Caudron C.561 French Racing Plane - Resin - 1/48 - S.B.S.

[KevinM]

So it starts do we get to see the IP?A very interesting subject Rob.

[DocRob]

Thanks Kevin, the IP will be added later, The PE is already painted and the instruments are made with acetate film. The part of the cockpit, where the IP sits needs further painting, before I add the IP.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After working on the bottom fuselage seam, I added all the major components to the fuselage. You glue the wings together first, push them into the fuselage and than add the intersecting cowling piece. Smart engineering and the fit is perfect. The tail was glued into place and now I have to wait for the delivery of my hopefully good looking blue color.

Because size was an issue in this thread, I wanted to make a short comparison with other 1/48 planes, I built.

The mighty MIG is no real match, the Caudron looks like an external tank with wings.

The Hellcat is a monster against this tiny racer and even the small WWI Siemens Schuckert D.III has a lot more wingspan, but a shorter fuselage.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Looks like a lovely kit. Amazing just how small it is when you see it next to the others.

[Peterpools]

Rob

Thanks for the size comparison photos - pretty small but racers tend to be a small as possible, with the most amount of horsepower allowed.

Terrific progress and looking mighty good

 

[GazzaS]

Wow...   looks great...   but so tiny.

[Landlubber Mike]

Sharp looking model there Rob.  Nice job!

[DocRob]

On 4/25/2023 at 9:21 PM, GusMac said:

Looks like a lovely kit. Amazing just how small it is when you see it next to the others.

 

On 4/27/2023 at 12:35 PM, Peterpools said:

Thanks for the size comparison photos - pretty small but racers tend to be a small as possible, with the most amount of horsepower allowed.

Terrific progress and looking mighty good

 

On 4/28/2023 at 2:49 AM, GazzaS said:

Wow...   looks great...   but so tiny.

 

On 4/28/2023 at 1:26 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Sharp looking model there Rob.  Nice job!

Sorry for the late reaction, amigos, I temporary halted the tiny racer, because I ordered some more blue paint, which will take some days to arrive. I continued working on the USS Arizona in the meanwhile, adding some rigging and details and will soon present her as finished.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Nice to have another project to fall back on when waiting for parts or supplies. Looking forward to following the rigging progress on the USS Arizona 

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Nice to have another project to fall back on when waiting for parts or supplies. Looking forward to following the rigging progress on the USS Arizona 

Thanks Peter, I even consider adding one more. I have been tempted by the WNW Felixstowe, since it appeared on the market. Maybe it's the last chance, to buy such a crazy object for a decent price. It's huge, but I may build her with retractable wings or even without wings in a maintenance / construction scenario.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Outrageous and I'll be along for the entire journey. 🏆

[DocRob]

On with the Caudron. After almost two weeks my color order arrived and I got back in the tracks. I masked the canopy with the supplied Kabuki masks, which fittet, who wonders, perfectly. The airframe was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, after a rub with an alcohol soaked cloth. There was no place to hold the plane while spraying, so I inserted a 1mm brass rod into a pre drilled hole in the air duct. My pin vise worked as a handle than.

Then it was time for the blue. After lots of considerations, I went with a dark gloss blue, namely Tamiya X-3 Royal blue. The picture was taken immediately after spraying and I hope the gloss will remain.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW, looking fantastic and fingers crossed she stays that glossy.

 

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, Peterpools said:

WOW, looking fantastic and fingers crossed she stays that glossy.

Thank you Peter, I will have a look next thing and hope for the best. Than it's about not ruining the paintjob with the next delicate steps.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The blue color settled nicely, while drying overnight. The sheen has been a little less, but I like the look scale wise. There is a slightly lighter panel accentuation visible, due to the very transparent character of the blue color. I like the effect and it spares me another panel line wash or similar, as I often found, lighter panel borders appear more real than dark ones.

The next bit was the nerve straining task of foiling the cowling with Bare Metal Foil. I made a test on the unpainted model, which was not too bad, but lacked perfection. The first try on the painted plane was not satisfactory, it seems, i struggle with keeping a straight line with the scalpel, to cut the borders inside the fine panel lines. I removed this attempt and nervously applied a new foil. It came out not perfect, but will have to do. 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The sparse IP was added to the cockpit part. It's made from a PE board over acetate film dials and I glued them with Pledge, to risk no fogging and have shiny 'glass' dials.

