Photos
by Barney Dunlevy
Price: U.S. $85. 00
Notes: Resin with metal parts
History
The Pitts Special!! This
lively little biplane is a legend in aviation winning countless local and
national competitions, not to mention the world aerobatic title, but how many
know of its humble beginnings.
Curtis Pitts was looking for a fun sport plane, but after
WWII there wasn't much available except "Cub" type airplanes which
left him only one choice, design and build his own. The first Pitts was built in a short amount of time and first
flew in 1945 (a replica of the first Pitts was built in the early '90s, here
is an
article on flying that
plane). The first
Pitts was powered by a 55 hp Lycoming and proved to be a sprite little
performer.
There were around a half-dozen Pitts Specials built in the
early years and used in competition and winning them easily and were very
popular airshow performers. Most
eventually crashed, the whereabouts of one is unknown and the second Pitts built
"Little Stinker" flown by Betty Skelton now hangs in the Smithsonian.
In the 50's the home built movement was gaining popularity
and some people remembered the Pitts, plans were drawn up for the "flatwing"
and offered for sale in 1960. Originally it had 100 hp, but the horsepower race was soon on
as pilots could never have enough, it quickly went to 125 hp, 150 hp, then to
180 hp. "Roundwing" Pitts
were offered for the ultimate in aerobatics, they perform just as well upside
down as they do right side up and also stall the same whether they are right
side up or upside down. Curtis
received a patent for his airfoil design.
Curtis realized there was a need for an aerobatic trainer
as no trainers at that time could do all of the maneuvers needed in competition.
In the mid '60s he started work on the two hole Pitts, to complicate
matters Curtis wanted to get the plane certified by the FAA, that's a place even
the manufacturing giants fear to tread. Through
a lot of struggling, headaches, and sheer determination the two hole Pitts was
finally certified.
While the two hole Pitts looks like a model plane to a lot
of pilots (there are radio controlled airplanes with a larger wing span), it
looked positively gigantic next to the single hole Pitts.
In the S2B the horsepower has jumped up to 260 and special built Pitts
for competition and airshow work sport engines over 300 hp.
The Pitts design is pushing 60 years of age and has had over a 550%
increase in hp and there is no end in sight, truly an amazing airplane!!
Introduction
Being used to large model boxes with the kits we build, I
was a little surprised when I received an envelope with Airshow
Models return address on it, I could tell there was a box in it but my initial
reaction was wondering what it was. In
the excitement of receiving the kit so fast, I forgot that the real Pitts is a
small airplane (a 7 1/2 inch top wing in 1/32 scale) which makes for a small
model box!
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The box measures roughly 10 X 6 X 1 1/2 inches, is very
sturdy and comes with a full-color label on the cover showing a picture of the
finished model and a description of what you will find inside.
Upon opening the box you'll find a very well packed kit with the resin
pieces, brass pieces, vac parts, photo-etch, and details all in their own
labeled ziplock bags, and a 12 page instruction booklet.
All of the resin parts are solid cast and warp free with
exquisite detail molded in. I was
pleasantly surprised to find there was virtually no
flash, only two parts in my kit had flash and a few quick swipes with a
sanding stick removed it. The only
other cleanup that will need to be done is the cutting off of the small pour
stubs which can be seen in photos farther on in the review.
My digital camera software died when I tried to take photos
for this review, I scanned in the instruction book, photo etch, and decals,
Barney Dunlevy came to the rescue with photos he took of his kit, thanks
Barney!!
Instructions
The instruction booklet in this kit
is
one of the best I have seen in any kit so far, its 12 pages are printed
on a heavy paper stock and a there are no less than 23 color photos to get you
through the construction and a full-color 3 view drawing of a Pitts S2B in the
factory paint scheme.
The first page of the instruction book gives you a short
history of the real plane and a couple photos of the finished model.
The next two pages will tell you everything that is inside the kit, with
numbered photos showing all of the small parts and corresponding text so the
parts can be easily identified. Barney
Dunlevy who built the prototype kit also put together the instructions and as a
further aid to make the building easier, he colored the pour stubs red
in the photos so there would be no doubt as to what needs to be removed.
