1/48 Monogram British SE5A |
Gallery Article by Edward A. Fuquay
on
Dec 29 2003
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In 1985 I was living in the
beautiful city of Cali, Colombia. I came across this kit at a sporting goods
store. I picked it up along a Fokker D VII. When I opened the box I discovered
these were old Aurora kits repackaged and improved. I was delighted. I
immediately began to build the SE5A. I found some reference drawings in the
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation, a publication in Spanish. The rigging was
well detailed, so I got very involved with this model. I used stretched vinyl
sprue from a set of Italeri tracks to create the rigging. The model went
together well and there were no glitches until I dropped!
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images below to see larger images
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Having
invested quite an amount of time and effort in the construction of the model I
patiently fixed it and then decided it was time to build a base for it. I
created the muddy grass field by chopping loafer to little bits and cementing it
in clumps with brown dyed white glue. I created ruts and footprints before the
glue dried. The fence posts were also attached at this time. The concrete base
of the windsock tower was also placed as the clumps of wet materials were
applied. I made he fence of really thin balsa wood stock. I stained it with raw
umber and weathered it with washes of white and light gray.
My
wife refused to leave in Colombia this little vignette and I am glad she forced
me to put it in the crate with some of our stuff. Today I was cleaning and
repairing it and thought that ARC readers might enjoy this simple kit. It by far
is accurate in many ways, starting with very dubious shades of green and tan,
and perhaps the blue is way out! All of the markings were airbrushed or hand
painted, as the original decals became food for tropical insects. I used the
remains of the transfers to mix the colors on the national insignias. Well it
was a very hard kit to finish, but almost twenty years later it still looks
good. Well once again…Happy modeling!
Edward A. Fuquay
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images below to see larger images
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