Floats and Boats: Amphibious Aircraft Group Build

G, yep this particular Seiran scheme is different for sure.

That Seamaster is giving you some concerns but you are handling things out very well. That is a very unique looking aircraft indeed.

I may have seen one near Priceton, NJ back in 1986 while on an extradition trip up there. I recall seeing some type of aviation museum with several aircrafts out on display and I think one of them may have been a Seamaster. I recall it being very odd looking. I think I took a picture of it but I have to locate it.

PJ, I wasn't aware that a Seiran prototype had an all-green fuselage.  You learn something new every day! 

I haven't had time to mess with the Seamonster lately, but before bedtime I drilled out the missing portholes for the back seaters.  Mach-2 only provide a scribed circle on the left fuselage, but not on the right side (!).  The first filled in circle is the kit location, which is too far forward.  The second filled circle was my first attempt to make new holes, but I decided they needed to be a little further back and a wee bit lower.  Like I said, I measure once and cut twice! 

https://flic.kr/p/JvWSs7][/url]Seamaster-47 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

The two "deadlight" portholes on the roof were entirely absent on the kit, and the placement of said holes were a compromise between what I could see and measure off photos, and the realities of the kit.  I think the panels lines are way off, and the back seaters' roof hatches are too far back.  I'll take care of that later on.  I plan on filling the porthole openings with CA glue, polishing them, then painting the backsides with Tamiya smoke.

https://flic.kr/p/Jy7Dge][/url]Seamaster-49 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

I also took the time to shim the wings to get them to approximate the real thing.  The P6M2 had less anherdal than the XP6M and P6M-1, with the underside of the wings appearing to be almost horizontal from head-on.  The kit wings have almost no anhedral, so the undersides of the wings angle up going towards the wingtips.  0.030" strip plastic was glued to the upper edges of the wing roots to correct the problem.  A bigger problem is that Mach-2 molded the wing section such that the top and bottom surfaces curve in when seen head on rather than having straight lines.  Since it would take essentially new wings to correct, plus the nacelles would then need to be adjusted to fit, I am going to leave this one alone.  Pay no attention to the Kyofu under the desk!

No it will not be a derelict but in operational condition. This particular airframe was apparently used for testing due to the orange color.

PJ,

Is the tail going to be missing and a hole in the float on yours? Nice picture, they are hard to find except for the one in the Smithsonian.

Thanks BK. Yep color is next and speaking of color it will sport a rather unusual scheme of IJN Green over orange with some red primer showing thru. This particular scheme was found on a Seiran found on Nagoya by GIs.

The dolly looks to be part wood and part metal as I suspect it to be as such for strength. I will be doing both the hair spray and salt technique for the distressing on both the aircraft and dolly.

Here's a link to my scheme:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1998/05/stuff_eng_ww2incolor_airaxis.htm

PJ, looking good. We should see some color on that pretty soon I'd say. I still need to build my dolly for mine but I've been busy and not a lot of progress lately. 

BK

There are some really cool builds going on here. 

I finally was able to get back to work on the Seiran. It's ready for the Eduard canopy mask and paint. I also got the dolly assembled and is also ready for paint.

RG, the seats appear to be taking shape and that pilot kills me. LOL

Scott, the work on the goose is looking great and the prop work is a great idea, not sure I would have noticed that till it was too late. Are you going to re-profile the blades once you have then scaled down?

BK

Crown those bays look like they mean business!! Looking to be another great Mariner!!

G love those seats! Getting better and better!

Scott your honker is looking great!! Love the prop work!

An interesting side step into this project was finding out the Goose in the TV show had 3 blade and the kit 2 blade props.  All I had was a set of 1/48 props from a B-24 which were going to be too long, so, using the kit's prop as a guide, I cut them down and then re-glued them to the hub, showing them in a semi-feathered position as they would be if docked. 

Greetings GB members,

I have taken a break from life and spent the day on my Goose.  Took a while to mask it all off and have now painted all the black surfaces.  I also put a coat of stain on the dock.  Hope to provide another update soon.  Scott

Please allow me to post a little entertainig distraction.

https://flic.kr/p/HxH6GQ][/url]Seamaster-46 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

I was looking for the second pilot figure when I found this guy.  Way back in the 1980s I wanted to have a movie version pilot for a Macross VF-1 Super Valkyrie, so I modded a Monogram F-15 pilot with a reshaped helmet, chest pack, and big shoulder pads (remember this was from the 1980s).  Looking at it now it is very rough and pales in comparison to Hasegawa's rendition.  And I took too long to build the Imai Super Valkyrie, so it got superseded by Hasegawa's excellent kit.

Anyway, the Stanley seats now have head boxes, which still need to be sanded to shape.  I didn't get far last night, as my allergies were in full force after mowing the lawn.  At least the yard looks nice this morning. 

Can't wait to see this come together G.

All the great work being done here is certainly providing me with motivation!

https://flic.kr/p/JoZSm5][/url]Seamaster-44 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

After much consideration, I decided that the very nice True Details resin seats were not quite right, so I am attempting to make new ones to more closely resemble the Stanley seats of the Seamaster.  The big difference is that the Stanley seats have a heavy looking rear extension that appears to house the guide rollers for the ejection rails.  So using the True Detail seats for dimensional reference, new ones are being fabricated from sheet plastic.

https://flic.kr/p/JoZPxu][/url]Seamaster-45 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

Here the new seats are being test fitted, along with the Monogram B-52 test pilot along for the ride.  The head boxes have not yet been fabricated.  I pulled out a new set of magnifying looken-peepers which allow me a much better view of what I am doing. The only thing is that I'm kind of cross-eyed when staring at the parts! 

