"Valkyrien"

[Vingtor]

I started this thread on the Civil Aircraft Modelling > Classic forum, but realized that it was the wrong place. Thus I am moving it here ...

Nothing is like starting a new build. A good friend is currently writing a book on Norwegian Air Lines' (DNL) sole Sikorsky S-43 amphibium which was operated between 1937 and 1939. I have offered to write a chapter on modelling this aircraft type, and thus I have to build the model first.

Here's a photo of the original:

I have two kits of the S-43, the first one from Sword and the second from Special Hobby.

The kits are of course the same, apart from an etched metal fret that is included in the SH kit but not in the Sword kit.

Regarding decals, Special Hobby planned to release the kit with DNL decals a couple of years ago, and I sent them all my references. However no new boxing and decals appeared. Fortunately, Lima November will print decals for this plane, provided that "someone I know" do the artwork.

The project started off with some body work. Many aircraft, including Valkyrien, did not have the window ahead of the right mainwheel. I thus cemented the transparency in place, filled the joint with putty and sanded smooth. Also some ejector pin marks on the inside was treated with.

With the fuselage half "fixed" I will now focus on the wings. A rather unconventional section to start with, I admit.

The manufacturer has provided marks in the plastic where rigging wires should be attached. This is handy if you use stretched sprue. However I will use thread and thus have to drill holes through the wings and floats. Unfortunately only single marks are made for the float rigging instead of double which would have been correct since the wires are double. I thus filled the marks with milliput because I planned to drill out new holes, one on each side of the original.

However I figured out that it would be better to drill out holes in the original marks, with a new hole beside.

Nils

Edited January 4, 2010 by Vingtor

[Vingtor]

Wing pylon is attached to the wing underside, and rigged.

Rigging thread being cemented with super glue from the inside.

Here's the float with 10 rigging threads, looking more like Linus' head.

And with the struts.

Floats were attached to the wing undersurface and the threads fixed to the inside. I must add a drop of glue to the holes from the outside before painting.

Then, the wing halves were joined, and the wing tips attached. The fit is not too good, so I will have to spend some time filling and sanding the joins.

Interior floor and bulkheads were also assembled. It will be a challenge to fit this inside the fusalage.

The window arrangements are different on Valkyrien form the kit. The kit has a sliding door on each side which Valkyrien did not. I reduced the door's size so that it fitted into the opening and cemented this in place. Filler and sanding will follow. There should also be one more window on each side, behind the door.

Finally, I did some work on small parts like engine cowlings, propellers and main wheels.

Nils

[Martian]

Interesting! Keep it coming.

Martin

[Vingtor]

New windows have been made on each side of the fuselage. After filling and sanding the sliding doors, I made a template for the new window using a bit of Tamiya masking tape. I then carefully scribed the window's contour along the edge.

I then drilled a few holes.

After cutting away the rest with a scalpel, the window opening was sanded smooth.

Nils

[Vingtor]

Now that I have finished at least one of my Mosquitos, it is time to make some progress with the Sikorsky. The mail wheel interiors have been attached to the fuselage. The joint between well and fuselage sides was not the best and required some filling and sanding. There were also pin ejector markings that had to be removed. Also note that the window in front of the wheel is blanked off.

With the windows cemented in place (which took me a couple of hours in good company) the windows have been masked on both outside and inside.

The interior has been constructed as per instructions. I have added walls in the forward compartment (for baggage, mail, radio and toilet). I have also added berths (?) to the smoking compartment.

Nils

[Kev1n]

this looks fab - dont stop

[Vingtor]

My friend, Rob, who is writing a book on this aircraft (www.europeanairlines.no) has managed to dig up the original colour specifications for the aircraft, both interior and exterior. I could thus go om with painting the interior, which was in shades of blue (rather than tan, grey, beige etc. which I had believed). First I had to make curtains since these are very conspicuous through the windows. The curtains were simply cut out from sheet styrene.

They were painted dark blue with cords added by strips of masking tape painted light blue.

The rest of the interior was painted according to the specifications. Since very little will be seen when finished, I didn't pay too much attention to detail.

I have finally assembled the interior between the fuselage halves. Photos will come when the glue has dried and the tape is removed.

NIls

Edited March 16, 2010 by Vingtor

[Nick Belbin]

Interesting and unusual – look forward to seeing more.

Nick

[Vingtor]

Fuselage is assembled, and all the interior hidden inside. Now follows some days with filling and sanding, not my favorite part of modelling.

Nils

[seadog]

I really love flying boats, and Sikorsky did some beauties. Love the curtains!

Fraser

[Deon]

Looking good, love the rigging in particular - neat job

[Vingtor]

Canopy, fin and tailplane have been added and together with the fuselage top have been sanded smooth.

Then I have focused on the forward fuselage. I have removed the strakes that should not be present on my model, and replaced the one that was removed earlier. I have also added details to the nose.

After removing the protection tape from the cabin entrance I realized that there was a huge gap between the the interior part and the fuselage shell. I tried to protect the interior as best as I could with more tape, and added milliput to the gap. More sanding next ....

Nils

Edited March 29, 2010 by Vingtor

[Vingtor]

Joint inside the cabin entrance has been filled, sanded and painted.

The model is now nearly ready for painting. Just a few tiny details remain.

Nils

[seadog]

She's really coming along nicely!

F

[Vingtor]

Time for painting. First I painted the wings' fabric surfaces in silver. These areas were masked when dry.

Nest I painted the wings' metal surfaces in a slightly lighter shade of silver.

Finally the uppers surface edges were masked and the center painted International Orange.

Engine nacelles will get a colour of its own at a later stage.

Xtracolor was used for the silver areas, Compucolour (remember ?) for the orange.

Nils

[CliffB]

Glad to have discovered this thread now - I'm drooling.

Cliff

[Vingtor]

Also the fuselage has got its coat of silver paint.

Nils

[Graeme H]

Wow, really coming along nicely

[Vingtor]

Done some more painting. Sorry about the poor focus on some of the photos.

The hull and engine nacelles were "Jade Green", which was very close to FS14272. I mixed this colour from equal parts of Humbrol 2 and Humbrol 78. The anti glare in front of the cockpit is White Ensign Tyre Black while the walkway areas are Xtracolor RLM66 with a tad black added.

The wing test fitted to the fuselage.

Nils

[Vingtor]

Since last I have attached the undercarriage. The instructions are however incorrect on this point. Furthermore there are no location points for the undercarrige which makes the attachments very weak. I broke ine of the legs twice before I switched to araldite glue.

Nils

[Iain Ogilvie]

Looking *very* attractive Vingtor!

Iain

[Vingtor]

The model is nearly finished, just a few details left.

The decals are a test print on a laser printer of the artwork for a new sheet that is currently produced for Lima November Decals. For the DNL logo and flag on the fin I used white backing decal from Microscale Trim Film. Also the red fuselage stripe was cut out from Microscale Trim Film.

Nils

[seadog]

Lovely!

F

[Alain De Loor]

What a great build..

-Al