Schneider Trophy Races 1941

Let's get this party started🙂 Floats taken from Trumpeter An-2, spats are leftovers from Special Hobby Northrop Delta. 

So far, so good... 

But some heavy equipment will be necessary here. 

Surprise, surprise!!! Resin turbine diameter is too big... 

...and prevents closing the fuselage. 

Even the "rotor blades" needed to be filed... 

...in order to fit inside 

Still, these have not much similarity to the original - but I will leave it as it is. 

And here is the source of my inspiration 

Turning into a single seater... 

means repeated puttying and sanding. The cockpit will be installed later from below (I hope 🙂)  

Mmm...I love the smell of putty in the morning... 

I decided to give horizontal stabilisers some dihedral, even though in the original plane these were mounted horizontally. But this is a floatplane that needs some more directional stability. I am pondering the idea of adding also a ventral fin. 

Pilot's office assembled - a piece of sprue will be removed after installing the whole inside the fuselage. I am not going to give it too much care as not much will be seen through the canopy.  

I had to fabricate the instrument panel backing from thick plasticard as the kit's piece did not match the photo etched face at all (left for comparison on the right...) 

Empennage puttied and sanded to fit, panel lines and riveting restored. 

Cockpit installed. Control wheel is way oversized so in a hindsight maybe some kind of a control stick would be better here. Nevertheless, since I plan attaching the canopy closed not much will be seen...  

Taking shape. Fit of the main parts is...hmm... 

Determining the position of floats...and kind of a proof of concept 😉 

Take notice of the gaps where the wing roots are... 

In the meantime I am pondering on a painting scheme... 

Puttying... 

And more puttying and sanding... 

Spats and water rudder installed - puttying in progress... 

Proof of concept again... I am pondering on the way of installing the floats: in flight (parallel to the fuselage) or "take off mode" - as shown. 

Proof of concept again... I am pondering on the way of installing the floats: in flight (parallel to the fuselage) or "take off mode" - as shown. 

Water rudder is a leftover rudder from Me 209 kit 😉 

 

Canopy installed. 

After a failure with the Baby Dragon I decided to resume this build in an 'easy' mode 😉 Though installing the canopy was not easy at all... 

Approaching the finish line... 

Approaching the finish line... 

Approaching the finish line.. 

I announce her finished. 

I announce her finished. 

I announce her finished. 

I announce her finished. 

I announce her finished. Next in the line soon 😉