You are walked step-by-step through the building process
and there are pink warning boxes to let you know of any potential problems to
watch out for and yellow boxes with suggestions from his building the kit, both
the warning and suggestion boxes will help save some head scratching and
possible problems during the building process.
Barney asked me to say in my review that there is a typo on
the page with the photo etch description "Item #3 Left and Right Aileron
Trim Drive", it should read "Elevator Trim Drive".
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Fuselage
The cowl is solid resin and the engine cylinders are molded
on the front, all it will need is some careful painting of the cylinders to
highlight the fins as they are not that visible through the openings.
The front of the cowl is a separate piece (in a picture below) as it is
on the real Pitts and from my dry fitting leaves a fine line which is on the
real plane. The panel lines and
screw heads (of which there are very few) are finely engraved, no big troughs
here!
The cockpit of the real Pitts is extremely sparse, if
something isn't absolutely needed, it isn't there, weight is the mortal enemy of
an aerobatic aircraft. This is
reflected in the kits cockpit, there just aren't that many parts.
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The internal framework of the Pitts is molded into the
cockpit and represents it very well (these two photos are after Barney has done
a little work in the cockpit) and stands out nicely with some painting.
If you wanted to super detail the cockpit by building your own tube
frame, it would be easy to remove the molded in framework and pictures of the
framework are readily available on the net.
The seats are one-piece resin units, after the red
indicated areas have been removed and the seats painted, they can be slipped in
place, they nicely capture the look of the fabric of the real seats.
Airshow Models Christen
Eagle II review
and build article
Seats have the seat belts molded in, the seats in the Pitts have been improved
by not only not having the seat belts molded in, but by giving you two choices
for the seat belts. You can either
use the photo etch seat belts or Pete supplied the buckles for both seats and
you can use your favorite seat belt material.
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Because of the cramped conditions of the Pitts cockpit (the
pilot has to put his legs around the front seat to reach the rudder pedals which
are lined up with the passengers hips), they are modified to fit the needs of
the pilot depending on his height and stature. |
One item that is very tough to find room for is the radio, most mount it
on the back of the passengers seat which is where this kit has it mounted.
Some pilots will mount the radio on the right side of the cockpit, the
taller pilots find they keep hitting their knee on it.
The radio is nicely detailed with little knobs and switches, with the
large canopy and lack of items in the cockpit, it will stand out.
The cockpit top has both the front and rear instrument
panels molded in, there are slight recesses for the instrument dials, but you
will need to supply your own instruments. The
kit represents the factory standard dash, but they do vary in layout to suit the
individual pilots needs.
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To give the pilot more room, the rear dash of the real
Pitts is moved forward about three inches to give the pilot a little more room
and this is captured in the models dash. The
Pitts only has a few knobs and switches and these are well represented, the
toggle switches are the best I have seen in any kit and there is even a key in
the ignition!
The Pitts fuel tank is just ahead
of the passengers instrument panel and is visible if you look of the cockpit,
the fuel tank is molded into the cockpit top as can be seen in the photo.
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The bottom of the fuselage has slots to ensure precise
landing gear placement and from dry fitting my parts, they basically snapped in
place without a big gap, the same goes for the fitting of the lower wing.
From my dry fitting, it doesn't look like any putty will be
needed, in fact the only place that I have found that may need some putty is
where the cockpit top attaches to the fuselage, but that only comes from my
initial dry fitting, I'll have to see what it's like after a glue it on.
I haven't tried fitting the clear vac under side window yet.
This photo
shows the delicate detail molded in the fuselage, the fabric texture is very
subtle and for once a fabric fuselage doesn't have the fabric sagging between
the tubes.
The inspection panels are slightly raised and are realistic.
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Wings and tail
The wings and tail have the same delicate fabric detail of
the fuselage and the inspection panels in there appropriate places.
The wings, tail, and rudder have the pinking tape and rib
stitching subtly molded in giving you realistic effect.
As can be seen in the
photo to the right, the wings have slots for
the wing struts and for the cabane
struts and those parts snap in easily making alignments of the wings easy for a biplane.
What is hard to see in the photos are the small recesses for the ends of
the photo etch flying wires and the small holes for the aileron slaves struts.
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The rudder and ailerons are molded separately and can be
positioned however you would like them. The
elevator is attached to the stabilizer in a slight down angle and the elevator
trim tabs are molded slightly raised.
