Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk

[William Adair]

Hello!  Here's a few shots of my most recent build.  Not really WW1 material unfortunately, but as I'm new I thought I'd better come in with something to show.   

This is the F9C-2 Sparrowhawk, scratchbuilt in 1/144.  Materials are a splinter of beechwood for the fuselage, with styrene sheet for the wings, plus the tail & skinning around the cockpit.  Other details such as the wing ribs are masked and built up with layers of primer.  The remaining details are made up using acrylic, brass and sterling silver where needed.  Paints are Mr Color lacquers, and markings are hand-cut painted stock for the insignias, and home-printed for the stencils and flying trapeze unit markings. 











Cheers!

[Bughunter]

What a great little cute beauty!
Wonderful, thanks fro showing!

Cheers,
Frank

[Robin]

Spectacular!

Robin 

[PrzemoL]

I have just seen your progress on Pfalz D.III(a). Now I see what one can expect of that build.
A truly little gem! Thanks for joining us and sharing your amazing skills.

[lcarroll]

   Amazing! I am presently working away at the 1:32 Williams Brothers Kit of this aircraft and finding it a bit of a challenge, seeing this little gem makes it seem less so. I hope we get to see a lot more of your talented work here!
Cheers,
Lance

[RAGIII]

That Tiny Sparrowhawk is a Beauty to behold. Amazing work!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Awesome !



Terri

[lone modeller]

Oh my, that really is modelling at its best. I sincerely hope that we are going to be shown more of your work as it is truly awe inspiring.

Stephen.

[dr 1 ace]

Spectacular!

Robin 

Took the words right out of my mouth !!!!

ED

[William Adair]

Thanks so much for the kind words.  Its definitely a cutie! 

I actually started making it way back in 1997 and it has lain in an old biscuit tin for more than twenty years before I finally picked it up and started work on it again just a few months ago.  Below are some shots of the process.  It was pretty rough when I took it out for a look.   



The drawings that I had back in the day weren't so accurate as I had hoped.  Comparing the outline and cross section to more modern plans showed a lot of discrepancies.  Particularly in the fuselage which was much too wide.  I had to pull the whole thing apart and whittle it down to nearly half the width, then reskin the cockpit area.



Once everything was reshaped and tidied up I was able to do the rib detail on the wings.  These were first plotted with strips of scotch tape.  It holds an edge really well and can be cut to finer widths than the Tamiya and kabuki tape I normally use.



The thin lines of tape are used as a guide for the real masking which is placed either side of each rib.  Then the thin pieces are peeled away, just before spraying.



Which pretty much gives you this:



Sanding off the excess primer to free the tap, you can then unmask and polish the ribs down to a realistic height.



Painting painting painting…



I really struggled with the red, as you can see here.  I had to mask/spray three times before it came out alright.  The insignia is getting assembled here too.  One of the curses of 1/144 is accessories are almost non existent.  The markings needed to be made by painting scrap decal stock and cutting out individual shapes by hand.









The black pin-striping on the edges of the red bands was decal too.  Only 0.15mm wide   



The painted decal idea proved quite useful and it also worked out well for depicting raised panels, wheel hubs, and even trestle lift points.  Definitely worth using again in future builds.

[lcarroll]

    Having struggled with the color sequence and masking of the painting process on this design I can really appreciate what you accomplished on this, by comparison, tiny version. My 1:32 effort I've been whining about is the proverbial walk in the park methinks ...... great work!
Cheers,
Lance