Citabria

A good friend of mine (a private pilot) has recently acquired a full size Bellanca Citabria. I’ve always had a weak spot for the Citabria, in particular the 1/6 scale one from the SIG kit, made in USA. My late uncle Jack had also built a beautiful example. Only a few weeks before this friend told me about his new private plane, I had seen an original SIG kit for sale in Germany. I was lucky, it was still available and a few mail exchanges later, it was on its way to me. It was the intention to roughly replicate the full size Citabria of my friend, not to make a contest quality scale replica.

The kit is very nice. Although it’s old school, it’s very well designed with good quality wood and die-cutting. It replicates the full scale rather well. The only problems are the engine cowling and the wheel pants. The ones from the kit represent an older Citabria model and the differences are just too obvious to ignore. I’m sure I would have felt bad if I didn’t do the effort of correcting this, so I spent a bit of time creating new masters and moulds for these. The process is illustrated with photographs below.

For power, my choice went to a rather unconventional four stroke engine, the RCV 58 CD which is very compact thanks to the rotary valve, so it's completely hidden inside the cowling. A baffle plate directs all cooling air over the engine, so I don't expect overheating problems. The propeller is a 12 x 6 inch Zinger wood finished in the scale colour scheme. The flying spinner is from Tru-Turn, but I also made one for static display (and the photo shoot) which is closer to scale. Radio equipment is from Futaba.

Below are photographs of the build, the finished model and in flight. The maiden flight was carried out on November 9th, 2025. The RCV 58 CD is indeed a reliable and smooth engine. Power is perfect for this model.

this is the full size Citabria, shown here at Koksijde Air Base

the nice kit from SIG Manufacturing, USA

wing build

fin and rudder build

fuselage build

early work on the corrected engine cowling

masters in progress

new cowling and wheel pant masters on the left versus the kit supplied ones on the right

masters in the parting boards, ready for laying up the first mould halves

first mould halves ready

first cowl, spinner and wheel pant coming out of the moulds

trial fit of the RCV 58 CD engine

trial fit of the new cowl and spinner (engine is completely enclosed)

trial fitting the wing struts

covering the ailerons with Oracover scale ferrired

wing underside covered and left aileron servo installed (note the Oracover scale ferrired is silver lined on the inside)

fuselage partly covered with Oracover scale ferrired

white trim applied to fuselage (note the cowling is painted in the matching Oracolor two part paint)

first trial assembly of finished components

photos of finished model (November 2025) on the ground with static prop and spinner...

... and in flight with flying prop and spinner

all in flight shots by Michel Avonds

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