"Curtiss F8C-5 / O2C-1 Helldiver" Topic

Good evening everyone,

Does anyone know models of Curtiss F8C-5 / O2C-1 Helldiver, these aircraft that killed King Kong in the 1933 version?

For now I have only found this:

link

They are too small …

Thank you in advance .

What scale are you looking for?

For my 1933 King Kong of 200mm, alas Kong's size changes drastically throughout the course of the 1933 film. While creator Merian C. Cooper envisioned Kong as being "40 to 50 feet tall", animator Willis O'Brien and his crew built models and sets scaling Kong to be only 18 feet (5.5 m) tall on Skull Island, and rescaled to be 24 feet (7.3 m) tall in New York.

This did not stop Cooper from playing around with Kong's size as he directed the special effect sequences; thumb up thumb down, he made Kong appear a lot bigger than O'Brien wanted, even as wide as 60 feet (18.3 m) in some scenes.
As Cooper stated in an interview:

I was a great believer in the changing world. He's different in almost every shot; sometimes he's only 18 feet tall and sometimes 60 feet or larger. This broke every rule that had been worked on, but it was felt that the scene moved with excitement and beauty, the audience would accept any height that fitted into the scene. For example, if Kong had only been 18 feet high on the top of the Empire State Building, it would have been lost, like a little bug; I constantly juggled the heights of trees and dozens of other things. The audience was enthralled with the character of Kong so they would not care or be 18 feet high or 40 feet long, just as long as he was fitted to the mystery and excitement of the scenes and action.

Concurrently, the Kong bust made for the movie was built with a 40-foot (12.2 m) ape, while the full sized hand of Kong was built in scale with a 70-foot (21.3 m) ape. Meanwhile, RKO 's promotional materials listed Kong' s official height as 50 feet (15.2 m).

How tall is your Fay Wray? The scale of your human figures should determine the scale of the airplanes.

Your 200mm Kong is almost 50' tall in 1/72 scale, but there don't seem to be any models of the Curtiss in that scale (it looks like there was one, but an unbuilt one will probably cost as much as a second mortgage).

Your Kong would be about 94' tall in 1/144 scale, so you could just get a bunch of these 3" wide Curtiss F8C-5/O2C-1 Helldivers: link
This is probably what I would do. It actually doesn't look all that bad to have planes that are underscale compared with the rest of the terrain. Planes are large objects and it helps the gaming experience to shrink them a bit.

You could settle for a different plane that is maybe close enough, like the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver: auction

Or the Curtiss P-6 Hawk: link

Or give up the rear seat and go with the Curtiss Goshawk: auction

- Ix

Do some ebay searches for various likely biplanes in 1/144, 1/72 and maybe even 1/48 scale, and if anything crops up, check for stock in online model stores like these:
hobbylinc.com
kitlinx.com
hlj.com
modelwarehouse.biz
megahobby.com

- Ix

And good luck! I hope to see pictures of the big fight.

- Ix

Thanks for your help Yellow Admiral,

So If the human figures are 28 mm Pulp Figures – a scale of 1/64,28 ?- my King Kong 200mm and 1933 measures 12.85 m or 42.26 – foot, which is what Cooper said …

The Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver is really too far from the Curtiss F8C-5 / O2C-1 Helldiver, the Curtiss P-6 Hawk is a little better mas it's not even that, the Goshawk FIIC-2 Curtiss Navy Biplane is already better but I should be in contact with a specialist who explains to me what transformations to perform on these models, or rather which there is the least to do.
Also worth noting is the size of the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver, Curtiss P-6 Hawk and Goshawk FIIC-2 Curtiss Navy Biplane compared to the Curtiss F8C-5 / O2C-1 Helldiver.

For gaming, there are reduced models for these Curtiss F8C-5 / O2C-1 Helldiver?

For now I have only found this:

link

but they are too small…

Thank you in advance for other ideas…

I finally found the famous "Curtiss F8C – 4/02C Helldiver from "Esoteric Model" but alas it's not a Curtiss F8C – 5/02C -1 Helldiver… What's the difference between the two variants?

Revell makes a Stearman in 1/72 scale roughly the same size and shape with two cockpits all you would need to add is the MG for the rear cockpit

Not too much of a stretch, square-up the tailfins and you are all set

@Anton Ryzbak
That's not a Curtiss F8C – 5/02C -1 Helldiver…