AIRCRAFT - 'It Floats and Flies Group Build' - Feb 1st 2005 to Sept 30 (Gotta finish sometime!)

thanks bstrump"better late than never" seems to be my motto for GB's

Good progress so far, Gettochild. Glad to see you are still working on yours. I'm still hammering away at mine as well and I intend to finish even though the build is over. Better late than never.

Even though the build is over im still working on mine, so here she is

Looks great RODC, if a little unusual.

Hello GB'ers....if anyone is still lurking,

I finally completed my CL215.....albeit two weeks too late. Figured I'd post the pics anyhow!

The kit was a struggle from start to finish :( and I must say I am not too happy with building Heller kits - BUT they do have some of the harder to get birds such as Canadair's 215 and 415.

My 215 was finished in the livery of my home province (Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada). I'd like to acknowledge Leading Edge Decals for an excellent rendition of the livery.

The last couple of photos show the 215 with my 415 (an earlier build) that was finished in French Forest Service markings (OOTB).

Enjoy......

RODC

Ah.....it is with sadness that I noticed that the deadline has passed. I pretty well have my 215 air tanker finished.....finally......just an hour or two of some minor stuff and then for pictures. I will upload them anyways. Too bad I ran out of time....just so much on the go!

RODC

Thanks Bstrump I was going for a well weathered look but think I may have done it. Since this version of the cat does have a landing gear it spends Im guessing all of its time in the water... when its not flying of course.
Should still post pics of yours when its done. would love to see it

My apologies for not finishing my own build. I just can not get enough time to make significant progress on my kits. Maybe when winter sets in I’ll get more time but for now I can not realistically contribute to any Group Builds.

My thanks to everyone who came along for this ride and for posting your fine work. A lot of great stuff was put on display here.

And my apologies to anyone who happen to click on my 'web' button prior to the last two weeks. I happen to notice a couple of weeks ago there was a button listed and I had no web site of my own. Some either found out my password or hacked my account and put a rather lurid site as my web page. Check your accounts once in a while, everyone.

Sorry guys that I haven't been her in quite a while.
Awood, I think your build is very nice. It really looks like it's spenta lot of time on the water. Well done! There may be some areas to deal with but since the camera doesn't show them, I'm not going to look for them.

Anyhow, the deadline has come and gone and I'm not even close to being done. I'm just happy with the way the paint is turning out. My aircraft calls for a gloss white finish and no matter what I do, it's not coming out right. I'm not sure if I should just throw the decals on and call it a model or sand it down and try again. I really don't want this thing to become a wall dart.

looks great from here, hope mine turns out as nice. ive finally closed mine up so i should be painting it pretty soon

You made a beautiful cat, Awood.

Well guys here she is..... I think I went entirely too fast on this one and though the camera may not show it theres alot of things I should have done differently. But, with all the mistakes I made, she may not have come out as good as I hoped, yet still better than I expected.








The more i look at it I keep seeing little things that I can go back and tidy up and I may do but for now this is the finished product. I had fun building this kit. There was few problems with the kit itself (other than severly yellowed decals) and most of the problems I did have were self inflicted. The scheme and decals are completely ficticious, the decals coming from an olf monogram Hell Cat kit.... I couldnt find many reference pics for what I was trying to build to in the end I said screw it and went ahead and painted and detailed it how I wanted it to look not exactly how it should look... Im happy with it and I guess thats all that really matters isnt it?
Question, comments, constructive criticism all welcome.... fire away, and I hope you like


Gimme a bit and Ill resize those so thier not quite so big.....

thanks guys, Until I got into construction I never noticed that my wasnt amphibious... it never occured to me that there were two versions... and since I think the beaching gears on this version are hidious this baby's gonna be a roof hanger till I can work out a dio for it. That said I think I should have built my 1/72 kit first :) That maybe in the near future... along with a 1/72 PT boat. Should look nice.

awood your build looks great, mine is the monogram kit, its got the landing gear. although im building gear up. i hope to put it in a rescue dio.

Josh, and Awood, your cats are looking good!

