ZK-BPX, Grumman Widgeon/Gosling down under and right a bit

[Paul J]

Something else that has been attracting dust and minor damage while waiting to be finished. Pavla 1/72nd Grumman Gosling finished as ZK-BPX of Tourist Air travel of New Zealand. No mods to the kit, just a paint job and decals by Old Model decals from NZ. The down side of the decals was that despite them supposedly being 1/72nd they were actually smaller... almost 180th at a guess... not sure but they are definitely too small. But with a coat of Micro decal coat ensuring the colours don't run they worked very well.

I still need to add some bracing wires to the underwing floats as thye look abit bare at the moment. Also the props aren't quite right according to the photos of the TAT Gosling/Widgeons I have seen. Because most of the trim lines of the decals were undersized I added more from my red decal stripe decals and paint. The wing and tailpalne leading edges had red stripes applied to their rear edges and the the rest filled in with pain as was the fin colouring.

As I said, I will be adding a the float rigging soon and will update the photos.

[stevehnz]

Nice that. I never rode in these, wrong part of the country but the TAT amphibs were often in the news thanks to the exploits of Capt Fred Ladd, a man who certainly understood the benefit of publicity.

Steve.

[LDSModeller]

Hi Paul

Love your title "Down Under and right a bit"

Very nice model, even with the decals being as they are, looks great.

Mechanics Bay where these flew from, is not far from me. Wish they were still there flying the Widgeons/Goslings, would love to fly in one.

Thanks for sharing your model photos with us.

Regards

Alan

[k5054nz]

Alan - Wal Denholm has Widgeon AVM to restore at AvSpecs, so it'll happen one day!

Top job Paul! She looks great.

OMD is interesting, I've had some issues (such as incorrect fonts) but never with the size! I expect John would be able to correct that.

[Graeme H]

Not something you see every day, great job

[Martian]

Very smart Paul!

Martin

[pinetree_fella]

My first flight in an aircraft was in one of these, in the yellow livery (I think), took off from Mechanics bay out to Waiheke's northern beaches for a quick walk on the sand and an Ice Cream then back for a scenic flight over Western Springs and the Zoo then land on the Harbour again, I was the "co pilot" for the return flight, an amazing first flight for a 10 year old country boy on holiday in the big smoke.

One of these days I will have to build one.