fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 Hereby I officially declare this kit a Catastrophic Flop Riddled with Inaccuracies. Once I readied the floats, I wanted to see where the struts were located on them and on the belly of the model, since Karaya cheerfully omitted the courtesy of providing them as marked location on the parts. And considering that the plan their provide is a different scale than the model in the box, I printed two plans from my references, which in turn produced the surprise that nothing in the kit coincides with any of the plans I have, printed to proper scale and considering the measures given on the references. If that wasn't enough, I just spotted, looking at photos, that the horizontal tail of the model is (yet again) a Mickey Mouse tail, as the elevator projections fall short (in reality, that is in all photos I have) of the stab leading edge, unlike the model part, where they coincide. For heaven's sake, K, where the heck did you look to make this kit? This calls for further pondering, printing of more plans, comparison with photos, and determining a way of salvage this kit from hell, that looked so deceivingly good in the box. Merry Christmas gift? regarding this kit, rather the Eric Idle song making the rounds about it! (only for staunch iconoclasts, al others please give it a pass). 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo B Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Oh boy..... I just bought this kit last year. I figured it would be a handful. These Schneider trophy aircraft are my weakness. I do hope you continue on with the build. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 52 minutes ago, Jo B said: Oh boy..... I just bought this kit last year. I figured it would be a handful. These Schneider trophy aircraft are my weakness. I do hope you continue on with the build. I certainly will, but it will take longer, since now I have to question every single part and find solutions for the discrepancies. No kit is perfect, but this one certainly has the largest number of issues I have seen in a time. It's like the maker never looked at a single photo! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Not good new Moa but their isn't anyone better to sort it. Do you have a candidate from Avernus? Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 OK, let me correct the statement I made above... It's even worse than I thought: This kit is incredibly inaccurate and seems to show no regard for proper research. I think I found the origin of most of its fantasy features: two plans, one in Mendenhall's "The Air Racer", and another in Letectví + Kosmonautika 20/92, both notorious for their less than loose relation to reality. So now the origin of the plethora of spurious details (I just found yet another issue, the front float struts anchor on the fuselage on a different position than the one shown in the -bogus- plan with the kit) is perhaps made clear. And to think that the only action needed by the manufacturer was to compare the plans it wanted to use with any photo, freely and easily accessible on the Internet. Sigh... Meanwhile, I assembled the cockpit pan, for which I had to fabricate a joystick, since I found none among the kit parts. Just to show my commitment 😋 By the way: the beaching trolley had four wheels, not two, a fact obvious in most photos you can find on the Net. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Much needs to be corrected, however I will leave alone things that may not have a great impact on the final result. This choice comes from the desire to actually assemble this kit, instead of trashing it -as it perhaps deserves- due to the high number of very visible inaccuracies. So we go on. Here some parts are given their base colors: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share Posted January 7, 2020 The props are given the metal color. Unlike most props, these ones did not have anti-glare applied to the corresponding sides: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Careful with the vitriol, Moa, it’s been known to melt resin. Dennis 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo B Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Yeah. When I first bought this kit, I started doing a bit of research on the plane. I realized pretty quick that the various technical drawings were all over the place. No two drawings seemed to match up. I think it's best to just go by the photos available, and try to build something that looks like a reasonable rendition of the original. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, Jo B said: Yeah. When I first bought this kit, I started doing a bit of research on the plane. I realized pretty quick that the various technical drawings were all over the place. No two drawings seemed to match up. I think it's best to just go by the photos available, and try to build something that looks like a reasonable rendition of the original. My thoughts exactly. If nothing else, modelers should correct the elevator compensating "horns", and that sort of spurious cut off of the fairing mid-fuselage, and create the windows in that area where those additional Mickey Mouse radiators are now in the kit (above the real radiators). Pity, otherwise a sort of nice kit, but riddled with spurious details (I don't even want to go to dimensional issues). Such is the life of the adventurous modeler, going beyond the beaten path. But hey, Marco Polo went much further. And it was for him surely much more laborious 😋 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo B Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Yes. It's too bad that these Schneider Trophy racers don't get more interest. I love them, but we'll have to make do with the models we have available. I might try to scratchbuild one of them, one day. Come on, Tamiya. Give us a Macchi M.C. 72! