Supermarine S-4 Schneideer Cup 1925 completed - Airframe vacuformed kit, 1/72

 (this is the completed model post, if you would like to see the step-by-step building article, please go here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/07/supermarine-s-4-schneider-cup-baltimore.html

This little kit from the late Canadian John Tarvin -progenitor of a number of interesting subjects some years ago- was a well-deserved incarnation of one of the most pleasant Schneider Cup designs.

Airframe kits are simple and lack accessories, but many can be built into fair replicas with some patience and skill. In general their plastic is molded rather thin and there is almost no detail, but again, they issued types shunned by the giants. Since all kits are the work of love by someone, it's hard to criticize them, but some have limitations, and needless to say time doesn't help most. Given the configuration of the plane and the limitations of this kit, you are set for a bumpy ride, as with the original plane.

I have seen several of these S-4 completed with skill, so it is not an impossible model, but surely requires some modeling steam.
The marks are from Arctic Decals.

And since we are talking about kits, there is a lesser known kit of the S-4, but its mere name and sight produces kit-building nightmares and conjures visions of modeling horror: the Merlin Models release in 1/72.

Now, I have seen my fair share of Frankenkits, and built many of them, but this Merlin one is absolutely beyond redemption, and the dust bin is too high a fate for it.

I think it is high time that some manufacturer releases a modern kit of this beauty, as it has been done with other racers.

So lets hope that in the future we can build an S-4 kit without having to recruit the help of Fëanor or some other highly skilled elf.

American (Shelton) AG-4 Crusader - Avis, 1/72nd scale - completed

 

 (If you would like to see the step-by-step assembly post, please go here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/07/american-shelton-gyro-ag-4-crusader.html

Once again congratulations to Avis for releasing this fantastic, futuristic plane of the Golden Age of aviation. Not only a civil subject to break the tiring routine of the endless parade of drab and gloomy military machines, but a plane with a revolutionary design and a very appealing shape.

The kit itself requires a bit of cleaning and some prodding here and there, nothing extraordinary, though, and something we modelers are used to with these kits of smaller manufacturers.
I replaced the kit's nose decals (that were inaccurate) with Arctic Decals items (thanks, Mika!)

I am pleased beyond words (although I had nothing to do with it) that a subject that I scratched many years ago (see here in this link, and photographs of the two models bellow):

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/07/scratch-built-172-american-shelton-ag-4.html

for sheer love of the machine, is now available to the modelers in the form of a fairly detailed, affordable kit.

So here it is a plane that may have looked like a space ship in its time, when biplanes were aplenty on the skies.

 Shelton, the designer, was no doubt a refined visionary, unfortunately hindered by the financial doldrums of his time. He created a memorable plane that whispered "streamline" to the ears of the incredulous bystanders.