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Showing results for tags 'SM55 SM66 SM73 SM 74'.
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Hi, On my shelves I have now S 55X (SCW scheme) by Delta 2 (with some modifications), Airfix SM 79 and SM 79 JRS (scratch conversion) as well as SM 81 by Supermodel from SCW. Here they are: However I have also nine kits of Savoia machines in my stash: 1. S 55A (Dora Wings) - to be a Romanian one 2. Another S 55 A intended to be a donor in a scratch conversion to Savoia S 66 3. SM 74 by Broplan 4. SM 75 by Broplan 5. SM 79 JRS by Frrom intended to do a Iraqi radial bimotor 6. SM 81 Italeri intended to convert to SM 73 7. SM 82 Italeri intended to do OOB 8. SM 84 by Aviation USK 9. SM 95 by Broplan I am going to build all of them, I hope in a two years horizon, maybe longer because I will do some other kits meanwhile... Some time ago I started three of Savoias. No 1 - S 55A to be done as Romanian WW 2 machine No 2 - S 66 to be converted from another S 55 A No 6 - SM 73 from SM 81 Lest start from the last one. The main work is about the fuselage, since the SM 73 and SM 81 are like Super Electra L 14 and Hudson: passenger and bomber developed out of it. So I blinded all turrets and gondola, and sides of fuselage replaced by a sheets of clear plastic with windows were just masked. I was not doing extend photo documentation so far, so I will skip to more advanced view: Lets forget this one for moment... The Romanian S 55 A. I am not sure if it is not a S 55 M, since the floats required some corrections. Anyway, It is here on a plan of S 66, just to compare sizes. The difference with floats is that Dora kit has two rised lines going around float and the original Romanian machine has only lower of them but three other reinforcing elements could be observed on sides. This lines are well seen here (photo shown only for discussion purposes): But the most interesting is I think S 66, as a rather massive scratch work will be done... The Original S 66 uses basic frame of S 55. The booms looks to be the same as, also the central part of wing has the same size and the distances between symmetry lines of foats are the same. The floats have very similar length, I am not sure if the difference come from inaccuracies of drawing or they should be different in length. In scale it is 3 mm. But the floats are certainly different: the cross section of all military variants of S 55 are a keystone, whereas the passenger S 55 is rectangular below wings - that is clear - to maximaze the space of compartments for passengers. Also the hull is different but dimensions are similar. The section of hull in S 55 is concave, in S66 is typical triangular. The main difference is in wings: the S 55 has wings of size of lets say Whitley (wingspan 24 m) , wheras in S 66 it is a Liberator scale (33 m) Technical data of S 55 (wiki) Crew 5-6 Length: 16.5 m (54 ft 2 in) Wingspan: 24 m (78 ft 9 in) Height: 5 m (16 ft 5 in) Wing area: 92 m2 (990 sq ft) Empty weight: 5,750 kg (12,677 lb) Max takeoff weight: 8,260 kg (18,210 lb) Powerplant (Romanian variant): 2 × Fiat A.24R V12 engines, 559 kW (750 hp) each Technical data of S 66 (Wiki) Crew 2 Capacity: 18/22 passengers (nine to eleven in each hull) Length: 16.63 m (54 ft 7 in) Wingspan: 33 m (108 ft 3 in) Height: 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in) Wing area: 126.70 m2 (1,363.8 sq ft) Empty weight: 7,450 kg (16,424 lb) Gross weight: 10,950 kg (24,141 lb) Powerplant: 3 × Fiat A.24R V12 engines, 559 kW (750 hp) each The difference in length (13 cm) comes from larger chord of elevators, this confirms hypo that floats have the same length. The mains task is to do new wings. I did it using wings of S 55 and adding extentions. I started with cutting each of 4 external parts along span. I cut out of 0.25 mm plastic sheet 4 parts of outer parts of wings having new desired dimensions I cut out 6 different ribs. I glued elements of S 55 wings on this thin plastic sheets, reinforced them from bottom side with ribs and two spars Then I was cutting the elements out of the 0.25 mm sheet and gluing them making the wing thicker. Each place got 3 such additional sheets, and the thickness of this surfaces became comparable with thickness of original wing parts. Then I started to use filler. Here you can see the drawing, the first approximation f new wing and for cmparison the S 55 wing. Then I use a resin filler (to avoid shrinking of normal putty, which will change the geometry with long time . After first sanding it looked like that Please note that the leading edge of course has different slope, so in central part of wing it is on sided covered with some putty as well... I started also to construct wider floats Again I am using here clear plastic sheets to sides, where large windows will be present. I have forgotten to add - some less then ten Savoia S 66 were in use by Regia Aeronautica as a rescue machine in 1940, during French campaign... This was 613 RA Squadron To be continued... Regards J-W