Landlubber Mike

14 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I just stumbled on to this; an interesting project that I’m looking forward to seeing nicely done.

 

The US Navy had some specialized and interesting small boats outfitted to service their fleet of flying boats while still in the water.  If you look in their 1955/1954? Boat Book you will find drawings of these craft.  One could make a great companion to your model. A copy of their Boat Can be found on the Navy’s history site.  Or Google Navy Aircraft Refueling Boat

 

Roger

 

 

Thanks Roger, I'll have to look into that.  Appreciate the suggestion!

16 hours ago, lmagna said:

Hi Mike

 

I have been tempted to start several of my stash of seaplanes several times. One issue is where to put them when I am done? Not so bad with the JRS-1 or my 1/144 Martin and Boeing 314, but the 1/72 Boeing 314, the Martin Seamaster, and Martin Mariner, and Sunderland are another matter! Even the Gruman Albatross and Catalina are pretty big in that scale. You are building the Walrus but That is one seaplane I don't have. But who knows what I will latch onto in a weak moment. I need another model sitting around here like I need another hole in my head.

 

What I really need is to find good homes for some I already have!

 

Whatching you CLOSELEY!   

I blame you for getting me into seaplanes 😝  

The JRS-1 at 1/72 is a pretty big model with the wingspan as you know.  I also have a 1/48 PBY-5a kit that I was thinking of starting soon - mostly to free up shelf space as it is a big box, but then the question is where do I put it as that’s a big one for sure.  

If you want a really big seaplane, Revell I think is  reissuing the Bv 222.  The model is really nice and doesn’t really require any aftermarket.  I’ve got that one but again, will need quite a bit of space for it.

One thing I was thinking was to do a cutaway on a 1/72 Emily since there is a lot of aftermarket that could make the interior look pretty impressive.  One side would have full exterior and wing with mechanics, etc. and other side would be open with pilots and gunners, with only a portion of the wing attached.  That would cut down on the overall size. 

Just need to find time!

Hey Lou, the kit comes with some PE, but Eduard also separately sells (or at least used to sell) this PE set which adds PE seats, engine wiring, handles, and the details around the wheel wells.  If you can find it, I think it's worth considering:

https://www.eduard.com/eduard/jrs-1-upgrade-set-1-72.html?cur=2&listtype=search&searchparam=jrs-1

The cockpit area is definitely problematic.  I added some plastic shims and it seems like the fit shouldn't be too bad.  Other people seem to have had a devil of a time trying to fill the gaps though.  It's just a little tiring spending hours to get pieces to fit right.  It's also looking at pictures of the real thing and realizing that certain details are either missing or incorrect that just add to the list of things to do.  And then there are lack of connection points which means you have to either add them or be very careful to not later break pieces off.

You should definitely build it though, the subject is really historically important and there are plenty of schemes to choose from.

Hi Lou, great to hear from you and thanks for the kind words.  I have the following book which has a lot of great pictures of both the civilian craft (including the Howard Hughes plane) and the military craft.  It's definitely worth buying if you're going to build this kit I think.  

Interestingly, the interior of the military craft looks very similar to that of the civilian craft, down to the interior curtains.  I decided not to open the model up in part because I wasn't too certain about whether the interior from the kit was accurate or not.  

For the wheel wells, the photo etch actually adds some nice detail like the rivets and the panels which seems very consistent with the pictures I've seen of the actual wells.  The PE is also really helpful to cover up that dreadful, hard to get to, ejector pin mark in the deep recess of the well.  Though, this is not an issue if you use the CMK wheel well replacement parts which actually fit better.

The kit is ok, and the CMK set is a nice add-on, but things like the need to clean up pretty much every piece, as well as the fit of the pieces, including the windows, the canopy, and the engine cowlings, make this a bit frustrating.  There's also the issue of no interlocking connecting points for the wing and tail struts (as well as a number of other detail parts) which is annoying.  Then there is the matter of certain details that are helpful to add, like the nose center rib in the book picture above, and the location and angle of the antenna mast in the center wing that is different from plane to plane.  Also, the tail wheel in the kit looks nothing like either of the two versions of the tail wheel on the real thing, so of course now that I've seen the actual pictures (the book above has great close-ups)  I feel obligated to scratch build a more accurate one, though not really looking forward to it.

I've started to lose interest in finishing the model, but am going to try to push through to get it finished by the beginning of June for the group build on LSM.  It didn't help that the model took a nose dive off the table last week and three of the interior windows fell off.  Thankfully the top two pieces of the fuselage had also loosened, so I was able to take them off and reinstall the windows.  If it was one of the windows further back I probably would have had to junk the model.  If you end up building the kit, I'd probably try not to be as OCD as I have been and just enjoy building it.

Amazing work! 

Another creative SIB build and display Glen!!  Amazing job!  Love the details, especially that little penguin!

17 hours ago, CDW said:

Everything except for the decals.

