Kit: No. AV1015
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Aviation Usk, 602 Front St., Box 97, Usk, WA 99180, 509-445-1236
Price: $17.95
Comments: Injection molded, 37 parts (1 vacuum-formed canopy), decals.
CURTISS PRODUCED the fighter-like Seahawk floatplane for battleship and cruiser scout duty late in World War II, replacing the obsolete Curtiss Seagull and supplementing the aging Vought Kingfisher.
The single-seat design saw most of its service in 1945 and postwar operations, spotting and directing heavy shipboard artillery.
Aviation Usk’s latest Czech-made injection-molded kit provides a good scale replica of this little-known aircraft. The hefty parts feature fine recessed panel lines, but a lot of flash around the edges. The flash could cause major problems in mating the parts, but sanding the edges (like you do on a vacuum-formed kit) improves the fit.
The cockpit parts provide only the basics: floor, seat, instrument panel, stick, and armored headrest. Because the floor doesn’ t quite span the interior of the fuselage you may want to replace it with sheet styrene.
The parts fit is average and I had to fill the gaps between the wing and fuselage. The fit of the float to the fuselage is sloppy and you’ll have to position it so it doesn’t interfere with the propeller arc.
The canopy is clear and, once trimmed, fits well to the fuselage. I had trouble cutting it from the clear sheet, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson: Use only a knife or scissors to cut away the excess plastic. I used a sprue cutter and my first nip produced a zigzag crack all the way to the top of the bubble. Judicious applications of super glue, sandpaper, and Future floor polish help but do not hide this boo-boo.
I painted my model with Testor Model Master Acrylic glossy sea blue. The decals provide markings for two aircraft. The one I chose is an overall glossy sea blue SC-1 based on the USS Topeka in 1947. The other choice is a marking oddity — a Naval Air Test Center Seahawk still in the tricolor scheme but with 1947 red-bar insignias! Unfortunately, this aircraft was an SC-2 with an unframed canopy, modified cowling, and fixed landing gear — not provided in the kit.
The decals went on without problems, and I had to add only the red propeller warning stripe on the float. I attached the canopy and blasted the model with several coats of Future, then slipped on the beaching gear and propeller.
The Seahawk is a pretty addition to 1/72 scale U.S. Navy aircraft collections. It looks like the real thing, compared with photos in Jerry Scutts’ Fantail Fighters. It measures just a few scale inches too long, and a few scale inches short in span, but that doesn’t detract significantly from the finished model’s appeal.
Cleaning the part edges and improving the fit elevate this model into the “experience-needed” realm. I spent 34 hours on mine.
Paul Boyer