Curtiss A-13 Strike Shrike completed

[Brian da Basher]

Here's my second entry into the Airfix GB, my A-13 Curtiss Strike Shrike. I built this from the 1/72 Airfix/MPC Stuka using the engine and prop leftover from an Airfix P-40E and the wings from a Williams Bros'. Douglas World Cruiser. The spats were scratched from Airfix Me-109 rocket tube halves and plastic card. The canopy is scratchbuilt from clear plastic card leftover from packaging. The wheels are from the P-40E, but for the life of me, I can't remember what kit I swiped the tailwheel from. The forward guns were scratched from landing gear struts and the rear guns are from a 1/72 Airfix Ar-196. The struts are all from spares, the RDF loop is a 1/144 prop ring and that enormous bomb is leftover from the Glencoe Martin MB-2. The entire model is brushpainted in acrylics using Polly-Scale blue and red, Testor's white and a mix of Liquitex artists' acrylics and gesso. Decals are a mix from my vast stash, but the squadron insignia comes from the MB-2 kit. The tail stripes are hand painted.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's the backstory:

In the mid 1930s the U.S. Army Air Corps was in need of a new ground attack aircraft to replace the aging A-10 Curtiss Shrike. Many proposals were reviewed, but the most cost effective and menacing of all by far was a design by Curtiss that was approved and given the designation A-13. The folks at Curtiss were never ones to pass up an opportunity to innovate and reworked the old Curtiss Conqueror engine into a greatly improved powerplant christened the Curtiss Conquistador. A little known fact is that work continued until it became the Allison engine used in W.W. II.
The U.S. Army was very impressed with the load carrying and diving ability of their new A-13s and quickly adopted them to the strike role from which their common name Strike Shrike is derived. A-13 Strike Shrikes were armed with two cowl mounted .30 caliber machine guns synchronized to fire through the propellor disc and two .50 caliber machine guns on the spats. Twin .30 caliber machine guns were mounted in the rear for tail defense. A-13s commonly carried a 500lb centerline bomb or a 250lb centerline bomb and two 55lb anti-personnel bombs under each wing. During field exercizes in the late 1930s, U.S. Marines acting as the opposition force were often terrorized by waves of dive-bombing Strike Shrikes and scenes mimicking the retreat from Warsaw a couple of years later were played out in the rolling North Carolina countryside. Strike Shrikes were enormously popular with their crews, mostly because there was room for three cases of beer between the pilot's and rear gunner's seats.
A-13 Strike Shrikes were in front-line service until immediately after the attack on Peal Harbor and were quietly retired after being used for target towing duties during the war.
The example pictured here is carrying a 1000lb centerline bomb for test purposes and served with the 96th Attack Squadron until it was re-equipped with multi-engined aircraft and redesignated a Heavy Bombardment Squadron in early 1941.

Here's another pic.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I had a lot of fun with this project. There were no real headaches until I reached the finishing stage. It took me two attempts to get those tail stripes right. I did the stripes in three evenings, one of them just needed to correct my ham-handed mistakes. I found a great tip for you brush painters out there. I used a Post-It™ note cut to size as a guide (not a mask) to get a nice straight line on the outboard edge of the blue rudder stripe. While far from perfect, I'm happy with the results.

Another piccie:

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's a shot of the underside. I had a small problem with the decals. If you notice, the ones on the upper wings are a nice shade of blue that matches the color of the fuse. Well I only had two of them. The ones on the undersides were a much darker blue, so I decided to paint over the blue with the paint used on the fuse.

Yet another pic:

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's a closeup of the canopy. Scratchbuilding this was easier than I thought. Once I had the side panels trimmed to the correct size, the rest just fell together. I used Elmer's™ white glue which should dry completely clear on most of it. If you look close you can see the remains of some glue globs that are apparently still drying out a week later. The canopy framing was a bear as there were no guidelines to work from. You can also see the 96th Bombardment Squadron's insignia decal. I decided to listen to Phil P and add it once I realized I had enough room for it on the fuse. You might notice that white 15 code next to it. That gave me real fits. The decal wrinkled and tore while I was applying it and I don't have a spare, so I was forced to correct it using a combination of old white codes and paint. It's not perfect but good enough for me.

Another piccie:

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's another 3 quarter view. I forgot to mention that I rounded off the edges of the rudder and stabs to make them less Stuka-like and better match the shape of the wings. I don't know about you guys, but I love those bright, inter-war U.S.A.A.C. markings! I dithered between using olive green or blue for the fuse, struts and spats, but eventually decided on the blue as my ceiling fleet could always use more color.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's the next-to-last pic, one inspired by our resident Kiwi kitbasher and young What-If genius Zac (a.k.a. K5054NZ). I always enjoy his "hand of God" shots although modesty made me crop my paw out of it. This one highlights the spats nicely for those of you who were interested in their construction. You might also notice how the upper and lower struts align to the undercarriage and fuse. When I build something derived from a real aircraft, I can get a tad JMN and try to follow similar elements of positioning and proportion if possible.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's the last pic, the requisite box shot. Despite all the little frustrations, I enjoyed this project a lot and am having a great time participating in this GB!

Brian da Basher

[K5054NZ]

      C'est magnifique Monsieur Perri! I love it!



You my friend are the whif genius, I'm just touched in the head (BEEPBEEPWOOOOP).


Where can I get one of these puppies? Magnificent model, great little backstory, so all in all the elements of a fantastic whif in my book are all there.


Well done, and why must you make it so the difficult as to where my vote goes?  Great job.

[John Howling Mouse]

That is perfectly believable, BDB!   If this came in a Choroszy Modelbud box, I wouldn't question it for a second.

Very impressive!      

[Jack Bobson]

Wonderful and well suited to the pre-war era. Really nice whiffing!

Indeed, spiffing whiffing!

[The Rat]

WE ARE NOT WORTHY!

Bloody marvellous Brian, you could fool a lot of people with that one.    

[philp]

Brian,
Nice to see it finally finished (told you the marking would work).  Nice to know one of the kits from my stash actually got built.

Great job.

[Son of Damian]

Now, for some reason, I feel like finding a Ju 87A kit and building it in Amreican markings from the early thirties!?!?!  

Anyways, Nice model Brian!!! B)  B)  B)  

[Joe C-P]

Oo, between-the-wars colors and spats to boot!    B)

JoeP