greggles.w

Thanks Dave, yours & all other encouragement appreciated! Hope to update again soon ..

Very much so, in fact he recently graduated & received his wings ..

Congratulations, quite an achievement! Beautiful! Your introduction resonates with me as a very fair account of a Karaya kit. My current build (endlessly ongoing!), also a Schneider Trophy racer, the Sort Crusader, is also a Karaya kit. I recognise the contradictions you identify: high quality, blemish free resin castings, precise razor thin wing trailing edges .. but a few fundamental inaccuracies that are difficult to ignore - yet even more challenging to address! And all but abdicated responsibility for strut engineering!! However, it found the right place with you - well done for persevering!

Thanks for the ever-reliable welcome back gents! Here we go, calling that done:

No fumbles, no fumbles, no fumbles ... But knowing one fumbles, then take appropriate precautions! I’m brush paining these, but the dark colour over white made me cautious, hence the extensive masking (Those airliner modellers - what nerves they must have!). And the colour? 100% speculative, so don’t take my choice as an authoritative reference. These radiators were a retrofit as cooling issues emerged. There’s no reference anywhere that I’ve found which confirms what they were fabricated from. So here follows the thinking I explored (jump this rabbit-hole paragraph by all means!): First, based on contemporary precedent, almost without exception, surface radiators were fashioned from brass. The Supermarine S5&6s has theirs under the aluminium skin, but the only such metal skin on this machine was limited to the floats. So back to brass. Given brass includes red tones, this would account for the very dark tone of these in the black&white photos. But what then to make of the post-accident salvage images which show them quite pale? Then I recalled one quote somewhere that noted that by the time the machine was brought up from the lagoon waters the magnesium crank-case had dissolved away .. so perhaps the reddish brass had turned to greenish verdigris? What madness.. muddles & fumbles! I decided that a discrete dark tone with a subtle hint of metal would do just fine! A couple of coats of Tamiya’s suitably generically named ‘Metallic Grey’ followed by one of ‘Dark Iron’. I’m thinking I can very gently rub back the dark colour from the raised ridges, revealing a little of the lighter highlights .. let’s see how that goes this evening. .. & above .. Edit: & now I’m in the office I see my order of decal paper has arrived! Progress..

Alrighty, returning to this thread as I return to the bench! The sorry end to my participation in the Floatplanes Group Build was an undignified fumble & drop. It’s taken a while, but I have now addressed all the damage: - starboard tailplane & elevator snapped clean off; - paint chips & gouges to the white fuselage belly, two wing leading edges, one aileron & wing tip; - as above for the blue tail fin tip; - and a big superglue smear across a upper wing surface when setting about fixing item one above!! All fixed. Time to move ahead please. So now I’ve put some tunes on, & I’m going to mask up the wing surface oil radiators for paint.

Jamie, Pat, many thanks for hosting this fine group build. I especially liked the running stats updates - finally coverage that seems to reflect the true ‘extreme sport’ nature of our so-called hobby Sorry to not have added to your tally in the gallery. There was certainly fine company to be had in there! I’m afraid the best I can claim is a dubious record for non-completion in both rounds of this now annual group build ... with the same plane!!! Determined to be have it done soon & present with something fresh for the next round. cheers, g.

Just lovely!! Such fine exemplary work. And I do very much like this image you found .. looking forward to the conclusion of this!

A wonderful thread Adrian et al, a worthy subject, infectious enthusiasm & inventiveness, matched with sage advice! I have also dabbled with a home-made vacformer & recognise your challenges. One of the few things I’ve tried which made parenting look orderly & predictable by comparison! You should be very pleased with your results. I will look for the continuation of this project in the WIP forum...

Very nice Stuart, and even more so on that base in the gallery! Congratulations - your targeted refinements have made a real impact.

.. oh, & @Moa I can recommend a third strategy to add to your two offered above. A strategy I fell into, but I suspect I’m not the first - add to the stash! No new purchases in many, many months, but now a flush of chance finds. If you can forgive the scale, I think the subjects may meet your approval? And @DMC another Schneider Trophy racer..

Frustrating - yes. Repairable - let’s believe so! First action after a fallow month: fix that starboard tailplane back on, ‘once more into the jig!’ Sincere thanks for the empathy! So I took a month to cool off - strategy 1? - but in the timescale of this project that’s more like strategy 2! Thanks Chris, it was a close thing ... to have damaged the fin flash - no, doesn’t bear thinking about! ah, yes, Stuart, alas it seemed I didn’t have the guts for it! Now full of Christmas fare, I’m feeling brave again! Thanks for the prompt support Dennis, sorry it’s taken so long to acknowledge. Now that I have done so, & have presented evidence of remedial action on this project, I will happily set about reviewing all the other fine work in this group build .. Thanks again, g.

well that's just .. life has been quite .. uncooperative .. this last fortnight. I finally had an opportunity to pick this up again .. & dropped it. starboard stabiliser snapped off again - gouge back to raw resin through the white on the belly - & another on the fin pulled the blue off the white - so.. very.. demoralising..

.. thanks again for your help!

Thanks Stuart! Great to see a broad diversity of types .. Much appreciated from this distant viewpoint !