Caudron C.561 French Racing Plane by DocRob - FINISHED - S.B.S. Models - 1/48

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, CDW said:

How did the pilot see anything looking forward while inside the cockpit? Must have been quite a task on landing and takeoff and flying around the pylons for that matter though I guess when rolled to one side the pilot would gain some forward vision that way.

 

Some Caudron racers competed in American pylon races, but the C.561 was designed exclusively to win the third 'Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe' in 1936, were the rules were the following:

In 1931 Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe initiated a new competition for the Coupe, which was contested for the first time on 29 May 1933.^[12] The trial was to be run in two 1,000km stages separated by a 90 minutes refuelling stop, and was limited to aircraft with an engine capacity of less than eight litres. The starting point of the race was still at the aerodrome at Étampes. Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe was offering one million Francs, and the Ministère de l'Air (Air Ministry) offered another three million in prize money.^[13]

The course was over 100 km (62 miles), from Etampes aerodrome to Chartres Bonce and back. The race itself was in two stages, each of 1,000 km (625 miles).

^(Wikipedia)

I guess with that configuration, there was a lot of straight flying.
 

The only Caudron C.561 was not contending due to technical difficulties in 1936.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

After working on the bottom fuselage seam, I added all the major components to the fuselage. You glue the wings together first, push them into the fuselage and than add the intersecting cowling piece. Smart engineering and the fit is perfect. The tail was glued into place and now I have to wait for the delivery of my hopefully good looking blue color.

 

Because size was an issue in this thread, I wanted to make a short comparison with other 1/48 planes, I built.
 

The mighty MIG is no real match, the Caudron looks like an external tank with wings.

 

The Hellcat is a monster against this tiny racer and even the small WWI Siemens Schuckert D.III has a lot more wingspan, but a shorter fuselage.

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

[yvesvidal]

It is always nice to compare models at the same scale.

 

Yves

[DocRob]

On with the Caudron. After almost two weeks my color order arrived and I got back in the tracks. I masked the canopy with the supplied Kabuki masks, which fittet, who wonders, perfectly. The airframe was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, after a rub with an alcohol soaked cloth. There was no place to hold the plane while spraying, so I inserted a 1mm brass rod into a pre drilled hole in the air duct. My pin vise worked as a handle than.

 

 

Then it was time for the blue. After lots of considerations, I went with a dark gloss blue, namely Tamiya X-3 Royal blue. The picture was taken immediately after spraying and I hope the gloss will remain

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Javlin]

Looking good Rob will always looks better to after the paint levels off also.

[Egilman]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

I went with a dark gloss blue, namely Tamiya X-3 Royal blue

That'll work.... Well done

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Javlin said:

Looking good Rob will always looks better to after the paint levels off also.

 

13 hours ago, Egilman said:

That'll work.... Well done

Thank you Gentlemen, I will check how the paint has cured next thing. What I learned about blue tones is, that they tend to look more different under changing lighting conditions and camera settings and not by little. I guess, that's what it makes so hard to detect the right hue, even from color pictures.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The blue color settled nicely, while drying overnight. The sheen has been a little less, but I like the look scale wise. There is a slightly lighter panel accentuation visible, due to the very transparent character of the blue color. I like the effect and it spares me another panel line wash or similar, as I often found, lighter panel borders appear more real than dark ones.

 

 

The next bit was the nerve straining task of foiling the cowling with Bare Metal Foil. I made a test on the unpainted model, which was not too bad, but lacked perfection. The first try on the painted plane was not satisfactory, it seems, i struggle with keeping a straight line with the scalpel, to cut the borders inside the fine panel lines. I removed this attempt and nervously applied a new foil. It came out not perfect, but will have to do. 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The sparse IP was added to the front cockpit part. It's made from a PE board over acetate film dials and I glued them with Pledge, to risk no fogging and have shiny 'glass' dials.

 

 

The canopy was a bit adventurous to paint, masked with the supplied and well fitting Kabuki masks and Kabuki tape from the inside, then sprayed gloss black for the rear framing. These parts got over masked after drying and the rest of the canopy was airbrushed with the blue fuselage color. Photos show, that the rear vertical spars were metal colored and to replicate this, I applied 0,5mm strips of Bare Metal Foil onto the frames, cut on my Inifini template.

 

 

Lastly, I painted the exhausts silver, but that will be retouched with a metallic black on top, that only a silver base will show. The canopy is only loosely fitted on the pics.
Well, I think it starts to look fast now.

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Javlin]

Paint leveled off Nicely!!

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, Javlin said:

Paint leveled off Nicely!!

