CarLos

Hi Colin, The big problem is moisture; So I store my superglue in a can of Nesquick with silica gel. No more problems!

Hi all, I am building the nice Amodel kit of the Shavrov Sh-2 and I intend to make a civilian aircraft. However I would like to avoid the dull green and blue decal options, and found two photos in blue and orange Polyarnaya aviatsiya livery. Is there more info of these flying boats in this atractive scheme? As you may see, the demarcation between the colous is different on these photos, and probably some others exist. My sources are this monograph (from where the photos were taken) and Lennart Andersson's Red Stars 6 - Aeroflot origins. Thanks in advance for any help. Carlos

Revell issued both the Matchbox and the Frog kits. In my opinion the Frog one is much better but has too big engine nacelles.

To be completely accurate the prototype boxing should include Hamilton Standard and Ratier props (and spinners, and different logo decals). "The Orphan" with the racing number G-16 shows yet different props... Different air intakes would be needed also. And previously, before the cheat line was painted, the fuselage included only a comet in the port side. Not an easy subject, the Comet. Carlos (I restored the photos in the thread pointed above by Roger Holden).

Images restored, thanks to Flickr.

...or use MisterCrap. With "a little" work it can be done, as the fuselage diameter is good. The wings are also good dimensionaly. In fact, they are better in this aspect than Amodel's, that have too much sweep back. Wegg lists 19º 59´20" at 25% of the chord. I measured that line (present on the plans), and I read 20º. So, the plans are good, MC goes almost good with the plans and by your comparison Amodel must be wrong. It's a pity, as the detail is very good. By the way, if you are interested in the French edition of Wegg's book you still can get it at the very same price I got mine a few years ago. Just look for it in Bookfinder. And thanks for the comparison! Very appreciated. Carlos

I may be wrong because I am comparing only with the photo in the first post, but the lower edge of the passenger windows should be well above the fuselage center line and that seems not to be the case with this kit. I am using as reference the blueprints and the scale drawings reproduced in John Wegg's book. Carlos

Selling only engine kits would be a good idea! There is a great gap to cover since Aeroclub closed.

Thank you very much, Panoz! I already spent some time in the Czech forum, with the help of Google translator. Meanwhile I found an extensive article on the S.16 in my library, in numbers 47 to 49 of Avions. Carlos

I received today the Brengun kit of the S-16 and I think it is a good candidate for a quick, OOB build. I want to make the aircraft of the (intended) Prague-Tokyo-Prague raid but I'm puzzled with the colours indicated in the box: khaki for the upper surfaces and silver for the undersurfaces - and this is the same for an operational aircraft. Also the interior is indicated as silver. I don't think this can be correct. Why would someone paint the undersides silver? Not for camouflage purposes, and certainly not for UV protection. And why use a paint that weights more than any other because of the mixed aluminium powder? A Google search by "Letov S-16 kit review" makes me think that these are the colours indicated also in the old KP kit (please someone confirm). But I also saw a Tuskish decal (Blackbird Models) that suggests the same Czech colours of Dark Green upper surfaces and Light Blue under surfaces - and that seams more reasonable. Comments, please? TIA Carlos

Hi Larry, This may help: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bhCJSwr5cEBGcKXEjUQWeBZEO8K60cwB There's a ventral hatch just behind thr wing's trailing edge. Carlos

PM sent on the subject... Carlos

The name you are looking for is Tony Woollett. I still have buried in one of my backups photos of most of his models. I wish I could find them. One of the Greats, sadly not with us any more.

