Scratchbuilt Ae C.2 "Tenga Confianza" (Have confidence), 1932 Argentinian sports plane - 1/72nd

 

A small step for aviation, but a giant leap for the nascent Argentinean industry.

The Ae C.2 was the proud creation of an incipient Argentinean aviation industry at the Instituto Aerotécnico that had to struggle quite a bit to stand on its own feet. It was the second local design, born on the early 30s, succeeding the Ae C.1, both starting as projects for the civil market (hence the "C") but quickly taken over by the military and adapted for training purposes.

(You may visit the step-by-step build posting with additional background notes here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/01/ae-c2-argentinian-sports-plane-172nd.html

The Ae C.2  had simple, but nonetheless well proportioned lines, with a sprinkle of charm due mainly to its wheel pants and spine fairing. For building the model common scratch-building techniques were employed, plus the addition of a 5-cylinder Small Stuff Wright Whirlwind resin engine that no doubt adds appeal to it. 

Although there is one black and white photo of the plane painted like this, it shows just one angle, thus some educated guessing was necessary, as well as for the colors, as it's many times the case for these lesser-known and scarcely documented planes. It should be seen as an effort to show how it may have looked in 3D. The somewhat complex scalloping scheme was achieved thanks to masks produced by Arctic Decals. The small lettering was printed at home. The wheel pants -and the final set of wheels I decided to use instead of the injected ones- are from a Khee-Kha Art Products vacufomed kit.