British wings over the Pampas: RAF Se.5a in Argentine Navy service.

So much has been written about the R.A.F. Se.5a, first mocking and then praising it, that to my relief I finally found a nice source of information about the plane in this most respectable website:

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/projects/se-5a-reproduction/se-5a-history

After the Great War, with so many surplus aircrafts on the market, aeroclubs throughout the world started buying machines to replace their old, battered collections of pre-war and early military airplanes. In Argentina, alongside with the planes brought by the british, french and italian military missions interested in placing their surplus aicrafts in the local market, some aeroclubs and civilians brought their own machines. Such were the cases of several Curtiss Jenny trainers and a handful of Royal Aircraft Factory Se.5as flown from airstrips in the outskirts of the city in the early 20s.

One of the Se.5as was bought as surplus in England by the president of the Argentine Aeroclub, Jorge Luro. Ferried by ship to Argentina and intended as an aerobatic ride for Mr. Luro, it was donated after a brief spell to the Argentine Navy in 1927. For roughly 2 years it was used as an advanced trainer due to its rugged construction, remarcable flying qualities and engine reliability. Despite the mounting problems to get the much needed spare parts for the airplane and care of the airframe, the engine was always well tended, since the Wolseley Viper W.4 was also mounted on the Avro 552 two-seat trainers in use at the time. The little fighter-trainer would come to grief in January 24th, 1929, when a pilot shed the landing gear after a rough approach, and the wings and fuselage structure got twisted in the crash. After inspection of the extensive damage, it was decided to declare it a write off. Sadly, nothing remains of this important aircraft today, to remind us about its contribution to Navy flying in the early years.

After the sad crash, in its final livery:

From 1927, when acquired, and according to the Navy regulations, it was painted in silver dope (matt aluminum is called upon local painting directives), with black straight anchors and call sign. This scheme stemmed from a directive issued on October 1927, trying to standardize markings and painting. This directive, O.G. 180, also called for rudder and elevators to be painted in the national colours of light blue - white - light blue, longitudinally for the vertical surfaces and transversally for the horizontal ones. The Sol de Mayo sun was to be painted yellow gold, centered within the white stripe of the rudder, only. The code applied to the Se.5a was E-11, E standing for "Entrenador" (Trainer-11). This call sign was to be applied to both fuselage sides and the upper wing, where it would match the size of the black anchors.

The fighter would fly in this guise untill a new markings and painting directive was issued in 1928, this time O.G. 141, ordered the change of call signs from single letter plus number to a double letter plus number. Under its new identity as AC-21, Avion de Caza-21 (Fighter plane-21), it retained all the previous markings and the silver dope finish. A picture taken at this time shows the aircraft with its new markings and discloses a very interesting feature: it has the Foster mount for the Lewis gun and Aldis sight. The aircraft was delivered to Mr. Luro unarmed, and always thought to be flown that way, so the addition was surely a local matter.

In the picture taken after the crash, we can see it in its final livery, with all customary markings plus a nose paintjob in black. It seems all wooden and metal claded surfaces in the fuselage were painted black, as well as the headrest.

Roden R.A.F Se.5a (Wolseley Viper) 1/72

This release by the ukranian company came to my hands as a gift from a friend's friend, who had it in his stash and wasn't sure about building it any time soon. All in all it's a worthy replacement for the old Esci and Revell kits. As usual with Roden, some bits are really fiddly while others need a thorough clean up. But that doesn't put us down, hardened modelers we are, does it? The surface detail is great and there are optional parts for the coaming, armament, etc. Decals are good but were left behind in pursuit of this project, except for the instrument dial faces.
The best reference one can get for this project is the Windsock Datafile on the plane, which also is a very fun and in depth reading. And of course, the afore mentioned Vintage Aviator site. Beginning with the interior of the kit, all pieces belonging to it were cut and cleaned. The coaming sans its ammo drum was completed and some bits of stretched sprue and plastic profiles were used for the different levers found in the cockpit. All wood surfaces were painted with a base of Humbrol H-63, then treated with Faber Castell pencils to give them some woodgrain effect. Linen covered parts were painted H-41 Ivory and the the inner rigging for the fuselage was drawn via a sharp black pencil. It looks good, even looking close.

