Wings of Intent: Skywriting SE5A - Modified Roden 1/72nd kit

(Photo from the SDASM photostream, link here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/49667145222/

Having built the SE5A 1921 Aerial Derby Oxford/Cambridge racer in the guise of the Cambridge winner with an old ESCI kit, I thought of representing its companion, an Oxford plane. I had ordered the Roden version of the plane, and upon arrival I realized that as the Roden kit is a much detailed and updated tool (being of course decades newer), it wouldn't be practical to put them side-to side. So I turned to the skywriting version, having found one not represented in model form yet -that I am aware of: the several machines belonging to The Skywriting Corporation of America.

Skywriting was perfected in England after WWI and a number of surplus SE5As were converted and utilized for that purpose with success. An American entrepreneur saw the commercial potential and acquired eight converted British planes, together with the personnel and "know-how". Only a few photos do exist, but they show enough to eek an accurate representation.

These planes were of course de-militarized, and show some changes, among them: deletion of details associated with machine guns (rendering a smoother upper fuselage front), extension of both exhausts up to the rudder where they join in a single nozzle, a rudder cut-out to accommodate said nozzle, and the substitution of a large part of the fabric on the fuselage sides (cockpit area) for pre-formed metal sheet. The planes were repainted and re-registered, although some images show them evidently operational but yet without painted registrations, and when present, they are not in standard reg. font, sometimes showing hastily applied ones, especially on the rudder.

From Aviation magazine, 1923:

The Roden kit, as mentioned, is far superior to the old and venerable ESCI one, as the former is much newer. It is molded so as to cover several versions of the SE5, with a lot of alternate parts, crisp molding, and good detail, but the building will be more challenging.

Here is what you get:

You can see the high number of alternate parts, many of which will augment the contents of the spares bin:

Almost no flash, but the rudder is not completely formed in my sample:

Excellent surface detail, alternate short and long chord elevators:

Unlike the ESCI kit, fortunately this one has the cylinder block heads and exhausts molded separately:

Film for the windshield:

And what looks like good instructions, we'll see:

In this kit the headrest is a separate part, which is good as the skywriters did not have one. One of the fuselage sections ahead of the cockpit should be sanded, filled, and rendered smooth:

The long-chord elevator parts should be used for this version.

Nice detail for the cockpit (the ESCI kit has nihil):

The parts are separated and cleaned up. Roden had made a great effort trying to keep the gates minimal and unobtrusive, which is appreciated by modelers. The thinness of the flying surfaces and especially their control surfaces is commendable. Struts and other parts are close to scale, therefore care will be needed in handling them, the struts probably not being able to afford too much stress:

This is the upper section to be utilized for the skywriters, the one with the shallowest cockpit opening:

The clever assembly that allows the prop to rotate is glued together, and so is the instrument panel to its base. All relief is sanded off from the cockpit part, the remaining recess will later be filled-up:

Regarding the instructions, they started to show some glitches, something very few kit instructions avoid (or care about, seemingly). For example: perhaps not good to glue the windshield at this stage, I guess?:

And where exactly the instrument panel and base are located? we know is somewhere in the cockpit, but at what distance from the coaming, for example? So photos will be your friend, because the instructions sometimes are not:

The desire of manufaturers to provide many versions with the same sprues has sometimes collateral effects. A bit of complex engineering and some fit issues are usually the result, we'll see how it goes here.

The detail on the fuselage top part has been erased, an indentation filled-up, and a little window that is not pertinent to this version has been plugged with styrene:

A magazine article:

Preparing for an airbrushing session:

The locating holes for the gun are plugged:

The decals that simulate the pulley inspection windows are a bit large, and in fact you need 6, a pair below the upper wing, another pair on top of the lower wing, and a pair on the stabilizer. Roden missed in the sheet the ones for the lower wing. In any case, I believe that as they are, they would stand out too much, they should have been greyed a little. I will be making another arrangements for those details. The instrument panel decal is not the best I have seen either:

Experimenting with rod to concoct the smoke pipes:

