Pro Resin 1/72nd Curtiss F6C-3 "Hawk" By Eric Gallaud

History

You can find the history of this plane in the in-box review of Internet Modeler December 2004 by Matt Bittner.

The Kit

It is a tan resin kit with a little photoetched fret and an acetate sheet for the various dials and for the windshield.

The decals look nice, the only point to deal with seems to be the fact that they are printed matt.

The Build

I start to find some references, documentation. As I am a WW1 planes builder I have almost nothing about this plane. Thanks to Matt Bittner and Internet, I found a drawing and some pictures.

After trimming, filing, sanding all of the parts, I start the construction process with the inside. There is no major problem except with the rudder pedals. They are made from etched brass and have not the right size compared to the floor where they must be attached. After several attempts, one of them took off and landed ... somewhere. I decided to scratch a new pair in Evergreen and brass rod. I painted all of the parts in white aluminium, then the floor was also painted in battleship grey and received a black wash.

The fuselage sides are done the same way, aluminium and black wash. The commands are painted in satin black. I added the radiator painted flat black with a drybrush of aluminium. I also added the control panel and the previous subassembly. Then, I can close the fuselage. I had some little problems, the floor is a little bit too wide, or I sanded too much the 2 fuselage halves. So, I trimmed the floor carefully and everything goes better. After the fuselage closed, the inside is almost invisible. I needed to remove the joint line without removing the nicely done details.

I have to modify the shape of the fuselage according to the pictures and drawing. On the picture, you can see the modified fuselage, the red line represents the original shape. To do the modification, I use Tamiya epoxy putty.

Prior to adding the lower wings, I "sand" them with thin steel wool. It gives a smoother surface without removing details. Then, I add the lower wings with correct dihedral angle. It is clearly indicated in the instructions.

Now to the floats. First of all, I create a jig made of balsa to have the correct distance between the two floats. After that, I replace the struts between the floats by Strutz which is stronger than the ones provided in resin.

After joining the two floats, I added the side struts, reinforced with steel spring wire. The central struts were glued afterward.

Then, I painted the whole assembly Aluminium.

The propeller is also painted aluminium and the spinner gloss red.

Now, painting of the fuselage. First, a coat of Alclad Aluminium, then after masking, a coat of Misterkit Battleship grey. I airbrushed 2 coats of Klir (our local Future) for decal adhesion. These decals are matt, which is not the best thing. Looking my Pro Resin kits, they are all gloss and look very thin. It is difficult to avoid silvering, there is a little bit under the decals. In the end, I airbrushed a coat of Prince August satin varnish (Vallejo).

Then I added the floats to the fuselage. I added some grey pastel chalk between each wing ribs. I also add the exhaust pipes and the part on the top of the motor cover. The headrest and the coaming are painted in brown.

I glued the interplane struts onto the lower wings and let them dry for a day. Be careful, you have to adapt the hole to the struts, I needed a lot of tests before gluing. Once they are well glued, you can add the top wing. After that, you can add the cabane struts, with a little trimming and then, the aileron control struts. I painted all of the struts after assembly. The rigging is easy to do. I use the following technique : Drill 0.3mm holes half way in the lower wings and completely through the top wing (before top wing addition, of course). For this kit, I use smoked nylon thread that I pass through the top wing and glue into the corresponding hole in the bottom wing. When dry, I tighten the wire and glue it in the top wing with thin CA glue.

After that, I remove the thread above the top wing and sand the wing to remove any trace of glue. Be gentle to avoid to break the wing assembly. Then, I mask the plane for the top wing painting. Then, I airbrush some coats of Citadel Golden yellow. When dry, I handbrush 3 coats of Klir to obtain a glossy finish.

After removing all of the carrier film, I add the identification decals and the roundels, then airbrush a coat of satin varnish. When dry, I remove all the masking.

Then, I add the rudder painted separately with the same technique and colour as the upper wing. I also added the gunsight, the windscreen, the tail skid and the landing stick, the 2 last items are strange on a floatplane. The separation between the mobile parts and the rudder are enhanced with brown watercolor pencil.

Conclusion

This was a very unusual subject for me as I only build WW1 planes. However, this one is a biplane and has rigging. It is a very nice kit, well engineered and, with the documentation I have, possible to build "out of the box".

A big thank you to Matt who allowed me to build this plane and to Pro Resin for providing this kit.