The firewall sheeting below the fuel tank was painted H-56, Aluminum. Since there's a large opening at the bottom of the center wing, providing access to the engine ancilliaries and cooling, the back of a Viper engine was fashioned with plastic bits and stretched sprue and painted H-53, Gunmetal. The fuel lines were painted copper H-55. Two small lengths of stretched sprue were glued afterwards in an X pattern accross the hole, since that rigging was present in the machines. Lap belts were added to the seat, painted in Monitor's Dark Ochre the former and woodgrain and dirtied-up H-41 Ivory the latter. Wires were added to the pedal bar. So far so good, since there was really little tweaking to be done when mating the fuselage halves and then gluing the lower wing.

The woodgrained parts were varnished with Cristalba varnish and the instruments decal applied. It fitted snuggly without problems. It was coated with Cristalba as well after drying.

The lower part of the nose and the wedges were the cylinder banks have to be glued were also painted in H-56 Aluminum.

These are shots from different angles to show how the paintwork looks like once finished. Trust me, my dirty fingernails are nothing when compared with the likes of some fellow argentine modelers... Not to talk about stinky breath and body odors. They're mostly a dirty bunch. Anyway, back to modeling...

I cut the cylinder banks off their sprue gates, and the engine upper cover as well. After cleaning up, the were painted in H-33 and H-56 respectively. The cylinders got their pipes at the inner rear end of the banks and painted brass. It was at this point that the upper coaming and the very nice radiator face were glued. A small pass with the Xacto knife was given to the fuel tank retaining straps, so they would stand up a little bit from the general detail.

With that done, the cylinders and the cover were glued to the fuselage. Previously, the rudder was cut off for easier painting and detailing the unfaired tailskid. It was achieved via an angled strip of plastic, stretched sprue and a small plastic tab for the skid itself.

 A look at the kitchen table, where I build my kits some times. The up side is that I have coffee, tea and snacks at hand, the downside is that staring at the garden while thinking about painting options and building steps usually consumes more time than the build itself...

It was at this point that the stabilizers were glued. You have to choose the larger, later ones from the sprues. As I was goofing around the already painted propeller and the wheels were placed in their pins. And voila! A racing monoplane was born! Actually I gave a couple of thoughts to the idea but since there were no decals that I could match it up to, it was dropped.

The fit is really good, specially using Revell's Contacta. The propeller is the wide bladed one. The other one was painted at the same time and given to the friend that got me the Roden kit, since he was building a Fokker Dr.1 with a Gnome engine and british propeller. I guess it was Josef Jacob's mount. They were painted in H-186, Leather Brown, and given the Faber Castell treatment with the darker brown tones. British propellers of the time look rather dark and uniform in appearance due to the thick "french styled" varnish used. Cristalba varnish was not used, Revell's nro.1 being brushed over them, since it renders a gloss yet lusterlesss look to them.

All holes for the rigging were drilled at this point. The cabane struts were cleaned up and attached to the fuselage. So was the upper wing. The plans enclosed in the Windsock Datafile proved very useful at this point.

The wing struts were cleaned up and glued at this point. It makes it harder to rig the model but gives you a sturdier base to work with when painting and applying decals.

The Argentine Navy machine had the fairings for the landing skid removed, so it was scratch-built from stretched sprue and stock plastic sheet.

 

It was this stage that exterior painting got started. H-22, Gloss White, was airbrushed on the elevators rudder. H-33 Flat Black was hand painted over the front end of the kit and some little details that show up in the pictures.

Also, some stretched sprue was used for the cable pulleys in the wings and elevators.

 

After giving quite a thought as to what colour use for the silver gray finish, I settled on Humbrol's H-191, Chrome Silver. H-11 is too bright for my taste and was left to paint some engine details after finishing. The front end and cockpit and were masked with Tamiya tape and the whole airframe sprayed with H-191.

Don't worry about it being too shiny, the two coats of varnish will tone it down enough to look in scale. It was only after painting it that I realised about all the great detail job Roden did on the flying surfaces and fuselage. Really subtle and neat.

After the masking was taken off the kit, decaling started. The wing's anchors and the rudder's Sol de Mayo were taken from an AT-6/SNJ Aerocalcas decal sheet. They were the perfect size for the project. Different sets of Letrasets were used for the codes. The font for the upper wing ones was taken from a picture of a wrecked Avro 552 and seemed quite logical due to the machine's time frame to use it in the Se.5a. Here, the fuselage codes are applied, and a first look at how the paint scheme is coming out.

