Only six of the final Curtiss F9C prototypes were built. Called a Parasite aircraft it was concieved to support the rigid airships of the Navy, the USS Macon and Ackron. Suspended up inside the airship and lowered by an armature called the Trapeze, the Sparrowhawk would be released to provided air support for the dirigible. On the return she would fly to the the lowered Trapeze and hook on - The Skyhook! The Trapeze would then retract into the bowls of the airship - kind of tricky and cool at the same time!
The only surviving Sparrowhawk currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
This was found in my brother's storage box. He had rescued it from the trash bin as he had so many other creations of our father's, his and his son's. I had a memory of this as a kid but never knew exactly what it was. I did an online search, but I think it was Bob (Littlebro) that came up with his best guess of F9C Curtiss Sparrowhawk. Everything about it fit. My Dad built this model when he was probably about 11 or 12 years old - mid- 1930s. A wooden kit (mostly balsa) with a metal pilot bust, machine guns and prop. (probably lead or white metal). I did this rehab before this Blog was started by my brother Bob (Littlebro) and realized this recently when I saw a 1:72 kit displayed on Facebook.
More condition photos. Dad must have liked the four different colors on the cowl. There is no remaining record of any instructions. A couple of more pics of what I found.
The landing gear is splayed out at extreme angles but I did not wish to radically change this, so I simply reinforced it.
The first thing I did was apply some paint to the cowl and reinforced gear. I decided to keep two colors for the cowl out of respect for what Dad had done.
The entire craft needed a re-paint. I had a gray on hand used for the underside.
I put a metalizer coat on the bottom wing and fuselage before a coat of white on the rudder.
Lets give the prop a whirl - it is a nice heavy old metal prop - so I hope it spins nicely
Good engine shut down simulation! I had also painted the struts in a two tone yellow/red to match up with the cowl/landing gear paint.
A fresh yellow coat on the top follwed by masking for aliron markings. Note the red stripe added to the rudder and the line for the elevators.
Masked and finshed off the blue stripe on the vertical stabilizer. Now you can see the two-toned struts.
It was time to add some detail to the motor and prop. Easy enough except for the the use of a Sharpie for the black/vent cover of the Pratt and Whitney R-1340 Wasp!😁 I am a decent painter, but the Sharpie was the way to go here.
Ok, all pretty easy so far, now for some real DIY - creating the "Skyhook"! Gauge 22 wire was used. Drilling and gluing into the balsa was not problem now I just had to make sure that the wires held together.
I found contact cement to work best for this use.
Center of Gravity is pretty good!
Now I can add a paint detail using masking tape, of course, for wing stripes, but.......
.........what do I do for my pre-war roundels? I was able to find decals for a Peashooter (P-26) is 1:72 scale. They are a bit small but I thought I would get two sizes of roundels - not so - oh well.
They fit nicely on the bottom. Note the red mid-fusalage stripe has been painted in.
The Trapeze roundel is a print out scaled to fit and glued on - There are no decals of this (unless I was to find a kit of this odd scale, spprox, 1:50+).
Finally I repeated this process to get USS Macon on the fuselage - not the best work - tough to print and glue but will have to do. I still think Dad would have liked it.
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