit has no cockpit, and since the prototype didn't have a canopy, not much can be seen. I added a very basic cockpit using photos as a visual reference. I used a left over control panel decal from which some instruments were removed to act as a fake cockpit panel. A control column was made of streched sprue. The basket type seat was made from plastic sheets and bent paper clips.

 

 

Correcting the Nose

 

The kit's nose is very bad, mostly because of the crudely molded cylinder heads.

I vaccum formed a new nose section and drilled the nine holes for the J-5 engine cylinders (to know how to built your own vacuum forming table, check my article at Large Scale Planes website). The holes for the pushrods were also drilled, and this job deserves careful measurement. As for the cylinders, I made resin copies from an Aires P&W R2800 engine... not exactly like the J-5 cylinder heads, but they do the trick. After finishing the model, I discovered a Russian company called Silniki which produces a resin Wright Whirlwind J-5 in 1/72 scale. Too late, again.

At this point the fuselage was virtually done. The recessed locations for decal placement on the cowling and rudder were filled with super glue and sanded smooth. I then installed the lateral windows and embossed some prominent rivets on the nose panels.

 

 

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Finishing the Basic Airframe

 

Next, the wing was attached to the fuselage, along with its supporting struts. The three windows were polished, brush coated with Future, and masked with Tamiya tape to avoid bluring during the further handling.

Many spots required filling, but a thick coat of Mr. Surfacer was enough to handle most of them.

 

 

 

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Small sections of styrene rod were glued along the control surfaces recesses to simulate the hinges. I then applied a very light coat of Mr. Resin Primer around the nose and tail areas to look for blemishes. These were the more heavily worked areas, and I didn't want to leave a rough surface for the metallic finish that would follow. In any case, the entire airframe was polished with a piece of soft cloth, including the primed areas.

 

 

Adding Details

 

Next, a number of smaller details took my attention. I was particularly disappointed with the propeller and the wheels. The former had a spinner molded integrally with the blades, and was devoid of any surface details. The same applies to the wheels, with some visible details missing. They laked the teardrop shaped covers of the landing gear axle, and the stitches which secured the canvas cover of the spoked wheels are not represented as well.

The propeller started its life as an old 1/72 Revell Ki-61 propeller from my spares box. The blades were carefully removed and the shape of a new spinner was progressively sanded with the aid of a motor tool, always checking the current profile against photos. The most difficult part was to scribe the panel lines around such a double curvature, small part. Several rivet lines were added to the spinner. Once again, I found too late that this type of spinner was not used during Lindebergs's famous flight (in addition, at least three types of spinner were used in the Ryan NYP - one of them with a very round tip). I then reshaped the blades and opted to make molds of everything, just in case. A master for the wheel tear drop covers was made from a chunk of plastic.

 

 

To simulate the stitches around the wheels canvas cap, I simply took a fresh #11 blade and pressed its tip against the edge of the kit parts. This is done by free hand, trying to keep the spacing as even as possible. Then it was just a matter of crossing my fingers to the effect show up with a careful dark wash after painting.

Next, I had to work on the engine cylinders... all nine of them plus a couple of spares. Basically, I added styrene rods bent to proper shape in pre-drilled holes to simulate the exhaust pipes. The same method was used for the intake ducting, but soldering wire was used instead of styrene.

Another bit added was a pair of handles on each side of the bottom fuselage, just ahead of the stabilizers. These details are clearly visible in vintage photos, and were used to handle the aircraft. I made them from fine brass wire and installed with white glued in pre-drilled holes.

While the resin copies were curing, I cut 18 little pushrods from stretched sprue. It is imporant to check the rod diameter to assure visual consistency and that they will fit the holes drilled around the cowling.

 

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Since the kit has no representation of the carburator, a new one was scratchbuilt from pieces of plastic using the William Bothers J-5 kit as a reference. A couple of hoses coming from cylinders 5 and 6 provided hot air to the carburator. They were made from bulb filament coil with cooper wire inserted inside. The wire makes the coil remain with the proper shape after bending.

