1/72 Spence Air Photo Cierva Autogyro/Autogiro FINISHED

[Frank3k]

When I walked back from grade school, I would stop by my Mom's lab before going home. Next to her lab was an aerial photography company, Spence Air Photo, Inc.  They had a glass storefront displaying their work and there were usually two people working; a young man and an older man - the owner, Robert Spence. I don't know who the younger man was  - he may have been a pilot - but he was friendly and didn't mind talking about airplanes for a few minutes with a little kid.  I remember the model of a Jenny that they had on display.

I'm sure that they never flew an autogyro... but I have a 1/72 RS Models Cierva C.30 that I wanted to use as practice for the 1/35 Miniart kit, so I decided to whif the RS kit as a Spence Air Photo autogyro.

I'm almost done with the build. Each strut in both the landing gear and rotor support had to be added individually; not fun but surprisingly quick. The ugly joint between the struts and the fuselage was apparently a feature of the real thing, not a kit flaw.







I think I'll remake the camera and make a mounting bracket for it, then make up the decals. I 'll probably use one of their B&W images of either UCLA or of the street I live on now (which is near campus) as a backdrop.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Nice!  :)

[LemonJello]

Cool little model.  Any of these in 1/48?

[Frank3k]

According to Scalemates, there are a few in resin or vacuform, but injected the choices are 1/72 or 1/35

[GTX_Admin]

 

[KiwiZac]

I love it! I had and sold (to my regret) the Azur 1/72 one but I'd love the MiniArt big version.

NERD ALERT! Cierva called his machine Autogiro, autogyro is the generic name. So all Autogiros are autogyros but not all autogyros are Autogiros! As you were 

[Frank3k]

Fixed it, per Zac.

I painted the tail and the rotor head in light blue and the rotor blade tabs in red for some color:









The camera is a beefed up version of the original - I used superglue and talc to beef up the sides and make it look more like this one (Milton Kent with his aerial camera, June 1953):



The "Spence air photos" decal on the side is based on their logo, seen in the lower right of this picture of  UCLA in 1940:



Zoom in on the image above... lover right, if you download the original, there's a late model P-51 and an A-20? in the open field (which is now the Court of Sciences) so this picture was probably taken in the mid-late 1940s.

[Buzzbomb]

 

[apophenia]

Very nice! And amazing what small touches like the blue panels and red tabs do to make things really 'pop'!

...  there's a late model P-51 and an A-20? in the open field ...

Good eye    The Mustang is pretty distinctive but, Boy, is that Havoc hard to 'read'! The shadow says 'A-20' but the actual aircraft shape just breaks up in the background. 'Clutter Camo'?

[Frank3k]

There's yet another plane (it looks like a radial) behind the twin engine plane. And maybe a biplane above and towards the twin engine plane... or maybe I'm seeing things.

[apophenia]

I find the angles of the shadows make things particularly hard to read. Or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it 

[Dr. YoKai]

 Nice looking build, and a nice homage to a wonderful memory. Be interesting to see what you do with the 1/32 build.

[Frank3k]

Thanks, Craig. I have a Planet 1/72 Autogiro A-7 as well, but it's "strut-y" and in resin, so that may stay in the pile. The 1/35 Miniart Avro 671 Rota Mk.I looks fiddly as well, but mainly with the rotor blades. It's larger so it should be easier to put together.

[KiwiZac]

Simply beautiful work, what a little stunner!