Popular Post Neil Posted March 14 Popular Post Share Posted March 14 Something a little off the beaten track, possibly, and I have fond memories of building the tiny 1/72 Airfix kit of this aircraft when I was a young lad. Here we have the 1/48 ICM kit of the Cessna O-2A 'Skymaster' and a neat kit it is too, with nice recessed panel lines and ample interior detail and of course lots of separate cockpit glazing parts which fitted very nicely indeed. The only concern I had was the main undercarriage strut for the rear wheels, below the rear fuselage, moulded in plastic of course, and not surprisingly for aircraft of this nature I suspected that it would probably sag over a period of time. To avoid this problem I bought the SAC metal undercarriage set for this kit, but soon wished I had not, because it is cast in some kind of white-metal or pewter, and is, sadly, very soft and 'bendy' and is not much stronger than the standard injection moulded kit plastic undercarriage strut! So I binned the SAC set, and ordered the Aerocraft set instead, which is cast in solid brass and is MUCH stronger than the white metal set that I threw away. Problem solved. To stop the model tail-sitting, I added approx 10g of thin sheet lead, cut to shape and fixed to the space inside the roof of the nose leg bay. More than enough room in there to add suitable nose weight. For the cockpit interior I added only seat belts, although I did toy with the idea of adding lots of etched parts, but did not bother with that in the end. Model was airbrushed in a combination of Humbrol and Xtracolour enamels for the main airframe (thinned with Cellulose thinners). Applied some reasonably discrete panel lining/weathering mainly using Paynes Grey artists oil-colour, thinned with White Spirit, and a tiny amount of pastel-chalks here and there. I did not want to go too heavy handed with weathering and such. The noses of the underwing mini-gun pods were finished in Alclad Stainless Steel, giving a nice metallic finish, and the main bodies of the mini-guns and the underwing rocket pods were finished in Olive Drab. Decals used were mainly kit ones, with a handful also taken from the spares box , such as numbers and small stencils, all of which settled down snugly using Micro Set and Micro Sol solutions. After decals were dry, an overall coat of Winsor & Newton acrylic Galeria matt varnish was airbrushed on, to finish things off. Various antennas, aerials and static dischargers on trailing edges were made using fine fishing-line. The final touch were some RBF tags, cut from printed paper, added to the underwing stores and the pitot tube. Quite chuffed with how the model turned out, and must admit I do have a bit of a soft spot for aircraft like this, something of a cute little thing, and slightly esoteric with it's 'push-pull' double-engine layout! Also, I must add a word of thanks to @Mike H for laser-etching the brass name plate on the base board, sets it off nicely. Cheers Mike ........ 92 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fox1_BE Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Very nice build, great paint work and finish 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 (edited) Very nice indeed and I too have a soft spot for the type. At least the civilian 337 version. A friend of mine flew one and lost an engine on take off. He just landed thanks to the push pull layout. Twins at the time had a dangerous reputation. There was a period during take off when losing an engine meant loss of control and an inevitable crash. The 337 solved that problem, somewhat. There was a joke that in a single you crashed immediately after an engine failure, in a twin, you flew to an airport and crashed there. Cessna partially solved that problem. Edited March 14 by noelh 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 That's a really excellent result, well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrés S. Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Very nice !!! 👍🏼 Andrés- 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolphin38 Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Vey nice, great work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeff Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 That's rather nice! I do like the finish and small bits like the tags ... good work! 👌 Keith 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestFan Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 That looks lovely, well done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amos brierley Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Nicely-nicely done. 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinpin Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Very nice indeed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly9mm Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Very cute bird, nicely done. Congrats! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Very exclusive! It turns out wonderful. Reminds me immediately of the movie Bat 21. Superb presentation and photography Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dstream Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Superb model, very well done. I have the same kit to be built, thanks for the head up about the main landing gear! Cheers, Dan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Indigo Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Nice finish – I love the subtle white-grey contrast and the "dusty" appearance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Great job on her Neil,thats got me wanting one now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 That looks outstanding! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Keg Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Very nice. The “Remove Before Flight” tags add to the realism and overall presentation. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Excellent result! It certainly builds up nicer than the 1/72 Airfix offering, which is truly a dog of a kit 😖 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Thanks for the comments everybody, much appreciated! It is quite a cute little thing I guess, and nothing overly complicated about it and relatively straightforward to assemble. Visually quite a pleasing little model too. Thanks again! 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ c Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Superb 0-2 there Neil, really nice work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycapt65 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Wow does that look great! I've had problems with the SAC stuff too. I'm not sure how they're still in business. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 On 3/15/2024 at 7:38 PM, Dstream said: Superb model, very well done. I have the same kit to be built, thanks for the head up about the main landing gear! Cheers, Dan I can definitely recommend the brass undercarriage set, nice and solid and should not sag over time. The set also includes the nose gear strut too, and a small brass axle for the nose wheel. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winded Penguin Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Exquisite work. Definitely not one to handle too much. Belongs in a cabinet 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphfan Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Quite agree with you, a lovely, quirky little aircraft. You have done an excellent job, thanks for sharing. Atb, Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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