I purchased a book on the aircraft which has some pretty good scale plans plus lots of period black and white photos. The aeroplane was originally designed as a side by side two seat trainer but proved to be quite a capable plane, so it was relegated to an escort/fighter roll. Being a two seater then changed to a single seater means that there is plenty of room in the cockpit.
I will be using the 7 cylinder rotary for this build, I already had one prepared earlier so that saved me a bit of work, this was the biggest downfall for this aeroplane, it was underpowered. It was supposed to have the 9 cylinder 100hp rotary but supply was an issue.
This plane was fitted with an undercarriage which had 4 spoked wheels, I wanted to show the spokes exposed so I purchased 4 wheels from John Vojtech at Scale Spokes, they are Spad wheels but are the exact right size for my build. John supplies a good variety of different tyres for his wheels including weighted resin tyres.
I will be using the high back wicker seat which I purchased from Barracuda Studios. This is a brilliant seat and again is the exact correct size when compared to the plan. I have painted this seat with Gunze Middlestone.
I have started making the fuselage from by using 1.5mm x 1.0mm styrene strips for the longerons and 1.0mm x 1.0mm for the frames. I will not be going to a lot of detail with the frame as it will be covered, only the cockpit area will get special attention. As you can see in these photos, the cockpit area of the frame is quite wide.
The engine firewall is made from 0.5mm styrene sheet cut to shape and sanded. I have trial fitted the engine at this stage. I will be using a modified left over engine cowl for this build, it needed to be re-shaped and lengthened.
I have been working on making the components to fit into the cockpit. This photo shows the fuek tank, the woven frame that sits on the fuel tank, the steering column and wheel, rudder bar, instrument panel with just the one instrument, the throttle quadrant and the hand operated pressure pump, obviously, none of these items have been painted yet.
And the final photo shows all the bits and pieces I have ready, I am awaiting the starting magneto and switch to arrive from Lukasz, these will be mounted in the cockpit as well.
Des.
