1/48 Minicraft Cessna 172 Floatplane

Gallery Article by Michael Presley on Oct 9 2009

 

Minicraft's new Cessna 172 Floatplane is a fine addition to their series of General Aviation kits, notably the Beech Bonanza, and Piper Super Cruiser/Cub.  However, I found an incredible engineering blunder, that seems to have gone unnoticed by anyone to date. I began this build by gathering reference. There was a wealth of 172 floatplane reference online, which I copied to my files, and printed out. One detail that really caught my eye was the system of steering cables and pulleys that are linked to the aircraft's rudder. These allow the pilot to steer the pontoon's (floats) rudders while taxiing. There was a virtual spider's web of cables aft of the cockpit. I printed out some closeups, & headed to my brother Paul's house for some photo interpretation help. Paul is an FAA certified Airframe & Powerplant mechanic, on top of being a crackerjack modeler. We determined the system worked exactly like those on an old outboard boat of the 50s, and 60s (before hydraulic systems) and was an extension of the plane's aero-rudder, connected on either side by a lenghtened replacement horn. We also figured out a second bridle-like set of cables was for the retraction of the rudders. The kit's float rudders are molded to the float in the 'up' (retracted) position. That is reasonable, as the ONLY time they are in the down position is taxiing to/from the shore, or in lining up for takeoff.

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 After making my diagrams, I began laying out the fuselage sides, struts, and floats so I could get a rough idea of where the pulleys (needle heads) should be positioned. This is where things suddenly hit a proportional stone wall...NOTHING made any sense, and the kit's floats were way too far forward or short for the cable angles. This was obvious in all the photos. I emailed Paul, & he suggested I look up EDO, the float manufacturer's site. I did so, & there was another gold mine of information, but it still didn't explain the seeming mistakes of the model parts' size/positions. Then I suddenly saw it, the model's struts were facing the WRONG DIRECTION! It wasn't just an error in the instructions, but an engineering error too. Minicraft had put round pegs & hole on one end, square ones on the other to make them 'idiot-proof'. If that wasn't enough, they made the float's front, and rean attach point recesses different sizes. Even the box art was wrong! The ONLY diagram that showed the struts facing in the correct direction was the 3 view drawings for decal placement. On the otherhand, if you flipped them over, they jived with all the photos (of REAL airplanes), & the cable pulley positions suddenly made sense. The diagonal strut should attach to the fuselage where the main gear anchor, & the structure is reinforced. The struts would be correct if this were a model of a Cessna 180/185 which are tail-draggers & the main gear attach right behind the firewall, but it's ass-backward for a 172! The EDO site, & EVERY photograph online completely supported this. With a few minor modification, this was correctable...thank the modeling gods.

Beyond the strut fiasco, the kit is very nice, with recessed panels, etc. The float rudders are thick, and simplistic, so I cut these off, then scratch-built the rudders, and their hinges, and steering horns. Footsteps at the firewall, along with the handles on the top of the firewall were added. These allow one to reach the fuel tank caps on the top of the wing. There's also two hard point rings attached to the main spar, which allow the aircraft to be lifted out of the water. These were made out of solder & glued into place. All float equipped 172s also have a firewall 'V' brace installed that connects the firewall to the wingspar behind the windscreen. This was made of straight pin sections. While I was there, I put in sun visors for good measure. Another addition is the ventraI dorsal, found on a good number of float equipped 172s. I also added common whip antennas at the sides of the vertical stab, and starboard aft fuselage top with stainless wire. I didn't like the kit's decal options/colors, so I found a scheme from the late 60s, got out the masking tape, and black pin stripe decals. I had a sheet of Draw Decals' Cesssa slanted letters for the registration. Model Master painted were used, except for the floats which were done with Alclad Aluminum. Bobe's EZ-Line was used for the steering cables.

Photos by Henry Popp

Michael Presley

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Photos and text © by Michael Presley