Another Schneider Trophy plane; here's when Supermarine, one of the companies building contenders for Britain's entries in the competition, recognised that floatplanes rather than flying boats were the way to go. It was designed by R.J. Mitchell - later the designer of the Spitfire - and was radically different from the flying boat racers which he had produced for previous competitions. One of them, the Supermarine Sea Lion II, had won the 1922 competition at Naples. It was a biplane, and Mitchell improved it with a more powerful engine for the 1923 competition at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. However, that was won by one of the new Curtiss floatplane racers, and Mitchell recognised immediately the need to reduce drag, and in future Schneider competitions sleek floatplanes would dominate. The only thing his new S.4 would share with the earlier Sea Lions was its Napier engine, though of course a much more powerful one.
The 1925 competition took place at Baltimore in the USA. Earlier, the new S.4 had raised the floatplane world speed record to 226mph. Just before the contest a gale damaged the airframe; the repair seemed satisfactory, but then it went out of control and dived into the sea, injuring its pilot Henry Biard, Supermarine's chief test pilot. Britain was left with two Gloster floatplanes for the competition, both biplanes, which weren't able to match Jimmy Doolittle's new Curtiss R3C, hence a second win for the US.
This 1:72 kit of the Supermarine S.4 (plus the supplementary kit of the trolley) is yet another lovely resin production from SBS models of Hungary. They've put out lots of models of 'tween wars aircraft, notably several of Schneider Trophy racers. They're beautifully produced, with the finest of details which really test one's skills. However to be honest this is the first I've built, simply because I took so long to get hold of a razor saw - essential for these SBS kits because of the way they cast their parts on solid blocks.
You won't be impressed, and probably shouldn't be, at the mess-ups which I was enmired in this time. Especially since I was saying that this is a very nicely designed kit. I take issue with one of the instructions, but frankly any experienced modeler should read them carefully and take a view, with plenty of dry fitting of the parts. Remember, these parts are either resin cast or 3D printed, therefore more fragile than plastic ones. The instruction at issue for me, is the one which tells you to fit the float struts into the fuselage first, and then down into the floats, carefully positioned or in place on that trolley. They fit neatly. However, the 'sockets' in the floats are much more solid, so to speak, and the resin parts don't offer any give. Eventually, all four struts broke at the top end, and now I had to fit it on what were only facing joints. They may look okay in the pics, but the bodging would be evident if you examined them. Too bad, but after a lot of effort the S.4 now looks okay. From a little distance.
Unless you're knowledgeable, and have spotted that the two float cross braces are missing. I had to forget them during the struggle to fit the floats - one simply vanished in thin air - and at the end point I postponed any attempt to deal with them. Possibly permanently.
Here's the interior. Taking pictures of the cockpit area during the build has now become a habit, and it occurs to me this is my reaction to one of the main oddities of the high standards of detailing in modern kits, that you do all this interior work which can't be seen once you've sealed it all up. Lovely detail there, as I'm sure you agree. I left the cockpit walls in their natural grey; on the basis of little evidence, I believe that's what they were. But look at that lovely instrument panel, with tiny visible dials. The compass in the centre; the control column, the throttle thingy on the left hand side, the rudder bar, and the seat complete with belts. None of this is visible except for the seat. And it's more true for these racers than for most open cockpit planes, the rims/surrounds were as restricted as they could make them, while still allowing a pilot to get inside. I think I'm realising another of the reasons why the Schneider Trophy races had such a high casualty rate, with the difficulty of getting out, along with the inevitability of crashing into water.
The Supermarine S.4 was a beautiful plane, and despite what I've said about the build, I'm truly grateful that people, SBS in particular, are producing such excellent kits. Just see those location pins in the picture above. You'd never have got those in resin kits of only a few years ago. Apart from that problem with the floats, the fit was perfect. I have more Schneider Trophy planes to build, mostly SBS kits; and I will get better at putting them together! :)
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