Porco Rosso support boat

[Weaver]

Just realised how dumb I can be....

I've made no progress on this, partly becuase of other stuff going on and partly because I couldn't decide what to do about the engine. Today I had the idea that the front end of Hurricane might do as an engine pod, so I got one out, and opened up the S.21 box to compare it to the engine on the 'real' Savoia. That's when I remembered something that I'd noted at the time I bought the Savoia and then promptly forgot:

The Porco Rosso Savoia S.21F kit comes with two complete engine nacelles, so I already have a perfectly suitable 1920s V-12 engine pod...

Sadly, neither is the Isotta-Fraschini motor seen at the start of the movie that has the wierd little heart-shaped radiators on either side. I suspect the difference is that the one with the biggest nacelle, radiator and plain exhausts is the RR Kestrel used to refit the S.21 in the original manga, while the other (smaller rad and long exhaust pipes) is the Fiat Folgore used in the anime.

The instructions are only in Japanese I'm afraid, so I can't be certain and they only show the build of the Kestrel version. I'm disinclined to mess with Savoia since I can't read it properly, so I'll stick to the Kestrel for the S.21 and use the Folgore on the Support Boat.

[strobez]

Your assessment is correct.

You must have the boxing with the hand-drawn manga artwork on the front.  That's the only one with the two engine option.  The "regular" S.21F box (the one with the anime image) only has the one with the long exhaust pipe as seen in the anime.

The engine with the heart-shaped radiators is for the Savoia S.21 (my favourite and the one I'm working on incidentally), so it's not in either of the S.21F boxings.

[Weaver]

Your assessment is correct.

You must have the boxing with the hand-drawn manga artwork on the front.  That's the only one with the two engine option.  The "regular" S.21F box (the one with the anime image) only has the one with the long exhaust pipe as seen in the anime.

The engine with the heart-shaped radiators is for the Savoia S.21 (my favourite and the one I'm working on incidentally), so it's not in either of the S.21F boxings.

Yeah it's this boxing:



Which builds up like this (from the instructions):



Small progress now:

Engine nacelle built up
Hs 126 wing glued together
Pylon removed from Beriev (it's too short and curve-topped to hold the wing: it's designed to mate with the big tapered radian engine nacelle)
Fuselage cleaned up

I can't get a decent view of the Be-4 cockpit but I assume there must be some kind of access through the front bulkhead to get to the mooring hatch at the front, because the tractor prop means you can get onto the nose by walking down the outside. That works out well, because I can build the cockpit interior in two halves, with the pilot's seat and control panel on a raised floor to the right, and maybe a folding seat on a lower floor to the left, and they don't have to match up when I join the fuselage halves.

[zenrat]

I was about to post "my kit only had the one engine".
I'm going to have to hunt out one with both.

[strobez]

Yep. That's the manga version. I hadn't realized they included both engines as options. I'd been thinking about picking up the F as well, and that might've sealed the deal.  I like kits with extra parts.

Usually, as a purist, I prefer the manga over the anime, but in this case the manga is basically just a proof of concept for the film.  It's very short as it was originally released in three instalments in the Japanese modelling magazine, Model Grafix.

You can read the first part in English here - http://www.wingsee.com/ghibli/porcorosso/art_originalmanga01.html

Parts 2 and 3 are on that site in French as well.

[jcf]

Harold, have you seen this cutaway?


Looking down the nose hatch:


Other cockpit shots:








Also it seems the pilot got in on the stbd. side:


In this photo, it appears the pilot?, is just standing on the foredeck, note the stbd. side of the canopy is open.


Cockpit photos from here:
http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft21496.htm

[PR19_Kit]

The engine and fin look to be 1/48 scale and the fuselage 1/72! 

[Weaver]

Thanks a lot for that Jon! 

I had seen the drawing (which didn't answer the questions I had), but I hadn't seen the photographs. Looking at the latter, I'm now doubting whether there was any internal access to the nose hatch at all. It looks too small, and the insides too irregular to stand on without damaging something. Presumably if the pilot was the only one who could get onto the nose for mooring duties anyway, then he just had to stop the engine first. On the other had, the pilot's seat does seem to be offset to port soemwhat, and his instrument panel is asymetric. Hmmmm......

[Weaver]

Okay, well I knew that some real life stuff was going to get in the way before I could progress with this, but oh boy.....
(I'll spare you the details)

I finally managed to get some modelling done, so we now have the structural bits of an interior:



The cockpit cutout was a bit too big anyway, plus the Heinkel wing and Fiat engine pull the prop back a bit, so once the fuselage halves are together, I'm going to fit a section of deck to the front of it to get the windscreen back behind the prop line.