Gloster IIIA Schneider Cup - Karaya 1/72nd scale resin

 

                                                               (Photo from Wikipedia)

Oh! Racers! And not just that… Schneider racers! Very exciting always. A number of them are posted on this blog, and today we start the Gloster III from Karaya. This manufacturer should be congratulated for tackling a wonderful series of racers. I have built a few of their kits:

The Supermarine Sea Lion, a nice kit that needs nonetheless some help and corrections:

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

Their Savoia S.65 that has some visible inaccuracies that must be corrected, and its engineering could use some help:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/02/savoia-s65-schneider-cup-modified.html

And the Brown racer, a nice little kit, to which a couple minor details can be added:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/12/brown-b-2-racer-karaya-172nd-resin.html

They are resin kits, and as a media resin kits in general have come a long way. Personally, I think reaching their acme with the SBS releases. Karaya kits I would say are just behind, their subjects are great, and their casting is good.

My sample had a missing joystick (easily replaced) and a broken rudder pedal (again easy to replace) but otherwise all was good. They kindly provide a beaching trolley and a tail support structure, but the trolley doesn’t look like the one in photos (you can make it useful to space and rig the floats after some needed adjustments, though). Control horns are provided as resin parts and those will be replaced by photo-etched items. The exhausts on the original come out of the cowl visibly from the top bank of cylinders, but the kit just has recessed moldings on their position, flattened tube may do here. Other modelers have observed that the floats are somewhat apart of what they should be, they need to be closer (thus modifying the beaching trolley and associated struts). The plans point out to a small piece of film for the windshield that was absent from my box but any thin clear plastic bit will do. The alternate bigger fin doesn’t have a rudder, thus necessitating stealing the one from the early small vertical tail. Modelers have also rightly pointed out that the two halves of the rudder (upper and lower) need to be connected around the fuselage ending cone. 

Other than that, is up to the modeler, looking at photos readily available online, to add small details like the tiny radiator caps, a small L -shaped item after the cabane, a missing third airscoop on the fuselage frontal section, etc. The other small airscoops on the sides are not particularly well rendered -as photos show- because the holes are not on the fuselage skin, but part of the scoop body itself, this may have been due to the limitations of the casting process. The wing radiators are too big and need reducing in length and height.

Karaya missed the race numbers located under the wings as this photo shows:

 

WILLARD AUSTIN CARLE MEMORIAL COLLECTION
No. 11353. Gloster IIIA (N194) Royal Navy

Photographed ca. 1925, source unknown

https://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/CarleWillard/11353.htm

Scanning the decal sheet and printing the numbers on decal paper will solve this issue. The fuselage numbers have a thin white line, but because the wings are white -as the tail and struts- the printed black numbers under the wings will be fine (Karaya's box art depicts a scheme that I personally think is inaccurate but others think otherwise):

 The box:

The contents:

The parts:

After separation, cleanup and washing. No short pours and just two pinholes easily filled. Most parts are easy to separate from their casting blocks and easy to clean up, no problems occurred during those operations:

 Some reference material will be interspersed as the model is built:

 These photos and drawings show the engine as used for other racers, but the Gloster III had the top bank exhausts to the other side (the III had a VII and not VIIB):

Notice the airscoops, trolley, radiators, Pitot (see notes above):

Lower wings, fuselage and floats have locating devices. They work pretty well, only one float needed adjusting. Tail feathers and struts will need metal pins. The location of the struts is not marked on the wings and should be deduced from the 3-view in the instructions and photos. 

 Preparing some parts for priming and painting:

 

A coat of primer on some of the parts revealed a very good surface with little to touch up:

The plan to reduce the size of the radiators consists on shaving top and bottom for a flatter curve -thus reducing height- and cut an end section to be replaced by styrene sheet mimicking the other side's end plate -thus reducing length. The depth looks ok. The LE will need a small supplement to make up for the shorter length:

 The race positions:

The engine (Napier -Lion VII):

Trials (too little too late). Pilots and machines went to America with very few flights and basically no real training; nonetheless, there would be no chances again the much speedier American winner. An honorable second plane, though. 

