Porco Rosso support boat

[Weaver]

Okay, here's the plan: I want/hope to backdate an RPM Beriev Be-4 to be a support boat for Porco, since his Savoia can't carry much in the way of supplies. The main problem is that the engine looks too 'modern' (i.e. 1930s rather than 1920s) with it's NACA cowling. I was going to take the cowling off and fit a resin M-62 instead, but it looked lost against the bulkhead, and then I noticed something: all the aircraft in Porco Rosso have inline engines anyway. The solution therefore is to nick the BMW engine from a Matchbox Heinkel He-70, since the cowlings are designed to fit on the front of a fat, circular-section fuselage that can take a 14-cyl radial anyway.

The kit's also a PoS, with thick and misty glazings, so the solution is to make it open-cockpit, however that will need a lot more detail in the cockpit area. I need to delve into my bits box(s) to see what I can find...

Anyway, here's the boxes and sprues:

Porco Flying Boat by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[loupgarou]

Interesting. The He-70 looks like has much to offer for conversions.

[Weaver]

Interesting. The He-70 looks like has much to offer for conversions.

Oh yeah - it comes with an alternative Gnome-Rhone 14-cyl radial engine to make a Hungarian He-170 too, so I havn't even 'spoiled' the kit.

[jcf]

Cool. 

It'll have a bit of a SAM 11 look.



Interestingly a number of the period Soviet flying boats have inline-pusher arrangements
with radiators at the front of the nacelle/pod, a very period pirate look.

[Weaver]

Wow. Just started cleaning parts up and test-fitting them and oh boy, this thing is WAY more of a PoS than I'd realised...

1. The cockpit "interior" is just three plain planks: floor, front bulkhead and rear bulkhead. They don't even remotely fit into the fuselage, like they're about 5mm too wide, which on something this size is a huge error: something like 20% too big.

2. The inner and outer wing panels don't have the same thickness at the joint. Again, it's not a little bit: the outer panel is about 2-3mm thinner than the inner one. The only solution to this that I can see is to put a shim in the leading edge to thicken it up (there's a little bit of slack in the wing chord that might just let me get away with it) but the rounded wingtips don't help with blending that in.

3. None of the wing and float struts have any aerofoil section: they're just flat-edged bars.

4. There's a flaw in my whiff scheme that I hadn't considered. The BMW engine had a two-bladed prop which has a greater diameter than the three-bladed original, and the BMW's thrust line is lower than the M-62's. The result of these two factors is that the prop probably hits the nose (it's hard to do a tape-up fit check due to the parts from both kits having no locating lugs). I suppose I could just flip it upside down and claim it as an early inverted V-12...


I'm going to go back and investigate a solution that I looked at before I came up with the He-70 engine swap, which is to take the one-piece tip-to-tip wing from a Lindberg Kingfisher and fit it to the Beriev, possibly on struts rather than a pylon. I was originally looking at this in order to get away from the massive M-62 engine nacelle, but I might have to do it now simply in order to get a workable wing...

We shall see....

[strobez]

Hoooobooy! I was hoping this project was going to see the light of day.  I'll be watching this one with fascination.  PoS or no, I see the makings of a genius build here.

[loupgarou]

You could use the three-bladed propeller, or another one.
And, if you choose the Kingfisher wing, why the struts, wouldn't be easier using the pylon? With the He-70 engine on top of the wing, you should have all the height you needed.

[jcf]

An inverted version of the Liberty V12 was produced in the early to mid '20s.
Best known as the powerplant for the Loening OA/OL series.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197437/liberty-12-a-inverted/

[Weaver]

Cheers Jon - interesting.

A solution may have presented itself, although it's more work. The Kingfisher wing has too much dihedral and look odd, however, the wing from an Airfix Hs.126 looks pretty good. It's plently big enough (actually considerably bigger) and is slightly swept, which gives it a similar look to the Porco Savoia. What's more, it comes with a set of sturdy cabane struts which can replace the pylon and wing struts which can be cut down.

The bigger wing and cabane struts all conspire to give it a more 1920s than 1930s feel, which is what I want. Not sure what to do about engine(s) yet. I actually have two resin M-62s, and the easiest thing would be to put one or both of them on narrow nacelles made from chopped-off drop tanks and fit it/them above the upper wing on more struts. Although claiming them as  actual M-62s would make it massively overpowered, they don't look too big and an engine of the same size but earlier technology would have less power. Alternatively, I could put them both on opposite ends of a length of tube in a push-pull arrangement.

If it was just a case of making a generic 1920s flying boat then I'd go with the M-62s in a heartbeat, but my hesitation re this scheme comes from the anime's apparent preference for inlines. Another option might be to find a suitable shape to make a pod for the He-70's V-12, however the He-70 cowling is over-size for a pure engine pod. It's intended to mate up with a circular light-transport fuselage and the only reason I was using it in the first place was that it mated with the Beriev's huge radial+NACA duct nacelle. I'll have to have a good dig around and think about alternative inlines....

[Old Wombat]

Could you do a 4-blade prop for the He-70's BMW engine? Wooden 4-bladers weren't common (I don't think) but there is a precedent in the SE.5a & a couple of other WW1 aircraft.

The increased number of blades allows for a shorter blade for the same airflow, which may give you the clearance you need to fit the Beriev nacelle, &, if you give the blades a wood-look finish, it harks back to 1917/18.

[jcf]

How about a parasol wing with a ring duct around the prop? 

Russian DAR something from 1935.

[jcf]

Could you do a 4-blade prop for the He-70's BMW engine? Wooden 4-bladers weren't common (I don't think) but there is a precedent in the SE.5a & a couple of other WW1 aircraft.

The increased number of blades allows for a shorter blade for the same airflow, which may give you the clearance you need to fit the Beriev nacelle, &, if you give the blades a wood-look finish, it harks back to 1917/18.

Wood wouldn't necessarily hark back to 1917/18. 

[jcf]

The M-62 is basically a slightly improved Wright R-1820, which was in turn developed from the Wright R-1750 of 1927-1930.

http://enginehistory.org/Piston/Wright/Cyclone9Facts.pdf

R-1750 specs are in this pdf slightly smaller diameter than R-1820.
http://enginehistory.org/Piston/Wright/C-WSpecsAfter1930.pdf

[NARSES2]

That DAR something or other is neat

[Old Wombat]

Jon, the SE.5a was the only 4-blader I could think of off the top of my head at stupid-o'clock in the morning, after getting home from work, & it was a 1917/18 aircraft.