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I've had this kit almost finished for a while now, but I can't find the right decals, and I'm not really satisfied with the final result… Still, I'm posting it anyway — who knows, maybe someone can help me with a good decal tip. The kit: Anigrand 1/72 Boeing C-98 Clipper, entirely resin (Image: Scalemates): Short history (Source: Wikipedia): “The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from the earlier XB-15 bomber prototype. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am.” This Anigrand model comes with decals for the following versions: -A US Navy blue camo version, or: -“Registration: G-AGCA ‘Berwick’, originally NC18608, sold to General Phoenix Corporation, Baltimore as NC18608 in 1948. This aircraft flew both Winston Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook, Britain’s Minister of Supply, urgently back to the United Kingdom in mid-January 1942 after the British Prime Minister’s extended stay in the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Churchill was the first head of government to make a transatlantic crossing by plane.” But I wanted to make the well-known bare-metal Pan American version: https://insideflyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Pan-American-Boeing-314-Clipper-Flying-Boat-1200x640-765x420.jpg In hindsight, those Pan American decals are hard to find… no aftermarket ones, at least. The kit as I received it: As typical with Anigrand, everything is resin: The manual: The decals for the C-98 version: Looks good at first glance — but it is Anigrand, so I remain cautious. Dry-fitting the parts, starting with the fuselage halves: with a 1/72 figure for scale: And the Piper Cub for scale: Another resin giant! But after building my 1/72 resin C-5A Galaxy, I’m used to this. I started by gluing and filling the wing sections. Not fun — the wing parts have a ribbed texture, so I had to be careful when filling and sanding to keep those ribs intact: The quality of the kit turns out to be not great... Not warped parts, but inconsistent resin thickness, small bubbles, and noticeable gaps when test-fitting parts. I originally planned to scratch-build an interior, but I’ve decided not to. There’s a cockpit included, but it doesn’t fit well and is very crude. And since the Clipper has small windows, you really won’t see any of the interior anyway. You can build this model in two versions: -On land using a “beaching trolley” (a wheeled platform to roll it in/out of the water), -or in flight on a stand. But the trolley is just a rectangular resin block with four solid wheels... So if you want to turn this into a highly detailed showpiece, you're in for a challenge. I eventually decided to make it a desktop model on a stand. It’s the easiest option — no open doors, no water diorama, just a stand with an in-flight model. To make that work, I needed to install a mount in the fuselage: The white plastic piece is a scratch built reinforcement to strengthen the fuselage join, supporting the wing weight. The brass eye fits a threaded rod from the stand, and the second hole is for an alignment pin: Here’s how it sits on the stand: I ended up bending the metal stand arm downward a bit to avoid a rocket-launch angle. The window-parts are terrible quality! Just some poorly fitting clear plastic rectangles, with two even missing in the box. Window positions in the fuselage halves are mostly inaccurate. Poor job, Anigrand! So I decided to glue them all in, fill and sand, and later spray the windows in gloss black in the correct locations. It's will become a 'clean' desktop model anyway. Here’s the fuselage halves glued and filled: Major filling and sanding work: Same issue with the cockpit windshield: either the windshield was too small, or the opening was too wide. It kept falling in — thankfully, I tested this before gluing the fuselage halves together. My fix: I glued two clear polystyrene strips above and below the windshield part to widen its mounting surface: There was also a big gap behind the last window, because the rear windows on both sides were too big: so I cut them in halves - filled it up with a polystyrene piece: Wings glued in a correct angle to the fuselage (props still loose): Test fit on the stand: And in the adjusted stand angle: Most of the model is assembled now. I removed the scrap transparent strip from the windshield part. The two float-wing structures aren’t glued yet, otherwise masking for paint and windows would be difficult in that area. Time for primer — again using Tamiya spray cans because this thing is big: Final finish should be a semi-gloss aluminum-silver. So after the gray primer, I added a glossy black base coat: The windows, underside fuselage and upper side of the nose also had to be black, so I masked those areas with tape: Then sprayed the aluminum-silver layer. The Pan American Boeing 314A had a signal-red panel on top of the wings. This was originally only intended for the test aircraft but stayed on as it quickly entered service. So I masked and sprayed that area red: Finally, removed all the masking tape so the black areas became visible. Also attached the floats and props: So here it is, almost finished, waiting for decals. After painting, I noticed seams reappearing in the filled areas — which I hadn’t seen after applying the primer coat. I had the same issue with the C-5A Galaxy. Seems like resin may shift slightly, or maybe I rushed or wasn't careful enough. Oh well, can’t undo it now. Just need to find proper "Pan American Airways System" decals in the correct size. Then it gets a final semi-gloss clear coat. Final verdict: A kit for the more experienced builder. You need to be a resin fan and ready to scratch-build a bit. All in all, a great eye-catcher — the lines of this aircraft are truly impressive and beautiful!

