1:48 Airfix Walrus

[Kallisti]

This is a turn up for the books, to be honest I wasn't even aware of this GB until about 2 hours ago when I started doing some research on the kit and found Fatboydim's post in the GB which was very interesting, so I thought I'd join in the fun and games and start posting about my version of this kit which I started building this morning!

 

I picked it up at the Abingdon show as it looked so nice and its a bit different and I like things that are a bit different... I had an idea for what to do with this and have ordered some 2-bladed propblurs from America

 

So to begin, the usual box shots:

 

 

Fatboydim has made a much more comprehensive set of phtotos of the contents so here is my collective pic

 

 

Notice the little addition in the top left? This may be a bit of a give-away as to what I intend for this

 

 

Yup, RAF pilots in a life raft

 

There are several colour sheets for the colour schemes and the rigging detail. This is the scheme I will be building it as

 

 

and these are the other schemes available on the reverse of these sheets

 

 

Instructions are the modern style of AIrifix instructions which I am a fan of

 

 

The model can be built with undercarriage and wings folderd, but I won't be

 

 

So thats all the doumentation etc, lets start on the build... well it didn't get very far, just cutting some pieces of the sprue, tidying them up, then painting and weathering them before assembly:

 

 

These have been painted with Tamiya XF-71 and then given an earth wash using old-stlye MiG wash. Thats the progress so far... watch this space!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi Kallisti,

 

Welcome to the GB! We can't have too many Walruses, so this is a great choice for an entry

 

Which colour scheme are you choosing?

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Fatboydim]

Welcome Killisti, great idea about the life raft. 

[Kallisti]

RAF 276 Sqn - should be fun!

[jrlx]

2 hours ago, Kallisti said:

RAF 276 Sqn - should be fun!

Thanks. Looks good in camouflage!

[Kallisti]

So this photos perfectly illustrates one of the few flaws with this kit - ejector pin marks! The internal structures are covered with them, but thats not surprising considering how much internal detail there is so I'm sure all those ribs would stick to the moulds! Here I originally painted the internals of the two fuselage sides with XF-71 and then examined them properly ans saw all the ejector pins so spent 30 mins or so scraping them off with a sharp scalpel blade.

 

 

This will get a new coat of paint later.

 

in the meantime the floor is being built up:

 

[Kallisti]

Last post for today, some useful progress this evening, first off continuing the build following the instructions, the next assembly was the pilot seat. This was painted and weathered before installation

 

 

 

Then of course the realisation hit me that I'm going to need a pilot! Thankfully I've got a selection of PJ Production resin RAF WWII pilots on hand plus some other figures to use for the rest of the crew...

 

 

So first off, the pilot. Now there is an issue in this kit of clearance for the canopy, so in the end I had to get the dremel out to get the resin figure to fit

 

 

 

and with a test fit of the canopy to be sure

 

 

Then using a mix of arms, torsos and legs from the Airfix RAF kit and some necessary surgery to remove a 'flapping' parachute pack from the runnign pilot:

 

 

 

Then chopping the legs off one of the crouching crewmen to attach to the torso so he's kneeling, and with some arms from some of the other figures

 

 

(the lumps of blue/white tac are handles for holding the pieces while painting the insides

 

I will be putting the observer in as well as he can be seen through the windows, but not sure what to do about the rear gunner position, but then I'm not sure how many crew members they flew with in 276 Sqn. Norman Franks book mentions 2 crew, but then a page or two later describes a rescue undertaken by 276 and namechecks three crew of the Walrus, so I'm going to stick with 3 crew members and not worry about a 'rear gunner', which makes life a great deal easier!

 

More tomorrow hopefully

[Kallisti]

Figure painting today, no photos or progress on the main build, just painting seat belts, flying helmets, mae wests oh and faces...

[jrlx]

Good progress, Kallisti! I like the interior weathering

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Kallisti]

Figures have been painted and added to the fuselage internals:

 

 

 

These are the two PJ Production RAF Pilot figures which fit every well after having their parachute packs sanded off. The legs are a bit too long, but they won't be visible. I really ought to add a chart and navigation tools to that desk really, but I wonder how much will be visible through the window? Also need to extend the seat belts from the moulded details on the figures t to the seats - this can be down with carefully cut and painted yellow masking tape.

