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My Kursk model is nearly finished, but my F-16 model seem more like a slow project, so I would like to delay that kit for now. I found this Roden kit for a seaplane version of the Pilatus Porter on Ebay for cheap, and thought I'd get lucky. Previously I had built a regular Turbo Porter with some photo etch, but I was a little unlucky I think with the clear part for the canopy, and to my surprise as I opened this other kit from Roden, the big clear part for the canopy looks much nicer. I started with the floaters and given the experience I gained from the other kit, I should be well prepared to end up with a great looking seaplane model. Below is a photo showing some thin bits of styrene, cut from a big sheet. That part went surprisingly well. I had previously added putty the the assembled floaters (or whatever it is called in English) and sanded away the excess putty (Vallejo putty) to get a flat top surface. I also sanded down the detail, so that is why I am adding the styrene. It was tempting to try custom cut pieces of photo etch that I had lying around, but I don't think I have tools for anything more than very rough cuts and minor work on the PE, so I am trying out using stryrene. Known issues / interesting things: • Nose part, front side, have bad molding. Will have to use a power tool again to shape a nice circular cavity, because of how the two big plastic parts don't have a properly molded shapes on the very front where the propeller goes in. • The kit comes with a lot of tiny parts for the rear seats, but this time, I will leave all those parts unused. • I think it is best to glue on the two red signal lights with super glue at the very end, after having painted the model, to get the best result. • Kit is missing the anti static wicks. Photos show these to be rubber like strings that bends a little downward when the airplane isn't moving. • Box art suggest that there is some wiring beneath the airplane for stabilizing the floater parts of the airplane. • I must remember to not glue on the spinner before having airbrushed the propeller blades. • Decals look ok, not Cartograph quality, but ok. I foresee a slight fitting issue for that big long decal, as it nears the spinner, where the fuselage surface seem to split in two directions. • Build instructions show no indication of any nose weight to be added, however I will add some behind the propeller just to be sure the model doesn't flip backwards. In order to be more accurate when working with the styrene, I carefully used the ruler to make sure cutting lines were at an angle, and to the proper length. That way I didn't have to redo any of this work. When making the rounded corners, I made sure to drag my coarse sanding stick seven times across the tip of the corner on all parts (just a straight line), to better end up with a coherent result. I used a medium sanding stick to actually create the rounding. Update: The light on each wing tip wasn't that well defined. Luckily, I managed to cut off the lights from some wing tip parts that isn't for the seaplane version. The old lights were sanded down, so only a flat stub was left, and then I glued on the loose parts for the cut off lights:

Note: The finished model can be found here. Note: Looks like I might have picked the wrong PE for this kit. Some of it is usable though. This morning, I just had to start building this kit. I recall having bought it from Hannants a long time ago, and I made sure to also get some photo etch parts as well. I don't remember if I saw even more packs with photo etch for this kit. There is only photo etch for the first two seats, and not the other six seats in the passenger area. The box: The photo etch: I decided on this painting scheme (Australian, Vietnam 1969, mostly "foliage green"): Images of the photo etch instructions: It says "Self adhesive" on a label stuck onto the pack of photo etch, however only a few parts are self adhesive, being just the cockpit parts. Some of the photo etch are for weaponry (minigun & missile launcher), but it doesn't look like the kit comes with those parts. There are 74 pieces of photo etch, and maybe 20 or so are for the weaponry which ofc won't be included in this build. The clear canopy parts looked ok, with a little bit of flash. The main canopy piece is a little bit uneven, but I hope I can dip it in Humbrol Clear to make it look great. Must remember to first experiment with this method first on some other spare canopy part I have lying around. This kit seem really nice imo. There is lol a photo etched part for a wire that goes down to the wheel on each side. Wish there was rubber wheels for this kit though. It looks to me, that adding the photo etch require buying some tiny plastic pole, to cut off pieces from. Maybe a minor issue. There are separate parts for all the rudders, however I suspect they aren't supposed to be adjustable without further work.