Thank you Kevin, the Royal Blue behaved well in the end, but needed some passes, until it had the right opacity. With such a translucent color and the need for a 'flooded' application for the shine, it was always on the verge of running.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finally added the undercarriage, which is a mix out of brass casted wheel struts, resin struts and three PE pars per side plus the resin wheel of course. Assembling the struts was easy, but the photoetched parts were a bit difficult to position, though the manufacturer etched some marks, where the gluing points are, luckily. 

Tomorrow I will add the prop blades and decals and the blue beauty will be eye candy in my display shelf.
 

Cheers Rob

 

[Canute]

Coming along beautifully, Rob. Well done. 👍

[DocRob]

I couldn't resist, as racers seem to let me go fast . Decals went on beautifully and luckily there are only four of them. I glued in the propeller blades and went through the painful task of denting all the chrome cowling holes with a toothpick. I will need some finishing touches, but then the beautiful Caudron is done. The kit was near perfect and an absolut fun to build. This will not be my last racing plane, there is another green one in the pipeline.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Great work, Rob!

[CDW]

It looks fast standing still. Beautiful model.

[Old Collingwood]

Superbly  done.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

Excellent!

 

Nice Work...

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Great work, Rob!

 

13 hours ago, CDW said:

It looks fast standing still. Beautiful model.

 

12 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Superbly  done.

 

37 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Excellent!

 

Thank you Gentlemen, after the time consuming and tedious work on USS Arizona, this was a welcoming fast project. I have to tip my hat to SBS Models, as the created a tamiaesque resin kit. I have another racer in my mind to be build in near future. It will be green.

Thank you all for contributing and following, I took a lot of precious information out of your input about the Caudron.

 

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Great looking racer. Nicely done. Looking forward to your next build.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Canute said:

Great looking racer. Nicely done. Looking forward to your next build.

Thank you Ken, about the next build, I'm not so sure, too many tempting projects. Waiting for the Caudron's colors to arrive, I toyed a little with a Hong Kong Model 1/32 Dornier Do 335 B2 and there is my still to finish 1/32 Fly Arado 234 waiting. Another option is the huge Wingnut Wings AEG G.IV night bomber,...
... and there is always the rigging of the Duchess of Kingston to be done, lastly the reason, why I signed up to MSW.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Post Scriptum to a finished build. A member on LSM addressed, what was gnawing on me all the time. The prominent fasteners of the engine cowling in their high shine appearance. After trying different methods, I found one working satisfactory but it was delicate. I adhered strips of Bare Metal Foil over the area, pushed and turned a sharpened toothpick into the holes and then carefully removed the foil with the toothpick still pushed into the hole, tell me about finger gymnastics .
Now I can put this build onto the shelf and find my sleep without having to care about this brainbug.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

sharp look'in plane Rob......very nicely done!  

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

sharp look'in plane Rob......very nicely done!  

 

Sharp about sums it up, design wise Popeye. It was a pure pleasure build and now that I think about it my first full resin plane kit.

 

Cheers Rob

[GrandpaPhil]

Very well done!

[CDW]

9 hours ago, DocRob said:

 

Sharp about sums it up, design wise Popeye. It was a pure pleasure build and now that I think about it my first full resin plane kit.

 

Cheers Rob

Some full resin model warship kits in the late 90's and early 2000's left a permanent scar on my psyche for that medium in a full kit. Remember in those days when resin models were often full of pinholes and other imperfections? I'm sure today's resin models are much better, like yours, but I have scars none the less.

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Very well done!

 

Thank you Phil, it will not be my last racing plane, as I already ordered another one.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

6 hours ago, CDW said:

Some full resin model warship kits in the late 90's and early 2000's left a permanent scar on my psyche for that medium in a full kit. Remember in those days when resin models were often full of pinholes and other imperfections? I'm sure today's resin models are much better, like yours, but I have scars none the less.

I think there are still some resin kits out there, which are badly cast and designed, but the Caudron was a perfect kit to start a full resin build. I already ordered another of their racer kits, albeit in 1/72 normally not my scale.
My scars are a less deep it seems, but I had my run ins with mediocre resin kits as well some years ago and never finished them, but will do later.

 

Cheers Rob

[realworkingsailor]

8 hours ago, CDW said:

Remember in those days when resin models were often full of pinholes and other imperfections?

A good sign the resin casting was not put under a vacuum after pouring. Without treatment air bubbles can remain trapped in the resin and leave defects as you describe. If the casting is placed in a vacuum chamber after it’s been poured, the air bubbles will be drawn out, resulting in a much cleaner casting. 
 

Andy

[Canute]

I have an acquaintance who makes resin kits in a range of model railroad scales and he swears by the vacuum step. I have one of his kits and can vouch for his faith in that approach. I'd have more, if he did more work in HO scale.