Gloster III Schneider racer - Modified Karaya 1/72nd scale resin

Here is Karaya’s Gloster III racer finally completed. As expressed in the step-by-step building article, Karaya offers an extremely attractive rage of racers, with very good and detailed molded parts, usually free of defects. On the other hand, Karaya’s research is rather poor, sometimes based on inaccurate plans (why they do not look at photos?), and you have to do your own research and modify the parts to obtain an accurate replica. Karaya’s engineering is not good, with no locating devices or even marked locations for some of the kit components, and their decal sheets again reflect poor research and are not consistent in quality.  So, if you want an easy build, these are not for you. But if you really want a model of a particular subject, you will have to work for it.

The whole tale con be followed here, where the corrections and additions (also noticed and performed by other modelers) can be seen:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/05/gloster-iiia-schneider-cup-karaya-172nd.html

Other Karaya builds on this blog with exactly the same pros and cons are here:

Supermarine Sea Lion:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/07/supermarine-sea-lion-schneider-trophy.html

Their Savoia S.65 that has some visible inaccuracies that must be corrected, and its engineering could use some help:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/02/savoia-s65-schneider-cup-modified.html

And the Brown racer, a nice little kit, to which a couple minor details can be added:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/12/brown-b-2-racer-karaya-172nd-resin.html

If you build some of the Karaya kits out of the box, your model unfortunately will not be accurate.

In the same niche, in the same media and in a similar price range are SBS Model kits. They are a sort of gold standard for resin kits, regarding accuracy, molding, details, engineering, accessories and decal sheets. Therefore, they provide a much better building experience, and do not need modifications to be accurate.

Still, in spite of the needed corrections, the modifications and additions and having to sort out shortcomings, I am happy I built this Karaya Gloster III, as it really looks the part.

Sikorsky S.58c passenger conversion. Italeri 1/72nd scale + Air-Craft Models resin parts

 

Graphic material from the Net. Hope I am not stepping on anybody's toes

 

We are back on the ether after hurricane Lowell. We were fortunate and did not suffer any damage, only went without power for a few days. But many people got it really bad, and the property and infrastructure damage is extremely high, and many areas are still suffering the consequences. Please consider helping any vetted, serious organization that is hands on. 

https://www.gettyimages.se/search/2/film?family=editorial&phrase=hurricane%20lowell&sort=mostpopular

The Kauai community is incredible. We got help from friends and neighbors, and the Aloha was everywhere.

 

 

Strange contraptions of complex engineering and somehow giving the general impression of charming clumsiness, helicopters have been there almost from the beginning of the industry. So goes too for the kit industry. I like to build one of them now and again, just for a change, and (I must admit) because they are usually easier to build than planes (gasp!). But why keep it simple, right? Let’s do a conversion to a civil passenger transport, completely modifying the fuselage of an existing kit. For that I acquired an Air-Craft Models resin aftermarket set that after some serious surgery should render the necessary changes to represent a Chicago Helicopter Airways Sikorsky S-58C.

Nice transparencies, but Italeri packed them with the rest, so of coarse there are several scratched that will need polishing. Hey, Italeri, how expensive is a plastic sleeve?

Major parts detached, all cleaned up. Bonga-Bonga bits to the trash can:

The aftermarket set, sturdy box to protect contents:

Profusely illustrated instructions with added advice:

Well-cast, no bubbles, no deformities, nice detail. So far so good. They don not have on catalog the one I want t build, so I purchased a similar one that includes flotation gear:

The interior walls are smooth and have some detail, and do not show the coarseness of other resin offerings:

The set includes photo-etched details and decals (the latter won't be used, as I will commission a particular set for the Chicago Helicopter Airways machine):

Masks, but other will need to be hand-made for the additional windows:

The resin parts are easily separated from their pouring blocks. The fuselage sides need all their cabin windows and doors opened. This is not an easy-peasy affair as the flash membrane that covers these openings (at least on my sample) is thick, so this is a multi-step, carefully and gradually approached business:

The resin is very nice to work with, and again no bubbles, no short pours, no warping. Good set.

A caveat that came via Tim and Tom Kalina: The tail rotor in the Italeri kit "rotates" the wrong way, so those blades have to be cut-off, a metal pin inserted, and re-glued in the opposite direction. Thanks to them for this very important detail that completely escaped me, naive as I am, thinking that most kit manufacturers do their homework 🙄 

 

To be continued...