 

 

Painting

 

I used Model Master Aluminum Plate buffing metalizer to paint this model. I mean, ex-buffing. I know many modelers don't like this product due to its bad adherence. Here is the trick (it works with all others MM buffable metalizers, too): take a new bottle of metalizer and leave it open overnight. Because its solvent is highly volatile, what you will find in the next morning is a disk of pure metalizer pigment on the bottom of the bottle. Don't cry... fill the bottle up with 2/3 Model Master sealer and 1/3 Model Master metalizer thinner. Shake, shake, shake... The result is an almost-non-buffable metalizer paint with the same adhesion properties of the MM metalizer sealer. Now it can be masked like any enamel paint. Same pigment, same coverage, we just exchanged the paint carrier fluid. On the other side, it is now much harder to be polished, but during the experiences I achieved different paneling effects by polishing the surfaces with SnJ powder or fine glitter.

The resulting finish is a bit different than the original metalizer, too. In the case of MM Aluminum Plate the recipe gives a slightly darker aluminum color, but to my eye this is a perfect match for aluminum doped surfaces... exactly what I was looking for.

 

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I think the most difficult thing during the painting was to make the paint hit the upper sides of the main wing struts without flooding adjacent areas. Using a Badger 100 with fine tip in one hand and a piece of paper to be used as a barrier in the other, I spend half an hour applying the aluminum finish to the whole model. Half of this time was spent trying to cover the upper surfaces of the wing struts.

The only non aluminum areas were the engine bits and the tires. The cylinders and pushrods were painted with Floquil Engine Black, which is dead flat. Later I brushed the rock covers and the pushrods with straight Future to make these areas gloss, producing a distinctive contrast with the finned region. This effect is very characteristic in vintage radial engines. The wheel tires were painted with the late Aeromaster Tire Black enamel. The canvas cover was painted afterwards with the aid of a drafting template.

 

 

Simulating the "Brushed Panels"

 

The most challenging step of this project was to replicate the 'brushed' panels around the nose. The Ryan NYP was in fact a modification of another Ryan aircraft, where every available space was used to store fuel, including the nose area. To add the necessary strength and avoid direct sun light, the windscreen was removed while the whole nose was paneled. Since this was a one of a kind aircraft, no steel tool was produced to forge these curved panels. Instead, they were manufactured by hand. I still don't know whether the panels were brushed to force the plates to conform the (wood) patterns or it was just an aesthetic measure.

It is worth to note that the original Spirit of St. Louis on display at the Smithsonian Museum currently shows a distinctive gold hue on these panels. Judging from vintage photos, it was not this way back in the 20's. This is probably a result of progressive oxidation of the steel panels. I mention this here because I found some models of the Spirit of St. Louis with their nose painted with gold tints. I think this is incorrect unless you are building an exact replica of the aircraft as displayed today.

Well, I tried various techniques to replicate the effect on scrap parts. Too many to list here. After posting for help in Hyperscale forum, some fellows came to rescue advising me to do exactly as it was done in the actual machine: to brush the metal. And so I did. The method uses Bare Metal Foil (I used matte aluminum) brushed with a motor tool. I took a good piece of Bare Metal Foil and blured small dots all over the area. The secret is to use an adequate tool to burnish the dots on the foil before its application. After a few trial and error attempts, I elected a small conical rubber-type polishing tool resting for years on the bottom of my accessory case. Sorry, but all I know about the stuff is I bought it in a dentistry shop retail, and it is intended for polishing dental prothesis. I installed it in a slow speed motor tool and painfully burnished endless rows of marks. Very boring, but all it takes is to keep the tool perpendicular to the foil sheet, light fingers (just let the abrasive head touch for a second the foil, then move on to the next one - never put pressure on it), and patience. I almost went blind doing this, but thankfully this is a 1/72 model. Given my lack of talent with Bare Metal Foil, I ruined some sheets during the application and had to go back and make a few more. The sheets were applied by panel using the standard method: cut oversized, trim the excess (use the panel lines as a guide) and move to the next panel. The only deviation was the top panel of the cowling, which has a double curvature area around the wing leading edge. In that case I applied two stripes of foil to make the job easier, then retouched the brushed marks with the motor tool along the joint line. You can't tell where the joint is...

 

 

After foiling the whole nose, I burnished the scribed panel lines with a piece of dampened balsa wood. A light wash of black/brown was applied before the installation of the cylinders to highlight the panel lines and rivets. Once I was satisfied, the cylinders were individually pressed into their holes with white glue. Tragedy almost struck when I realized the during the pushing some panels slid a bit from their location. I carefully removed the cylinders, slid back the offending panels and started over, this time tearing off as much as possible of the foil from the holes. Alignment is critical here. I'm still unsatisfied with the position of some cylinders...

 

Finishing