Just asking as I ended up getting the third of the three kits recently.  I'll probably build the two alongside the kit Lou graciously gifted us in the near future.

On 5/2/2024 at 6:53 AM, paul ron said:

i sparingly use yellow pva glue as it makes rigging easier so parts stay in alignment as i go.

 

 

I glued the masts on my Badger for this reason.  Easier to make sure the lines are taut if the mast is in a fixed position.

Hey Craig, did you end up finishing this?

Looking great Nils!

I bought this (or something similar) years ago when I was going to get into carving:  

https://www.amazon.com/PSI-Woodworking-DC725-Portable-Collector/dp/B000REX1UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=AP845MBBUYCQH

I haven't used it yet to be honest as I haven't been doing any carving, so not sure how effective it is.  It wasn't exceedingly loud if I remember correctly.  When I do things like sand or drill or work with resin, I found putting my shop vac nozzle in a vise near where I'm working is an easier and very effective method for removing dust.

I really like my Sherline lathe.  The DRO is a fantastic add-on.

Thanks for the kind words Harry.  The maple I used on my Pegasus came from the former Hobbymill supplier.  I believe he referred to it as "hard maple" but I could be wrong.  I wanted a light colored deck, but didn't want something too stark white like holly and maple fit the bill.  

The "tanganyika" (whatever it might be) is actually a really nice wood, at least the wood that was in my Caldercraft Badger kit.  It works well, and really comes to life when you finish it with wipe-on poly or oil it with tung oil or the like.  You won't go wrong with it.

I think Jaager is right about "walnut" - here is a picture from my Pegasus kit of the various "walnut" pieces.  It's possible they are all walnut (or at least the same species), but my guess is that with the huge variation in color, they might have been different species.  Unfortunately, that forced me to look to replace the kit wood so that the unpainted wood sections looked more consistent.

Looking forward to your build!

That will be sweet!  Definitely go for the diorama if you can.  

Very cool Ron!  You're getting very good at these!

Wow, that came out great Peter!  I saw your other thread and thought you had placed this one on the shelf of doom, but then saw this one and was very impressed!  Fantastic job!

That's looking really really good with the decals on.  I agree with Rob - glad the white was opaque enough to not have issues with the red bleeding through.  Good to know the Wingnut decals hold up well in that regard.

That's going to be quite the eye-catching model in your display case!

There are lots of different colors of maple, including figured maple like curly maple.  If you look at my Pegasus log you can see the maple I used for the deck.  If you look at my Badger build, I believe the deck wood that came with the Caldercraft kit was tanganyika.  The maple was a lot lighter than the tanganyika.  If I recall correctly, the Badger deck (tanganyika) was oiled with tung oil which brought out some richness and a golden sheen to it.  The maple on the Pegasus deck does not have a finish on it, but I would expect it to change in color and tone a bit as well depending on what is used.  

In case anyone is interested, I found this short video on the JRS-1 subject I'm building and how it went looking for the Japanese fleet after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Amazing bravery for these guys - the JRS itself did not carry any armaments - the only weapons carried were rifles that Marine and Army volunteers planned to shoot out the back windows if they had to 🇺🇸

I've been making slow but steady progress on this kit.  Part of the slow crawl is my fault in using the very nice CMK aftermarket set.  But the main reason is that there are a lot of fit issues and other things like lack of connection points for important parts like the struts holding up the tail section and the main wing.  For some examples:

- Main wing tips are separate parts (in halves) that you have to glue together and then do some cleanup.  I ended up adding brass rod to help secure them:

- Engine cowlings are too small, so I added thin plastic strip between the halves to fit the engines.  Figured that was much easier than filing down the engines:

- CMK tail isn't quite right, needing extra plastic on the fixed part of the tail:

At the moment, I'm mostly done with the wing.  The CMK set is nice in that it gives you the control surfaces, but still quite a bit of work to add them.  I have a few bits of PE to add along with the exhausts, and then of course the pontoons:

The body is close to being done as well.  I have a few more pieces of PE to add, along with the cockpit and landing gear and some other odds and ends that I'm waiting to add as they are fragile and will likely bust off.  But, I think so far it's looking pretty good:

I'm still debating how to go about staging the painting sessions.  I might end up painting the wing separately, then adding it to the body and painting the body once the wing is installed.  Because the wing struts don't have attachment points, I'm a bit worried about glue getting where it shouldn't be.  Still a bit to go before I get to that stage so I can think on it a little more.

Thanks for looking in!

Hey Craig, great subject!  The kit looks really nice - I have the Tamiya one but this Miniart kit looks amazing.  Not sure if you saw, but Plasmo recently built this kit:

Looking great!  Nice paint job.

Wow, just found out you finished this one Craig - amazing job!  That Mr. Color silver paint job looks fantastic - love it!

Dan, somehow I missed that you completed this one.  Another stellar build!  Well done!

Looks really great Dave.  Must be an interesting experience dealing with well-made kits that have tight clearances.  Most of the ones I've worked on recently have had big gaps to fill!