The canopy was a bit adventurous, masked with the supplied and well fitting Kabuki masks and Kabuki tape from the inside, then sprayed gloss black for the rear framing. These parts got over masked after drying and the rest of the canopy was airbrushed with the blue fuselage color. Photos show, that the rear vertical spars were metal colored and to replicate this, I applied 0,5mm strips of Bare Metal Foil onto the frames.

Lastly, I painted the exhausts silver, but that will be retouched with a metallic black on top, that only a silver base will show. The canopy is only loosely fitted on the pics.
Well, I think it starts to look fast now.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Terrific progress. The gloss finish dried perfectly and the one slightly lighter panel breaks up the solid blue color a b it and adds a lot of interest. Nice work on the radiator and deciding to go with Bare Metal Foil. Any reason you choose it over Alclad or AK Metallics?

The IP and canopy framing is also spot on the money. Now I understand how the pilot will have enough forward vision to keep things semi safe and see where he is going. Looking so good and just love aircraft that can pass a Saturday morning inspection; neat, clean and polished.

 

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Terrific progress. The gloss finish dried perfectly and the one slightly lighter panel breaks up the solid blue color a b it and adds a lot of interest. Nice work on the radiator and deciding to go with Bare Metal Foil. Any reason you choose it over Alclad or AK Metallics?

The IP and canopy framing is also spot on the money. Now I understand how the pilot will have enough forward vision to keep things semi safe and see where he is going. Looking so good and just love aircraft that can pass a Saturday morning inspection; neat, clean and polished.

You spotted it, Sherlock . The color on the canopy is a shade darker than the rest, hence the different primer used. Light grey for the fuselage and gloss black for the canopy, because I needed the black for the aft framing. The Royal Blue was very translucent, which seem often to happen with gloss blue colors. I figured the same with Tamiya's LP gloss blue, which behaved similar and didn't have the same good opacity like the other LP colors.

The reasons, why I used Bare Metal foil were, I wanted to try it and the process looked more straightforward to me. For painting Polished Aluminum, I'd needed some gloss black priming, then chrome paint, then masking with cutting the mask on the model, which is harder to do, because the very fine panel line is hard to detect under Kabuki. Also, I don't like to mask over high shine metal painted surfaces, if I can avoid it, which would have been needed for the following gloss blue paintjob.
The metal foil was applied direct onto the gloss blue and then cut in the then visible panel line. Even then , I needed two attempts.
For the canopy framing, I needed some attempts on my cutting template and lifting the foil, without ripping it to pieces. Foil of 0,5mm width doesn't have a lot of stability.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finally added the undercarriage, which is a mix out of brass casted wheel struts, resin struts and three PE pars per side plus the resin wheel of course. Assembling the struts was easy, but the photoetched parts were a bit difficult to position, though the manufacturer etched some marks, where the gluing points are, luckily. 

Tomorrow I will add the prop blades and decals and the blue beauty will be eye candy in my display shelf.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I couldn't resist, as racers seem to let me go fast . Decals went on beautifully and luckily there are only four of them. I glued in the propeller blades and went through the painful task of denting all the chrome cowling holes with a toothpick. I will need some finishing touches, but then the beautiful Caudron is done. The kit was near perfect and an absolut fun to build. This will not be my last racing plane, there is another green one in the pipeline.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

Green, like a Laird ?

Hubert

[DocRob]

50 minutes ago, HubertB said:

Green, like a Laird ?

Nope Hubert,

this one -  Gee Bee R6H QED 1/72 scale Plastic Passion SBS-PP04 | SBS Model - online shop, models, armor accessories

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW! What a gorgeous build and a gem. No question she will be center stage on your display shelf. 

Appreciate the reason why you chose BMF over Alclad or AK Real Metals - and completely agree, the right choice for sure.

Will be looking forward to your next racer - excellent choice for sure.

 

[GazzaS]

Wow, Rob!  She's a beauty.  What a great looking little build.  There is an appeal to racers...   they look pretty, and don't need much weathering.  If you want shine, using automobile buffing compound can really get your shine up.

You can see below that buffing will enable your paint to reflect other surfaces.

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

WOW! What a gorgeous build and a gem. No question she will be center stage on your display shelf. 

Appreciate the reason why you chose BMF over Alclad or AK Real Metals - and completely agree, the right choice for sure.

Will be looking forward to your next racer - excellent choice for sure.

Thank you Peter, the green one is still in the shopping cart and it will not race to my place . I pondered for a while, because it's 1/72, but I guess, it's about the same size like the Caudron. I don't have a display shelf, it's more of a storage and these racers don't eat up a lot of space.

Cheers Rob