 The predecessor, Gloster II. Notice the position of the radiators (covered in the photo):

These small cleat/eyelets were not present in this plane wearing the number 5 (N-195), but they were on the other Gloster III (N-194). They need to be removed if doing "5":

 I decided to remove the pins, very lightly sand the contact areas flat to obtain a better edge at the bottom and less fuss wit the filler:

Pay attention at how the struts do not connect on the spine centerline of the floats, but a little inwards. Also notice the painted white metal sheet where the struts anchor on the floats. Very unfortunately Karaya did not indicate where the struts go either on fuselage or floats (the floats do have rectangular sections engraved in the general area). This added to the no location marks for the wing struts or even a line to indicate the position of the fins, I find it cheeky:

 The noses of the floats tended to weer apart a little, and I couldn't completely coerce them in, so a smidgen of putty needs to be applied and sanded to shape:

As noted above, the kit's radiators are oversize, and need reducing in height and length. Once this was done the end that was sanded down is given an end plate back (that will be trimmed to match the resin part):

The kit's airscoops are not completely accurate, the hole is not as described and this is possibly a product a the limitations of the molding process:

The hole os part of the fairing, not the fuselage side. These below (made from the extruded Contrail stock of which I still have very few sticks) are approximations to the right shape (needs to be smaller to replace the kit's little bump):

Base colors applied to some parts:

Brass "Strutz" will be used to substitute some of the resin ones. My thanks as always to John Adams of Aeroclub fame and Andrew Nickeas of Fogland because long ago they provided my cherished supply of them:

The tail feathers are carefully drilled to accept metal pins:

The prop blades seem to be polished metal, while on the spinner I see the color of the fuselage (light blue), with perhaps the very tip in aluminium. Other parts are painted different hues of metal. The new airscoop is in place:

Another glitch: the floats do correspond to Karaya's instructions' 3-view... but not to their box art... or reality. The step is too far aft (by a long way). This also alters a little where the struts fall. As this can't be corrected (re-carving is impossible as the floats are hollowed), I think I may just press on, but it shows -again- that as much as well done the detail is on the molds (the cockpit detail is really nice) and as much as well cast the kits are, accuracy persists being a problem for Karaya.

Where the step should be:

Like in most kits (fortunately not all) but especially resin ones, the interior is bigger than it should be. This problem is so pervasive, so ubiquitous, you would think that after so many decades of kit-making manufacturers would have gotten it already. Culprits here...are all of the above: inst. pan., floor and seat. First the seat cylindrical stem should not be left tall as indicated in the plan, but drastically reduced. Then the structure longerons where it bumps against on the side should be nicked to accommodate it. Floor and isnt. panel sanded until they fit (little for the panel, more for the floor. Sigh...

Da Gap! 

After sanding the interior and no little coercion:

You may like to give the prop blades back a shave, they are too fat and convex (bulged) on that side. The original had a Fairey-Reed metal (similar to the one below):

This fat prop inaccuracy is also repeated in their kit of the Blackburn Pellet. 

A coat of primer for these sub-assemblies:

The exhausts stacks that Karaya did not mold in, are created with flattened brass tube cut to length (dry run):

 There were no plug-ins on this side, thus they should be deleted:

All parts are primed and their blemishes dealt with:

Due to Karaya's failure to provide even small marks (not to mention locating devices) for all the struts for floats and wings, and horizontal tail, the next steps will be challenging to say the least. Considering that the floats' track and the length of the struts provided is off (as experienced and reported by other builders) measures will need to be deduced from photos and some trial and error looms dark in the horizon. As all these elements are critical for the alignment of the model and it's accuracy, I deemed this a serious point against Karaya. Pity as again detail and casting are really good, added to the attraction of their racer subjects. 
 

The float flop. A good plan (Gloster Aircraft since 1917- Derek James) that Karaya didn't follow, :

A bad plan (from the notoriously inaccurate "The Air Racer", Mendenhall) that Karaya unfortunately followed):

 

Karaya somehow managed to make all struts too long (this was also noted by other modelers). The interplane struts seem not to account for the dihedral. The ones that rig the floats together are almost ok (they will be replaced by brass "Strutz" anyway for strength). The fuselage-to-float struts are way off the mark:

Holes for rigging and control horns are drilled. The position of the wing struts is marked. The rudder needs to be separated from the alternate fin...

...and glued to the larger one. Not sure why Karaya didn't mold both complete:

Not visible here is that the tail surfaces have been drilled to insert metal pins to secure them better:

At this point it's more a case of damage control with this kit, nicely detailed and cast but with accuracy and engineering issues. I am gathering information from what I think is the better available plan (Derek James') and photos and correcting what I can. 

This kit surely needs work, but at least it's not the discouraging half-fantasy the Savoia S.65 kit was.

 

 

To be continued...