I thought I'd share this last build with you, it's a Glencoe 1/48 Republic Seabee! From what I've heard, this is quite an old tool that has been re-released several times. This is definitely one of the more basic kits that I have come across, most of the kits I cut my teeth (no interior, clear frame, flash-o-rama) on are some of the early 1/48 Revell Kits (B24, P40 etc).
I've been modeling for roughly a year and I primarily build 1/700 WWII USN. This was a speed build of sorts, as I finally found a kit on eBay and this was to be a Christmas present for my girlfriends father, Guy. I've attached a link to a letter that Guy had wrote about his experience purchasing his Seabee. I thought this would be a great chance to make a replica of a fascinating plane that he used to own!
http://republicseabee.com/cazort.htm
I had about two weeks to complete the build which included scratch building the entire cockpit and adding detail to the landing gear. I ended up having to make a few concessions as I was working right up to Christmas Eve. Masking on the pylons was very difficult and I was unable to keep the orange striping from spraying onto the curvature of the pylon bottoms. I ended up spraying the whole bottoms Tangerine. The white pinstripes were masked with 1/16 pinstriping that I cut into 1/32 strips. The K in the serial also had to be scratched from a 1 and a 7. Guy really enjoyed hearing that I used 1/700 20MM shields and depth charge racks from a destroyer kit to detail the landing gear. I would have liked to fill in the nav lights on the pylons, add the "winglets" and fix the engine intake.
He was thrilled with the present and loved seeing all of the little details. It's funny how we can get lost nitpicking the little details, when others look at a model and can't believe how you're able to make something so detailed!
