Floatplane/Seaplane Group Build 2012

stoutfella

Ordie: Actually, my first two builds upon returning were Revellograms. First was the SBD, which, face it, is more toy than model kit. It was a fun way to get back in, but I mucked up the finish with a nasty orange peel. Next was the P-47 Razorback, and it's not bad. I did a lot of prefitting and sanding before assembly, which paid off. I was pleased with how that one turned out, despite some off-register kit decals. Then the three Tamiyas in a row -- the A6M2 Zero, the P-51D and the Spitfire Mk I. All very nice, with the Mustang being an absolute wonder and the Spitfire not far behind. Tamiya decals are dreadful, but the Mustang came with a Cartograph set, which was sweet.

In my already too large stash, I've got three other Revellograms -- the F4U-4 Corsair, the P-38 (I built a couple of those back in the 60s and 70s) and the F-80 Shooting Star my son gave me for Father's Day. I know all three of those kits have their, um, challenges, but I'll get to 'em. After the Kingfisher, though, I'll do the Tamiya BF109 and F4F Wildcat, as I've committed to group builds for those.

At any rate, I hope to have a few more peaceful days for modeling in the near future, as I gave notice this very day that I'm retiring in about three weeks (though I do plan to find a low-stress part-time job after a decent interval for decompression).

stoutfella,

Congratulations on your retirement!  You won't be sorry.  I retired a few years ago, and can't imagine ever going back to the rat race. 

I saw your Razorback, very nice. 

I know the SBD is a toy (though I've left out those parts and paved them over, mostly), but I built one all slap-dash, glue and decals only, back in '60 or '61, when it first came out, and it was a favorite.   I bought it and the Revell Hellcat, another toy-like kit from the same era, for the founding kits of my stash (now also reaching near-epic proportions, LOL!).  Actually, some of my Revell kits are newer, like the Ventura and the SB2C, and I read they're quite nice. 

troublemaker66 - Dude!  I was just kidding about the cherry bombs and lighter fluid, and using my stashed Revell kits as guinea pigs in horrible experiments.  In fact, I highly recommend the Revellogram Texan/SNJ kit - it's a heckuva nice, fun kit for $12 street.  (I hope von Hammer reads this part first ... )

LOL!  Later,

Ordie

P.S., I think I'm going to like 'shake and bake' ...

Old Ordie

troublemaker66 - Dude!  I was just kidding about the cherry bombs and lighter fluid, and using my stashed Revell kits as guinea pigs in horrible experiments.  In fact, I highly recommend the Revellogram Texan/SNJ kit - it's a heckuva nice, fun kit for $12 street.  (I hope von Hammer reads this part first ... )

LOL!  Later,

Ordie

P.S., I think I'm going to like 'shake and bake' ...

 

Len

I only managed to get 15 minutes on the bench this evenning , so I took a pic of the Sprues from the 1/72 Airfix Grumman Widgeon kit

I hurried out to the spraybooth for several light coats of interior grey

And sadly , that's all I got done today ...

I did spy , in between coats of paint , the Airfix 1/72 Grumman Duck kit

I forgot I bought this kit earlier this year and the build instructions are similar to the Widgeon , so the 'Duck' looks quite straight forward enough

So what the heck , I'll throw her in as well as I do like the red , blue and silver finish for a USAF OA-12 Duck , 10th Rescue Squadron , Elmendorf , Alaska 1948 .

John .

Helo H-34,

You be jammin' on the floatplanes, my man!  The Widgeon and Duck are great little waterbirds.  Build away, John (but save a kit or two for Floatplanes/Seaplanes Group Build  2013 ).

Ordie

Ordie ; There's no problem about having plenty to do for 2013 .

I've been saving my pennies for a while now and today I ordered the 1/72 Mach 2 P6M2 Sea Master kit

I like the box art on the Mach 2 kit , especially the Sikorsky HSS-1 plane guard in the back ground . The Sikorsky S-58 series helicopter is my absolute favourite helo and with 12 completed H-34's , another 24 on-going builds with yet another 24 H-34 / wessex kits in the stash , I can't get enough of 'em . I don't know if the Sea master box art is more of artistic license but it would be great if such an actual picture did exsist of a Sikorsky HSS-1 and P6M2 sea master together .

I had a few pennies left over and spied a 1/72 Hasegawa SP-5B Marlin kit on ebay and bought it ;

Both these two newly aquired gems will be Christmas presents from the family to me , so it will be New Year starts for both of them .