Lots of real-world responsibilities demand my attention and time at the moment, but the more I watch the action on this GB, the more I want to work on the Seamonster!  Thanks for helping guys! 

crown, that is a nice amount of detail in those bays and the color looks great. This is gonna be one sweet PBM.

BK

here are my lastest pics from my PBM-5 with open bomb bay in the engine nacelles . I couldnt pass it up 

40mm-The quacker is looking good mate! Like the new harnesses!

G- Steller work! Really improving that kit immensely!

MC- Looking forward to watching the Seiran take shape!

BK- Pete is looking good! Biplanes can be like that, some seem to be more subassemblies then a straight build.

Seems like you have it in hand G. And maybe i will have to watch the cats eater, we just put the food down and leav ethem to it. I didn't realise it could be such a good source of inspiration.

Slowly but surely, I'm getting it done. I have the bulk of the paint work finished. Now I need to add decals and then the PE rigging. Once that's on I can do some pastel weathering to fade things a bit and add some grime. Then clear parts and some major assembly. Should be nearing the end by that point. This kit is kinda wierd in how I have to reverse build it and paint it, them assemble. It's actually kind of confusing in that regard.

BK

RG,  I have to agree with Bish, that looks like a challenge to correct. I think the hardest part is deciding where to begin. But, looking at what you've done thus far, I have no doubt you will make this look easy as well. I'm really loving the work you've done so far.

BK

Bish,

Nah, the fix will be to just rebuild the upper profile of the aft fuselage and reposition the two domes up.  The fin base cross section is probably also too wide, but I will leave that one alone.  

I also had an idea on how to easily build ejection seats while feeding my cats this afternoon.  And no, the seats will have nothing to do with cats or cat food; I was just daydreaming while waiting for them to finish!  That's just how I solve problems.  

Thats looks like it will be a tricky one to fix G. Be interested to see how you get round it.

Yep Steve, and this is a relatively "light" research project!  I'm just fixing what I find while poring over the one refernce book I have on the subject.  Imagine if Trumpeter did the Seamaster and commited this error - oh the howling and gnashing of teeth that would follow!  "Unbuildable!"  "Egg Plane!!!"   

I once built a DML Me-262 with exposed engines, and so I wanted to add all the wiring/piping.  It was just a confusing jumble at first, but I isolated the fuel, oil, and electric systems by studying photos of real Jumo engines.  By starting at the entry points under the wing, it was fairly straightforward to figure out where everything went.  I think I got 90% of it in the end.  However, I didn't identify or add the instrumentation wiring for the engine revs, oil pressure, turbine temperature probe, etc.  It was the most intense research project I have undertaken, but it did give me a better understanding of how a turbojet functions.

And yes, it won't matter in "Jeopardy", unless there is a plastic modeler's special episode!  It's just fun mind candy for us modelers.

G,

It amazes me how much we learn while doing research, not that any of the stuff we learn will win a round of Jeopardy. 

Good catch.

Time at the work bench has been limited lately, but some progress on the Mach-Poo Seamonster has been made.  Reworking the tail group continues:

https://flic.kr/p/JcYAEE][/url]Seamaster-39 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/JcYzym][/url]Seamaster-40 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

I discovered a little discrepancy at the fin base.  There is a rectangular fairing with some sort of antenna right above the upper tail dome, but Mach-2 just faked it and represented it as a section of fuselage.  The fuselage of the real plane is straight, with the dome right at the top.  This will need correction.

https://flic.kr/p/HqPkpQ][/url]Seamaster-42 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/JmTX6P][/url]Seamaster-43 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

The photo of the real plane was taken from a book I have, is used to illustrate a point, and represents fair use, etc, etc.

I have decided the resin seats I got are close but no cigar, so I will try to scratch build new ones that are closer to the real deal.  I will be concentrating on the cockpit for now, as I need to finish it to close up the fuselage and get on with the fin correction.

Thanks BK,

I need to look through my pilots...what's left.

It just hit me that my figures are all 1/48 and not 1/72 so you would have a bit of a time getting them to fit. LOL

BK

modelcrazy

I don't think I will be showing the kit with any chipped paint. To my knowledge they were barely used.

I believe only 18 were made and saw little use. I have seen pictures and art work of two with a very unusual scheme which will be the subject of my model.

Thanks Brandon.

PJ,

I don't think I will be showing the kit with any chipped paint. To my knowledge they were barely used.

By the way. Kalmbach is a little slow with the Reader Gallery. They put my FW 189 I submitted in early 2015 LOL. It will probably be somewhere around 2018 before they get to the Mariner 

modelcrazy

BK,

Put me down for another one.

The 1/72 Taniya 1/72 Aichi M6A1 Seiran.

I was watching a documentary on the I-400 submarine, couldn’t help myself and ordered it from Squadron for a Father's Day present to myself. 

When I get to it, it will be displayed in water of course, probably on the high seas with light chop waiting for pickup. If it doesn’t come with figures I may have to recruit a Luftwaffe crew, if I still have any. The reviews seem pretty good so it should be enjoyable.

 

BK