Markh-75

Gradually working my way through this one, its coming along rather nicely, I have painting to do as I go along that will be rather difficult to do if I wait until its all built and finished; so I do it all now. Got some decals to fit to the main floaty bit before I fit it, and some to apply on the top and underwings. Got all the floaty parts assembled and painted but may require a little touching in here and there, once fitted. The main float has a long black strip decal fitted along the upper side and there's a red line decal to warn people of the propeller to be fitted; far easier done before I fit it. Started painting the undercoat on the fin and rudder and around the lower half of the engine cowling, I've also done the undercoat on the horizontal tail and its supports, tomorrow it will get its top coat. My old tin of Humbrol 154 yellow is not doing too well, (see pictures from yesterday) its gone all patchy, I noticed too that the tin was a bit thick and my paint stirrer was struggling with it; so today I was at my nearest Hobby craft and got a few little bits and bobs including a new tin of yellow by Revell; Hobbycraft are allowing their stock of Humbrol paints to expire as they are no longer restocking due to a dispute with Humbrol, so I found a suitable tin by Revell and when I got home I applied a coat; much better, I think one more coat will do the top wings. Once the top is done I still have the underside of this to paint silver before I can fit the struts and fit it all onto the model. I'm just taking my time with this one as biplanes can be touchy, this one will be fine I think; last time I made a bi-plane I did the struts wrong, they were supposed to be fitted to the upper wings BUT I fitted mine to the lower wings for some strange reason! It was rather 'bothersome' to say the least but I dunnit in the end. Once the Wild Catfish is done I'll start my next seaplane!

Got a second coat on this today, looking good, one more coat will do! Its good covering paint. I also started painting the lines on the canopy; it doesnt look too pretty right now but once I've tidied it, it'll look great!

Thank you Alain, it’s looking better than I thought it would tbh😁 yes its it’s a little unusual, little known, but that is what appealed to me when I saw it online; it’s known for the wrong reasons really, reviled even. I liked it’s unusual shape and because it’s a seaplane 😀

Also very grateful to, and proud of the members in Britmodeller for the support you have all given me in this and all my builds so far! Questions answered even if I didnt directly ask - things readily explained, all encouragement and compliments during the WIP's and the brilliant reviews and kind comments I've had for my builds in RFI, this one included! Thank you Everyone.

Thank you chaps, the war junk decal is actually for the other version but remembering the aircraft story I felt it so appropriate to add it on here! Very pleased with it myself, despite its resistance I have been able to turn it into a very presentable model. Once I got the interior knobbled it flowed rather easily from there, quite pleased with myself for building it, pleased also that it’s in the cabinet rather than just in its box 📦. Thanks chaps 👍😁

Now complete and in ‘Ready For Inspection’.

Thank you Dave, I’m glad it’s now out of the box and in my cabinet, a worthy addition to my collection! Thanks, mark.

Great job Adrian! Looks like a spitfire pilot now rather than just the 'grey man'! great idea with the yoke; I dont fit crew into my built kits as they all have landing gear down and in 'parked on the ground' pose! My die-casts have them though, I set them in flying mode!

Thats a beauty! I have a diecast one of "The hun hunter from Texas", but this one would certainly complement it! Lovely job, very neat, very crisp!

There's just 'something' about a silver Spitfire isn't there? Seen this model around on line (not yours) and did nearly buy one. Cracking job, love the silver, very uniform and bright!

Why not? it will be very light!😂

Love the finish on this! Has a sheen of its own. I love the ol' Jug, one of my favourites and you have certainly done this lots of justice!

Thats looking great! fantastic job! Those little side windows can be a pane can't they? I had to carefully shave the ones on my P-40's until they sank in properly. Great job sir!

That is beautiful! I love the strong colours and the sharpness of your lines between them! Absolutely outstanding job!

I fitted the engine cowling c/w engine, and then painted the fuselage and lower wings; this is a model I have to paint before I assemble it because it's a biplane, it's easier to paint somethings now rather than leave a patchy and uneven paint job. I also gave the upper surface of the top wings its first coat of yellow! It will need maybe four coats depending on how it fills out, but I'll see how it goes. Once I've painted the upper side I'll need to silver the underside before I can go ahead and fit the wings to the model. If I just take my time and do it in stages it will turn out just fine.

All masked up properly, I decided to mask the soles of the floats too. Then it was time to start giving the model some more colour! The whole idea of masking is to prevent paint from going where you dont want it to! I didnt mask the floaty bits on the Seamew mainly because the two smaller ones were a tad precarious, mounted on one leg they were too hard the leg too flexy and I certainly didnt want to break one off; the floats on the Wild Catfish are a good bit larger and have plenty of spars to support them, so they got some tape! Its also because its a darker colour on this model that I dont want to be spending excessive amounts of time trying to sand blue off white and then have to repaint the white! I dont think I'll need four coats on this one but I'll just wait and see.

