Curtiss HS-2L 1/24

by: Ron Lowry

Ron scratchbuilt this beauty for the Toronto Airport Authority. It is currently on display in the new airport terminal. The aircraft represents one owned and operated by George Barker and Billy Bishop, after WWI. Ron had to do some speculation with regards to the colour scheme as there were no colour photos to be found. Several sources were looked at and many people asked, but nobody could definitively say what the actual colour was.

The two bought the aircraft from the US Navy and flew it home in it's grey and yellow scheme. It was re-painted in Leaside (Toronto), by a firm that used silver and red as standard colours. There is a photo of a Jenny, repainted by this company that Ron knew was in these colours. It seemed logical that the HS was in this scheme as the tonal values of the black and white photos, resembled those of the Jenny. Frankly, red and silver look just fine by me!

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