Cierva C.30a Autogyro - Veeday vintage 1/72nd scale kit

 

Autogyros, the Cinderellas of aviation. They almost made it into common use, but not quite. I have been always attracted to these ugly ducklings and built a few of them, some scratchbuilt and some from kits:

I had this Veeday Models kit for a long time, languishing in some inaccessible crag of the closet. I bought it not knowing what was in store for me (or any other poor modeler that happened to buy it) and after one look it was relegated to the “hell no” pile. But you know me; once in a while I fall into an inexplicable “kit rescue” mood, and deal with this kind of underdogs. Many of such rescues plague the pages of this blog.

RS and Azur have issued 1/72^nd scale kits of this machine. I have built the Azur boxing which has a fatal flaw in the rotor hub, made of pitifully fragile resin. The RS kit looks similar, but the rotor hub is plastic, not resin. Merlin Models also issued one, but I wouldn’t touch any Merlin Models kit with a 10 yard pole. I built two of their despicable kits, and threw the others I had to the trash can. Other manufacturers like Formaplane also released this type but I can't comment on that.

So, this Weeday Models kit…starting from the box made of post-WW2 rationing cardboard, then the no parts map or graphic assembly sequence, and arriving to the flash galore this kit regales us with. It's good that Veeday decided to make a kit of much needed flash, the only thing you have to do to be in possession of the purest, scariest flash you ever saw, is removing and get rid of those other elements that look (quite vaguely) like autogyro parts. True, is extremely difficult to tell which is which, but if you want your expensive Veeday flash, you have to do it.

Jokes aside (by now you should be crying anyway) the manufacturer writes a “mea culpa” in the instructions. Would he be forgiven? The jury is still out:

The plastic (no kidding) is the hardest I ever encountered in a kit. The quality of the molding would make Bela Lugosi cringe. So start by replacing all that can be replaced: struts (which are really bad) wheels, landing gear (which has one leg shorter than the other), exhaust, prop (a miniature replica of a Brancusi sculpture otherwise bearing little resemblance with reality) and almost surely the rotor blades which are way too thick and have a disproportionate trim tab. The engine is better replaced too, and I have a spectacular resin Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major IA made by Master Matías Hagen of Argentina, creator of a meticulously detailed and cleanly cast line of resin kits at:

https://72topia.blogspot.com/

I will also be providing a cockpit floor and isnt. panels, plus of course the decals (will try to keep it simple to see if I can print them myself). 

No assembly sequence, no parts' map: 

Not precisely a perfect match:

Better now:

The sprues:

Flash galore. And not of the thin, easily-cleaned variety:

You can see here that parts replacement has started. On the right bottom corner a number of airfoiled struts to replace the quite bad ones in the kit:

You can flatten solder rolling it wrapped on a mental handle to make the substitute exhaust ring:

But much better to replace the whole engine with the Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major IA fantastic rendition of Matías Hagen's 72Topia works in Argentina:

Replacing the dubious parts in the kit (the kit's exhaust ring has a circular cross-section, which is inaccurate):

This is what Weeday wants you to do. As old kits go, not the worst I have seen, and yet...

I rather scratch my own rotor using airfoiled extruded plastic:

Here some drawings from a NACA circular
 

The horizontal tail in the kit does not have the reversed airfoil on the left side. After trying to modify the part, I decided to fabricate one from styrene sheet:

Most C.30a I see online have a Fairey-Reed type prop, so one is fabricated from aluminium sheet:

Not satisfied with my first scratch that did not show ribbing, I started a built-up horizontal tail:

So, up right the kit horizontal tail. To its left the sheet one, and at the bottom the ones that I will actually be using after cutting, reversing and bending up.

So, to be clear, half the stab (the right one) had a "curved up" airfoil, whilst the other half was reversed, being flat on top and curved underneath. Live and learn: 

The new rotor:

The rotor base has a disc that will be removed to install a gear seen in drawings:

The gear is glued in place:

It has a small shaft where the rotor will click on. If not a perfect replica, it is much more convincing and detailed than the original part

Starting to paint some components:

The airframe I am trying to reproduce had a small spinner on the prop:

The kit's control column is replaced with a home-made item. After doing this, I realized looking at photos that I may have to make another one, as the kit's is not really accurate. Moral: never fully trust a kit:

 

 Base colors and primers applied:

The three components of the engine (engine, intakes and exhaust) are assembled:

Third time is the charm. Above is a slimmer, more to scale control column:

 

To be continued...