Supermarine Walrus - completed

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good

[Troffa]

Great looking work Dave, really impressive scratch build on the interior- looking forward to seeing your technique for the rigging.

All the best,

Troffa

[Arniec]

She looks already great. The engine looks excelent.

Cheers,

[Natter]

Just to prove I have been doing stuff on this model. It is driving me mad now, I shouldn't have decided to try and put so much detail on it as I just want the thing done now. Then things go wrong:

The silver is Humbrol metalcote polished aluminium and it, and the Mr Color thinner I used, reacted in a couple of places with the gloss black enamel. This piece of the wing was the worst and I had to strip it right back to bare plastic and go again. I didn't bother with the gloss black this time but just sprayed straight on to the plastic and it looks just as good as the rest, oh well.

I had to rig the wing floats before putting the lower wing on the fuselage. I had drilled the holes in the wing and floats before painting. The rigging is invisible mending thread and I ran the thread through some 800 grade wet and dry to roughen it a little, then threaded it in to the floats and held it with a little extra thin cyano. The with the floats fitted to the lower wing bottom half I threaded the rigging through the respective holes and applied the cyano to the inside, as below:

With the float rigging done and the tails cut short the wing upper half was fitted hiding the mess. From the outside it looks like this (the green on the float is reflection, not overspray):

I fitted and rigged the engine pod too. Top tip, be patient. I keep forgetting this basic requirement and fitted the pod without drilling all the rigging holes. Cue difficult drilling and damaged paintwork. With each thread cyanoed at one end I kept tension on the thread by hanging a clothes peg on the other end, the applied cyano to the hole and gave it a few seconds to dry. Sort of like this:

If you have noticed, most of the upper struts are broken. God I hate biplanes! Strutz and Contrail seem impossible to find, so replacements from plain plastic rod will have to do. In 72nd it shouldn't look too bad.

The lower wings were fitted with about the correct dihedral. With that done the upper wing outer halves were taped together and then cyano was applied to the ends of the lower halves. These were then fitted to the centre section while trying to get the tiny dihedral right. I don't know if I succeeded, but 1^o dihedral in 1/72 is very small anyway. With the tape removed the upper halves of the wing can be removed so that I can fit the upper wing as it is and then rig the wings so that the rigging ends are hidden inside the wings when I fit the upper halves. The bits as they are look like this:

The wing and rudder markings are Humbrol Emerald Green, Lifecolor White and Tamiya Orange. Apart from the serial number to go on the rear fuselage these will be all the markings on the aircraft. The engine, when it is fitted will look a bit like this:

You have no idea how much I am dreading trying to get the upper wing on........

[AnonymousDFB1]

That's looking great Dave

[swordfish fairey]

Coming on fine Dave, you will get there in the end.................Smudge

[stevehed]

Shades of 0/400 with the rigging. Very impressive, Dave.

Regards, Steve

[Sgt.Squarehead]

It may be fighting you.....But you are definitely winning!

[Doug Rogers]

Fantastic work Dave, she's going to look great when she's done.

[Natter]

During the week I touched up silver and spray a coat of W&N Galleria satin varnish. With that dried I set about my most feared task - fitting the upper wing. I tried making a jig but failed. Maybe what I did do helped, maybe not, but I got the struts in the right place and fixed to the lower wing. The elevator outline looks dark because I scribed the gap-lines before building as they were moulded so shallow:

I drilled the holes for replacement engine pod upper struts, and filled the holes I had incorrectly drilled for the pod to upper wing rigging:

Then a bit of fettling followed to get the top wing to sit right:

After a bit of clean up and re-paint as required the rigging thread was fixed to the lower wing and the upper part of the engine pod before the upper wing was glued in place. Then the process of threading it through the upper holes from the inside out began. Like a twit I had fitted the centre section upper piece, so I couldn't pull the pod rigging tight. It looks OK but won't stand close inspection:

The rigging thread was pulled through the upper wing holes and kept tight while cyano was applied in to the holes from the inside of the wing to hold it in place. The rigging really does add strength as I broke one of the butt joins between the upper wing bottom pieces and the centre section while fitting the top pieces, and the rigging held it all nice and tight:

The mess was tidied up a little and the top wing upper outer sections fitted. The rigging was done with invisible mending thread, and I think that the e-z-line elastic thread may have been better as the end result is almost, well, invisible. Every model al learning experience! Anyway, in order to photograph the rigging I had to hold it up to the light:

The tail has been worked on too. I have added some of the control horns and will add links and cables later once the touch up painting has been done. I have worked on the tail wheel too, removing the moulded strut piece and making some individual struts from brass tube (haven't got any rod). The elevators are slightly dropped and the rudder fully deflected as per the controls in the cockpit:

Hopefully more tomorrow with paint touch ups and the like.....

[Troffa]

Looking Lovely Dave, inspirational stuff!

[Natter]

Thank you to everyone watching, and for the really kind comments. This was definitely not 0/400 rigging Steve - all those double bays and double wires; eek.

