Holidays were very good and my wife and I came down with nasty colds for penance. Anyway, I haven't done as much as I should on the Sunderland. Best get moving because this will be a project and the real world is going to interfere shortly.
As noted earlier, this kit is large. It's clumsy just moving around the sprues. This is my first Italeri kit and so far it's pretty good. And it's not Tamiya. (The one problem of doing Tamiya models is that you become accustomed to smart engineering and good fit. Spoiled I guess, but I don't quite understand why other companies can't get closer than they do. I've heard new tool Airfix compared with new tool Italeri - I hope that's not the case because I have five of them.) For instance, parts are not placed on the sprues with any definite order. In a three part assembly, the parts might come from three different sprues. (The sprue map provided is very helpful - it's hardly necessary with Tamiya.)
The sprue gates are often much too large. Last Xmas I bought myself a pair of "God's Hand" sprue nippers. They're very delicate and I try to use them only when needed, but the smooth cut given is exceptional and is very handy when a bad cut could give you a damaged part - especially a clear part. (For most uses my Tamiya nippers are just fine. They're very well made double bladed cutters. God's Hand and competitors like Gundam Planet and DISPAE ST-A have only one thin cutting blade - the second one is thicker and much less sharp and serves to hold the plastic. If both blades cut, they push the plastic together - usually no problem - unless it is. The single blade type greatly lessens this squeezing of the plastic. Phil Flory has a fine review of the DISPAE ST-A cutters and you can see the idea in action. A luxery, but worth it to me. Very handy when a model ship is in front of me.)
The interior is just fine. In one area Italeri appears to have done very well. The rear turret can be applied at the end of the build - very good news because the mg barrel has "wreck me" written all over it. It appears that it will fit very well. The front turret can be recessed a good distance for the plane to be in "anchored mode." This also can be done later and is well fitted. (From what I can tell from pics, the front turret is always retracted unless the plane is in flight. That way crewmen can move around the front end of this very big plane.) If luck holds, I'll have a water base and a little cord will come out of the bow attached to an unseen anchor. It may still end up on a kind of trolly. We'll see.
docked2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
So it's possible that a little of the interior will be seen - but as usual, not much. The parts provided are more than adequate for me. I am very pleased with my color for RAF interior green.
interior by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
If the front turret was assembled deployed there would be no reason for any interior beyond the cockpit. Instead for reasons I can't understand, there's a "sort of" interior. A walkway leads to the side guns where it is barely visible. Beyond that, I don't think you could see anything inside even made a complex diorama of groundcrew readying the plane. And because this kit is not Tamiya, the pieces are just a little too wide. I junked everything below the walkway, but didn't quite trim things enough for a perfect fit. (I'm not sure that was going to happen regardless.) But some acrylic putty will do the job I think. Here's the fuselage before and after assembly. (There's a Com.Art black wash to dirty things up.)
kit3 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
fuselage by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
For assembly I'm following a very useful online quick build. The Sunderland has lots of windows - dozens of them. The quick build recommends using Micro Klear. I found the clear parts went in easily and used them. They do look better than Klear windows and they don't leave residue which Klear most certainly can.
That means I'll have to mask all of the windows. And mask a lot of other things. In my experience Eduard canopy masks have never been perfect, but on a kit like this, with a lot of glass, I'm glad I've got some. Indeed, that's what I'm doing now. Masking. Masking aircraft clear parts reminds me why people like armor modeling.
More later.
Eric