Karaya have kitted several Schneider racers though they seem to have stopped have stopped producing kits, which is a shame as they are very nice.
I've been building this kit very slowly for at least a year, partially as a practice run for the more complex and delicate Karaya SeaLion II kit I have in the stash. This kit is a little more basic. There are no locating holes for the struts and the front legs were far too long. I made a few mistakes along the way - my first attempt at the floats and struts had them space too wide and too far back. It hadn't occurred to me to use beaching gear as jig! I did use some brass Strutz material to for the spacers which provided some much need rigidity to the assembly.
The decals are very thin and quite brittle, I intended to build N-195 which actually took part in the race but they broke up when trying to manoeuvre them into position. So I had to use N-194 which was the reserve a/c and use plenty of fluid to make sure they could be floated into alignment.
For the rigging I've tried EZ line for the first time. This is a bit finer than the 'Aeroclub' thread I've got and a darn sight more expensive, but I think on this diminutive model it looks right. I got it in white and so can be coloured easily using felt tip pens - the shades of grey I've got are a bit too dark (which I decided used) or too light so I've got to go and source something in between for future builds. I used UNI-Caenis mono-filament thread for the control cables, this is fine hair like in thickness and a bit tricky to handle but again suits the delicate model.
This sits nicely along side my Porco Rosso Savioa and I'm definitely going to add a few more Schneder racers to my cabinet.
The wrong way to construct floats!
Lyell
