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 phtographs below. The model is nearly finished at time of writing. I just need to install the fuel tank and the electronics in the fuselage, hook up the rudder and elevator servos and clear coat the graphics.

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.

Below are photographs of the build. I’ll update the page as soon as the model is completely finished. Maiden flight will probably take place in the Spring of 2026.

 

the full size Citabria to be replicated 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

 

to be continued...

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Philip Avonds Scale Jets

Doornhofstraat 6
B-8670 Koksijde
Belgium
Phone: +32-58-514451
e-mail: info@avonds.com