Small parts
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The Eagles prop and spinner were cast in white metal, the
Pitts are cast in resin and are crisply molded, after cleaning off the pour
stubs, the blades can be glued into recesses in the spinner.
These pictures show the small resin parts, the detail is
just as crisp in the small parts as in the large parts.
From my dry fitting the landing gear and cowl parts fit together very
nicely.
Brass parts
With the Eagle, Pete found out that the white metal parts
weren't up to the quality he insists on so he switched to cast brass parts.
He stayed with the brass parts with the Pitts.
The cabane struts, landing gear
struts, tail wheel, control sticks, etc. are
very well molded with no flash and the cabane struts have locating pins to
ensure they accurately line up.
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Photo etch
The photo etch sheet is very thin and
flexible
with fine detail etched in the appropriate parts.
The flying wires and tail brace wires are done in photo etch which will
greatly simplify rigging your model. Some
may think the photo etch is to flat and prefer to use fishing line, stretched
sprue, or some other method, neither are completely accurate and until someone
comes up with airfoil shaped rigging, the photo etch is a good compromise and
the time saved is well worth it.
As I mentioned above, there are seat belt
buckles and seat
belts, if you choose to use the buckles and your favorite material, the photo
etch seat belts will make good patterns so you can cut the belts to the right
length, width, and shape the first time. |
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Other parts included on the sheet are the canopy rails, the
sighting device for the port wing, the "floorboards", the aileron
shovels, with the shovels you have the choice of using the photo etch
attachments or resin attachments, with resin being the recommended choice.
Clear parts
There are two clear parts that come with the kit, the
canopy and the window for the bottom of the fuselage.
The canopy comes as a one-piece unit and there are photo etch rails to |
be
attached to the inside of the main canopy.
The clear vac parts are very well made and crystal clear.
The canopy is very large for such a small model and if you
leave the canopy closed to have a dust free cockpit, you will still be able to
see the detail inside the cockpit. A
second set of clear parts are included in case you make a mistake cutting out
your first parts or if you like to display the canopy in the open position.
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Decals
The decals are for a factory standard paint scheme and
include the Pitts logo for the fin in both black and the more typically used
white with black outline. The
decals were printed by Microscale so you know they are quality decals, plus they
were double printed to ensure that the red (or any other color you choose to
use) won't bleed through. The
pinstriping on the starburst and diamonds is extremely fine and the pinstriping
on the fuselage and wheel pants stripes go from wide to narrow, all printing was
perfectly in register. Propeller
logos are also included.
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Registration numbers and letters are not included on the
decal sheet but are available separately from Airshow
Models,
I haven't seen them so I am unable to comment on them.
The numbers and letters on the real Pitts vary in style, size, and some
have pinstriping. You can either use numbering and letter decals from a spare
decal sheet, or if you'd like to make your own, Vernon Rabbetts has a good tip
"Number and Letter Builder"
which will simplify the task.
Conclusion
It was a long wait from the time I first heard this kit was
going to be produced until it was released and the wait was well worth it.
Pete would not released the kit until everything in it met his stringent
standards and it shows, everything in this kit is top-quality.
The resin parts in my kit ranged from a very dark gray to a
very light gray. I asked Barney if
there was a particular reason for this, he talked to Brian Fawcett (who makes
the masters for these kits) about it and here is a synopsis of his reply:
"Two types of resin are used in the Pitts, one is
tough and has more give and the other is more suited to the thicker parts.
The resin is translucent and dye is added to give a better appearance.
The Pitts are only one item that uses the resin that is made and only
uses a small amount of it, some of the larger jobs want a lighter colored resin
and some want darker resin, when the Pitts are cast, they will use whenever dye
is already mixed. The resin used
for the Pitts was designed for coating undersea telephone cables and with a few
changes has proven to be very good for model work."
Now that I have finished this review I have started working
on the kit and it is the best resin I have run across so far.
If you're looking for something that is different from what
you have been building or are suffering from AMS and are looking for something
that can be built easily and quickly right out of the box and look great to
boot, you don't have to look any farther than this kit.
With its bright and shiny paint job and small size, it will really stand
out amongst the military planes on your shelf and on the contest table!!
As the saying goes...
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