1/32 IAF Avia S-199 Sakeen

[dodgem37]

Been doing a little work on the wings and cowling.

 

No lightening holes in the wheel wells.  Filled and sanded smooth.

 

Here too.

 

Replacement part for the oil radiator.

 

Roughly blanked off.

 

Not worried about accuracy.

 

Shimming and aligning.

 

First round of filling, filing, and sanding.  Lots of shimming.

 

Other side.  Still need to scribe panel lines.

 

Made it so it's removable.

 

Other side.

 

Weep holes.  Still need to scribe panel line.

 

Nothing good happens when a model falls off the work bench.

 

Thank you for looking in.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Coming along nicely Mark,if I may a note regarding the gear opening and tire size.

Early S-199s were produced with uncorrected camber and ballon 660x190 tire just like the German G-10s with squarish wheel openings. During the production the caster was dialled up more towards neutral, rather than negative . The tires were reduced to slightly narrower ones 660x160 and the wheels openings were rounded. 

Also , the example from Hatzerim seems to be reconstructed and patched up from whatever was left of the serial # 782358 and I wouldn't be using it as a benchmark for a universal/definitive look of IDFs Sakeen.

 

Cheers

Martin

Edited February 6, 2022 by Martinnfb

[dodgem37]

Thank you, my Brother.  I will check when this aircraft was made.  I seem to recall that this aircraft was delivered in the first batch.  I know I did some research on the wheel well openings earlier on and came up with open wheel wells.  But I will double check both. 

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

[Steve Eagle]

Pardon my dense head question. Are you referring to neutral camber as 90 degrees to vertical or as dictated by following the lines of the strut?

[Martinnfb]

90 to vertical, which should be fairly obvious, since the wheel camber is always measured along the basic axis of the vehicle.

 

Edit: hopefully this picture could help

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Martinnfb

[dodgem37]

Martinn, I'm using the Avia walk-around for wheel well details.  I hadn't gotten to the wheels until you mentioned them.  But what I found is that the as Czech aircraft tires had no camber, the Israeli aircraft retained negative camber.  The Israeli caster did not look any different to me than that of a G-10, and the wheel well openings are squared.

 

The aircraft I'm working on is D-117.  I have a photo of the wheel well of D-120.   120 was delivered after 117.  The 120 wheel well matches a G-10.  As there were only 24 aircraft delivered within a 3 month timeframe, I'm confident D-117 shared many landing gear/tire/wheel well characteristics with earlier numbered aircraft.  Based on those photos, I think I can make the educated guess that D-117's wheel well/tires/landing gear would match up.

 

Tires seem to differ.  They certainly are not shaped like the home grown Avia, their tires being noticeably narrower than the G-10/K-4 tire, and with a grooved circumference.  There are those with tires as you describe, and tires that appear to be a smooth G-10/K-4 tire.  They seem to have a large sidewall bulge but no tread.  I can easily replicate this tire by sanding the tread off of the kit wheels.  Which, by the way, are the Hasegawa G-10/K-4 tires because the Revell tires were short shot.

 

Anyway, that's my take.  Thank you for the heads up, Martinn.

Thank you for looking and liking.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Apologies if I caused camber related confusion. I was actually just looking into it and there is lots of unknown about the identity of delivered aeroplanes, since they were numbered upon arrival/unpacking , which does not mean it was happening in some kind of relation to the manufacturers serial numbers. Same situation is at the Avia end , the report provides number and amount of planes and equipment, but not how or which aeroplane have them installed. Bomb racks, filters, gun pods etc, were delivered in separate crates and probably installed on site as needed.

I believe your assumption is correct, pictures of the IDF S-199 showing mostly original/ German configuration. D-120 for instance 

[Martinnfb]

There is one picture of what supposed to be D-110 which clearly shows the different angle of the wheel. Its clear if you compare it with the position of the strut cover.  Don't kill the messenger guys 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Martinnfb

[Steve Eagle]

Thank you very much gentlemen for the clarification on camber, as I am in the process of doing D-120. The photograph clarifies my original concern. Who woulda thunk this question be such a issue

[pvanroy]

All Israeli machines had landing gears with the original negative camber. The neutral camber was tested on S-199 numbers 2, 44 and 65, and was introduced on the Avia production line from aircraft 112 onwards - so after the last Israeli machines were delivered (112 made its first flight on 30 June 1948).

 

As far as I can tell, no S/CS-199 ever used the larger 190 X 660 mm wheels, all aircraft from the start seem to have had the narrower 160 X 660 mm wheels. In fact, it seems that this is probably also the case for the S/CS-99 (post-war produced WNF/Diana-standard G-10/U4, with some changes).

 

I have no date for when the rounded wheel wells were introduced, but I think it is fair to assume this also happened after the delivery of the final Israeli machines - so in my opinion, all Israeli aircraft likely had the typical angular G wells.

[dodgem37]

Alrighty, then.  Negative camber it is.  Top of tire tilts inward.  I'll do my best.

 

I was asked to rummage thru my references for '199's with the multi-color camo scheme.  Not a lot was found in a lot of publications.  Almost all schemes illustrated are the 'RLM 68/Semi-gloss RAL 6013 scheme, including propellers (huh?), with RLM 70 wheels.'

 

In Avia S-199 in Israeli Air Force Service 1948-1950 Edition 2, by Alex Yofe & Lawrence Nyveen, White Crow Publications, Page 87, the narration states 'No Israeli S-199 would adopt a multi-color scheme (with the exception of fresh civilian paint for repairs or renumbering) until late 1949, when one was painted for exhibition.'

 

'The only other S-199 in multi-hued camouflage was the gate guardian' at Hatzor Airbase.

 

Anyway, this is what I found.

 

Notice the rudder stripes are up from left-to-right, and not down, as located on combat planes.  Also, Squadron symbol is below canopy and not on cowling.

 

 

Your guess is as good as mine.  But I suppose the 'dark earth' is actually an O.D. to resemble  dark green.

 

Sky Decals.  Scheme is also found in AML 1/32 Avia S-199 Sakeen, AML 32006 conversion.  January 1949 scheme.

 

I could not find a top view for the multi-color camo scheme.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by dodgem37