Cierva C.30a Autogyro - Veeday 1/72nd scale vintage kit

The Cierva C.30a is now ready to take to the skies. The vintage Veeday kit needed extensive work to become a credible replica. The post with the whole procedure and some references can be visited following the link below. Although I do a lot of tongue-in-cheek “criticism”, the effort and hard work put on these products by the cottage industry manufacturers has to be recognized too. Some (like this one) are vintage kits that deserve some slack, and surely were –at the time- a labor of love. Still, it doesn’t mean that if you want to build them they won’t be challenging. They certainly will be. This one was built for the sake of fun (because what is more fun than bitching?) but you are better off with the Azur/RS kits no doubt.

The model was finished in an Argentinean registration. This airframe (much mistreated and partially spuriously restored) still exists in an Argentinean museum. At some point in its happy civil life (stated as 1966 in sources) the Argentinean Air Force expropriated it –seemingly without compensation- and later proceeded to remove parts of it. Someone gave/sold the original rotor blades to Spain, pillaged the instruments, and otherwise patched things up to sadly make it into the distant resemblance that is now of its original civil state. The model aims to reproduce the aircraft as seen in a photo from 1966 at the locality of El Bolsón, Argentina, on this blog:

https://arqueologiaaeronautica.blogspot.com/2014/06/avro-671-la-cierva-c30a-matr-lv-fbl.html

The step-by-step building article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/01/cierva-c30a-autogyro-veeday-vintage.html

Replaced kit parts:

Complete rotor assembly

Wheels

Struts/landing gear

Complete engine*/prop

Horizontal tail

Decals

Control column

*The engine is a fantastically detailed and clean cast by Master Modeler Matías Hagen of Argentina, of 72Topia model manufacturing fame. His line of kits can be visited following the link on the side bar.

Added parts:

Cockpit floor

Two inst. pan.

Fuel caps

Rotor starting shaft

Pitot

I am tempted to launch a new line of scale models: Replace-o-Matic kits. The box should contain a plan and be filed with miscellaneous pieces of garbage that the modeler has to replace with new parts to obtain an accurate model.

Anyway, another kit is rescued and given a new life. The model may not be perfect, but it is miles away from what would have been if built o.o.b.

 

No kings or dictators. Yes to Democracy and the Constitution

 It's hard to pretend that nothing is happening in this country when the administration and its rabid dogs go about killing innocent people, American citizens, and terrorizing the population. And when the Supreme Court, the Department of (IN)Justice and most of the Republican legislators either support this madness or look the other way. When institutions like ICE, the DHS and the FBI*, that are supposed to protect us, instead consider the population their enemies and target them with violence and bogus charges it means that something went awfully wrong.

*When did the FBI became this monstrosity, acquiescing to be lead by a person that has zero qualifications and allowing itself to be used for political prosecution? Since when the Pentagon accepted the leadership of a pathetic media personality -again with zero qualifications- that delights on berate the troops and the brass, and telling military that the enemy is its own people? Why do they take that crap? Will they then follow illegal, unconstitutional orders?

Bullies are cowards in disguise. Fearful, that's why they wear masks, because they are cowards, pushing and beating (and murdering) peaceful protesters, old fellas, women, youngsters, feeling so macho. Stand up to them by all legal means. Eventually -unfortunately not before many loses and perhaps irreparable damage- justice will catch up them, and we will see them ALL before judges crying like babies, blaming each other (as they are doing now) and denying responsibility.  

Have a spine, people and institutions that are supposed to protect us! 

State terrorism is a bad thing. Deranged, mentally unstable presidents with violent rhetoric and disregard for human lives and laws are a BAD thing.

Two modeling websites stopped publishing content from me or this blog, because of reasonable political commentary. I can't care less, and it's absolutely nothing compared with the madness going around. But these are the kind of people akin to those who went  about picnicking as the nazis (lower case) committed atrocities. Keep pretending that nothing is happening, while people (many of them your users and customers) suffer, and the US tariffs destroy the very businesses that sponsors your websites. Very smart. 

Do not be silent if you care. Do not be silenced. Do not be an accomplice by looking the other way. 

I wish, like you, that I could only talk about scale modeling and planes. In normal circumstances that's what I do.  But bullies and their cowardly followers won't stop by themselves. Things have reached an intolerable level. We have to stand up to them, in any way we can. This is one of the ways I have. Modelers have looked at content on this blog 1,3 million times since its inception. Most of them will understand (for the others I don't care) that if circumstances require it, something needs to be said. Even if it's not fun.

From a Republican president (not my cuppa at all, but to see if the so-called Republicans of today grow a pair to recover their utterly lost dignity):

 

Cierva C.30a Autogyro - Veeday vintage 1/72nd scale kit

 

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/02/cierva-c30a-autogyro-veeday-172nd-scale.html 

Autogyros, the Cinderellas of aviation. They almost made it into common use, but not quite. I have been always attracted to these ugly ducklings and built a few of them, some scratchbuilt and some from kits:

I had this Veeday Models kit for a long time, languishing in some inaccessible crag of the closet. I bought it not knowing what was in store for me (or any other poor modeler that happened to buy it) and after one look it was relegated to the “hell no” pile. But you know me; once in a while I fall into an inexplicable “kit rescue” mood, and deal with this kind of underdogs. Many of such rescues plague the pages of this blog.