My plan was to enter this GB with the Humming Bird and enter another model only after the first almost finished. But I doubt the I ever started this one without the extra stimulus of this Group Build, so here we go... Aircraft in Miniature offers a lot of very interesting kits of the Golden Age, but we were almost always mismatched; Or the kits were available and I had no money or I had some to spend and they were out of production. So I felt very lucky to acquire this one second hand (from here in Britmodeller if I remember well) but the anticipation of the work needed always made me return it to the stash every time I opened the box. Until some days ago. I forget to take a picture of the contents before starting it, but you may have a look at it with only a few work done: The kit is composed of vacuformed fuselage halves and cabin transparent parts (in double), resin flying surfaces and metal detail parts. A bit of 2mm thick plastic card is included as well. Decals are included for three aircraft - you may see profiles at AiM's page: http://www.aim72.co.uk/page174.html The fuselage parts were pre-cut and pre-sanded, although I had to finish the task. (I think that this was done by AiM, but I don't exclude the previous owner). I would have preferred the more common white plastic and parts not cut, so I could control better the sanding process. The black plastic doesn't help either. The canopy plastic yellowed a lot and will not be used. As you may see, the engine nacelles, wheel pants and wheels are all in one piece. I don't like that, as it makes detailing and painting more difficult, so I will take the wheels off and will open the wells. (The nacelle fronts were included but I already took them apart - they are probably hidden bellow the instructions in the photo above). All the outer panels were warped. The white metal parts are still in their bags and will need a lot of cleaning. As for accuracy, the kit is good enough. Scale drawings are included both in an article by Graham Simons in Wingspan #63 (April 1990) - drawings by Alf Granger - and in a booklet published by GMS Enterprises (the publisher of older books of Arthur Ord-Hume). The quality of the photos printed in this one is truly awful but the plans are very similar to Granger's with a few differences. I scanned, printed and measured granger drawings and they are on the spot on span dimension but 2 to 3 mm larger in length. As you may see bellow, the wings have a good dimension (with some difference at the tips) but the fuselage is way to small, about 6 mm less than the drawings, or 3 mm less than the true dimension. The fuselage is a little short comparing with the drawings in the booklet, that are themselves more than 1mm short. The kit was probably produced having these drawings as a basis. I will not worry myself with the small difference in length and I still must decide if I will correct the wing tips. * * * I began cutting the engine nacelle fronts to open the intakes and place inside the first cylinder but I think I will cast copies of the Airfix Tiger Moth part instead. This is work for later. Then I straightened the warped wings. I confess I was a little worried about that, but it was fast and simple. I just put some boiling water in a mug and put inside the warped portion for a few seconds. When the resin was soft enough I placed the part in a plan surface (my faithful mitter box) and let it cold under cold water. In one case I had to repeat, but it worked well and fast. Sorry, no photos of the warped parts. Probably because there was not a clear definition between the inner end of the outer wing panels and their casting blocks, both inner and outer wing panels had a very noticeable misalignment taking the leading edge as a reference. It was tricky, but I managed to solve the problem this way: * first, I measured and drilled holes for two spars made of steel rod. I used started with a thinner drill and enlarged the hole until the rod diameter, 1.2 mm, taking care to alight the drill with the leading edge in plan view; * Then I glued the pins in the inner panels, using super glue; * When I offered the outer panels to the inner ones there was some misalignment, but then I could enlarge the outer holes with the drill until both panels were aligned against the edge of the mitter box. This time 5 min. epoxy was used to join the wings, which game me time for adjustment and filled partially the gaps. This was much easier to do with the upper wings, as I could place both panels against the edge. With the lower ones I had to trust in my eyeball... I managed to swap upper and lower panels! I knew that the aileron actuators were in the upper surface on the upper wing and the contrary on the lower... but I only noticed after gluing! No big deal, as they were a little rude and the only other difference were the flaps in the upper wing that were in the wrong position anyway. Next I opened the windows. This is problematic to me, as I previously almost ruined a few vacs because of careless cutting, so I decided to be *very* careful this time. I scanned and printed the frames from the decals, cut them carefully by the upper and lower line of the windows. The windows must be correctly aligned between two stringers, and have as reference the port door. I put a spot or two of tube glue to fix the paper to the plastic and then put scotch tape over. Then I cut the paper by the inside of the frames, drilled some holes conveniently away from the frame and took a looong time to cut, replace dull blades, and finish with files. I must confess that aligning the wings and cutting the windows were the main tasks that put this kit far from my workbench for so long. Now that this is solved, the rest should be a walk in the park! Carlos

Thank you very much for watching, guys! Some little progress... I made a mold out of balsa for the upper part of the fuselage. I planned to crash mold, but instead I decided to give another try to my Mattel vacuformer. After several trials the output was not good, as both the valve and the piston gasket needs replacement. It is usable anyway, but it still needs some work. As you may see I almost managed to ruin the molding and I must be very careful when opening the cockpit. I promised to progress on the wings but I am making some experiences about the better option to represent the ribs. Strips of decal, bare metal foil or simply stretched sprue are the candidates. What do you think? Also I became distracted by another De Havilland project...