A really quick build this one taking about a week. Airfix 1964 moulding Boeing 314 Clipper. Decided I had to make this after reading the story of Pan Am California Clipper and her almost round the world trip in Dec 1941 going from San Francisco to New York the long way after her return route to San Francisco was blocked due to the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. If you want to read the story heres the link California Clipper story or Pan Am Historical page The kit is basic with no interior and very few parts but the fit is good. The decals are for NC-18605 Dixie Clipper fortunately research and a very useful picture sent to me from the Pan Am Historical Foundation (pic posted with their permission) show NC-18602 in New York after her arrival in Jan 1942 was of great help which I thank them for. A few adjustments to the original kit in reversing and rotating the 5 to make the 2 for NC-18602, Radio wires from fin to wing- If anybody makes one of these in the future dont be mislead by other models/pictures of the wires going to above the cockpit they are pitot tubes and the wires go to the wings, there are some HD pics of the attachments I found after extensive research. And finally using lots of old decal sheets black edge lines to make up the upper wing markings. (These should be rounded corners but I only had straights) Love the lines of this golden age of aviation bird and has grown on me the more I researched. I just wish she would stay on her stand and not keep banking over! As always thanks for looking and I look forward to yur comments.

This is a real blast from the past, the box says 1976 and it's been lost in my parents loft for the last 40 years until the house was sold recently. Amazingly I haven't lost any bits (famous last words !) so with some serious filling of seams to do we should be on our way. Photos below http://s783.photobucket.com/user/Jockney007/media/IMG_3139_zpssfczemec.jpg.html http://s783.photobucket.com/user/Jockney007/media/IMG_3140_zpsf8pkvizc.jpg.html http://s783.photobucket.com/user/Jockney007/media/IMG_3141_zps7jgbxrbt.jpg.html http://s783.photobucket.com/user/Jockney007/media/IMG_3142_zpslpxvb71q.jpg.html Having trouble with photo-bucket copying the images over so that they appear in the posting, any tips given would be appreciated ! cheers Pat

Hi everyone This is the continuation of a failed to complete in time build from the KUTA GB. Having nearly finished in time I found I had a part missing and my pathetic attempts to make the part were well.......pathetic ! However I was rescued from having another member of the shelf of doom by Chris (Stringbag) who sent me the missing part. Link to the WIP below from the KUTA GB Cheers Pat

Apologies in advance if these should be their own individual categories and will adapt if so. Here are a selection of my builds involving Flying Boats and Float Planes since restarting model-making a few years back after a break of around 35 years. 1/72 Airfix Junkers Ju52/3m finished as a WHIF, used by the Regia Aeronautica on Rhodes in late 1940 OOB Build. (I had posted this previously in a Junkers thread but seemed appropriate to include it here as well as it has floats! ) 1/72 Airfix Short Sunderland III with Wrapround Camouflage. OOB Build with slight scratch cockpit. Roundels from Original Kit, Lettering from Revell Heyford 1/72 Airfix Supermarine Walrus in USN Colours. OOB Build, but missing canopy glass. WHIF scheme. 1/144 Airfix Boeing B314 'Clipper' in wartime BOAC Markings. OOB Build. 1/72 Matchbox Heinkel He-115 FloatPlane as a Swedish TB-2. OOB Build. Roundels & Lettering from Airfix Mosquito J30 kit This is my first Airbrushed model and really like the finish that can be achieved over (my) brush 1/72 Airfix Auster AOP (kit #01023), represented in a fictional Swiss Flying Doctor scheme. OOB Build with slight cockpit "clutter" added. Decals raided from spares box Lovely little kit to build 1/72 Matchbox Dornier Do G/Do-18 Flying Boat (Kit #PK-409), finished as a Deutsche Lufthansa South Atlantic Mailplane. OOB with slight mods to convert kit to more accurately represent civilian service.

Summer in Australia seems finally to be over and I'm ready to get back into building. The change in season happily coincides with this group build, which already has some great-looking projects underway. I'm going to build a Boeing 314 Pan Am Clipper in 1/144 from the Minicraft kit. I am thinking about my prototype. There are two particularly famous 314s. The Dixie Clipper, NC 18605, carried Franklin Roosevelt to Casablanca in January, 1943. The other -- and what to call it depends on when you're referring to -- made the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a commercial airliner in revenue service. I didn't know the story, so I will relate it here. In short, NC18602, the California Clipper, was in the air at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On arrival in Auckland, Pan Am ordered the crew to proceed home the long way -- to New York via Australia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Brazil -- after stripping identifying marks from their aircraft. They made it about a month later, and Pan Am renamed the aircraft the Pacific Clipper (and also re-registered it NC18609), apparently to agree with newpaper stories. I'm thinking about how to finish this kit. There are three options: Out-of-the-box: The kit includes decals showing NC18609 and Pacific Clipper -- after the big flight, in other words. The upper-wing registration mark is unfortunately integrated with the international-orange region that Clippers had on their upper surfaces -- a feature I would prefer to paint. Mid-flight: With the markings removed or painted over. I don't know how it was done, but it could make for an interesting depiction. On arrival in Auckland: Designated NC18602 and California Clipper. I don't have decals for this. If I knew how to do figures and dioramas, I'd show Captain Ford on his mobile phone, getting the big surprise from headquarters. Here's the boxtop: Here's where I am already, after only an hour of work: The kit seems to be fitting really well, considering that this is apparently a reworked Airfix kit from the 1960s. These aircraft were natural metal, right, not painted silver? Thanks for looking. Some links: Wikipedia In Search of an Icon