The Boeing F4B/P-12 was ubiquitous in the early 1930s in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Air Corps. Not until the F-4 Phantom in the 1960s would one aircraft be so omnipresent in both services.
The 1930s were a time of great innovation and many improvements were made in aerodynamics. The Navy wanted to take advantage of this and held a competition for a high-speed fighter.
Boeing rose to the challenge. Retooling their F4B with an Aero-light inline engine, new windscreen and spatted landing gear which were the envy of air arms world-wide.
While the new High Speed FX fighter passed all flight tests with flying colors, the per-unit cost of $79,000 and 29 cents made full-scale production impossible.
However, the hot prototype was used for many years as a personal runabout by Commodore M. Modium, C.O. of the Cantacostya Naval Air Station near Roiling Springs, Missouri.
The beginning of this project was the venerable 1/72 Matchbox Boeing P-12E which featured some very colorful box art:
Not only on the top, but on the bottom too:
I had a left-over Ar-96 engine in the spares box which was a pretty good fit:
Then work got in the way, and this project sat in the box for a few days:
Fortunately, I was able to steal some time and finish it by adding Aeroclub spats and decals from the decal dungeon. Rigging was done with this great plastic wire courtesy of Jeff Fontaine.
I had a lot of fun on this little model, which goes nicely with orange juice for some reason.
Brian da Basher