A little more self indulgence on my part is this completed 1/72 Mach 2 PBM-5 Mariner I built for the Korean War Group Build

John .

Well , I'm only one year shy of turnning 50 but I thing I might  already be going senile !

I just spotted under the bench a long since stalled 1/72 Airfix Short Sunderland build I was doing for the Korean War GB . It's about 50% complete but I do have the original WIP pic's I can post

This first pic shows all the parts with the fuselage halves tapped together just to check how the ancient Airfix kit was going to fit

Next I airbrushed the fuselage interiors with some Gunze H-58 interior green ;

The cockpit floor didn'y quite span all the way across to sit against both fuselage insides

So I added a small piece of plastic strip to one fuselage inside

Here's the fuselage closed up

I then added the wings but this is where the build stalled as I discovered that the dorsal turret wasn't fitted on Korean War versions , so I had to remove mine . there are also some blisters that fit on the outer section of the underside of the wings , which I'm yet to try and locate some to buy . I also purchased Squadrons vacuform canopy as the near invisable panel lines on the Airfix canopy are too hard to see for masking .

Anyway , here's the Sunderland as she sits of today

I need to fill the hole where the dorsal turret use to be , I also need to trim the vacu canopy to size , I lost one of the struts that support the wing floats , so I'll need to make a replacement one and there's some work to do one the wheels  etc .

If it's okay to continue on and include the Short Sunderland into the GB ; It will be a good way of finishing off one of my many stalled Korean War birds as well as adding another Sea Plane to my display cabinet

John .

Helo H-34,

Please do finish your Sunderland for us.  You may contribute as many builds as you wish.  I know I'll enjoy seeing the finished floaters.

Ordie

Hey all,

Started my Albatross kit..1/72 scale from Monogram. Got some painting done and temped it up with one piece of tape! Seems to be a good fitting kit,so far...

I`m still hating this "new" format...text was supposed to be above the pic...lol...

Oh well...I guess I`ll figure it out someday...had it cold on the old site...now I`m lookin` like a noobie!

Thanks for looking....

Len

troublemaker66 - I love the good old Albatross (as I'm sure I've said before).  I'll be following along with interest.

Helo H-34 - Finally got myself read up on the Martin PM6 SeaMaster.  Similar story as the SeaDart, just a few years later.  Successful jet seaplane, to the point of production, then - nothing.  What a shame.  The rationale for killing the jet seaplanes was two-fold:  the SeaMaster was whacked because the Polaris submarine gave the Navy nuclear bomb capability (hence, no need for a multi-engine jet seaplane bomber), and the helicopter was thought to be adequate for search and rescue (show me a helicopter with the range of a PBY, or a SeaMaster for that matter, and I'll eat my dixie cup).  We all know the real reason was to use the money elsewhere, but whaddayagonnado?  The seaplane era ended way prematurely, IMHO.  Oh, well ... SeaMaster photos below:

Greetings,

Which do I hate more -- sanding or canopy masking? Toss up.

Five canopies? Are you kidding me? If my sanity holds up, I might get some paint on this beast today.

stoutfella

Greetings,

Which do I hate more -- sanding or canopy masking? Toss up.

Five canopies? Are you kidding me? If my sanity holds up, I might get some paint on this beast today.

Len

Here`s an update on my Albatross...

masked off the tail, after painting most of it Tamiya orange, to paint the leading edges of the wings semi-gloss black for de-icing boots. Did the same for the main wing....Still having trouble with this @&*%$ format...trying to add text between pics and it won`t let me...this sucks!!! I`ll have to post a little at a time so everything makes sense...anyone know what`s wrong or what I`m doing wrong???

OK...here`s the tail and main wing after removing the masks.(won`t even try to post between). Opinions are needed on the tail....some of the orange pulled up, exposing the aluminum underneath...kinda looks like weathering to me but I kinda wanted a pristine paint job. The Tamiya orange is a PITA...just doesn`t want to cover without a half dozen coats. What do you guys think...look like natural paint chipping or should I fix it?

The last few are a quick mock up...the wings fit so good I wouldn`t really have to glue `em...last is a shot of the decals.

Thanks for looking,

Len

P.S.   Decal obviously is next to last because this format stinks.....

Oh, I hate when that happens, Len.  If you originally wanted a pristine finish, then I think I'd fix it.  Of course, I always then worry that it'll happen again the second time.

Len - Yeah, I'll go along with checkmateking02 - but it does look like 'natural' weathering, in case you decide otherwise (I know I'd be thinking it over real hard if I were you - sanding on that raised detail ...).

stoutfella - Great job masking the canopy sections (the worst part of building for me). They'll look great after painting.  That was a big seam there between the elevator and the fuse, looks like.

