Walrus (Airfix 1/48), NeOmega Catapult, and HMS Albatross (Niko 1/700) by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

I entered my first group build on the LSM sister site.  I'm building the Airfix Walrus in 1/48 using this kit:

 

With lots of aftermarket goodies, including a Vector resin engine given how prominent the engine is on this plane:

Resource:

I also have the catapult set from NeOmega:

 

I wasn't too enthused by building this as a "silver wings" scheme, so I went looking for decals (unfortunately I couldn't find the earlier release of this kit which had the two tone camo scheme which I preferred).  That led me to picking up the following decals and mask/stencil sets:

 

There were a few options I liked that were ship-based and launched from catapults.  In particular, I really liked these two schemes which were based on the HMS Albatross.  Although I like the first scheme a little better, I have the HpH 1/32 Walrus kit which has a similar scheme so I'm leaning towards the second one.:

 

 

 

The Albatross was a quirky looking ship, which really piqued my interest and I came to found out that Niko Models made a fantastic 1/700 kit for it.  Even better, it includes a 1/700 scale Walrus to add to the catapult at the bow.  After an extensive search, found a kit at Freetime Hobbies, and here it is:

 

So, I'm planning to build a combined display of the Walrus on the NeOmega catapult, coupled with its ship the HMS Albatross.  I'm thinking a two tiered display with the 1/48 Walrus/catapult as the main, higher tier of the display, with the 1/700 version presented on a lower tier to the side and/or front of the main Walrus.  Hopefully can pull it all off!

Edited March 27, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Some cool pics of the Albatross:

Some catapult pics - these I think are from other ships:

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Some pics of the Niko kit, which is really really nice.  I have a few 1/700 Niko kits, and am really impressed by what you get.  Lots of resin and PE, and the hull already includes lots of crisp details.  Should be a fun one to put together.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Spent one evening soaking all the sets, and then started with the fuselage (or is it a hull if it's a boat plane?).  It's a little smaller than I would have expected - maybe a touch longer than the Wildcat and Buffalo I just finished.

 

The kit's parts seem very sharp and well defined with lots of detail.  The one crazy thing is that the bottom and side pieces have a ridiculous amount of ejector pin marks!  I don't think you can see much of the inside of the model when it's buttoned up, but I went ahead and sanded and filled them.  Here's a picture showing all the pock marks!

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

This is where I am now.  After cleaning up the ejector marks on the bottom and sides, I installed various pieces into the bottom which included some Eduard PE.  After being annoyed about the quality of the kit from the many ejector marks, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the pieces are fitting together.  Test fitted the fuselage sides as well, and everything matches up well.  I worried about the orientation of the first bulkhead as you only attach it along the bottom of this stage, but its angle is locked into place perfectly by the two floor pieces on either side.  So, kudos to Airfix on this step - big redemption from the ejection pin fiasco 👍

 

 

The two main PE assemblies in the picture above are molded by Airfix as pretty much flat, non-descript platforms similar to the rest of the floor pieces.  The Eduard PE ends up being quite complicated/detailed assemblies for these replacement details.  Who knows if they will be seen when the fuselage is buttoned up, but it was fun making them.

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

[realworkingsailor]

I’m in! You did a great job on your Buffalo and FM-1 builds, I’m sure this one will be phenomenal as well. 
 

Having recently subjected myself to the test of patience that is Eduard origami, I can say that it is, for the most part, a worthwhile exercise.

 

Shame about all those ejector pin marks, though, especially for such a recent tooling, and a full interior. Looks like you’ve got it handled, hopefully a smooth build from here on out!

 

Andy

Edited February 13, 2023 by realworkingsailor

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Andy, really appreciate the kind words!  Yeah, the ejector pin marks were a bit of a shocker, but looking quickly at the remaining parts, I think I should be ok going forward.  On the PE, I'm used to extensive PE sets on my 1/350 and 1/700 ship builds, so for 1/48 planes, it's almost easy.  I'm probably a bit odd in this respect, but I find the PE work on builds to generally be relaxing and therapeutic, except when a part pings off the tweezers and I'm on the ground looking for it.

 

I've been following your builds too - you set the bar very high for the rest of us!  I think you had a Pegasus build that was an inspiration for my currently mothballed Pegasus.  If I remember correctly, I'm following the color scheme that you did.

[Egilman]

Another masterpiece in motion.....

 

I'm in brother, wouldn't miss it!!!

[Landlubber Mike]

Glad to have you man!  Need someone to keep me straight on these builds!

[realworkingsailor]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I've been following your builds too - you set the bar very high for the rest of us!  I think you had a Pegasus build that was an inspiration for my currently mothballed Pegasus.  If I remember correctly, I'm following the color scheme that you did.

Thanks Mike! I never figured myself as much of a bar setter, I just find one at a convenient height that I can comfortably step over! 😜
 

Andy

[AJohnson]

Really looking forward to seeing this one  done, didn’t know there was a catapult set available, that will be some display! 😁

[Landlubber Mike]

Andrew, thanks for looking in.  I hope I can pull it off!  NeOmega also makes a cool 'Hurricat' catapult which is a little more detailed with a bunch of PE.  The Hurricane by itself isn't very appealing to me, but on this catapult, it looks really amazing.  I think HpH may also make catapults in 1/48 and 1/32 scale for the Arado.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Canute]

Interesting build, Mike. These seaplanes are very interesting. I, too, will be following along.

[Knocklouder]

I am in for this too , looks really cool. I  like the catapult.. watching in the back ground Mike.   

[shipman]

Hi Mike. Great to see you presenting this often neglected subject.

Had the pleasure of seeing the real survivor in the RAF Museum, Hendon.

 

The Walrus was a very honest, practical and successful contraption, not having the glamor of its sister, the Spitfire.

I wonder how many downed Spitfire pilots were grateful to be picked up from the drink by this one?

 

HMS Albatross has eluded me in the past, what an interesting vessel.

 

The Hurricat looks to be an enticing project too.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your build, but I don't share your optimism, expecting to see much of the interior when completed!

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks guys!  Glad to have you along.

 

Shipman, I agree with you on the Walrus.  I tend to like the quirkier, lesser known subjects, so I'm glad there are kits available for it (I also have the HpH resin kit in 1/32 scale).  Unfortunately, I have a feeling one won't be able to see any of the details inside once it's buttoned up.  Interesting that Airfix decided to add so many details to the interior, which then Eduard complements with a ton of additional details.  As for the Albatross, to me it seems like it is backwards, but probably a very effective design.  Just quirky looking like the bird it's named after.

[Old Collingwood]

I agree  with  the others  -  what a fine kit,  I  came close to  building one in 1/350  scale  with my old  Warspite  build,  but never did due to me dispalying her  at DD  time  when she had done away with her Walrus's.

 

Here  is a pic  of  the Old Lady  launching  her  Walrus.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, great pic OC!  Now that would be a fantastic diorama to recreate!

[Old Collingwood]

27 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Wow, great pic OC!  Now that would be a fantastic diorama to recreate!

It would  be great  mate.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Finally got through assembling most of the interior.  The Eduard interior PE set is pretty intense with a ton of pieces (close to 100 if not more if I remember correctly).  Probably took a good 3-4 evenings of work to get in, and my guess is 95% won't be seen.  But, good practice I suppose.  I've gotten a little better with some of the types of PE that have vexed me in the past, including circles/rounds.  Had a few to do here with the two gun cockpits, and improved my skills there.  Here are the pieces with the Eduard interior, minus most of the pieces from the colored PE fret that will go on after I paint these interior pieces:

 

That little piece in the middle of the bottom row is actually the ship/boat's anchor - interesting!

 

After taping the various edges, I ended up priming these pieces and a few other interior pieces this evening.  Then it's onto painting the interior green, adding the remaining Eduard pieces, and a bit of weathering.

Thanks for looking in!

Edited February 26, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Danstream]

I bet this is going to turn out a head turner. Good progress on the interior.

Cheers,

Dan

[CDW]

Sorry it took me so long to find your project, but sure am glad I did. Love it! I'm in, Mike.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Dan!  And glad to have you along for the ride as always Craig!

[Landlubber Mike]

Making some progress on the Walrus.  Managed to get the interior base coat paints down along with the color PE parts, and started a little bit of the weathering.  Should be able to button it up in the next couple of days.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Taking a break from putting the finishing touches on the interior, I decided to spend some time on the engine.  The kit engine is quite nice, but I picked up an engine that Vector makes specifically for this kit (VDS 48-118).  Very detailed kit as you can see below.  

 

Note:  the Vector set includes a replacement bottom part for the engine housing.  If you are building this kit with the Vector engine in the order in the instructions, you might miss this as the engine housing is built first on page 10, and the engine isn't built until page 15 of the instructions.  This part is important as the Vector engine has a different shape to the underside than the kit part which is a little simplified.  As part of the Vector set, you also have to trim off part of the pair of pipes that come down off the part containing the front pairs of legs.

 

 

 

My one pet peeve about this and other resin engines I've built (Aires, CMK) is that the propeller rod does not fit the kit propeller (way too narrow).  Why can't they make the rod to fit the propeller??  Now I have to figure out how to make everything fit. 🤬

 

The engine took a few evenings to put together as I didn't want to rush gluing the cylinders in and having them out of line.  In case you are deciding whether to buy the Vector set, as you can see in the picture below, the kit engine (left, dry fitted) is quite nice, but the Vector engine (right) really takes things up a couple of notches.  I need to do a little filling and cleaning up, but otherwise, I'm really pleased with how the engine came out.

 

 

Here is the engine mount, where you can barely make out the Vector bottom piece in the second picture.  I dry fitted the back pair of legs at the moment, as I want to button up the fuselage and test fit the engine mount before finalizing the mount.  There's also an opening in the mount that you can see in the second picture.  The kit provides two different parts that one can include on the side of the mount.  I just need to pick one of them, since I'm building a different Walrus than the three included in the kit.

 

 

Interestingly (to me at least), the Walrus Pegasus engine/mount was pointed with an offset of 3 degrees to the left.  The kit is designed this way, so kudos to Airfix.

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited March 27, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Egilman]

41 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

the Walrus Pegasus engine/mount was pointed with an offset of 3 degrees to the left.  The kit is designed this way, so kudos to Airfix.

They really have turned it up a notch in a accuracy department....

[CDW]

Beautiful engine mold.

[Canute]

Night and day with the Vector engine. And catching the twist in the motor mount? Wow, well done, Airfix.

[Landlubber Mike]

I've been slowly making some progress on these builds over the past couple of months.  Managed to get the fuselage buttoned up and attached a lot of the exterior Eduard photo etch which adds some nice details to the model.  Fit was very good, and it almost snapped together perfectly.  I did find that there was a bit of an overhang at the front section where the side fuselage halves met the bottom fuselage part, so I feathered in a thin strip of card which eliminated the step.

 

 

 

 

One odd omission in what has so far been a really well done kit is the lack of the rudder antennae post.  It was fairly easy to add one:

 

 

Another project in itself was building up the wing bomb bays using the Eduard PE set.  A fun little side project which adds some extra detail to the model:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I'm a bit stuck as I'm trying to figure out what to do about the rigging.  Eduard adds some PE attachment points that give a little more detail than the kit parts, but I think I would need to drill holes through the PE into the wings in order to fully seat the rigging.  On the rigging, I have this AIMS PE set, but need to measure to make sure that they all fit as they are supposed to.  One build log said many of the wires didn't fit.  Two others I came across said they were a Godsend.  Hopefully they work, otherwise I need to figure out an alternative.

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Anyone know what Parts E34 and E35 are intended to be?  It's some kind of tube that fits on the under-wing bomb racks.  I wasn't planning on adding bombs to the build (at least not the E38 small bombs), but might add this tube thing.