I might just be starting up a new sub-category: trainer aircraft. The other one is the Piper Cub in 1/72 scale that I built a while ago, and now there's a second one to add to the shelves: a Ryan PT20 Trainer, presented here in a simple little Photoshopped diorama.
I saw one of these in the 'flesh' not so long ago, at a very nice Aviation Museum in the New South Wales country town of Temora. Unfortunately, the museum didn't stock a kit of this plane. All they had was this fridge magnet.
The lady behind the counter was a bit nonplussed when I just bought two fridge magnets that day; one of the unfashionable Ryan trainer, and the other of the almost equally unfashionable Hudson bomber. The look in her eyes said "Wot! No Spitfires?" (they have them at Temora as well).
It wasn't that hard to find a Ryan trainer kit. This very basic one made by Testors was advertised by an eBay Trader as "1/72 scale" and so I bought it, that being one of my two plane scales. Then when I opened the package, it had a huge "1/48" on the top of the box. So I contacted the trader, who refunded my money and said "keep it, it was my mistake". I didn't think I would build it very soon, but some other freebie 1/48 kits have come my way recently, so I am now opening up a third scale of 1/48 to fill my shelves.
The kit itself is very basic, surprising rough on the sprues, but it tidied up OK. This is my first attempt at adding any bracing wires (I used super-thin piano wire, attached with super glue).
I like the idea of trainer aircraft for a few reasons. Being nice planes that were easy for learners to fly is a very good thing, but like the Piper Cub, many pilots fall in love with their trainer aircraft, and some even go back later on and buy one to fly when they are much older, more experience pilots. These trainer planes must have something pretty special about them.
I'm still waiting on some 1/48 decals to arrive in the mail, but I like the shiny, all-silver, undecorated look of this little guy … but I might not even add any decals. I like it as it is.