Introduction:

Well, the call came in on the secret Model Paint Solutions Kit-phone that a shipment of new releases was being unpacked at Skyway Models, my local hobby shop in Renton, WA. I love the smell of new styrene in the morning so off I went; I wasn’t let down. The first kit that literally leapt into my hands was this Supermarine S.5: pretty airplane. Retirement fund? Whaz that?

Background:

The Supermarine S.5 was a 1920’s British single-engine, single-seat racing seaplane built by Supermarine. Designed specifically for the Schneider Trophy competition, the S.5 was the progenitor of a line of racing aircraft that ultimately led to the Supermarine Spitfire.

Design and Development

The Supermarine S.5 was designed by Reginald Mitchell for entry into the 1927 Schneider Trophy race. Following the earlier loss of the S.4 before the 1925 Schneider Trophy event, Mitchell designed a new all-metal monoplane racer. Unlike the S.4’s all-wood structure, the S.5 featured composite construction with the semi-monocoque fuselage mainly duralumin including the engine cowlings. The S.5 had a low, braced wing with spruce spars and spruce-ply ribs and a plywood skin. The wing surface radiators made up of corrugated copper sheets replaced the Lamblin type radiators of the S.4. Three aircraft were built, one with a direct drive 900 hp (671 kW) Napier Lion VIIA engine, and the other two with a geared 875 hp (652 kW) Napier Lion VIIB engine.

Operational History

The first aircraft flew for the first time on 7 June 1927. The S.5s came 1st and 2nd in the 1927 race held at Venice. The winning aircraft (Serial number N220) was flown by Flight Lieutenant S.N Webster at an average speed of 281.66 mph (453.28 km/h).

One S.5, N221, crashed during an attempt on the world air speed record on 12 March 1928, killing the pilot Flight Lieutenant Samuel Kinkead (who had flown the Gloster IV in the 1927 Schneider Trophy Race).

Mitchell decided that the Napier engined aircraft had reached its limits of performance due to the powerplant and for the 1929 Schneider Trophy race, redesigned the aircraft with a new Rolls-Royce engine as the Supermarine S.6. Concern over the unreliability of the Gloster VI, led to the High Speed Flight entering one S.5 (N219) along with the two S.6s for the race. The S.5 flown by Flight Lieutenant D’Arcy Greig finished third in 46 minutes 15 seconds at a speed of 282.11 mph (454.20 km/h), behind the winning S.6 flown by Flying Officer H.R. Waghorn and a Macchi M.52.

General Characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 24 ft 3½ in (7.32 m)

Wingspan: 26 ft 9 in (8.15 m)

Height: 11 ft 1 in (3.38 m)

Wing area: 115 ft² (10.7 m²)

Empty weight: 2,680 lb (1,215 kg)

Loaded weight: 3,242 lb (1,470 kg)

Powerplant: 1 × Napier Lion VIIA water cooled broad arrow, 900 hp (671 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 319.57 mph (514.3 km/h)

(Edited from Wikipedia)

In the Box:



Okay, let’s start out with the fact that this is a limited-run kit best tackled by builders with some experience. There’s a fair amount of flash to deal with so clean up will be a big part of this build. The sprue gates are thick and some surface details will have to be freshened up with a scriber and micro-files prior to paint. This kit will require some elbow grease.



MPS Paint Mixing, Measuring, and Storage Tools

Layout and engineering are both conventional. Assembly starts with the Napier Lion engine. The engine, with its 3 banks of 4 cylinders each, is nicely detailed and would serve as a good starting point for super-detailing. The cowl is composed of 4 parts so with some scratch building an open-cowl option could be built.

Next up is the cockpit and the detail provided is a bit lacking for this scale especially for an open cockpit airplane where all the detail (or lack thereof) will be clearly seen. Conspicuously missing is the throttle quadrant as well as any cockpit side panel detail at all. Some time spent digging through the spares box and jazzing up the pilots’ office would be time well spent.

-0.15mm Tip

–Lever-Limiting Tail Piece w/ Memory

-Free Shipping

–Free Mix Kit-101

0.5mm Wide Lines Right Out of the Box!

With the cockpit and engine trapped between the fuselage halves and the 4-piece cowl in place the builder is directed to assemble the wing from a full-span lower piece and half-span, left and right upper halves. As with most of the kit the surface details on the wing are somewhat soft and in need of freshening up.

The floats, each comprised of left and right halves, are next in sequence. Here the builder will have to measure and drill holes for the strut attach points as there’s none provided. A diagram with measurements in millimeters is provided as a guide. I see some issues here and would suggest combining the drilling of these holes with a lot of test fitting.

The four streamlined tie rods that form an X in between the floats are provided as PE parts: nice. Finishing up the airframe are the rudder and elevators, which are all single parts allowing these flight surfaces to be posed.

The windscreen is a bit rough. In addition to being thick with a fair amount of flash, the plastic will require some polishing for better clarity.

Color and Markings:

Both schemes covered by the decals have blue fuselages with wings in silver dope. The decals, by AMP, have adequate registration and color density. Markings for the 2 schemes are provided as follows:

1) Supermarine S.5 Winner of the Tenth Contest, Venice, Italy, 1927. Flown by Flt. Lt. S. N. Webster, A.F.C.

2) Supermarine S.5, Calshot, Hampshire, 1928. Word record setter: 282.23 mph. Flown by Flt. Lt. D’Arcy Greig.

Model Paint Solutions Scribing Tools

Conclusion:

This kit certainly isn’t a “shake ‘n bake.” A lot of time will be spent removing flash and freshening up surface details. I suspect there will also be a fair amount of trial and error involved in fitting the main parts as well as the PE rigging. That said AMP should be congratulated for kitting such a beautiful airplane that’s been long underserved by the modeling industry. Once built, this will be an eye-catching model seldom seen at the model shows. Recommended.

Now go paint something! Kit purchased by reviewer, again.



–John

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