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1/72 Aeroput Spartan Cruiser II +++ FINISHED +++


CliffB

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Hi all.

My entry for the Airliner II GB will be this Spartan Cruiser....

Fiat-Decals1.jpg

It's a typical short-run resin kit and includes decals for one Scottish Airways machine and two from the 1930's Yugoslavian airline Aeroput (all three are silver and black). I'll be doing one of the Yugoslav aircraft (YU-SAO).

The kit includes everything that you would expect, plus a couple of slightly unusual extras:

1) a small piece of Bare Metal Foil (or similar). There are no instructions what to do with it, but I'm guessing it's for the props and spinners (which were polished metal).

2) a CD ROM containing various contemporary magazine articles, sales brochures, photographs etc. Several of the articles are in Serbian (I think), but luckily I have a friend who can translate.

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It will be a slightly late start from me I'm afraid, but I'm looking forward to following the rest of your exploits in the meantime.

Cheers

Cliff

Edited by CliffB
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  • 1 month later...

Ok, a month's gone by and nothing's happened on the Spartan front. So I thought I would make a start.

First a little bit about the aircraft itself.

Spartan Aircraft Ltd was formed in 1930 and was originally based in Southampton. In 1931 they moved across the Solent to East Cowes and began a relationship with Saunders Roe. The influence of Saunders Roe can be seen in the design of the Cruiser's fuselage (1932), which uses corrugated plating construction (as did Saro flying boats at that time).

In standard format the Cruiser seated six passengers, although an optional seventh folding seat could be provided. Some operators used only a single pilot, allowing an eighth passenger to occupy the co-pilot's place.

The Cruiser was used by a number of British airlines, plus a few overseas ones like my Aeroput choice. During WWII, some civilian Cruisers were transferred into the RAF.

The Aeropoxy kit was an unexpected treat when I first saw it at the National's last year - I never, ever expected to seea Cruiser in kit form. With Valom releasing the Saro Cloud too (a contemporary of the Cruiser), one has to wonder at the market research that is leading to this inspired choice of subject matter for new kits!

The kit itself is moulded in milky white resin, which is very soft and easy to work with. Superficially the moulding lacks some of the finesse of the best resin kits, but any such criticism is really churlish given the bravery that Aeropoxy have shown in releasing the Cruiser.

There are some nice touches too, like the way that the fuselage is moulded in one piece, with an opening at the bottom which allows the cabin internals to be inserted from below on a 'plug'.

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This approach means no nasty joints on the top and side corrugated surfaces.

As you can see, I've done very little so far except clean up and locate the six passenger seats (in real life there was a gap between the two seats in each row, but if you allow that on the kit, the finished assembly won't fit into the fuselage).

Just doing these seats has reaquainted me with some long forgotten 'friends' - air bubbles! The seats looked OK at first, but as the pour points were sanded back, the bubbles started to appear......

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I'll have a go at filling the larger holes, but fortunately not much will be visible once the fuselage is closed up.

I'll post again once the interior is complete.

Cliff

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Nice to see a start on this one Cliff. You are enhancing my civil/airliner knowledge with this build. Didn't know it existed until you posted about it.

Looking forward to your progress

:cheers:

Edited by TrojanThunder
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Thanks Viking and TrojanThunder for your comments :)

I only stumbled across the Cruiser by chance myself, when I was given a book on Saunders Roe (I was particularly into flying boats at the time).

I quite like the odd mix of streamlined and ungainly - plus a tri-motor using Gypsy engines has a certain appeal (not sure if there are any others?).

Cheers

Cliff

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks Andy and Antony - sorry it's taken me almost two months to reply!

Well the decorations are up, the cards are posted and Christmas lunch has been ordered from M&S. Furthermore my Fiat is finally finished for the Interwar GB and so I really do not have any excuse for not getting on with the Spartan at long last!

So this evening I've painted up the interior. I don't know what colours were used, so here is my interpretation.

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Completing the interior has given me a chance to try out the kit's decals (for the instrument panel).

Four things you need to know:

1) The decals are fragile with no protective clear coat (I used Liquid Decal Film to protect them)

2) They are printed on a continuous carrier film, so you need to trim right up to the edge

3) While the instrument dials seem to be printed white, they are actually clear so need to be applied onto a white surface, not a black one (don't ask me how I know....)