Carry on.

Len: i think the chipping looks fine, but yeah, if you wanted it to be clean it may bug you every time you look at it.

Ordie: yes, it was a pretty good size gap, but I made it harder than it needed to be. I've been using plain old vinyl spackle to fill gaps like that, after finding Squadron green putty impossible to work with. I know the spackle can be porous, but it's really easy to work with. Well, I was at Hobby Lobby last week and they'd gotten in some Tamiya putty and I decided to give it a try. But I really wish I wouldn't have tried it in that spot, as it's really difficult to sand it smooth without obliterating the raised detail. Just one more little frustration with this kit.

I don't know if it's just my computer but it took me qiute a few attempts at uploading the previous page as half the WIP pic's you guy's posted were not coming up , just big empty squares where the images should be .

I finally succeeded after a while ; Len , that's bad luck with the Tamiya orange peeling off in places . I airbrush mostly with Gunze and Tamiya acrylics and I know how sometimes the Tamiya acylic seems to dry a little soft compared to Gunze . If it were me I probably would try and re-touch the affected area's , although that's easierly said then done . I hope it works out anyway .

Ordie , great info on the P6M-2 Seamaster and I have to agree that it's a shame it didn't go into full production , I really like the look of this beast . My Mach 2 kit arrived today and I was allowed one quick look inside the box before it was put away for Christmas

Very , Very Nice.....

I just need to add the pitot to the front of the Sea Dart and glue the canopy in place and it will be ready for painting . The Grumman Widgeon is coming along okay , despite the fit of the airfix kit not being all that great . I ditched the kit supplied pilot and found two (volunteer's) replacement figures from the spares box

There are going to be some major issue's fitting the engine nacells onto the wing as they are a little undersize in width when fitted back to the wing

another view from straight on

Their not glued on yet , just sitting in place but I may have to file/sand the molded sections on the wing and try and contour everything to look correct , perhaps even build up the back of each engine nacell with some putty as well . It's just a bit hard to belive they are so undersize this much .....Bummer .

I hope the 'Duck' fits together better !

John .

I just realized why the orange pulled up on my build...it`s sprayed on top of Tamiya aluminum and doesn`t have enough bite. I re-masked and sprayed the orange again, looks pretty good. Painted the wheel wells flat white and then sealed everything with future. More pics soon,prolly after some decaling.

Len

I'm glad to hear things might be working out with the orange paint Len .

It's just after 5am here in Sydney and I suddenly woke up with a bit of a brain storm . Instead of filing and sanding and puttying the engine nacelles to fit on the Widgeon which would be a lot of work , I thought about splitting open the rear of the nacelles and adding a piece of plastic strip the appropiate thickness and just spread the back of the nacelle open to fit into the wing

This should work out nicely ...

John .

Helo H-34

I'm glad to hear things might be working out with the orange paint Len .

It's just after 5am here in Sydney and I suddenly woke up with a bit of a brain storm . Instead of filing and sanding and puttying the engine nacelles to fit on the Widgeon which would be a lot of work , I thought about splitting open the rear of the nacelles and adding a piece of plastic strip the appropiate thickness and just spread the back of the nacelle open to fit into the wing

This should work out nicely ...

John .

Neatly done, John.  Bravo! 

Greetings,

Sad to say, guys, but I'm extremely close to throwing in the towel on the Kingfisher. It just seems to be one of those cases where everything I touch turns to crap. The latest:

I plowed my way through masking the five canopies and fastened them in place with Testors clear parts glue, preparing to prime the beast. I've had trouble finding a satisfactory, go-to primer and had seen some people on the forums say they've used rattle-can auto primer with good results, so thought I'd give that a go.

Stopped at the local Lowe's, which didn't have a huge selection, and picked up a can of Rustoleum automotive primer. I sprayed a bit on a sheet of leftover plastic and it seemed to go on relatively smoothly.

Trotted the Kingfisher out to the garage and proceeded to have at it. Sprayed a first coat as lightly as I could, but it seemed less smooth than my test. Sprayed a second coat and hoped for the best. But, as you can see below, the stuff went on super-thick and left a nasty, pebbly surface. Plus, just to top it all off, every bit of lint and dust in the air apparently landed on the ribs of the canopy between all the masking tape I laboriously spent hours putting down.

This has become the most frustrating build since I started back in the hobby at the start of the year. I may sleep on it, but I'm about ready to tuck this one in a corner somewhere and move on to the Tamiya BF-109 that's next in the stash.