Great examples from the Net of modern "dot matrix" skywriting , which is computer-aided:

Base colors applied:

Friend and fellow modeler Morgan Girling related this anecdote, regarding skywriting at an air show:

"At one of those fly-ins, the weather was CAVU (Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited), and one of the drop-ins was a skywriter in a low-wing Piper. It was so CAVU that he simply had to go up and scribble in the sky. Soon he was off and with crisp penmanship spelled out a message on the soft blue. His work done, he landed, secured his mount, stepped out on the wing and took a deep satisfied breath and as he spread his arms in a “ta-da!”, his friends pointed to his handiwork above: AIR SOW."

The ever-generous spares bin cornucopia provided some parts that could be used to replace the short-pour rudder:

Et voilà:

In a nice example of attention to detail, Roden has molded the metal sockets for the struts:

The seat is given belts, the instrument panel is treated with a wood color oil wash, the cockpit floor is prepared on the lower wing center section, and the fuselage halves are joined:

As it was assumed, the breakdown of parts to allow for the many versions does create some fit and alignment issues. Patience and continuous dry-fitting as you adjust the components is the way to go. The whole assembly will feel a tad fiddly and wobbly, and some touch-ups may be needed, but if you have some experience this won't be a problem:

I must say I am not greatly impressed by the engineering and parts breakdown in this kit. The multi-part approach to render several variants is a good idea, but in practice the modeler is left with not really precise assemblies, that lack self-alignment and proper support. Definitely not one for the less experienced, and a bit of a challenge for those experienced. Doable, though.

A caveat: there are small tabs at the front and back of the center section of the lower wing -not seen in the instructions, though- that look like part of the molding, and definitely not like flash, but ended up being removed as they seem to hinder fit.

"Anonymous" sent -as you can see below in the comments section- a link to a Popular Mechanics page that I am also attaching here. In this case the page portrays a British-registered skywriter:

Where the build stands at the moment:

The rudder is cut to allow for the pipe:

The two parts glued:

A small length of aluminium tube is cut and made slightly oblong:

The styrene extended exhausts are pre-formed, to be adjusted later:

The pipe is removed from the kit's exhausts. They are drilled and metal-pinned to later accept the new, longer pipes:

Horizontal tail, cabane struts, and landing gear added, ready for a base coat. The outer wing struts are painted separately as they were wood color:

The exhausts were wrapped around along all their length with asbestos "ribbons". After several trials I found a way to replicate the visual effect, rolling the exhausts tubes while applying slight pressure with a blade set at an angle. You do a section, reposition the blade, continue, etc. A quick brush with a little liquid for panel lines to create a visual accent and you get a fairly convincing effect. If you apply to much liquid, you can very slightly sand the styrene to recover its natural whiteness, as the dark liquid will remain in the furrows.

As Jim Schubert used to say: "Modeling is all about problem-solving".

A gloss grey base is airbrushed in preparation for the metal color. Struts and tires are painted:

A higher shine metal paint is airbrushed on the metal areas, then masked, and followed by a coat of common aluminium paint:

Unmasked:

The upper wing is on. All control horns are in, from an aftermarket P.E. set:

Well, S.. happens, as we all know. I turned on my chair holding the model to attend a household matter, and the model snagged on the back of the chair. Uncontrollable fall to the floor. My test pilot, Johann Gambolputty, managed to eject and land on the carpet. The model wasn't so lucky. A cabane strut broke at the first third, wing struts detached, in cases leaving their pips in the corespondent sockets, etc.

After romantically dancing the mambo with my friend David's mother in law, I recovered enough to look at the mangled model. I re-glued the cabane strut and added the home-made pulley windows. But before trying to glue back the upper wing, I thought this cloud had a silver-lining, as I could work now more unimpeded on the exhaust pipes. Thus I glued the engine blocks and first stage of the exhausts:

The long exhausts were measured, cut, and drilled at the fore end to accept the pin coming out of the engine. Not sure I would like to do this again. Now they are in position. The nozzle is next: