N.A. Mustang P-51S, U.S. Navy, Korean War (DONE! PICS on Page 3)

[Tophe]

but I was worried a bit about things like the radiator intake).
I HOPE I don't have to do ANYTHING to them

With twin floats, I think the ventral air intake is not a problem, it was probably a problem on the single-float version...

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks! That makes me feel better. This is a fun little project and I'd hate to mess it up by having to do too much. 

[zenrat]

The ventral intake, being a radiator intake could surely cope with a bit of water ingress.  It'd serve to flush dead bugs out of the core.   
Now, I demand photos of this thing mocked up sitting on the floats.  Don't try and claim you haven't done that because it's the sort of thing we all do as soon as we can to see what it will look like.

[Tophe]

Now, I demand photos of this thing mocked up sitting on the floats.  Don't try and claim you haven't done that because it's the sort of thing we all do as soon as we can to see what it will look like.

I hope Chronic1 is married or has a child (not baby), because it is impossible to have two hands holding the model + one hand (or two) holding the camera...

[TheChronicOne]

 


Actually I haven't yet... I wanted to but that would have meant tedious taping up of at least the main supports and struts and I figured if I was going to that trouble I may as well be using glue. I sure TRIED though!!!1     

No kids or anything of that nature but I do have a set of the handy "Helping Hands" soldering helper or whatever it is. Should prove very useful for this one!

I'll have pics by the end of the day... I want to see it, too....   


I just need to get the gear doors glued into the wings and the wings glued to the fuselage then I can stop on that and make sure the floats are done. At first glance, it would appear I'm going to have to do some delicate trimming, filing, and sanding on the strut work so it attaches properly to the floats. I suspect this will be the rough part of the day. (could be wrong, though, that would be nice!!  This Letov kit is a bit archaic, though)

[TheChronicOne]

OK, this pontoon set-up is so flimsy.... still.... but I'll try to stage a photo...


BRB.. .   


::::does a bunch of malarkey to take pictures:::::


:::::makes sure the hookers 'n 'caine aren't in frame:::::::    ( )

OK, it doesn't look like much, now, but this is a vague idea of what it will look like...






Too early to tell, in my mind, whether or not this will wind up looking "cool." Like I've said before, I've never attempted a floatplane so I'm not sure what to expect and don't really know the ins and outs of one. I HOPE these floats are appropriate. I HOPE they look right. I hope... 

Most time today was spent on the floats. Trying to get them to simply sit still while the flimsy strut pieces set up was a huge ordeal. Even now, hours and hours later if you bump the stuff too hard, it all goes out of alignment. There's simply not enough surface to surface join area where everything connects. I'll have to slowly build up a bit of glue to reinforce it. I've already done so on the top, I just need it to sufficiently dry so I can do the same on the bottom. THIS will be trick because I'll have to figure out some way to pick it all up and flip it over without wrecking it. 

I also got some parts trimming and sanding done... glued on the first part of the radiator intake. I'm waiting on the leading edge pieced because I still haven't decided rather to paint it a different color (white, like I may do on the fine and possibly wing tips, see the corsair for the fin part.. I might skip it though) or leave it blue with the rest.

I also tested a bit of the paint I'm going to use and decided that after primer grey, I will put down a coat of black so that the blue is sufficiently dark.


That's all for now I guess!   

[TheChronicOne]

Uhhhhh..... pretend this post was behind the last one.....   I accidentally posted this update in my blog instead of here. :  (I could do fancy tricks by copy pasting, deleting posts, etc, to get them in order but this should be fine)



HANDS DOWNS one of the most frustrating things I've ever done modelling is try to get these pontoons and braces glued and sitting right. I got them looking pretty good right now, though. I'll them dry up as is for about an hour then work on putting the last two pieces on.






Got the gear doors glued in, too, and, while not perfect, are just fine for me and what I'm doing! Not even going to fill them in because whose to say that they didn't take the floats off from time to time?



I may wind up doing a little something to them if the primer and stuff doesn't lessen the gaps.


Aside from the mind numbing float struts this is going well!   

[DogfighterZen]

Aside from the mind numbing float struts this is going well!   

And looking good!

[TheChronicOne]

Thank you!!   

I'm not going to lie... I had visions of smashing the utter piss out of them floats 'n pieces but I maintained my cool and got them into a nice looking configuration. They just need to sit now so the glue can FULLY cure. It has to so I can turn it over and reinforce the bottom of the joining pieces. There's no way this thing will survive being handled if I don't.

As for the plane proper.. well... there are some mighty proud gaps all along the joins. Airfix from half a century or more ago did a damn fine job of it, however, with the placement of them. I'm hoping a couple coats of primer will help hide the multitude of sins. Being such a dark colored aircraft might help, too, I hope! I'll also be putting an overall coat of black after primer as well, so that should help a tiny bit.

[zenrat]

Excellent.  Looks very good Brad C.

[Tophe]

That's all for now I guess!   

That's all good!

[TheChronicOne]

Another pre-dawn session before work.

The floats and supports were finally set up enough that I could very gently handle them to apply more glue to the connections. Sure enough, as soon as I did, it basically started to melt everything again and re-activate the old glue and things started to get out of alignment again.    It wasn't as bad as last time, though, and I was able to stay on top of it and get it all sitting pretty again.

I'm going to have to come up with a creative way to hold and support this stuff while I prime it up...  I have an idea, though, so everything should be fine!

[TheChronicOne]

Well... let's see here.... built and painted the props and spinner assembly.

Lost my can of primer so used this green camo double coat stuff.... works about as good. Didn't help all too much with the gaps and stuff I was worried about but I'm confident by the end of the project, they will be just fine. Besides, these NAVY planes "went together" a bit different than the Army (or Air Force by now.. ) ones. 

Glued the last two pieces of the pontoon struts on.  What an ordeal... but I think I have a winner. Should work out just fine.

Did a couple other things, too, I think, but can't quite recall.

That's all for today.

[TheChronicOne]

Starting the refinement work so that the plane will sit correctly on the floats. Good news is, I think this will work out just fine!! The plane sits right in there with no modification but had the floats too far toward the rear so I started filing on the struts and slowly I'm able to move them forward. This is where I am now. I still need to file away a bit of material so that it will sit level without me having to force the issue.




Slightly nose-down attitude.  If I keep filing on the insides of the rear struts, this problem should work itself out.

Once I get the floats and plane cooperating wit each other I'll sand away the paint where things connect and glue-it to-it.

After it dries up for a few hours I'll go back in and prime the entire mess. I found my actual primer so that's good!

Only other thing I've done is I decided to fill the wing root gaps with glue. They were just too wide for my liking. May need a tiny bit of sanding on that but they're pretty good as is.

[NARSES2]

Coming on well mate