1/72 S.P.A.D. 69 "Peking Duck" from a KP Skoda D.1

[Brian da Basher]

In 1928 the designers at Bleriot-S.P.A.D. were busy attempting to win a contract for the Armée de l'Air's next generation of pursuit aircraft. They came up with a radical new monoplane, the S.P.A.D. 69 which boasted an incredibly powerful Hispano-Suiza "Le Grand Boeuf" V-8 inline engine and the sweetest, most streamlined spatted undercarriage seen yet in France. The S.P.A.D. 69 was armed with two rapid-firing Hispano cannon synchronized to fire through the propellor arc. Unfortunately, the new design was far too radical for the Armée de l'Air and was rejected, forcing Bleriot-S.P.A.D. to seek customers overseas.

The Chinese were in dire need of up-to-date equipment and purchased four S.P.A.D. 69s as well as a production license and by the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War (Sino-Japan Part 2, Return of the Sushi), the type equipped most front-line pursuit units. The claim to fame of the S.P.A.D. 69 was in the defense of the capital when the 322nd Pursuit Brigade under the command of Air Major Won Hung Lo defended the Chinese capital from relentless Japanese attacks between March and August, 1932. Air Major Won Hung Lo's squadron shot down over 150 of the invaders, achieving a 15 to 1 kill ratio. Thereafter, the S.P.A.D. 69 in Chinese service was known as the Peking Duck. Air Major (later Air General) Won Hung Lo's Peking Duck, old no. 109, is currently on display in the National Air Museum outside of Beijing, across the street from a Sezchuan restaurant owned by our hero's great-grandson, Fung Hung Lo.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The base kit for this project was an old 1/72 KP Skoda-Dewoitine 1 I got for a song a couple months back. The only modification besides adding spats, a tailwheel and a prop spinner was cutting the kit's parasol wing and re-positioning it to create a mid-wing monoplane. The KP kit is a pretty rough offering and the prop was actually a straight piece of plastic which needed work to resemble a proper airscrew.

I'm going to start off this batch of shots with a picture of a KP Skoda D.1 that was built by someone else and actually resembles the picture on the box.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The entire model was brush-painted by hand with acrylics. Polly Scale Italian Green was used on the uppers and Testor's Light Gull Gray was used on the undersides. Testor's White was used on the cowling and prop spinner and rudder and the other stripes were painted with Polly Scale Blue. I used Model Masters Aluminum on the prop and radiator grills and then dry-brushed the radiators with craft store Gun Metal which was also used on the main engine grill, guns and exhausts. Liquitex Mars Black was used on the tires. The decals were mostly from an Academy P-40 Flying Tigers sheet and the rest were from my decal stash.

This project was a fun break and I hope you enjoy it and the backstory.

Brian da Basher

[Sisko]

I love it!

I does give me some very unhealthy Ideas.

[noxioux]

At first I thought your thread said "pecking duck", and I was going to say something smart like, "Nice mean green little pecker, there. . ."  Awesome conversion, there.

[BlackOps]

Brian, you should get a medal for putting out consistently cool kits in the same genre without getting repetitive! Seriously I am amazed that you can still come up with fresh ideas that look like they all fit into the coulda been/shoulda been category. 

[B777LR]

I love that little KP kit of this little cool plane. Nice job there Brian but i think adding spats would be all there was needed

[Hawkeye]

What's the prop to ground clearance when the tail comes up to level...prop cutting the grass?

Looks great, stuff like this separates the modelers from the assemblers. As one of my friends says to me..."You're an Artisan".

Makes me want to toss everything aside on the bench and start doing some "creating" again. I've gotten bored with building "regular" kits. Thank goodness I have tons of spares to work from.

[John Howling Mouse]

Brian, I don't know how you keep pumping out so many top-drawer creations like this but I'm suitably impressed!
You seem to know exactly how to modify an existing design to come up with something new yet totally believable.
Do you ever display at model shows?  This would drive the JMN's batty!

I'm going to presume that very sleek spinner is also a modification you made?

You're going to turn me into a vintage aircraft modeler yet, you know!

[matrixone]

Thats very cool....and original.


Matrixone

[Brian da Basher]

I'm really glad you guys enjoyed this fun model. I've got a real soft spot for inter-war aircraft. I find it helps if I listen to 1930's music while I put these together.

Mr Howling Mouse, the kit prop was very poor and the blades had no twist to them at all, so I was forced to modify them. In an attempt to make it a bit more believable, I used the tip of a small bomb from my spares box as a spinner. I like the way the sharp spinner looks next to the flat nose.

Thanks again for all the comments. They inspire my madness to no end!

Brian da Basher

[puddingwrestler]

Man, that spinner could be used as a lethal weapon! An Anti-Zepplin ram or something...

[Maverick]

Wicked looking ship there Brian.  As always, looks like something that 'was'.

Excellent Work.

Regards,

Mav

[Weaver]

Looking good! 

However you really should build aircraft made by Société Pour Aviation et ses Technicalités, shouldn't you?

[Arc3371]

Great looking and interesting back story