Aerotech | Supermarine S.6B - 1931 Schneider Trophy Racer
Reviewed by Gene Nollmann
Expectations
When Essdale decided not to add (or continue) their multi-media resin kiting of the Supermarine S.5 and the Macchi MC.72, many budding 32nd scale Schneider Trophy racer collections became stillborn. When Marsh Models announced a new line of kits under the label ‘Aerotech’ to be dedicated to aircraft with a major portion to feature 32nd scale racing aircraft, a bit of a stir followed in the 32nd scale community. Interest intensified when the first offering was slated to be the Supermarine S.6B. Kits were to be limited to a run of 100 kits. Ultimately when the kit was released, it was priced at £120 ($220USD approx.) plus shipping.
With Fisher’s Grumman jets and Airshowmodel’s Pitts and Christen Eagle kits already on the market as well as the CraftWorks line, some pretty good resin multi-media kits are available to the modeler. Granted, the subject matter varies greatly, but the existing kits set the standards modelers come to expect; clean, crisp decal options, quality photoetched metal work, crisp detailed cast metal castings and above all, quality, bubble-free, finely detailed resin castings. All are engineered to fit tightly with not a great deal of clean-up and a come with a comprehensive set of instructions. Prices for this type of kit range from $95USD (£52GBP) to $195USD (£107GBP). By price, Aerotech has placed themselves in the upper reaches of expectations and judging from the quality of their 43rd scale race cars, Marsh Models/Aerotech has a high reputation to maintain.
Subject Background
The Supermarine S.6B was a seaplane built for the purpose of competing in and winning the 1931 Schneider Trophy for seaplanes. Contest rules required the entering ‘national aeronautical club’ to sustain 3 successive contest wins. Supermarine established their first win of the final string with the S.5 in 1927 and their second with S.6 in 1929. In the 1931 meet held on the 13th of September, Supermarine won their 3rd successive race with the S.6B. Having won 3 consecutive races within 5 years, Supermarine won the Schneider Trophy in perpetuity and ended the series. At the outset in 1913 the winning prize was established as the Schneider Trophy, a sculpture valued at 27,000 francs and a cash prize for the pilot, also 27,000 francs. The race series was obviously not about the trophy ‘art’ or the cash prize.
The S.6B went on to raise the absolute air speed record to 407.5 mph on 16 Sep 1931. That record was broken and raised to 440.683 mph (709.209 km/h) by the Macchi MC.72 (built for the 1931 Schneider Trophy race but unable to race due to engine problems) breaking the record on 23 Oct 1934 (and is the subject for Aerotech’s next 1:32 kit due in July 2005).
The Schneider Trophy race planes were statements of exotic engineering to the extreme. Being seaplanes the engineers were able to utilize very thin low drag wing airfoils but required very long take off and landing runs (as land planes they would have had to have some take-off boost and parachute landing for the existing runways – the S.6B would approach at 160 mph and land around 100 mph – this was in 1929/1931).
To maintain a sleek low drag fuselage, frontal area was held to an absolute minimum (just barely enough to allow the pilot control movement) and engine cooling was achieved by surface heat transfer. Every available surface was used to dissipate heat from engine coolants and oil. This meant the tops of the floats, top and bottom of the wing, and the sides and bottom of the fuselage and in the case of the S.6B, the oil cooled in the fuselage side tubes was sprayed on the interior surfaces of the vertical tail. At one point a weight and balance issue was cured by not retaining so much oil in the tail!
The planes were true ‘technology demonstrators’ and in the case of Supermarine, the engineering exercise was good groundwork for the near future.
First impressions - What’s in the BoxThe kit comes in a graphically modest but sturdy box and the parts are packed with care. The wing is sandwiched in between two layers of foam, the fuselage wrapped in bubble-wrap, and the smaller resin and cast metal parts are in poly-bags and all buried in foam-peanuts to minimize movement in shipping.
