keith caldwells se5a

[darryl gardiner]

can anybody help with info on his se5 all artwork and even pheon decals so it to be a viper engined  aircraft but no photos of his aircraft exist is it possible it had a geared hisso engine?

[FokkerFodder]

Hi - I don't have it in front of me, but I think the Opsrey book on Sq 56 has colour profiles of Caldwell's Se. 5a - from memory there is a short period where th Sq 56 Se's were quite colourful (Calwell's was trimmed with a lot of yellow I think), and would be a great option to try. I've wondered why there have been no decals of these options as they're quite different to the usual PC 10!

This is all from memory, so I hope I'm not leading you up a garden path.... I'll check tonight and re-confirm unless someone else can do so.

cheers

FF

[rowan broadbent]

Hello Daryl,

If you are talking about D6864 shown with the chequered fin in my artwork in our decal sets (taken from the full-size vignette at Omaka) then I'm sorry to say that no, it was Viper engined. It was part of an order for 150 built by Wolseley Motors in Birmingham (themselves manufacturers of the Viper engine, of course) the serial range ran from D6851 to D7000.

D6864 was delivered to the RAF at 1 AAP, Coventry 27/5/1918. It arrived with 74 Sqn on 1st June. Major Caldwell used it to shoot down two Fokker D.VIIs on 15th July and 4th September before the mid air collision the following day brought its career to an end, it was eventually deemed not worth repairing and struck off charge on 17th October. All this information is taken from The SE5 File by the late Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page, published by Air-Britain in 1996.

Sorry to disappoint. The Roden kit is not Wingnuts quality for sure, but it can produce a decent model. Alternatively you might consider a conversion of the WNW Hispano kit or even hope that someone produces a conversion kit for the Viper variant.........

[darryl gardiner]

thanks i thought that mite be the case ill look at doing a conversion master caster do do a radiator and prop fore the roden kit