Curtiss R3C-0

This is the second seaplane I built for my Pavilion of the Seaplane Association. The first was a real-world flying boat. Having cleared that, making a float plane (seaplane which hull does not touch the water) was a natural choice. They're less special and elegant that flying boats, although there are some really beutiful ones. However, it was easy to settle on Curtiss, famous from Porco Rosso. It is a real-life plane, American Curtiss R3C, armed with twin machine guns and with its wing-foil cooling system replaced with a radiator under the engine, like a jutting lower jaw (slightly misaligned in the photos with the stand). The real Curtiss was piloted by Jimmy Doolittle and beat the Macchi M.33 (last of the competing Italian flying boats) in 1925 Schneider Cup. This is references in Porco Rosso; Porco's rival Donald Curtis (with one s!) was inspired by Doolittle and Porco's fictional Savoia S-21 flying boat was inspired by Macchi M.33!

Porco Rosso is my favourite film, and as I had already built Porco's plane in miniland scale (and several times, too), giving some attention to Curtiss was a pleasure. The plane is easier that Savoia S-21, which is good as smaller scale has its challenges. This is strictly in minifig scale, although unable to fit in a minifig - they are so wide. With the wingspan of 25 studs, this isn't very big model. 

As there are no creative choices behind the process, it's hard to say very much about this. The pontoons were the most difficult part, and I'm not quite satisfied with them, but with the current rate there will be perfect curved slopes for them sooner or later. I'm happy how well the windscreen works, and with the white stripe behind the cockpit. The piping between the pontoons and the hull looks fragile, but is surprisingly sturdy. And finally, the 2x2 quarter round curved slopes from PaB elevated this to the next level - the photos of the Pavilion used baby bows with cut corners.

-Eero.

Macchi M.17

This is the Macchi M.17 from my Pavilion of the Seaplane Association. It is not a completely faithful rendition of the Italian flying boat, but close enough given the randomness of reference material. I simply wanted to make a flying boat racer/fighter (weaponless), elegant but typical enough. Something to take the viewer into the general aesthetics of Porco Rosso and late 1920s nautical aviation without the exclusiveness of Porco's fictional Savoia S-21 or its real-world paragon Macchi M.33. Monoplane flying boat fighters were extremenly rare, and having the cockpit behind the wings and the engine was uncommon, too. The .17 was a generic but very elegant example of this common typology: first cockpit, like a thin speedboat hull, then biplane wings, engine and a slender tail. The .17 apparently had versions with the engine positioned either on top of the wings or in the middle of them. The former felt more beautiful, as it enabled to keep the height of the wing structure lower.

Otherwise, this was a fast build. The main trick was to give the wings a slight curve. In my Savoia S-21 this is done illegally with a small triangle that uses swivel plate joints; but it breaks the geometry and is based on the tolerances of the physical bricks. This, in contrast, is entirely legal, using the method of freely sliding elements - that is, the 1x1 round plate with handle (expresso filter) pieces stuck into Travis bricks. The whole wing structure is then connected only by the Travis to the hull, enabled by the very sturdy connection of th Travis brick's hollow studs. 

The rest is more common; I managed to use the pretty round 4x4 dome and the weird yellow gear from Botanicals dandelion to bring some extra flair in; the pieces of the nose are among my favourites for shaping, and the corner curved slopes on the wing tips are just so nice... And yes, dark red, yellow and tan colour scheme is pretty nice.

This model was proven extremely difficult to photograph. The wings simply obscure most of it when photographing, hiding the elegant silhouette. I think it looks better from the back, but then again, people unfamiliar with old flying boats might not perceive what it is from the back view! I'll post the Curtiss later when I get dark blue 2x2 quarter round curved slopes from PaB.

-Eero.