RS and Azur have issued 1/72^nd scale kits of this machine. I have built the Azur boxing which has a fatal flaw in the rotor hub, made of pitifully fragile resin. The RS kit looks similar, but the rotor hub is plastic, not resin. Merlin Models also issued one, but I wouldn’t touch any Merlin Models kit with a 10 yard pole. I built two of their despicable kits, and threw the others I had to the trash can. Other manufacturers like Formaplane also released this type but I can't comment on that.

So, this Weeday Models kit…starting from the box made of post-WW2 rationing cardboard, then the no parts map or graphic assembly sequence, and arriving to the flash galore this kit regales us with. It's good that Veeday decided to make a kit of much needed flash, the only thing you have to do to be in possession of the purest, scariest flash you ever saw, is removing and get rid of those other elements that look (quite vaguely) like autogyro parts. True, is extremely difficult to tell which is which, but if you want your expensive Veeday flash, you have to do it.

Jokes aside (by now you should be crying anyway) the manufacturer writes a “mea culpa” in the instructions. Would he be forgiven? The jury is still out:

The plastic (no kidding) is the hardest I ever encountered in a kit. The quality of the molding would make Bela Lugosi cringe. So start by replacing all that can be replaced: struts (which are really bad) wheels, landing gear (which has one leg shorter than the other), exhaust, prop (a miniature replica of a Brancusi sculpture otherwise bearing little resemblance with reality) and almost surely the rotor blades which are way too thick and have a disproportionate trim tab. The engine is better replaced too, and I have a spectacular resin Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major IA made by Master Matías Hagen of Argentina, creator of a meticulously detailed and cleanly cast line of resin kits at:

https://72topia.blogspot.com/

I will also be providing a cockpit floor and isnt. panels, plus of course the decals (will try to keep it simple to see if I can print them myself). 

No assembly sequence, no parts' map: 

Not precisely a perfect match:

Better now:

The sprues:

Flash galore. And not of the thin, easily-cleaned variety:

You can see here that parts replacement has started. On the right bottom corner a number of airfoiled struts to replace the quite bad ones in the kit:

You can flatten solder rolling it wrapped on a mental handle to make the substitute exhaust ring:

But much better to replace the whole engine with the Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major IA fantastic rendition of Matías Hagen's 72Topia works in Argentina:

Replacing the dubious parts in the kit (the kit's exhaust ring has a circular cross-section, which is inaccurate):

This is what Weeday wants you to do. As old kits go, not the worst I have seen, and yet...

I rather scratch my own rotor using airfoiled extruded plastic:

Here some drawings from a NACA circular
 

The horizontal tail in the kit does not have the reversed airfoil on the left side. After trying to modify the part, I decided to fabricate one from styrene sheet:

Most C.30a I see online have a Fairey-Reed type prop, so one is fabricated from aluminium sheet:

Not satisfied with my first scratch that did not show ribbing, I started a built-up horizontal tail:

So, up right the kit horizontal tail. To its left the sheet one, and at the bottom the ones that I will actually be using after cutting, reversing and bending up.

So, to be clear, half the stab (the right one) had a "curved up" airfoil, whilst the other half was reversed, being flat on top and curved underneath. Live and learn: 

The new rotor:

The rotor base has a disc that will be removed to install a gear seen in drawings:

The gear is glued in place:

It has a small shaft where the rotor will click on. If not a perfect replica, it is much more convincing and detailed than the original part

Starting to paint some components:

The airframe I am trying to reproduce had a small spinner on the prop:

The kit's control column is replaced with a home-made item. After doing this, I realized looking at photos that I may have to make another one, as the kit's is not really accurate. Moral: never fully trust a kit:

 

 Base colors and primers applied:

The three components of the engine (engine, intakes and exhaust) are assembled:

Third time is the charm. Above is a slimmer, more to scale control column:

 Some more painting and assembly of the fabricated interior ensues:

The replacement struttery is made of airfoiled extruded plastic and metal "Strutz" (thanks again to Andrew Nickeas and John Adams from The Foglands). The fuselage was assembled at this stage and the rotor pylon was drilled underneath with the locations of the the four cabane struts, the control column and the transmission axle:

The four cabane struts are cut to size, beveled on one end and given a locating pin to be inserted in the rotor pylon at the other end:

The home-made prop is dressed:

The landing gear is on. The kit's parts were not a good pattern to follow after as I found out, as even by copying their lengths nothing really worked. They new parts had to be adjusted, but the nose detail of the kit's fuselage is also a very deficient replica of the real thing, so I did what I could to resemble reality:

Ready for the (hopefully) last primer coat:

Gloss black as a base for the aluminium color is airbrushed:

Aluminium paint is airbrushed:

A coat of clear acrylic, and ready for decaling:

A Pitot and step seen in photos are fabricated:

The pylon and engine are glued. Stabilizer struts are added. Wheels follow. Windshields are in position as well as the engine-rotor coupling rod. Decals are on: 

The model is completed with a couple of fuel/oil caps and the rotor. Post with additional photos soon:

Happy to have "rescued" this old kit and having made the model (albeit changing 50% of it or more) but as stated above you are much better off with the (much newer) Azur and RS kits:
 

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/02/cierva-c30a-autogyro-veeday-172nd-scale.html