Letraset is not the best media to work on an angular, textured biplane, but it was all I had at hand at the tiem. All the touch ups were done later on with a very fine brush.

After the codes were complete on both sides of the fuselage, it was time to place the anchor decals on the wings. They were placed acording to the General Orders dispositions of the time.

So far so good. The Letraset codes were left for later, once the decals had dried up.

Now, the underside of the little beast. I managed to curl and crack one tip of the left hand cross, it was later fixed with a fine brush.

The lower surfaces are complete. To be noted is that while the upper surfaces have a very subtle ribbing effect, the sagging of tense, and yet heavy fabric on the lower ones is just excellent.

And this is the Underdog Feat of the Day. I started rubbing all the letters down on the upper wing and the only ones which gave me a hard time were the "A" and "C", which cracked and dirtied the paint job and then the Letraset film peeled the paint out. Way to go!

Some other shots of the bloody mess I got myself into. And all of it just because I didn't prime the airframe first, afraid of losing some of that wonderful detail.

So, in the meantime, I set my sights painting the markings for the rudder and elevators. It was done with Gloss White H-22 and Sea Blue H-47. Tamiya masking tape was also used. The Sol de Mayo sun was applied at this stage. Also, some detail paint was carried on the propeller boss with Gunmetal H-53, Aluminum H-56 and Chrome Silver H-191. Wheels were sprayed with the latter and then the tires brush painted in Sea Grey, H-27.

Fixing the paint job on the upper wing was the central matter of some debate among friends. Some said I should polish the whole section, paint it once again and decal it. Others said that gently wet sanding the area and re-spraying was another solution. The problem was, I had no more decals. And very little Letraset at all, after all the fixing. So, I wet sanded the area, painted it with a careful layer of H-191 and then another one when dry, and touched up the letters with the remaining parts and some H-33 black paint.

It could have been worst, you know? I've never been the kind of modeler to "Warp-six" a kit against the wall (most of times), So I thank the guy up there for the whole lot of work saved instead of bitching about the little part that got spoiled. Some paint work was carried out on the front end. Radiator unist were painted Gunmetal H-53 and dry brushed Aluminum H-56. So was the tail skid. Later on, the tail skid and rudder were glued in place. The frames and radiator cooling gills rod got a coat of Silver H-11. The boots at the tip of the wing struts were painted black H-33 as well. A wooden stick was placed in the intake so the model could be varnished easily. Wheels were placed just for fun.

Another view of the almost finished model.

It still lacks the final coat of varnish, to protect the decals and fragile Letraset markings. And the rigging, which is always a nightmare for me.

Another shot, showing the nice shapes and proportions of the Roden kit. I really love that ukranian company. Some of their kits have rather heavy flash, but their detail and finishing quality is simply great.

Now, the rigging. I hate it. It just doesn't do the trick for me. So much so, that the bulgarian Arado Ar-65 has suffered some minor deformations due to heat exposure while trying to tighten the Aeroclub monofilament. The same friend that got me the kit offered himself to wire the little critter, so I kind of toss the bipe into his caring hands and waited for the miracle. After a couple of months, I asked him about the Se. and he had not only finished it, he also saw his smoking habits worsen. It turned out he had last rigged a biplane (or any plane, at that) something like millenia ago and had to redo the rigging a couple of times.

With that out of the way, I brought the critter back home and started with the finishing touches. Rigging was painted with a wash of H-53, Gunmetal, and turpentine, using a very fine brush.  The leather cockpit padding and head rest cushion were painted in ModelMaster's Italian Red Brown. the tiny, semi-circular windscreen was cut from the film provided by Roden (four different and very useful shapes, thank you, guys!) and glued with Revell's Contacta to the front end of the coaming. The coaming window was covered with Humbrol's Clear Fix. The exhaust pipes were taken of their base and glued to the cylinder banks and fuselage below the cockpit. Finally, the propeller was secured into position And that was it. It's finished. The third one for 2011. It looks good in its final livery, so Art-Deco and "twenty-ish".

And with these pictures, another project came to an end. There are several in the drawing board, as usual. Some of them will say nothing to many a modeler, and others are there simply to prove you can build whatever you want, regardless its origin, its intended use and whatever the modeling popes tell you is tabu.

Oh, a little addenda: after taking the pictures, I realized that no rigging was done on the rudder and stern post. Well, blimey, I'll do it one of these days...

Till our next installment, take care and goodluck.

The Modeling Underdog