Wings of Intent: Comper Swift - Aeroclub 1/72nd vacuform

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/04/comper-swith-aeroclub-172nd-vacuformed.html

Someway or another, I always come back to this old love: vacs. I enjoy so much building them, fabricating the few parts they usually require to become a very nice model, and feeling as I build a little nostalgic. I don’t think one kit medium supersedes another. I think there are kits for all moods, situations and modelers. I cherish the little challenge vacs present (not more than any other kit media, by the way) and I believe they posses that je ne sais quoi that make them somehow special. They certainly have a place in my modeling heart.

Aeroclub needs no introduction, and scores upon scores of modelers have benefited from the work of John Adams, a nice chap and exceptionally skilled craftsman with whom I exchange the occasional greeting and small modeling talk (by the way, John, you have been silent lately).

Modelers not familiar with or not inclined to vacs, have now good news: recently, Dekno in collaboration with Arctic Decals has released a beautiful kit of this very plane, Comper Swift, in resin and 3D-printed parts, accompanied by exceptional decals. You can see the one I built here (I immediately bought another after receiving the first one):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/01/comper-swift-arctic-decalsdekno-joint.html

Here are links to the Arctic Decals/Dekno kits:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=45671/1140360

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=45671/1140362

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=45671/1140359

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=45671/1169709

And with the Gipsy engine:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=45671/1170881

So, without much further ado, here is this tiny little cutie pie, apparently released in the 80s. Not bad at all for such oldie!

Together with the usual vacuformed sheet of good quality, you get a nice set of white metal parts covering engine, prop and wheels, plus strut stock and a round stick. An exploded view is included in the instructions, together with historical and construction notes.

A fine sharpie is used to mark the edges of the parts as a guide for later sanding:

Scored a few times with a new blade following the sharpie line, it's then a matter of bending back and for to pop the parts from the backing sheet:

Parts sanded using a flat surface, even pressure, and repeated checking as not to overdo it:

As per instructions' advice, the rudder is separated so the position of the horizontal tail can be carved for it. At this point the underside of the horizontal tail, which is provided as a one-surface part, is engraved with the hinge line and ribs, mirroring the upper side:

The wheel and rudder halves have been glued together (the kit provides alternate white metal wheels). The wing halves are also glued, and then the partition line for the folding wings is engraved on the lower surface, using as a guide the upper side:

Aeroclub did not provide decals for this one, so those will need to be home-made or commissioned, for which the plane the model should replicate has to be chosen, among a myriad of attractive Corben Swifts.

Some interior structure is fabricated, to make for the suitcase and baggage compartments and the beginnings of the cockpit:

The baggage hatch and the inst. pan. are being set up:

For those curious, here is a NACA report you can download as a PDF on the early version of the Comper Swift:

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279493/

I think I may use the vac wheels, they are more baloony. But just in case I am making hub caps in aluminium for the white metal wheels:

Aftermarket P.E. aileron control horns are inserted, and the rotating disks they will be linked to added. The locations for the struts, marked in the kit, are drilled for a more secure fitting:

Rudder control horns added too:

Some base colors are airbrushed:

The exhaust ring is given its "mustaches":

An inst. pan. is fabricated:

The suitcase for the suitcase compartment on the nose is fabricated:

Again for those interested on the type, here is an article on Flight magazine of 1930, showing and early configuration:

And what nice accessory could be used to create a nicer photography atmosphere? An equally small object, a 3D-printed bicycle (at high definition, not the crap that now pullulates everywhere):

The cockpit interior is in, and the fuselage ready to close. The wheel hub caps and suitcase are already painted. The bicycle needs more hand-painting:

Interior in:

The bicycle details are painted:

The fuselage is closed. The cut for the stab is made:

A quick dry-fit to see how all works:

Using airfoiled metal "Strutz" stock the landing gear and stab struts are formed (thanks Andrew Nickeas and John Adams):

On its little feet:

Making the wing struts with the provided airfoiled extruded plastic material:

An aftermarket photoetched Pitot is separated to be later glued to one of the struts as per photos.

First coat of primer:

Many Compers can be represented using this kit. I have chosen this time G-ABWE, flown by Richard Shuttleworth (of Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden fame) to India. I have seen this plane represented as white an red, but multiple photos show it wasn't white, as the race number 36 on a white circle on the tail clearly demonstrates. I used "silver dope" and red, printing my own decals this time. Archer louvers were added to the nose:

I have another Aeroclub Swift kit that I plan to build, if I can secure some missing data, as R222, an Argentinian-registered Swift that crossed the Andes from Argentina to Chile and back in 1932! at the hands of Cyril Taylor. At the time of the crossing all photos show that the registration has not been painted yet, and the colors are still from factory and not those applied later.

Original and Andes-crossing flight:

Later painted as:

Unfortunately this plane, that was re-acquired by Taylor later in time and donated to the Aeroparque aviation museum, suffered the fate of many such donations in Argentina: treated with disrespect and contempt, it fell from a truck while being carelessly transported, and was demolished. It's rests are now on some depot somewhere, uncared for. A Lockheed Vega that went to the Antarctic and was donated by Wilkins suffered a similar fate, rotting away in some hangar.

A Youtube video of a short movie made by a descendant of Cyril Taylor, Adrian Goycoolea, can be watched here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZ0LR0iNCQ

The graphic representation has some inaccuracies, but there are nice original photos.

The white paint is masked on the vertical to preserve the white background race number circle: