Karaya Supermarine Sea Lion II - 1922 Schneider Cup winner - 1/72nd resin

 

 

(The completed model is here:

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

 

Well, after the not very nice experience with the noticeably inaccurate and problem-riddled Savoia S.65 by the same manufacturer, and because fellow modelers stated that their other kits were good, I decided to purchase another Karaya kit and give it a go.

Today it arrived.

All in all, this seems indeed a much better kit than the S.65, but we are still in the early stages of the build.

These are the things that I like very much:

-Subject, very appealing.

-Price, fair.

-Well detailed kit, convincing surface details, a number of detail parts that enhance the build.

-Reasonable casting pouring blocks, making the parts not really difficult to remove and clean (one exception to be discussed later).

-Reasonable engineering.

-An exquisitely detailed engine.

-The cockpit area has fine side wall detail (besides the natural components, included too)

-Parts in general well cast (with exceptions, again to be discussed later).

-A commendable non self-flattening box, if not a paradigm of rigidity either.

-Thin trailing edges and flying surfaces, well represented, with nice detail, and in general highly commendable.

-So far (we'll see as we go) an appearance of fidelity (not like the Savoia S.65, the misses of which could be spotted from miles away).

-The wings have the panel separations, but are in one piece, making it very easy to produce the dihedral with little effort by just pushing carefully the outer panels up. That is a clever solution that deserves praise.

-The location of struts, control cables, etc. is well marked and already prepared for insertion.

 

Things that I didn't like:

-All parts crammed in a plastic bag.

Heard of "shake and bake" kits? Well, this is a "shake and break" one.

-The plan that accompanies the kit is not to scale (useless for taking measures, as with their Savoia S.65).

-There is no parts map, so you are left to guess what the heck the tiny bits are and where do they go.

-Some of the diagrams are too fuzzy and small (engine).

-A number of air bubbles, some opened to the surface and marring parts.

-A few parts are too fragile to resist any load, like the wheel forks, of which one already came malformed and broken. Interestingly enough, photos of at least one other kit in the Net show exactly the same problem, so it's a mold issue that was left unattended, creating a delicate situation for the modeler that now has to scratch a very fiddly part.

-You get solid wheels (not accurate) or alternatively just the tires, but no spokes for them, you are told to make them.

-The four-blade prop came with one tip broken. Then front side of the blades -this is a pusher- is a little marred by the casting webs, the other is fine.

None of these nitpickings present, so far, a real challenge or impediment. But they are a bit annoying nonetheless.

Regarding this plane, in spite of it having been a Schneider winner, there is no abundant reference material. I have found much more for much less known types. This was a surprise. Still, I got a folder on it with what I think should be enough: photos, pages from books, etc.

 Construction begins:

 A good, careful wash with lukewarm water and mild detergent. I use for this a coffee strainer, in order no to lose small parts:

 Let them dry:

 Cockpit, engine, dolly, are assembled and painted with other parts:

 The kit tires are given aftermarket spokes:

There is plenty of good detail and lovely master-making work in the parts of this kit:

And since we are into maritime themes, a quasi Turner-like sunset yesterday...

The fuselage halves are united, there is a locating device on the bulkhead after the pilot, that provides perfect alignment. Thin CA was run along the seams, carefully.
Because the pouring block is attached to the keel line of both fuselage halves, that area suffers a little bit while eliminating it, thus it will need just a touch or two to obtain a good clean finish on that area:

And now the attention turns toward the ill-fated part that was malformed due either to an air bubble or mold problem.
In ant case, these wheel forks look to me like wishful thinking, and even with the pair of rods that are supposed to reinforce it, these could hardly support the weight of a resin model, let alone an accidental clumsy handling (like putting the model on the ground in any other way that with utmost delicacy):

 A foldable photo-etched part like this would have been perfect, combined with a small length of steel wire or discarded drill bit:

 In any case, let's see what can be done. First try to glue back the separated bit to the defunct remains of the bearing (one, the other doesn't exist):

 Now, to look for a photo-etched part that can be added to the orphan side of the fork...

...thus. Although I think that this is an exercise in futility, though, since this leg is compromised, and I may look for a better solution. We'll see...

Gee! we have a (little) problem!:
There were Gs under the stab, as demonstrated by this photo. But the kit only provides 2 for both sides of the rudder.
Karaya: ts-ts, go to the blackboard and write 20 times "Should do better research" (although to be frank, I also missed it the first round of checking against photos):

AND...we have another (slightly bigger problem)
Looking at the photo above, you can see the registration letters ("G-EB") under the right bottom wing, which of course means that "AH" is under the left wing, and likely also on top of the upper wings.
Sigh....
And it seems that this has been missed in any illustration, drawing and depiction that I ave seen so far.

Ah, the delights of research...
Going even deeper.
We know that the plane was assigned #14 for the race, but I couldn't find any photo of it with that number, until now (from Gallica, L'Aerophile Oct 1922):

Still have to fix that air bubble on the headrest fairing. After taking the photo I applied a bit of Milliput that will hopefully be re-shaped when it is a bit more solid:

 Seven years ago good friend and fellow modeler David (thanks once more!) presented this wonderful gift that has been a very good reference since then:

 It has a nice plan of the plane and of course some useful historical notes:

The tail struttery is inaccurate in the kit, and it seems that the one associated with the engine (also looking at photos) is missing one strut that goes from more or less the radiator base to the fuselage diagonally.

So this is what Karaya missed regarding the tail struts, they are not N struts, but go like in this rough sketch. References point out to issues with tail vibration or oscillation, thence perhaps the intended remedy. There was also a wire -not drawn-  triangulating the "normal", more external struts:

And yes, definitely Karaya also missed a single strut that goes from the engine to the fuselage. advancing a bit diagonally, similar to this one seen in the Sea Lion III:

The headrest area is repaired:

The position to anchor the beaching gear leg varies from plan to instructions. The former indicates under the wing struts, while the latter points out to a location much closer to the fuselage.

In any case, I can't really verify this arrangement in any photo, and Karaya will forgive me if I feel a tad skeptic. The only photo I have (bad and blurry) showing the gear looks more as if the fork is like this sketch below, a normal suspension arrangement in planes, and not mounted over the wheel as in a front bicycle wheel:

The kit's stabs are molded as if a small part of them at leading edge exceeds the fin and meets, which is not accurate. Their roots have to be re-carved a little bit so the hinge line coincides, and they do not exceed the fin's leading edge.
No locating devices are provided, so you have to resort to metal pin and very careful drilling of the stabs.
Do not forget that in this plane the convex side of the airfoil goes pointing downward, and the concave (cupped) side of the airfoil is up:
Since you are at it, drill the needed holes for the tail rigging:

It seems that somehow we modelers got charged with quality control:
Here you can see 5 number I struts and 3 number II (4 and 4 are needed). Simple, cut one of the larger to get one more of the shorter, but it would have been nice not to have to.
Not all struts are marked on the plan, so the tail group (number V) -consisting of three different struts- doesn't have any indication as to where they go, which is not very important, given that their disposition and number is inaccurate anyways.
Some (like the tail struts and perhaps the lower wing to fuselage ones) could just perhaps being carefully dropped in place, but those wing struts and engine ones will need metal pins if we want things to proceed with relative precision and safety:

The tail assembly is ready:

The hull is primed:

OK, I think it can be affirmed with a fair degree of certainty that the landing gear leg is not, as described in the kit, a bicycle front wheel arrangement, but a more common "sideways" fork into which the axle runs, exactly as in the Sea King (the plane from which originated) and Sea Lion III.
So new parts can be made, which are fortunately simple:

The wing floats are glued. Their position is unmarked:

 The new beaching gear:

The control horns are glued on the tail. The kit provides exactly the number of these very small and fiddly bits that you need. I am overwhelmed by the manufacturer's generosity and foresight. They are a tad thick for my taste, and although I used them, I should have replaced them with photo-etched items that would look much better.
Then the tail and wing were glued in place:

I decided after contemplating the kit's control horns in place that they weren't inline with the general finesse of the kit, appearing coarse. Therefore I started by removing them, then removing all tail control surfaces, and adding photo-etched horns. Now things look much better:

Tail control surfaces glued back, with some deflection to liven the view:

The tailskid and associated parts are attached. I substituted a weak-looking tiny rod for a metal length. The wing struts are cut from their pouring blocks, drilled and given metal pins, a task that took time and patience, given the small size of the parts. As described above the kit wrongly dealt 5 wing long struts and 3 short struts, so one was re-purposed:

The four aileron control horns are also replaced by metal items, and the holes for the cables are drilled, to represent the loop:

 A water rudder control bar present in the plane but absent in the kit is added in the form of a small length of thin wire:

