"Oh, I created my share of winged wonders, and more than few winged horrors in my time, but if you want to speak of aviation, my brother Clark was far better at it that I. He was never more at home than when he was behind the controls of what ever had wings and an engine." Wen Yo, Air International interview, June 1986
(It has been almost 20 years since I first created the character of Dr. Yo at the Starship Modeler forums, and a good fifteen or so since I followed up with Doc Yo, Man of Modern Materials, at the What If forums. (Really should renew my password there one of these days.) Just as Dr. Yo was modelled on the classic Oriental mastermind Fu Manchu, so Doc Yo was modelled on Doc Savage, the "Man of Bronze". And one of the features of that series was the collection of aircraft owned by the character. Seldom described in much detail past the basics, I remember that one was described as "a powerful trimotor" along with an autogyro and an amphibian or two. So it was inevitable that I would borrow the idea for Clark Yo jr.)
"I can't tell you precisely why Clark preferred to base himself in France, though I suspect his long affair with Josephine Baker may have had something to do with it. Neither can I tell you when and how he first met René Couzinet, but by the early 'thirties they were corresponding regularly, and Clark was on hand when Couzinet' masterpiece, the Arc-en-Ciel III first flew. He truly loved the design, but absolutely hated the construction-he hadn't built anything of wood in over a decade at that point, and after licensing the basic design, he set about doing the design work to reproduce it in dural and his own "Super Bakelite". By early '35 the new plane was out of his factory near Orleans'. Couzinet was there, and I had shown up as well. I still recall Couzinet's expression, a mixture of amazement mixed with...regret, perhaps? He turned to Clark and said, a bit wistfully to my ear "beautiful, beautiful...but it's not my Rainbow anymore." Clark smiled slightly, and replied "well, Call it Chien du soleil, then. Couzinet was baffled by the idiom, and Clark then explained a 'Sundog' is a atmospheric phenomenon created by sunlight refracting though ice crystals. A bit like a rainbow, but usually a bit more subtle. In any case, it handled as well as the original, and with the increased power of it's three 1100 hp Ogre-Peugeot radials and the decreased weight had even better performance. Clark had a dozen built altogether, five for his airline AllTerranAir, and sold the rest. He modified his personnel aircraft into the 'Flying Observatory', and used it until 1948. I think the Smithsonian has it in sotrage these days." Wen Yo, Air International interview, June 1986
I've had this venerable Heller kit in my stash since the early 2000's-picked it up for a song at a show, and was giddy-the only other time I had even seen the kit was a built example in a North Carolina mall around 1976 or '77. I was visiting one of my brothers, and some modeler had set up a display of his collection, scores of kits, all 1/72 and mostly WW2 and earlier. But I dithered for years btweeen building it stock, and well, as you'll see, I succumbed to my baser instincts...
First thing was to give it an interior-
DSCF1193 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
DSCF1196 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
And then seal the whole thing up so it becomes largely invisible-
DSCF1197 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
The engines are taken from an Airfix S.M. 79 which I originally bought for the torpedoes. Think I managed to match them adequately to the wings and fuselage.
DSCF1198 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
That's where she sits at the moment. Visible in some of the shots are the formidable sink marks and gaps in the wing fit. It isn't often I have to resort to Aves epoxy putty, but the wing joints were pretty awful. As mentioned in the back story, this is a Flying Observatory, and will get an upper green house along with a simulated telescope.
DSCF1199 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
