Lang-Austin SP-7D "Caroma" featured in new aviation magazine!

[John Howling Mouse]

Hey, this is cool.  There's a brand new aviation magazine* out there called "Aero" and they've got an article on Lang-Austin's "Caroma" trainer airplane.  And I just happened to build a model of that very same aircraft type last month.  So I scanned a page from the magazine to show you all the airplane.  I don't know how well it will turn out here but I'll add pics of my build for the model later, too.



* In What If world, that is!   

[Eddie M.]

Pretty cool magazine! Are they selling subscriptions?  

[BrittMac]

That Toolslinger Engine really seems to have woken up that airframe.

Very nice!

[Captain Canada]

Aye Caroma ! Very cool, Baz !

[sotoolslinger]

One of our many international upgrade contracts
Sweet plane Mr. Rodent

[John Howling Mouse]

So, this little model started out as a PM Models (Turkey) SIAT 223 Flamingo in 1:48.



It's one of those extremely rudimentary kits that makes you scratch your head and wonder: is it worth the six bucks?  But a test mock-up of the parts showed very good fit, even if the plastic was the kind you find in toys.  I put various 1:72 tip-tanks on to see which ones I liked best.  The winner was a pair from a Hasegawa T-33.



Speaking of rudimentary, this is the one-piece all-molded-in cockpit:



The tip-tanks from the T-33:

[John Howling Mouse]

This is pretty much all you get with the kit (less landing gear).  I figured the blandness came from the lack of panel lines:





So, I cut a few panel lines here and there and engraved some access panels, none of which are accurate, naturally.







I put in a little leading edge landing light into a notch I made in the wing:

[John Howling Mouse]

Now, with my heavy-handed trench-cutting, I felt like I was working on an old Matchbox kit (the warm and fuzzy memories of after-school modeling!) and figured the interior would be the highlight of this little gem in the rough.

Shotgun bb's for noseweight and roughed in fwd bulkhead halves:





I cut and engraved a chunk of 30 thou styrene for a new floor:



Made an aft bulkhead.  This is quite cartoonish compared to the likes of FAR148's work but it gets some visual interest through that very thick canopy:



Scratch-bashed some seats.  Yeah, the AERO^TM magazine article I posted says they're supposed to be Lang Austin E7-J ejection seats but I didn't have that magazine as a reference at the time I built the model!   

[John Howling Mouse]

The seats looked fairly acceptable painted up:

[John Howling Mouse]

So, it was time to scratchbuild the interior walls (I have NO idea what I was doing here, I just cut and glued stuff all over the place).

[John Howling Mouse]

For better or worse, once all said and done, here's what the home-made cockpit interior looked like (keep in mind it was a six dollar kit):









Here's what the cockpit looks like in situ with the main airframe assembled:



Beats the heck outta THIS:

[John Howling Mouse]

Not too much putty was needed (pics just make it look bad):



I taped the area adjacent to the putty lines to save the details I had engraved:





All masked up and ready for primer:





And it begins----Krylon sandable grey primer out of the spraycan:

[John Howling Mouse]

First coat of airbrushed Acryl Camo Grey paint (big deal):







Then the relaxing part: first layer of hand-brushed Acryl (custom mix, can't remember what I used):









A second level of deeper Acryl grey was then hand-brushed  (again, no idea what was the mixture I made).

[John Howling Mouse]

Glossed up with several coats of hand-brushed Future and ready for a combination of home-made and after-market decals:

[John Howling Mouse]

Some canopy/cockpit close-ups on the finished model:







And on my new diorama base used in conjunction with my latest jungle backdrop.  Not bad for pics that were taken in the snow-covered steppes of Alberta in March!







The diorama actually looks a lot better in person than these pics.  The intense white of the snow-covered area here tends to blot out most of the variances between the many blends of foliage, rocks, ballast, etc.





This is one of the images AERO^TM magazine used in their "article"



And, thanks to a little software manipulation, here's something that might be new to What If: Sunset and MOONLIT photos!  Feel the humidity of the jungle night air and listen to the cicadas chirping: