Revell

1/32 Piper PA-18 Super Cub

Kit Number: 85-5483

Reviewed by  Fred A. Amos, IPMS# 6672

MSRP: $ 33.00 Website: www.revell.com A little history: The Super Cub is one of Piper's most successful and long-lived aircraft programs, with production spanning over four decades. The Super Cub flew for the first time in 1949, and certification was awarded on November 18 that year. The first production Super Cubs were delivered from late 1949, the type replacing the PA-11 Cub Special on Piper's production lines. The 100kW (135hp) Lycoming O-290 powered PA-18-135 appeared in 1952, while the definitive 110kW (150hp) Lycoming O-320 powered PA-18-150 was certificated on October 1 1954 and delivered from the following year. The Super Cub remained in production with Piper until 1981, when almost 7500 had been built over an uninterrupted 32 year production run. Piper continued building Super Cubs on behalf of Texas based WTA who held the manufacturing and marketing rights from 1981 until 1988. In 1988 Piper resumed marketing responsibility for the Super Cub and continued low rate production. Financial troubles meant that Super Cub production ceased in 1992, before resuming once more the following year. Finally in late 1994 Piper announced that the Super Cub would not form part of its model line for 1995 and that it would cease production after the last of 24 on order for distributor Muncie Aviation were completed. The kit: This is the third of these Piper Cub kits that I have built in the last year so be prepared for Murphy's Law to take effect. To be totally honest this is a wonderful kit but there were snakes in the box with this one. My intention was to build and review the kit and make other modelers aware of the pit falls and problems to look out for. Being too over confident I messed up……… a little. The kit consists of eleven clear parts that include the attachment spar for the wings (More on that part later) and eight white plastic parts trees with approximately seventy-five pieces. There is absolutely no flash and very few mold separation ridges. There are a few ejector pin marks; some of them in visible surfaces and some are hard to get at. Decal options are for two white civil types, one with red trim and registration and the other with blue trim and registration. A third option is for a yellow U.S. Army Piper L-18C. As always construction starts in the well represented cockpit area, the floor is painted gray, the seats leather with black trim. The rest of the cockpit is black. While the cockpit pieces are painted and drying it would be best to proceed with the wing assemblies. Here is one of the problem areas with the kit. Step four of the instructions would have you slide parts 59 and 60 onto part 41 and glue them into place. Then after the upper and lower wing halves are glued together you would slide the wings over the clear spare part (part 41) and glue the wings to part 59 and 60 after part 41 has been glued to the top of the cockpit. To me this is an invitation to disaster. When placing parts 59 and 60 onto part 41 you will find a very tight fit. My advice is to take a file and sand paper to these parts until parts 59 and 60 will slide over 41 without any resistance. Then attach 59 and 60 to their respective wings one at a time after part 41 is in place. See the attached pictures for a better understanding of the problem. Set the wing assembly aside till after the fuselage and cockpit are finished.

When assembling the cockpit and wing support frames pay close attention to which is which. Each one has a front and a back and must not be placed in the wrong place or position. The positioning of these support frames is critical to the proper fit of the clear parts later. I must have gotten this out of shape because the windshield didn't fit well. Also be sure to attach clear parts 44 and 45 to the fuselage halves before the cockpit is in place and the halves are glued together. The flanges go to the inside. You will see what I mean when the time comes. I messed this assembly up and put the flanges on the outside hence my observation about Murphy's Law. If you wish you can place part 41 where it belongs but don't attach the wings yet. So far you have gotten the fuselage and the cockpit finished and the wing parts and front, top and bottom of the engine cowling together and set aside. At this point I suggest all of the struts, stabilizers be separated from the sprue and prepared for painting. I did not attach the stabilizers and other small fussy parts but painted them separately. Since the cockpit interior and framing is mostly black it will be necessary to paint the exterior black, after it has been masked, of course. Now that everything is painted and dried, it is time to attach the wings to the clear spar, one at a time. When you are sure the fit is as good as you can make it, back it up a little and place a dab of slow setting gel super glue in the holes where the pins go into the wing and slide it together again. Keep in mind that if you didn't sand and file the areas mentioned earlier, it will be a very tight fit and could cause damage as you make the assembly. Finish up with other wing as you have done the first wing. Now comes another Murphy episode, the engine. The engine is really a model in itself, but once again there are fit and alignment issues. Before the bottom cowl, (part 96) is glued to the front part, make sure that the air intake (part 81) will fit the opening. It will need to be sanded for a loose fit. More later. I glued the engine supports to the engine rear (part 74), and while it was still pliable I dry fitted the supports to the firewall, aligned the assembly with the Mark One eyeball, and set it aside to dry. Then proceed with assembly of the engine, up to the point of attaching the intake manifold and the exhaust pipes. Paint all of the sub assemblies and set them aside. Glue the firewall to the front of the fuselage without the back of the engine and the supports. Glue the back of the engine, with the supports, to the engine and then finish up with the exhaust system. It won't work any other way. When I glued the engine supports to the firewall I found my friend Murphy. The engine was canted off to one side.

The supports and back of the engine were out of alignment and the exhaust pipes were against the firewall. And I found that the cowl parts were also out of alignment. I pulled the engine supports off of the firewall to contemplate the problem. I decided I didn't want to try to force the engine supports or the cowling into alignment for fear of breaking them. So I shoved the engine into the cowling as far as it would go and applied a little super glue where it wouldn't be seen. Then after sanding the backside of the exhaust pipes down a bit I super glued the top of the cowling to the top of the firewall and managed to super glue the bottom of the cowling to the bottom of the firewall. Far from perfect but the bad fit was hardly noticeable. As I was putting the decals on the model I realized the mistake I had made with the clear parts, having put them on the wrong side with the flanges on the outside. Thanks to Murphy. Now you may think that from all I have related here that the Revell Super Cub is a terrible kit. Quite the contrary, it is an excellent kit. It just takes a lot of care and finesse. As I said earlier I had already built the same kit, (Revell of Germany issue) twice and both of them came out perfectly. In fact one of them took a prize at a local contest. I just got careless in my excitement and anticipation. It is still my belief that this kit is worth the time and money you will spend on it. If you will go to the website Airliners.net and search for Piper Super Cubs you will find approximately 1375 photos of the Super Cub. Once again I want to thank the distributor Revell (www.revell.com) and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the opportunity to build this kit.