Schneider Trophy Races 1941
Let's get this party started🙂 Floats taken from Trumpeter An-2, spats are leftovers from Special Hobby Northrop Delta.
So far, so good...
But some heavy equipment will be necessary here.
Surprise, surprise!!! Resin turbine diameter is too big...
...and prevents closing the fuselage.
Even the "rotor blades" needed to be filed...
...in order to fit inside
Still, these have not much similarity to the original - but I will leave it as it is.
And here is the source of my inspiration
Turning into a single seater...
means repeated puttying and sanding. The cockpit will be installed later from below (I hope 🙂)
Mmm...I love the smell of putty in the morning...
I decided to give horizontal stabilisers some dihedral, even though in the original plane these were mounted horizontally. But this is a floatplane that needs some more directional stability. I am pondering the idea of adding also a ventral fin.
Pilot's office assembled - a piece of sprue will be removed after installing the whole inside the fuselage. I am not going to give it too much care as not much will be seen through the canopy.
I had to fabricate the instrument panel backing from thick plasticard as the kit's piece did not match the photo etched face at all (left for comparison on the right...)
Empennage puttied and sanded to fit, panel lines and riveting restored.
Cockpit installed. Control wheel is way oversized so in a hindsight maybe some kind of a control stick would be better here. Nevertheless, since I plan attaching the canopy closed not much will be seen...
Taking shape. Fit of the main parts is...hmm...
Determining the position of floats...and kind of a proof of concept 😉
Take notice of the gaps where the wing roots are...
In the meantime I am pondering on a painting scheme...
Puttying...
And more puttying and sanding...
Spats and water rudder installed - puttying in progress...
Proof of concept again... I am pondering on the way of installing the floats: in flight (parallel to the fuselage) or "take off mode" - as shown.
Proof of concept again... I am pondering on the way of installing the floats: in flight (parallel to the fuselage) or "take off mode" - as shown.
Water rudder is a leftover rudder from Me 209 kit 😉
Canopy installed.
After a failure with the Baby Dragon I decided to resume this build in an 'easy' mode 😉 Though installing the canopy was not easy at all...
Approaching the finish line...
Approaching the finish line...
Approaching the finish line..
I announce her finished.
I announce her finished.
I announce her finished.
I announce her finished.
I announce her finished. Next in the line soon 😉
Comentários
70 27 April 2021, 07:55
Nathan DempseyInteresting subject! You seem to be conquering the difficulty of the main kit.
6 May 2021, 14:07
Bernd KorteI've built this kit a few years ago and encountered the same problems. So you are going to ad floats?
6 May 2021, 16:31
Robert PodkońskiWelcome! I feel encouraged 😉 In the meantime I have been wondering what would be the other contestants. What do you think about Vought F4F Corsair and maybe Martin-Baker MB.2 on floats? 😄
8 May 2021, 06:59
Robin (WhiteGlint)What a sleek looking aircraft.
I'd say go for the MB.2 as the other contestant.
Or do you plan to give the Corsair floats, too?
8 May 2021, 16:45
Robert Podkoński@WhiteGlint: these are just some loose ideas, but IMHO Corsair is best suited for floats - if there was Spitfire on floats, Bf 109 and even Wildcatfish... it is a pity however that there is only a resin (read: quite costly) kit of MB.2 available. And I would have to purchase two, as I do really like its look on wheels. Nevertheless, I have run out of spare floats for the moment (at least in 1/72nd scale... 😉)
8 May 2021, 19:27
Robert PodkońskiThank you, Guy 🙂 It needs a lot of repeated (read - tedious) puttying and sanding...
14 July 2021, 20:03
Robert PodkońskiThank you, WhiteGlint, for your suggestion. I think it would be cool to make some dynamic-looking "water" base, but I have never tried to make one and I am afraid I am not able to...🙁 Instead, maybe I will try to make floats movable on some kind of hinges and with actuators... It is just a loose idea for now, of course 😉
24 July 2021, 15:43
Robin (WhiteGlint)If it is resin you fear, you don't have to use it go make great water bases.
I used air-dry clay and AK Water Gel and it looks okay for a first try.
There is also another method with aluminium foil, white glue and some other stuff. Scale-a-ton made a nice video about this method.
Youtube Video
24 July 2021, 21:14
Robert PodkońskiThank you very much, WhiteGlint, for this tutorial 🙂 I think, I will give it a try as soon as I will finish my Caproni Schneider Racer (successfully...I hope 🙂 ) I just reminded myself that once I made a simple water-based dio with Kami-de-Korokoro Piaggio-Pegna kit... 😉
25 July 2021, 09:22
Robert PodkońskiI have started to collect aluminium wraps from chocolate already... I think I will need a whole lot of them 😉
8 August 2021, 06:43
David R. MeizosoCan't miss that video, I have a bunch of seaplanes waiting to set sail. Thanks!
8 August 2021, 08:59
Robert PodkońskiI keep tools and models in dedicated boxes that I carry, forth and back, to the desk 😉
13 October 2023, 15:02
MarkoI like to watch it happen. Interesting original, I've never seen it before. good luck robert👍
8 May, 19:09
gorbyNice work Robert. I'd love to see it take off...if you could see it though all the steam it would produce. 😄
13 May, 06:57
Robert PodkońskiThank you, Gorby! I suppose there would be a lot of steam and water spray behind 😉
13 May, 07:13
