Scratchbuilt
1/48 scale Catapult
with Curtiss SOC Seagull

by Bob Costanzo

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Here are some photos are of my SOC and catapult. It is part of my "Midway" project. Having been interested since grade school in the battle I had done a number of aircraft from the battle.

With the articles published in Quarter Scale Modeller a few years back I decided to take on the project again. I have completed at least one kit of each aircraft the participated in the battle on both the American and Japanese side.

The 1/48 scale Curtiss SOC Seagull is the Wings 48 vacuform kit.

It features dropped leading edge slats as well as dropped flaps. The interior was built using photos available from the Aircraft in Profile work and an article in an old IPMS Quarterly.

The wing struts are made up of shaped evergreen and plastruct stock. The float is a reshaped resin float from Cutting Edge as are the outrigger floats.

The kit is painted to represent one of the aircraft aboard the Cruiser Portland, and was flown in search and rescue missions during the engagement.

The catapult is scratchbuilt using a couple of different plan sets, and it represents the P6 catapult used aboard Cruisers and Battleships. It was tailored to photos of the Portland's catapult at about the time of the Midway engagement. The material used again was Plastruct and Evergreen sheet stock as well as structural shapes. The treadplate was from Techstar.

The catapult sits on a deck of scribed balsa and the entire assembly was painted using White Ensign Models colors that portray the Measure 11 scheme the Portland was in at the time. The colors are 5N blue for the vertical surfaces and deck blue 20-B.


 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2004 by Bob Costanzo
Page Created 17 March, 2004
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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