Short Sunderland III

Gordon Sørensen
Looks like you are in Seaplane mode! Never flown floats, but it looks fun!

Kelly Wellington
Yeah, I have a distinct weakness for seaplanes. I've never flown in one, either. I sorta have a plan to combine the Twin Otter and floatplane experiences in a flight out of Victoria's Inner Harbour on a Harbour Air rig. Bucket list stuff. If I were independently wealthy, I'd be looking to pick up a new Dornier Seaplanes Seastar...niiiice. The mode I'm working in is 'Battle of the Atlantic'...I keep getting diverted by other projects, like the Seabee. (MADD, y'know...Modelers Attention Deficit Disorder).

Kelly Wellington
Boy, would I love to see kits of the Dornier Seastar and the Piaggio P.136 Royal Gull. 1/72, of course.

Gordon Sørensen
I saw the Donier Seastar in Calgary a couple of years ago. Larger than I thought it would be. There was a P.136 Gull in Long Beach, good looking airplane. One Of my favorites is the SIAI-Marchetti FN.333 Riviera.

Kelly Wellington
After completing the Special Hobby Harpoon, I opened this box to find one engine and housing (a single piece) missing. In a sealed box with sealed internal bags. The fourth engine evidently never made it in to the package....*sigh*

Kelly Wellington
So...per the encouragement here, I emailed customer service at Airfix and told them the problem. I get a email back saying 'it's in the mail'. Today, I received the box from the UK, with one 1:72 Short Sunderland engine. The Sunderland can proceed!

Kelly Wellington
So...I have begun. I now have four engines. Airfix responded quite well. However, in beginning the assembly, particularly in doing the rattle spray of the whites, I find that the nose on one side of the fuselage has an injection molding issue and it is malformed. It looks to be fixable, but I'll need to give it more time.

Kelly Wellington
Hrrumph...I'm almost done. This thing has been cursed with minor fit issues. The fuselage halves needed 'evening' down the lower centerline of the hull. The engines took considerable internal paring to get them to fit on the wing nacelles. The nose below the front turret was deformed and had to be reformed with putty. The crew on the flight deck had their heads filed down so that the clear canopy would go on. Craploads of tiny stuff like that.

But. It is together. And awaiting decals...well, the Future first. Then decals, then Future again. Then Dulcote.

Kelly Wellington
It is done. Passable. Well, mostly. I misplaced the support struts for the land gear. I have the wheels and the main struts, but the supports that branch out at 90 degrees? Well, they were set aside to keep them safe and now I don't know where that is in my chaos. *sigh* I'm hoping they'll surface in the process of clearing away for the Beaufort. Or, in the continuing construction of the Seedraken.