Sabca S.50

[Spey_Phantom]

got the insperation from the old "cold war in the 30's" thread

Back History

in 1934, the Belgian ministry of defence made a requirement for a new, modern and maneuverable monoplane fighter. up to now, Germany was leader with the development of its BF109, fokker followed close with its DXXI fighter. in 1935, Belgium already placed an of the shelf order for 50 hawker hurricane Mk.1 fighters, but failed to get a licence contract for 80 more. SABCA (who has never build a fighter plane) convinced the Belgian Army Aviation officials that it could build a fighter that suites the requirement, and in august 1936, the first prototype of the SABCA S.50 took to the skies over Haren. the aircraft was in a similar configuration as the Fokker DXXI, but was slightly larger. 70 aircraft were ordered, and with its top speed of 360km/hour, the aircraft gained the nickname "zilveren kogel" (witch is dutch for silver bullet)

in 1937, SABCA took the S.50 to Paris for the Salon Du Bourget. immediatly it impressed aviation experts at the show. however it was overshadowed by the superiour performance of the Spitfire. the Belgians kept using the S.50 till 1948, till they were replaced with the Vampire F.Mk.3.

The Model

the model is build out of a spare Gloster Gladiator fuselage, wing and tailplanes.
the spats came from a 1/72 revell P-26 peashooter and the canopy from a matchbox 1/72 gladiator (witch is slightly smaller and off scale). the engine cowling (red) is from a scrapped TA-152 and the propellor is from a crapped P-38 kit.
decals on the wings are from DACO, and the taillogo (80sqn) and tailroundel are custom made. the roundel on the tail should be on the place where the squadron logo is, but some belgian prototypes (such as the SV-4) had the roundel painted on the tail.

please note that i still need to paint the tailwheel  

[Brian da Basher]

Nils that's gorgeous!!!! Your SABCA S.50 certainly has that unique Belgian look to it. The addition of the P-26 spats was truly inspired and adds to the wonderful "between-the-wars" character of this delightful model. Excellent work!
:salute:
Brian da Basher

[Rafael]

Heh, heh, heh... This is one of those builds which you ask yourself how much fun could the modeler have had..... from the great aircraft choice (I have a soft spot for Gloster Gladiators)  to the whiffingly awesome transformational approach of the build , to the excellent decoration . Great Job, Nils!!! :salute:


Rafa

[kitbasher]

Here's my ongoing Airfix Supermarine S.6-based fighter with spats (Spatfire?)

[BlackOps]

Looks great Nils, definately looks like something from Brian's school of modeling    

[ysi_maniac]

I also like the air of PEASHOOTER.

Nice plane, indeed