Thank you! One feature I wanted on my model was that curve because its not a feature on the actual kit, I had to rub away at it to get it right on the kit, I saw the curve on the box and thought it would be very nice to add to an aircraft that has a few rather boxy features. It reminds me of the nose on a Spitfire! Thanks for your kind comment!

Thank you very much! I rather enjoy building aircraft models and the more unusual ones can be lots of fun, although researching them might be a problem if nobody else has heard of it. The seamew has plenty (or at least quite enough) of info posted online. Thanks for your comment.😀

Thank you very much! I've found that when building a model I rather enjoy all the stages, long haul or easier kit and when its completely finished I feel a slight sadness among my feelings of achievement and success, I think its fairly natural if you're passionate enough as a modeller. I used to not build for a few days after one was finished but as I have two others on my table just now, I decided to do some more on those instead. I'm actually rather pleased with the Seamew, it wasnt easy to start with but now I've seen it through I'm rather pleased I took all its parts and turned them into a rather interesting model; its now in my cabinet next to a Grumman Duck and Curtiss Seahawk! Thanks for your kind comment!

There is a land based Seamew kit, its Sword kit SW 72049, doesnt have the floaty bits, it has a fixed undercarriage and comes with FAA decals. I'm unsure if its in production now though, I've seen it in Scalemates from 2016 so it might be a bit of a search and a fair bit of waiting time; There is one on eBay right now with 5 hours left!

This is now finished and in RFI under “War Junk”.

thank you for your kind comments; I had never heard of an aircraft called a Seamew but when I got back into modelling I just happened to see the model kit online, being interested in seaplanes I thought it would be an interesting addition to my collection.😀

This is now ready for masking, and then I'll start painting the upper surfaces with Colourcoats intermediate blue. The Wildcat model I chose for this kit bash has lots of very nice panel/surface detail and will look great when complete! Wasn't too difficult to mask, the tops of the floats and the spars will be intermediate blue along with the uppers. I could go on coating the underside over and over but it wouldn't look any better than it does now, whites are hard to apply thin coats on models unless they're sprayed ; this has 5 coats on the underside, but it looks just fine!

So for those of you who have followed this build, you'll be aware of all the issues I had with it. It was a model that I'd bought nearly 3 years ago as I liked the unusualness of the aircraft and I wanted some seaplanes! Only thing was it was quite a poor kit, it was VERY very basic but did come supplied with a load of resin parts for the cockpit areas, I glued them in and then realised there was nothing else inside the fuselage, no details at all and assuming I had fitted everything in the absolutely correct place, everything else would fall into place; it didnt. I had to add some pieces of plastic from the sprues to the inside for things to sit on so I could glue the interior onto. I didnt fit the interior and toyed with a multitude of ideas for this such as painting the inside of the clear parts with silver so nothing could be seen, or just not fitting anything inside and paint it all matt black in there... I put the model away in its box at the time thinking that 'one day' I would complete the model, somehow. The version I have decided to make is the US Navy version as flown from USS Denver January 1943, I have also added the name to this version that was supposed to go on the other version. For what was involved trying to paint the three colours on such a short fat little seaplane I felt it was easier just to paint the upper surfaces with Colourcoats Blue/grey and the undersides with light gull grey and this meant that the areas I'd already painted white had to be repainted in the gull grey, meaning there are 7 coats of paint on the underside! Not to worry; this model very nearly didnt get built at all so I am pleased to be able to display it in my Navy cabinet. I thank all involved who have encouraged me to carry on with this when light in the tunnel seemed to be a little dim at times, and for being able to explain certain things about the aircraft e.g. the offset fin and rudder, set that way to overcome engine torque, Its great to have so many informed and helpful people in this forum, Thanks to all. So, here it is; finished painting yesterday, beaching gear fitted last night, Decals on this morning and varnished this afternoon. At last its ready to see. The nice curve from the top of the engine cowling right to the tip of the propeller spinner was not apparent on this model but the picture on the box shows it; I decided to try and achieve that very look myself; I reckon it worked! It looks as if its not sitting level; its the angle I had my phone at when taking this picture. You can just see the inverted Ranger 12 cylinder engine! You can see the offset of the tail in this picture; it was a way of handling the engine torque. In the centre of the centre floaty bit you can see the little lug I added; it would have this for launching from a ship launcher; a BIG rubber band was hooked around it and the whole crew stretched it right back along the deck, and then just let go; launching the aeroplane!😂🤣 I'm pleased I have managed to complete this model, like it or loathe it, its a seaplane and for me its all that mattered. It will rightfully take its place in the cabinet next to my other seaplanes, and there are three more to be added; these I am going to build either now or in turn as a series of four!

Thank you, and you’re right, unless I’m lying down under it, I won’t see it!😉 Thanks guys for your encouragement! The decals are on now and I’m about to gloss over them with a little Klear! Couple of hours before it’s dry and I’ll mattcote it.👍😉 Ill start a post for it once it’s all dry and ready for its photoshoot!