Big sigh

stoutfella

Greetings,

Sad to say, guys, but I'm extremely close to throwing in the towel on the Kingfisher. It just seems to be one of those cases where everything I touch turns to crap. The latest:

I plowed my way through masking the five canopies and fastened them in place with Testors clear parts glue, preparing to prime the beast. I've had trouble finding a satisfactory, go-to primer and had seen some people on the forums say they've used rattle-can auto primer with good results, so thought I'd give that a go.

Stopped at the local Lowe's, which didn't have a huge selection, and picked up a can of Rustoleum automotive primer. I sprayed a bit on a sheet of leftover plastic and it seemed to go on relatively smoothly.

Trotted the Kingfisher out to the garage and proceeded to have at it. Sprayed a first coat as lightly as I could, but it seemed less smooth than my test. Sprayed a second coat and hoped for the best. But, as you can see below, the stuff went on super-thick and left a nasty, pebbly surface. Plus, just to top it all off, every bit of lint and dust in the air apparently landed on the ribs of the canopy between all the masking tape I laboriously spent hours putting down.

This has become the most frustrating build since I started back in the hobby at the start of the year. I may sleep on it, but I'm about ready to tuck this one in a corner somewhere and move on to the Tamiya BF-109 that's next in the stash.

Big sigh

Well , we're certainly off to a not so great start when it comes to painting our builds , first Len's orange colour peels off in places and now stoutfella has a bit of bad luck with the primer . I hope these are only minor set backs guy's , especially given all the work that has gone into the builds so far .

A little more work done on my Grumman widgeon with the engine nacelle's fitting very nicely onto the wing and the wing assembly equally fitting quite well onto the fuselage .

When it came to glueing the fuselage halves together , I cut the locating pins from one fuselage side as it caused both halves to misalign with each other . In any case I'm happy how the engine nacelle's now look , with a big thankyou to len's 'psychic' abilities in sending he's thoughts through the air and waking me up at 5am with exactly the same idea.......'arn't group builds fun !

The canopy is a little too wide for the fuselage and there are some gaps along the top and bottom of the windscreen to deal with

I'm not too worried about the fit of the windscreen several applications of micro krystal kleer should fill the gaps nicely . At least now she's slowly looking like a sea plane .

John .

stoutfella - The catapault seaplanes of WWII took quite a beating during their service lives - the bumps could be blisters in the paint, or distressed rivets, or ????   Or, you might take some 1000 or 1200 grit sandpaper to the primer and even it out, no gimmick required (go easy on the raised lines, though).  Anyway, I hope you stick it out.  Good luck!

stoutfella

This has become the most frustrating build since I started back in the hobby at the start of the year. I may sleep on it, but I'm about ready to tuck this one in a corner somewhere and move on to the Tamiya BF-109 that's next in the stash.

Big sigh

John, what an ingenious idea to fix the nacelles!  I don't think it would have ocurred to me.

My Sea Dart and Widgeon are ready for masking and I'm quite happy that I'm almost ready to paint both builds

I took a bit of artisic licence with the Sea Dart cockpit and canopy , I scrounged around the decal spares box and found an instrument panel decal to use , an Airfix pilot has signed up for the first test flight and I decided to pose the canopy open by fitting a small brace piece to the inside of the canopy , ( i think it came from a Academy P-51D kit ) and two small support struts to hold it open . My canopy is tentatively sitting in place for photographic and visual reference ...( fancy speak for not glued in place yet )

She looks great being viewed from front on as well

Masking next then painting .

John .

Looking good, John.  I'm looking forward to seeing the SeaDart in all its glory. The Widgeon, too.

Greetings,

Thanks to all for the pep talks after my discouraging experience with the Kingfisher, but I'm afraid I'm calling quits on this one, at least for now. After stewing about it for a while, I tried to do some sanding on the gritty primer, and used a microbrush applicator to get most of the lint and gunk off the canopy ribs. I fired up the airbrush and sprayed a couple of coats of Tamiya flat white on the bottom surfaces, hoping it might go on smoothly enough to even things out a bit more. But it remains a big pebbly mess. I really screwed the pooch with my rattle-can primer experiment. I think the only thing for it at this point is to strip it all off and start over, and I haven't got the stomach for it right now. So I'm moving on to the Tamiya BF109E3 (and ordering some Mr. Surfacer 1200 for future priming).

I will continue to check in here and see how everyone else is doing, and one of these days I might have the fortitude to return to the Kingfisher.