4) Once on, they look pretty good :)

I'm looking forward to cracking on with this build now - there should just about be enough time to finish (Christmas permitting!).

Cheers

Cliff

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This is an unusual but strangely nice-looking subject. I too, had never heard of this aeroplane before. It looks like it will make into a lovely model. Best of luck on it, Cliff!

Regards,

Jason

P.S. I just had a butcher's at your finished CR.20bis - a right little cracker of a model!

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Thanks for all your support guys :)

Feeling the need for some 'instant modelling gratification' tonight, I've attached the flying surfaces. In due course I'll need a little Milliput to blend in some of the joints, but overall the parts went together very well and it now at least it looks like a plane.

Just what I wanted - maximum results for minimum effort!

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I'd also hoped to fit the two wing-mounted engines, but it's clear that quite a bit of filing will be needed to make them fit properly. A job for tomorrow, I think.....

Cheers

Cliff

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Not much spare time today, but I did at least manage to get the engines on. It took about 15 minutes of fettling for each, but the results are good...

P1080577_zps334343de.jpg

Target for tomorrow is to get the canopy on and blend all the joints in with Milliput, leaving the way clear for some primer on Friday!

Cheers

Cliff

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Not quite as much done this evening as I had hoped for, but at least the canopy is on (a bit of a landmark!)

P1080579_zpsd936204c.jpg

As you'd expect, trimming the vac-formed canopy to fit the multiple curves is fiddly. I didn't get it quite right, but the few gaps at the edges are easily filled with Kristal Klear.

Overall though, I have say that the fit of the canopy is excellent (barring my mistakes) - a real testament to the mould-makers skill :).

The kit gives you the choice of a pointed or a round-fronted canopy (giving you two copies of both, just in case....).

Cheers

Cliff

Edited by CliffB
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Thanks Mike :)

Now that Christmas is out of the way I'm trying to get the Spartan finished by the deadline.

I know understand that the sheet of metal foil is intended to provide the framing for the canopy. Instead though, I've decided to mask it.

The canopy has no framing marked, so first I put thin strips of tape on where the framing will go.

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Next I filled in the gaps.

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Then I removed the original strips to leave the masking in place...

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The photos are magnifying everything! In reality it does look much neater - honestly...... ;)

Cheers

Cliff

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A quick update.

Third (and hopefully final) coat of primer now on and drying.

P1080586_zps7700c266.jpg

The quality of the peripheral parts is variable. Larger elements, such as the undercarriage, come out quite nicely but some smaller parts are unusable (at least by me), due to air bubbles and/or mould mismatch). Most of the unusable bits can be easily replaced however from the spares box or from rod etc.

The only bits that are still giving me concern are the three props (with integral spinners). These are poorly moulded and are quite difficult to remodel - they will also be quite prominent on the finished model, particularly as they are polished metal finish.

For the purposes of the GB I'll be doing my best with them, but they could really do with being replaced with after-market parts etc.

I guess this is not unusual with limited run resin kits (and indeed a good proportion of other models in this GB feature after-market bits!). Such is life :)

Planning to have the aluminium coat (and possibly the rudder tricolour) painted tonight, leaving all the black bits for tomorrow.

Cheers

Cliff

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OK, it's shiny now

P1080587_zpsf800b3e9.jpg

Although I do find that Alclad drys really quickly, I have decided to err on the side of caution and not mask/paint the tail until tomorrow morning - this is a first for me, doing the sensible thing!

These Spartans were actually painted with aluminium dope, so I'll be over-spraying with a semi-matt varnish to dull things down a bit once the decals are on.

See you tomorrow

Cliff

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The remains of Spartan Cruiser G-ACYK at East Fortune, photographed last year. Unfortunately the lighting's terrible but the cockpit interior at least seems to be standard Grey Green, so good guess!

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I don't know if there are plans for any further restoration, but it'll be a big job!

John

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Thanks John for the very interesting photos - I must pay a visit sometime.

Well I've finished just in time.

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I'll put some more photos in the Gallery.

To be fair I have still got to add a couple of rigging wires to the tailplane but it's much too late in the day to do that! :hypnotised:

No real surprises today, other than how good the decals were. On the sheet they look a little 'home made', but in fact they went on like a dream, fitted perfectly and responded well to microsol.

Thanks for watching.

Cliff

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