So, where am I up to now? Well the undercarriage is on, slightly modified as the trailing arms in the kit didn't fit when the main legs were fitted at the correct angle. The new ones are 0.8mm brass tube. In the pics the main wheels are just push-fitted for now. The engine is on and the prop will stay a push-fit.

There is still quite a lot to do - the perforated strips in the gunners' hatches, make the rear hatch cover and runners, cut up the cockpit transparency and add the runners and new side and top transparencies so the cockpit can be displayed open (the canopy is just tacked on for masking), add the control links and wires, make a spinner as the Irish Walruses had them, repair the inevitable damage caused as I do these jobs! As long as I don't completely mess up the canopy and have to get a vacform replacement I should be done in time. The pics then:

[crobinsonh]

Certainly the best 1/72nd Walrus I have ever seen - looking forward to your next update.

Regards

[stevehed]

Very impressive. Really like the engine.

Regards, Steve

[Natter]

Ah crobinsonh, I am deeply flattered; but if you want a stunning 1/72 Walrus rather than an OK one like mine check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this Airfix build. This is where I got most of my ideas and inspiration from.

[-Neu-]

OK, back to the kit at last...

There is no etch I am aware of so I made the main backing panel from plasticard, with a very thin piece as the front with drilled holes for the instruments. I sprayed through the front to define the instruments on the main panel and the used a needle to mark them. It isn't exactly Eduard pre-printed etch standard, but it looks OK now it is together. The front was then fixed on with Klear, but that is still a wip so photos will follow later. The little disc under the panel will be the compass fitting into the gap at the bottom of the panel:

Oh that's just phenomenal work there (as with the entire build).... I'm going to use this technique as I've had problems with making scratch Instruments panel dials for a long time.

Edited June 2, 2013 by -Neu-

[Arniec]

She is realy looking good.

I hope my Stranraer will be as good as your Walrus.

Cheers,

[EricP]

Looks great, Dave, can't believe that's a Matchbox Walrus!

[Natter]

Hello again, I have got a bit more done on the Walrus. I just don't seem to get the chance during the week anymore, so the weekends are about it for modelling time. So, what has been done? Well, the rings inside the hatches have been done. The aft hatch has the ring only about halfway around in the photos I have seen, but in the forward hatch it goes all the way round. I assume they are part of the gun mounting and traverse mechanism. This looks oh-so-simple, but it took me over an hour to make and fit as the little swine kept twisting and slipping in or out of the hatch, but I beat it in the end!

I remade the aft hatch so I could have the four small windows in it. With hindsight it may have been better to have used the whole of the kit item and drill/file the window holes for krystal klear later on, but I did it with a semi-circle of clear plastic and added framework inside and out.

Fitted (with the runners for the hatch added) it looks like this:

It still needs the W shaped support strut adding, which I will add at a later modelling session. It looks as thought it could do with a touch up on the silver too.

I have added the rest of the bits ready for the control linkages and cables too:

The cockpit canopy was cut up and the sliding sections made up with thin clear plastic I had saved from some sort of packaging. I masked and sprayed the framework and added some runners. At least now much of the detail in the cockpit can be seen:

It is slowly coming together, but there are still lots of details to sort:

More soon I hope........

[Sgt.Squarehead]

That is about as beautiful as it's possible for a Walrus to be.....Really looking forward to seeing all the final details in place, you've built an amazing model out of a very basic kit.

[Troffa]

Splendid build Dave, inspiring stuff!

[Natter]

Hi All. You may not see many changes but I have added the final details. Well, the final details as far as I am concerned anyway. There is plenty more I could do but it is time to move on to another model or I will be playing with this for months. That and the fact I seem to do damage every time I add anything more means it is finished.

The landing light was cut out and a little-lens added. The glazing is a piece of clear sellotape - an idea stolen from Mike Grant that he used in his Circuits and Bumps series. The nav lights are pieces of 1mm rod inserted into holes drilled in the leading edge of the wing with a little lens added. The little-lens was then painted with Tamiya clear red or green for colour:

The rudder trim tab was added along with the control rod. The tail nav light was done the same way as the wing lights, and left clear:

A mirror was added to the cockpit. It has a piece of chrome bare metal foil on the back for a shiny look, and the side windows are done with Micro Krystal Klear:

The pitot was added to the port strut. This is a piece of plastic card with a bent piece of copper wire for the probes:

The spinner, which the Irish Air Corps Walrus had, was made from the end of some kind of fuel tank from my spares box. It looks a funny shape, but this is just reflection:

The aerials were made with e-z-line between 0.6mm brass rod supports in the wings and on the rudder. So, it is finished. If you have followed, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed the build. This is my second Irish Air Corps aircraft, but I doubt it will be my last. The remainder of the completed pictures will be in the Gallery, one completed photo below as a taster with the aerials just visible:

[swordfish fairey]

Now that is a real cracker Dave, it must one of, if not the best walrus I have seen.....Well done mate....... ..Smudge

[Neal]

That's brilliant, I cannot believe that's the matchbox kit.

[stevehed]

Excellent build and attention to detail.

Steve