Ozmac Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 (edited) Just as I was about to build this 1/72 Revell kit of the Stearman Kaydet in the usual Air Force trainer plane colours that the kit suggested, I changed my mind and turned it into a simple fantasy crop duster. One spark for the change to the crop duster was the mention in the Revell kit’s notes that lots of surplus Stearmans ended up as crop dusters post-war. The other spark was a biography I was reading at the same time, of the famous Australian aviation pioneer, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. In the book the author said at one point that Smithy was a great aviator, but a hopeless businessman, and if it wasn’t for his partner, business-savvy Charles Ulm, Smithy might have just ended up doing no record-setting flights and just having fun as another talented crop duster pilot somewhere in Australia's farmland areas. I made up my own decals, and my own colour scheme, added some very basic sprayer pipes under the bottom wing. I did look online at real Stearman crop dusters, and they were not only beyond my scratch building skills, but also ugly as hell to look at. So I stuck with my much prettier little fantasy and had a lot of fun making it. Edited September 17, 2016 by Ozmac 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vh-bob Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 A great little fun conversion and well done. Did you know that several 450 HP Stearmans were imported into Australia for possible agricultural use but the authorities would have none of it and they were eventually crated up and sent back ?. Great Work, Trev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celt Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Nice conversion,it looks good to me and you said you had a lot of fun doing it.Thats what we do this for isn;t it,fun,fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozmac Posted September 18, 2016 Author Share Posted September 18, 2016 vh-bob, I didn't know that story about the Stearmans in Australia, it's a really interesting extra detail to add to the story. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Oooooohhh very nice, great conversion and as said before fun is what it's all about. Thanks for sharing All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Fantastic idea, and a great finished model, Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spadgent Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Excellent stuff. How odd, I've been looking for folks building this very kit for a few weeks now as I wanted some insight for my current build but couldn't find anything, then this beauty pops up. great work. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Nice project, with exquisite rigging! I suppose the front cockpit would have been faired over to cover the hopper tank… Good modelling! Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozmac Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Quote I suppose the front cockpit would have been faired over to cover the hopper tank… Yep, Spitfire31, that's what they did, and the photos I saw online of 1:1 Stearman crop dusters weren't very appealing. Most of the hopper tank covers were made from flat pieces of metal welded together in a fairly ugly, if utilitarian way. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not much of a scratch-builder anyway, but I just didn't want to add anything ugly to my pretty little Stearman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark4700 Posted September 24, 2016 Share Posted September 24, 2016 Very nice, and great that you had lots of fun building it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders154 Posted September 29, 2016 Share Posted September 29, 2016 On 18/09/2016 at 0:18 AM, Ozmac said: Just as I was about to build this 1/72 Revell kit of the Stearman Kaydet in the usual Air Force trainer plane colours that the kit suggested, I changed my mind and turned it into a simple fantasy crop duster. One spark for the change to the crop duster was the mention in the Revell kit’s notes that lots of surplus Stearmans ended up as crop dusters post-war. The other spark was a biography I was reading at the same time, of the famous Australian aviation pioneer, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. In the book the author said at one point that Smithy was a great aviator, but a hopeless businessman, and if it wasn’t for his partner, business-savvy Charles Ulm, Smithy might have just ended up doing no record-setting flights and just having fun as another talented crop duster pilot somewhere in Australia's farmland areas. I made up my own decals, and my own colour scheme, added some very basic sprayer pipes under the bottom wing. I did look online at real Stearman crop dusters, and they were not only beyond my scratch building skills, but also ugly as hell to look at. So I stuck with my much prettier little fantasy and had a lot of fun making it. I keep on thinking of doing one as there is one at Compton abbas just down the road where you can actually do wing walking as for skills I wouldn't even attempt rigging. Well done good job Rodders 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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