TESTORS 1:48 GATES LEARJET 24D

 

Reviewer: Sheldon Rampersad  (clyde_rampe@tstt.net.tt)
Kit Review submitted:  30 December 2002

Kit Details:

This kit has been sitting on my workbench for about three months begging to be built. I built minor pieces at a time until I finally got some spare time around Christmas, finishing the aircraft Christmas morning in fact. It cost $76 TT, about $10US. Kit no7500. 1/48th Learjet 24D. Contains three sprues of white parts made of soft plastic and one bagged sprue of clear parts. The parts on the sprues are not numbered. The instructions however do have numbers assigned to the parts. So in other words I hope you can recognize parts pretty well. My kit came with two sprues containing the engine and landing gear parts. The clear parts sprue was broken and 4 of the navigation lights were missing. There is only one color scheme offered, with blue and white strips along the fuselage with American flags on fin with registration number N1CGM. The kit has movable cabin doors, rubber wheels and control surfaces. Can be constructed wheels up or down. Engines and avionics bay can be displayed open.

Aircraft History:

Fashioned after the Swiss FFA P-16 jet fighter, that was cancelled in the late fifties, the sleek airframe had caught the eye of inventor Bill Lear, who saw it’s potential for use as a twin engine business jet. After preliminary design work by his company in Switzerland (SAAC; Swiss American Aviation Corporation), manufacturing began in Wichita Kansa in 1962 under the name of Lear Jet corporation. The first prototype Lear 23 first flew on 7th October 1963. The model 24 was first flown on 24th February 1966. In 1967 the Gates Rubber Company acquired the company. The kit is fashioned after a model 24D variant that first flew in December 1970.

Specifications:

Construction:

Firstly, I must say that the parts fit was horrible! Many gaps and the fits were not snug. I started construction with the main gear. The rubber tires were forced onto the wheel and placed on the gear strut. A wheel retainer was then cemented into place on the outside of the wheel onto the strut. Warning the pins are very small and break VERY easily so be careful and don’t force it into the strut. I cut piece of the clear sprue at the tip where it is slightly rounded and substituted this on the landing light of the main gear since I didn’t fancy painting the white plastic part. 

I then assembled the engines, which were painted aluminum and dry brushed details. The compressor blades were cemented into the intake and this assembly attached to the lower engine nacelle half. The exhaust was then cemented into place aft. The upper engine nacelle was left off to display the engine. 

I then started work on the cabin. The carpet was painted red. I had toyed with the idea of using red crepe paper as carpet but lack of time and anxiety to actually start building the kit prevented this. If anyone tries this or has a better idea please email and let me know. The aft and forward bulkheads were painted in a wood color using Testors brown. After all this was cemented in the closed fuselage, only then the thought occurred to be that I could have tried varnishing the wood colored part! The seats are grooved and actually look like a seat, sorta. These were painted red with wood sides and arm rests. The control yokes were simple and painted black. The control panel had a few instrument details, which were dry brushed black with the panel being grey. Two pilots were included and actually had ties molded! The lack of throttles however was rather concerning! That’s ok however since the antiglare shield, which has groves to align it with the panel, covers almost all detail in the cockpit. The nose gear is assembled in the same manner as the mains and snaps into a bracket, which fits underneath the cockpit. I left the interior in the white color it is molded in. I painted red outlines around the emergency exit at the forward window on the starboard side. The stairs were cemented to the lower door that is the smaller of the two door parts. A magazine holder was attached to the upper part. Both door parts have pegs at the respective position. The top half has a semicircular brace to hold it against the upper fuselage. When this is carefully cemented into place the pegs of the upper door part move freely inside the “chamber” formed between the fuselage and the brace. The cabin assembly is cemented to the port fuselage half. The lower part of the door is put into place and braced by the fuselage and the cabin itself when in position. I highly recommend displaying the doors open since the fit when closed if poor. The doors don’t close flush. The fuselage halves are then cemented together with a moveable rudder in the fin.

The wing has ailerons to attach to the outer sections. If you want them to move then you have to trim some of the plastic of since like I said before the fits were horrible. The upper and lower wing sections are then cemented together. The upper section has some raised details for the main gear well where the main gear assemblies are cemented into position.  

The windshield came in two parts and went into position easily with an acceptable fit. The cabin windows don’t fit well. You have to trim the window or the fuselage or both for them to fit flush. Be careful when trimming since the plastic for the fuselage is soft and it’s easy to cut off too much. The wings were then cemented into place. The instructions say to use the photo on the box as reference. The photo in question is of the finished kit from 10 o’clock position and does not show the angle for the wings or stabilizers. What I did was that I made sure the main gears were dry in position on the wings. I then used the three gears to provide the angel for the wings. I attached the wings and placed the kit to stand on the wheels. This worked marvellously since the mains for the Lear is a double wheel set per strut. All was left was to brace the kit so that it didn’t move. I then used the wings to provide angle reference for the horizontal stab and engine nacelles. Note the angles are not the same but reference photos found on the net helped.

         The finishing touches were then added. The VOR antennae, navigation and anti-collision lights were cemented into place. The main gear doors were cemented into place and cover most of the detail from the gear well. Ironically the nose gear doors are to be open and there is a complete lack of detail I the nose gear well. The deicing and deflector covered the space between the two fuselage halves at the cockpit. The avionics bay cover just plain ole doesn’t fit, so I left it of to display the avionics. I’m planning to try and cut it and cemented on the aircraft in the open position as if under going maintenance. The navigation lights consist of two on the wing tips (red and green), two (red) on the top of the tail and bottom of the fuselage and one clear at the aft top of the fin. There are also two landing lights at the front of the fuel tanks.   

Decals:

The decals are from scale master (Ivisa clear). They number nine in total. They are tough and are applied easily. 

Overall Recommendation:

The kit was ok. The major plus was all the moving parts and rubber wheels. The instructions left something to be desired. The color scheme was boring. The fit was horrible. This kit is good to have just for the sake of having a Learjet kit. 

 

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