Spanish Civil War Whifs

[stevehed]

Thanks Gentlemen. Looking forward to the Spad floatplane too. There was a RW single seat fighter in 1918. About forty served with the French. If you google Spad XIV there are photos and plans. Don't know how whiffy your plans are but aircraft built in France for the Italians had roundels of red, white with green in the centre. Home produced machines usually sported roundels with green outers and red centres. However, if roundels aren't available you can get around it by painting half of the undersurface of one of the lower wings red and the other green.

[Wardukw]

Thats a great bit of info Steve 
Thanks to Chris ill have Italian markings for this plane and Chris did mention about the 2 different styles used ..he is sending me one of those types which i think are the frist type bit im good either way 
As for the Wiffy side this will be pretty simple really..just have to build a entirely new cockpit with a scratch built machine gun 
The floats will be pretty simple and ill use British designed floats as i believe they used more float planes than anyone else.

[stevehed]

Been working on the fuselage. The tail boom was made from thick sprue with the fin and rudder cut from 30thou card. I used the winglets from the Nieuport kit to make the elevators. They only needed about a tenth of an inch, 2.5mm, removed and the tips rounding with the elevators scored with a craft knife. Main task was filling in the holes for the struts with filler. Otherwise, a smaller windscreen from a vac spare and a pair of N cabane struts. I intended using the Nieuport V struts but they didn't fit between the cylinder head covers of the upper decking. Bit more paint and then I'll decide on the main struts layout.

 

[stevehed]

Hi All,
        Got her finished today. The Nieuport wing struts fitted perfectly much to my surprise. It was always the intention to fit oleo leg undercarriage but standard Nieuport had to do in order to get the type through operational trials. First four aircraft were delivered as such but as photos are lacking it's not unknown if the others received oleos or not. Tail skid added to save weight and a couple of mgs in the thick cantilever wing. These machines proved to be fast and they were operated by Grupo 72 on home defence and coastal patrol duties. The first machines went to Valencia and served alongside Dewoitine parasols while the remainder served at San Javier, in Murcia, and possibly Cartagena. It's doesn't appear that any survived the war.

[Wardukw]

A pod racer..Spainish Civil War style 
Looks quite unique Steve and i like that alot 

[NARSES2]

That's come out really well   

[stevehed]

Hi All,
        First a confession. I forgot to add the chin radiator to the Parasol. So better late than never.



Next is a kit I've had in the stash for many years. It's been around for about sixty years but I've never built one before. When we were kids my brother and I decided not to buy the same kits. I bought a Revell Zero so he got the Airfix version. This was one of his so I never bothered with it. I do remember it was olive green in the box while this one was bright yellow. One served with the Republicans during the early months of the war. It was an export model, the Boeing 281, and lost during October 1936. I've gone with silver as I felt dark green was more likely a Russian innovation. There was an issue with the synchronising gear so the mgs were replaced with wing mounted pods. No radios in the export version so I cut off the aerials and added short lengths of rod to the back of the Townsend ring to act as exhausts. Mine was lacking the windscreen so I had to use one from a Spad VII.





Finally, I've acquired a couple of these.


It was once thought that 27 Spad 510's had served with the Republicans. It seems in reality a couple of Spad 91 and 51's might have been misidentified. Not that it matters in whifland. However, a chap on BM thought it might be possible to reverse engineer an S91. This aircraft was wrecked when it force landed so that made me think of a modified repair and transfer to another front.

[NARSES2]

Interested to see what you do with the SPAD, I've got the kit in the stash and it's got an interesting fuselage shape.

[stevehed]

Made a start on the Spad. Not much to show except the cockpit section which goes together well and is a good fit within the fuselage halves. I've removed one of the headrests so far as the 91's went without. Early days but first impressions of this kit are good. Most of the conversion work is going to be fuselage related. Needs to be reduced by half an inch, some changes to the nose contours and different air vents, at least, I think that's what I think they are.

[NARSES2]

and different air vents, at least, I think that's what I think they are.

Well if they're not they are now 

[Tophe]

I do prefer twin-boom than single-boom but I like your model. 
May I make (by photo editing) a zwilling of it to get twin-boom?.

[stevehed]

I do prefer twin-boom than single-boom but I like your model. 
May I make (by photo editing) a zwilling of it to get twin-boom?.

No problem.

[stevehed]

Point of no return. Half an inch removed and the rudder and fin will have to come off as well. The rear section will have to be widened and deepened to get a good join.

[Wardukw]

Damn Steve..ya getting serious  there mate 
This is gonna be cool man 

[stevehed]

The bits are back together. Just needed a tapered section of card to get a half decent rear end. The port wing had to be re-engineered a touch because the locating tab does not match the slot in the fuselage. It's too high and created a step. Got round it by drilling two holes in the slot and installing rod with holes drilled in the butt end of the wing to match. The prop shaft on the 500hp Hisso is lower than the later 690 version in the 510. I turned the front radiator piece upside down and rounded the squarer profile with a sanding drill. Not perfect but I'm sure the camouflage paint will do it's job and hide some of my sins. The earlier engines also had pronounced raised covers over the cylinder heads? so I've replicated these by filing a groove in the upper bonnet and added shaped strip to extend the length a little. I had a spare from the Heller Nieuport but I couldn't find a way to make it fit. A couple of extra holes for air vents and I need to see if I need an oil cooler. Getting there in between real world intrusions.