The multi-media kit’s 151 pieces break down as follows: cast resin (18 pcs), cast white metal (29 pcs), photo-etched stainless steel (68 pcs), photo-etched brass (31 pcs), metal rods (2 pcs), 1 piece of acetate for the windscreen, and 1 photo-film of the instrument dials. The kit also includes decals for 3 variants and kit assembly instructions.
Resin (appearing to be a polyester resin) composes the greatest bulk of the kit broken down into a one-piece wing, a one-piece fuselage/vertical tail with a narrow ventral opening (which corresponds with the oil cooler fins), separate horizontal tail, separate control surfaces and two floats. In addition resin is used to represent two ‘wooden’ float supports to be mounted to a resin ‘angle-iron’ platform and two resin tires. There is no evidence of bubbles. Assembly tolerances vary considerably and will require careful sessions of filling, sanding, and adjustment. Molded in detail is generally a bit on the heavy side in contrast to the wonderful detail of the photo-etched pieces.
Pieces in cast metal are the four ‘airfoil-shape’ struts, the propeller/hub/spinner with its mounting inserts, 3 aileron balance horns (only 2 required), 5 rudder balance horns (only 2 required), 6 various cockpit controls, cockpit seat, 2 wheel rings, 2 wheel spoke spacer/stub axles, and 3 fuselage scoops. The cast white metal is well done with very little flash but brittle: consequences are if you want to bend a piece for any reason, great care is required. Aerotech has noted in the instructions that this might be the case with the stubs of the metal struts and has provided brass rod of the same diameter to cut and splice in as required.
The kit really begins to shine when one gets to the photo-etched frets (also a highlight of the Marsh Models racecar kits). Their layered etching is finely detailed and brings the expected level of quality to the kit. Sheet #1, the stainless fret contains 22 bracing wires (11 pairs etched to length), 4 wire wheel plates (2 pair inner and 2 pair outer), 1 windscreen frame, 2 trim tabs, 36 various plates and grommets for the wire bracing attachments, 3 misc. plates.
And sheet #2, the brass fret contains 4 plates to make up the exhaust ports, 2 piece cockpit floor, 2 piece instru-ment panel, 5 instrument bezels, 2 seat harnesses, 4 float nose tie-downs, 4 float tail tie-downs, 2 wheel hub bolt plates, 3 piece pitot, and 2 misc. pieces.
The decal sheet (5.25” X 8.25”) contains the large race numbers (1,4,7), their corresponding tail code numbers (S1595, N249, S1596), two pairs of silver strips, trolley tire manufacturer’s logos (‘Palmer Cord Aero Tyre’), the blue, white & red tail fin flash, prop logos (‘Fairey’), and some trolley positioning markings. There are also two pairs of silver decal panels for the cockpit to tail run, but the instructions advise that they “do not work as well as expected but can be used as a mask guide.”
The instructions are on 3 A4 sheets of heavy stock with nice quality color printing. The instructions are not of the customary step by step variety, so modelers who habitually do not follow instructions will be at a loss to violate any procedure! This really demands a thorough multiple reading of all the material and then some research for some of the scant information in printed media. The backbones of the ‘manual’ are the two exploded assembly views of the kit, one featuring the entire plane and one the trolley. Aerotech helpfully utilizes several color photographs of a completed model to help illustrate some to the finer points of assembly. One sheet is the ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ which includes some history of the S.6B, some useful references and finally the kit number of the batch of 100.
The markings of race #4, tail code N249 are of the S.6A, which appeared at Calshot in 1931. One will need to check their references if the kit requires any modification for this variant.
Conclusion
Putting together a multi-media kit with all the components developed by Aerotech is a major undertaking requiring the dedicated efforts of many talented people. Marsh Models is to be thanked and commended for their efforts in making available a very buildable 1:32 scale Supermarine S.6B. It is their first effort in this scale (and a very large step coming from 1:43 race cars!) and one can only imagine that each new effort will reflect lessons learned along the way. Next to be introduced, the Macchi MC.72 and then the Mew Gull of Alex Henshaw.
© Gene Nollmann 2005
This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016