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Jo B said: Yes. It's too bad that these Schneider Trophy racers don't get more interest. I love them, but we'll have to make do with the models we have available. I might try to scratchbuild one of them, one day. Come on, Tamiya. Give us a Macchi M.C. 72! I see a lot of interest in the Schneider machines and other racers in general, also puzzled at the pass they are mostly given by some manufacturers. We may have a fictitious "Porco Rosso" (with respect, I also built one) but not the racers it was based upon? Strange. However, there is a very good M.72, in 1/72nd, in resin, by SBS: I also scratchbuilt one, and built besides the despicable Delta 2; both also posted here at BM at one point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo B Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Yes. I've seen that M.C. 72 kit before. It looks nice. I'll have to go through that thread. Thanks! I quite like the 'Porco Rosso' model. Seems like it's a nice build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 Correction of the elevator: The somewhat Spartan cockpit is completed: 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planebuilder62 Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Dear Moa This build is a fantastic demonstration of making something good out of not much. Lets hope you keep the motivation to finish it. Regards Toby 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Planebuilder62 said: Dear Moa This build is a fantastic demonstration of making something good out of not much. Lets hope you keep the motivation to finish it. Regards Toby Thanks, Toby It won't be dropped (I only left half-way projects I think twice in the last years, against close to 400 completed). But at this time I am dealing (at the same time, the threads are here at BM) with an HP O/7, two Beech 18s; and only waiting for decals a Vultee V-1D, a Republic Seabee, and a Boyero. I also started a thread on the Macchi M.39. I will, eventually, get to it. But I only have 4 arms! You won't be disappointed, I hope 😉 Cheers 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 The headrest seen in photos, and omitted by the kit, is added. A new windshield is made to replace the not very effective and inaccurate kit rendition of it, that came broken anyway in my case. The interior is already on, as those two white pieces of styrene will close the cockpit area, together with narrow pieces of clear plastic to be able to render the windows, mistaken in the kit for auxiliary radiators or something. Thus the wrong shape of the center section of the kit will hopefully be corrected. Pity they got so many things wrong, this could have been a very nice kit -if an effort for a modicum of accuracy should have been made: 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 As indicated somewhere above, Karaya misplaced the position of the struts in their plan, and did not indicate their locations either on floats or fuselage bottom. Using references the locations are marked and drilled. Note: the lengths of floats and fuselage may be shorter than they should. At this point, instead of trashing this kit as it surely deserves, I am correcting what I can and compromising in some areas, with the goal of becoming as close as possible to reality without having to fabricate a completely new model from scratch, or spending hundreds of hours on it. The beaching dolly provided is bogus, but at least it can be used to align things (hopefully) when the time to unite fuselage and floats via the struts comes: 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo B Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 Great work, Moa. Revisiting this thread will be very valuable when I start my kit. The 'radiators' really confused me too when I first started doing a bit of research. I thought there was another version of the plane or it had been updated.Ha! Oh well, now we know it was just Karaya's 'imagination'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted February 1, 2020 Author Share Posted February 1, 2020 16 hours ago, Jo B said: Great work, Moa. Revisiting this thread will be very valuable when I start my kit. The 'radiators' really confused me too when I first started doing a bit of research. I thought there was another version of the plane or it had been updated.Ha! Oh well, now we know it was just Karaya's 'imagination'. Their mistake I think was to use the two plans I mentioned somewhere above in the thread, which had some of those spurious features. Seemingly they never bothered with checking photos, available for all to see, by simply doing and Internet search for the plane. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 The two areas that will be masked eventually to make the windows are glued. The "cover" part to keep the shape of the fuselage (botched by Karaya) is made of three shaped pieces of styrene: Loosely put on to give an idea of how it works: This is really small, and therefore not comfortable to work with, with will do our best. Better in any case than the original inaccurate shape with those absurd, completely un-aerodynamic cut-outs. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planebuilder62 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Great to see this build moving on Moa. What a clean work bench you have🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 12 minutes ago, Planebuilder62 said: Great to see this build moving on Moa. What a clean work bench you have🙂 I work a bit on each project, seven of them at this time. It keeps me busy. And you have to be patient. Clean workbenches are one of the tenets of the Shaolin Modeling Temple. Clean workbench, clean spirit, clean model. I can't comprehend why some modelers' workbenches look like trash cans. If I had that post-apocalyptic nightmare of a workbench, I couldn't produce anything of quality or in quantity. Clean outside, clean inside. Clean inside, clean outside, as Master Sandpaper used to say. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 Now the fabricated parts are glued. Masking of the windows will follow to work a bit on those seams. Sigh... I fabricated another windshield as a spare, and tried to use one of the methods I employ sometimes for framing, which is very thin strips of painted decal. I gave up after a few attempts, the frames looked somewhat heavy. So tomorrow with better light I will use the mask approach, easier in any case. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Fantastic work Moa. The art of determination shines through and glad I'm to see that you're not pushing this to one side. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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