Greetings again. I had this old Lindberg kit (1:48) sitting around for some time, so I thought I'd try to make something useful from it. In typical Lindberg fashion, it is all but devoid of any detail, such as cockpit items, so I am trying my hand at scratchbuilding certain items.

Here’s the actual Goshawk seat...




And the scratched seat...





The seat has a total of six pieces (back, bottom, 2 wire tubular supports, and two .020 strips on either side of the seat bottom).


Here is the cockpit, all put together. I actually built two versions before I was content with the outcome:








The fuselage nose is wide open and is not sufficiently hidden when the engine is installed. I have already added styrene rod inside to support a bulkhead:




A simple bulkhead was fashioned to close up the ugly gap:




Here is the scratchbuilt instrument panel:




And now installed:




More to come soon.

Cordially,
Mark

That looks pretty good so far Mark. Let me guess the wheel wells are non existent of detail too?
Those Lindberg kits do test your scratch building skills.
I have the XF-91 Interceptor in my stash and every now and then I get it out and add some more parts to it. Should be finished in time for the planes Centenary .
Andy

Hi Mark!

Looks very nice so far. The second cockpit attempt is indeed better than the first one. I hope you are saving your pictures and your text for a build feature for Aeroscale!

Jean-Luc

Thank you, Andy. The Goshawk had fixed landing gear with farings, and Lindberg provides the wrong kind/size for my version, so I will be attempting to fabricate all new ones. I'm afraid I'm starting to obsess a little too much over what should have been an easy, quick build! But maybe at the end of it all, I might improve my skills a little bit. I hope old dogs can learn new tricks!

Thank you Jean-Luc. Let us first hope I actually have the guts to follow through and actually FINISH this project!! It's snowballing at a runaway rate. I'm already thinking about things like vaccuum-forming and resin casting. There's just so much wrong with this kit, and no one makes aftermarket items for it, as to be expected for a kit of such little general interest.

Nice to see one of these classics being built.

Very cool. I will follow this thread with interest. Model On!!!

Hi Mark,

Lindberg's Goshawk, that model has a lot of meaning to me. My granddad bought it for me in the era before I was even painting models. Still have parts and a spare decal sheet for it (properly yellowed, of course ). Years later I built another in a speculative Nationalist Chinese AF scheme--still have it! I scratchbuilt an interior (without reference, using 'gizmology' )

If you have more interior photos of this proud Curtiss product, I'd love them! My other Goshawk awaits gluing and painting...

Incidentally, are the photos of Udet's Hawk recovered from a barn in Russia several years ago?

Fred, I have about 18 good quality digital photos, and I would be glad to e-mail them to you, just give me an e-mail address.

These are not shots of Udet's plane, these are actually shots of the BFC-2 Goshawk at the Naval Museum in Pensacola, FL. It is my understanding the the F11C and the BFC-2 are basically the same plane, with just a few structural differences.

Thank you, the address is in your PRIVATE MSG.

Thanks,m

Fred

Looking good so far ! Keep on posting

More progress on this 1:48 scale Lindberg F11C Goshawk.

Well I discovered, much to my dismay, that both the engine and its cowl are too small, and will be discarded. I will be manufacturing a cowl, however, as aftermarket Wright R-1820 engines are available, I will be using one of these. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

So, while I am waiting for parts to arrive in the mail, I turned my attention to some of the more fiddly items:

This is the teardrop aux. gas tank. I sanded off the unrealistic rivets it was covered with, and scratched a filler neck and cap:




This is the gunsight. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right:




This is the arrestor hook. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right:




This is the tailwheel. Fortunately, I was able to adapt the little gray wheel portion from a toy plane I acquired at a swap meet some time ago. The kit’s part is left, the scratched part is on the right:




For reference, this is what the actual tail wheel looks like:




Here is what the airframe currently looks like. I needed to drill 36 miniscule holes in it to accomodate the rigging:




Not complaining, but this is about the cheapest kit I’ve ever built (price AND quality) I’ve built so far in my illustrious modelling career. And it’s taking me to the skill-building woodshed more than any high-quality, high-price kit could. It’s making me have to THINK! And I kinda like that.

More to follow soon!