Contrail 1/72 Ripon
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REVIEW: |
Jim Walker |
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NOTES: |
Kit modifed to Finnish version with radial vice inline engine. |
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HISTORY |
The Ripon was license-built by the Finns and fitted with a radial engine. Though obsolete by WW II, it continued to operate as a coastal support aircraft from floats, skis and wheels.
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CONSTRUCTION |
The Contrail kit was converted by cutting off the nose and fashioning a new forward fuselage from balsa, sheet plastic, and Milliput, to which was attached an Aeroclub white metal Panther engine and prop. The rudder was replaced by a more pointed version constructed from sheet plastic and rod.
I used Contrail and Strutz stock for the struts. I rigged it with invisible thread, drilling holes and jigging the bottom half of the upper wing, added the top wing half after all the superglued line and struts had a chance to set. Don't know if I'd try this sequence of building a biplane again! The floats were also replaced with Aeroclub vacuformed floats which more closely matched the drawings in the chief reference, Suomen Ilmavoimien #15 ( Finnish Maritime Aircraft).
The cockpit details seats, joystick, and Scarf ring, Vickers guns, and oil cooler are also Aeroclub. Aeromaster paints were used with Tally Ho decals for the national insignia and Microscale railroad alphabets.
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