Studying now the engine pan strut arrangement and a possible assembly sequence for the whole engine gondola.
A very poor job has been done here by the manufacturer regarding clarity in the instructions and overall engineering.
What goes where has to be deduced from a small a poorly printed section of the instructions. The set-up looks vague, and possibly inaccurate, plus the manufacturer seems to have confused the missing strut that goes from the center of the gondola to the fuselage spine for some diagonal reinforcement that triangulates the array, contradicting photos and plans:

The four external struts of that array are also given pins to secure them.
Locations for them will have to be guessed and drilled on the engine pan:

The measures from the wing were transferred to a sheet of paper, and using five-minute epoxy the engine pan legs were glued and the whole assembly carefully aligned. This is not as easy as it sounds, but I had tried two other ways before and failed, and this worked. It will also help with airbrushing, since the unit can be painted separately:

Managed to do a very quick -and well protected- session with the airbrush. The second coat of primer is applied, still some spots to touch-up:

I added the diagonal struts at this point and primed the assembly, judging it far more convenient. Ideally, this is how this part should have been provided, as a unit, but resin casting has its limits, as we all know.
The radiator is given a gloss black base:

As we know, the struttery on the tail is inaccurate, therefore in preparation for substitutions/additions I am priming some more strut material from the spares bin, with some members being a bit less portly than the kit's:

The new and corrected beaching gear made of tube is given pins to be able to anchor it after painting of the model. The instructions call red, but photos show natural metal as far as I can tell:

A white coat is airbrushed in preparation for the blue (upper wing and main body still need the other side painted) :

After trials with several blue hues I went for what I liked best. It's called "Je ne sais quoi bleu":

Painting is completed. After some conservative (A word that has some very unpleasant echoes) drying time, the assembly will proceed. You can see that the metal-painted engine pan has been masked for this stage:

The engine castle is now glued in place:

The strut the manufacturer missed that connects engine pan and spine is added. The headrest is painted, and a missing Pitot is added from a P.E. set:

What building models in the same room where you have your office does to your computer.

My desktop computer was behaving erratically, it was high time to go inside and see what was going on. I suspected a faulty power supply, but my younger son (a computer wizard and programmer) suggested to renew the thermal paste on the heat-sink array. I removed the fan and the finned heat-sink element, and boy, was he right...

I wasn't convinced by the aspect of the kit's tail struts, and my substitutes, already painted, although a bit narrower and thinner than the ones provided, did not look convincing either. To plan B it is, and two Strutz lengths are being prepared (to the right) for priming and painting tomorrow.

Meanwhile the wing struts were glued to the upper wing, in an attempt to try a technique derived from my Lunar Module Landing gluing trick:

This Lunar Module Landing is an approach I have to use due to an issue with my right eye, which lost the vision just in the very center of the field, making depth perception and precision gluing a very challenging task. Thus, to glue anything that requires pinpoint accuracy, I have to proceed by, little by little, getting closer and closer as I correct deviations, until final contact is made, hence the name of the technique.

To celebrate that I made no significant progress, I made an Argentinian asado (vegetarians and vegans please overt your eyes):

The new strut material is painted. I just realized, after many decades, that modeling is a slow process...:

The eight small tail struts are now glued in place.
I now have to do the rigging and install the control leads, so 12 more lengths of fiber or stretchy material:

The tail rigging as it is now. The whole tail unit of this model is something that I never, ever, want to do again:

Since this is a particularly tricky fellow, I built a jig to be able to assist with alignment and gluing of the upper wing:

One more nerve-wracking stage is over:

Two challenges on the horizon: wing rigging and aileron linkages and control cables, and that fragile beaching gear...

Sigh...

For some builds you can easily obtain a windshield by punching a circle of clear plastic:

 Then cutting it below the equator:

 Chopping a smidgen form the sides:

 El voilà.
You can see that part of the rigging is already in place, as well as the four struts that connect the lower wing with the median line of the fuselage:

Very carefully the new beaching gear is installed.

A few touch ups and it will be ready for the decals:

 Prop on, and you can see the tailskid trolley:

 Now to wait for the new set of decals from the usual source:

Yeepee! decals arrived!:

And decaling begins.

As explained during the build the kit is missing some decals, that Arctic Decals added to their set, also perfecting the rest.

Only the bottom surfaces received the registrations, no photo shows them on top. We could assume they were there, but maybe they weren't, as it was the case with other racers.

I do have the decals to add, if need be and new material shows them:

Still cloudy, so have to wait for the photos:

 To be continued....