I dropped out of one build to concentrate better for this one and one that ends in December.
If you notice by tags, I've already thought of something for next year -but I think I'll keep to participating in no more that 2 on-line group builds per yer.

well I managed to snap a few shots of where Im at... not great pics but that probably works to my advantage. :(







Like I said not great pics... if these come out too big Ill try and resize em later. Too tired right now. the main wing in the last pic is just sitting there for photographic purposes. You can see where I tried to weather and over did it. Still I dont think shes coming along too bad....

new pics

Ive been so busy building mine I forgot to post some in progress photos... Ghettochild, yours seems to be coming along nicely. Is that the amphibious kit or like mine without landing gears?
So far Ive closed my fuselage, masked everything and completed about 90% of the painting. Ive left the main wing assembly off to ease painting. I tried my hand at some weathering but I think I overdid it alittle. should have some pics posted soon and be done in about a week...

Looks great so far gettochild. Coming along nicely.

glad this build has been extended. ive finally got back to building this thing.



ive dryfitted everything so im hoping this will go together without any problems.

Glad you added the extension to this one Aurora I may actually make this. After taking too long a break from modeling i just opened this one up tonight and got to work. In an effort to make the deadline Ive changed how I build models and went ahead and assembled as many as the sub assemblies as I could get away with. Im also not bothering with interior details. Pretty much If you cant see it when the fuselage is closed Im not panting it. Im also not trying to make my Cat historically accurate either. Im pretty much gonna paint her the way I want her to look. That should save some time on research
So far Ive assembled most of the interior, main wing assembly, the rear stabalizers, wheels, bombs, and anything else I could get away with without having to paint it.
With the new deadline and this approach to construction I should finish in time....
Dont get me wrong, I still want my cat to look good

I've extended it to 9/30/05, since I've been way behind in it. I still need to post images of what I've done so far.

Aurora-7, I'd love the extension as well since I just have no time to spend at my air tanker lately. Too bad, a couple of hours should be able to finish her.

RODC

I guess I should put a new end date just to make sure I finish it myself. How about 9/30/05? I know I feel confortable with that. My Mavis is going to take more effort than I thought with taking care of the seams on the outer wing joins.

A minor update. I finally have all the seams filled and sanded to satisfaction and can now start applying the gloss white. Not too long now and I can start putiing on decals.

I read back in the pages that the finish date for this GB had been extended. Until when? I can't seem to find the new finish date anywhere.

I have to post images of what I've done so far. I've got the wing sub assemblies together but joining outboard assemblies to the inboard is going to be ugly! I got my monies worth from the flexifiles I bought a couple of years ago. Using them was the only way I could clean up the heavy mold seams on the wing supports.

Almost all my prop blades have broken off from the propellar hubs. I have 1 out of for props that is intact. The others have either 1 or no blades attached.

Hi everyone. I have applied a few primer coats to the Twin Otter but I see that I have to give a few of the joints another pass with the putty. So it'll be a little while longer before I can start applying the gloss white

I have not been following the activities of the float group for a while but it sems like everyone is getting along well with their projects. I think it would be appropriate to provide the group with an update on the Combat Mars effort. I have just finished my 4th primer coat of the completely assembled A/C. This process has involved filling
, sanding, painting,and repeat. The general surface of the plastic provided in the kit is rough and a considerable amount of effort has been required to achieve a reasonable surface before appling the Gloss Blue final finish. The major assembly problem has been the blending of the wing top surfaces into the fuselage top. The fuselage as molded in this area has a distinct dip so that the wing airfoil shape does not continue as asmooth surface across the fuselage top. I have applied a great deal of filler tobuild up the fuselage surface to provide a smooth surface that carries the wing top airfoilacross the fuselage.

I am currently scratch building the set of four propellors and have already constructed the three point beaching gear so I need only clean up and rescribe the primed model and apply the final finish. Hopefully with one coat.

Richard

Lot's of seem filling going on. Especially for the wing supports. Sink hole in the supports themselves and a big seem when mated to the fuselage. Nothing really new to show for pictures, yet.

I'll treat the fuselage and wing as independent builds and mount them together at the last possible step (I'll paint them seperately). I've been mulling on how to do the rigging. Streched sprue or wire. maybe drill a hole into the float and wing and just flex the sprue/wire enough to fit into them and seal it with glue.

RODC, Very bright Orange . Looks great. Nice work so far.

Regards, Rick