 

Now the third figure has also been painted but this dramatically shows up the big problem that was highlighted when the Airfix 1:48 RAF set came out... the figures very plainly are NOT 1:48 - just compare them here:

 

 

The third figure is significantly larger in every dimension. I'm hoping it won't be all that noticable as he'll be sticking up through the front gunner position:

 

 

The fingers of his right hand look more like he's bowling a googly rather than waving!

 

In other news, the propburs have arrived from the USA:

 

 

The fuselage sides have had their paint and weathering down and the windows have been added and then masked over with masking fluid for the outer painting. Just need to touch up the third figure's facial features. I don't paint eyes on 1:48 scale figures - at this scale you can't see the whites of their eyes and figures that have them painted on to my mind look wide-eyed (and legless?) and scary! The shadows around the eyes are usually enough to give them adequate expression.

 

Edited November 2, 2017 by Kallisti

[Martian]

Great work on the figures!

 

Martian

[Aeronut]

You can always tell people the little guy flying it is Wincle Brown.

[Paul J]

Nice project. Not sure but I think the 1/48th figures in that separate look bigger than 48th or am I wrong because other 48th figures such as those that Monogram included and other peoples' 48th figures, the Airfix ones look humongous!

[Kallisti]

That is what I was pointing out in my post - the third figure is from the 1:48 Airfix RAF set and it was noted at the time of release that these figures are in no way 1:48. I'm a bit stuck with it now as I can't find anything else to replace it

[Kallisti]

This evening I decided to take a look at how the propblurs would fit with regards to the prop assembly and my first discovery was this:

 

 

The 2 bladed propblur is too long! I also have some 3 bladed propblurs and they come with spare single blades so I checked them...

 

 

Bingo! So it looks like the 2 bladed ones will go into the spares box for now and I'll be replacing each prop blade separately.

 

[jrlx]

Great work on the figures! Shame about the larger than 1/48 Airfix ones.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[Rob G]

It's easy. The chap in the bow is a hulking great monster, as it's him wots got ta pull the poor wee pilot chappie in outta the oggin , wet clothes and all.

 

(Oi 'opes thart maaakes some sort of sense.)

[Kallisti]

Lots of progress to report in the last week, first off the instrument panel had its decals applied and they look excellent 

 

 

Next the sides of the fuselage were added. This did need a bit of filler and sanding - I'm going to have to replace the lug at the front of the nose as that ended up being sanded off 

 

 

If you look carefully you'll see that the pilot has sadly had to have his feet removed so that the anchor rope spool could be fitted.

 

 

After that, the fuselage roof was added. I got a bit carried away with assembly and ended up adding the wings and engine nacelle, along with the tail. It gave me the opportunity to try out the layout of the final dilorama

 

 

As you can see I've masked the canopy and added it in prep for airbrushing - you can see here the missing nose loop

 

 

Also added the rear gunner lid as this will be just a 3 man crew the rear gunner position would only be manned if required.

 

 

Floats and rudder are also ready for paint

 

 

Next, lets take a look at the  pilots in the dinghy and figures:

 

 

The resin casting is very detailed, with good facial features and hands. Here is the dinghy itself

 

 

I then glued together the pilots torsos and arms and gave the dingy and initial coat or orangy-yellow. Note that I've chopped off most of the water surrounding the dinghy - this will be embeded in my own water texture so it makes it easier to fit if tehre isn't too much extraneous detail

 

 

And finally, I don't know if any of you noticed my - ahem - 'deliberate' mistake earlier, but I foolishly glued the upper and lower wings together with the engine nacelle and of course this makes them all very difficult to paint with the airbrush, so with some careful use of Tamyia Extra thin liquid cement and careful prising apart I was able to unassemble the wings and engine for painting

 

 

Its a bit too nippy in the evenings at present to be spending too much time in the shed, so I'm going to brush paint the RAF figures tonight and continue with the dinghy...

 

[jrlx]

Superb progress! I noticed that you had glued the upper wing and engine nacelle and then you mentioned you'd be airbrushing, which made me feel a bit astonished... but then you removed those parts and all became good again

 

I like your idea for the diorama. Looking forward to seeing it taking shape. I'd like to do a water/sea diorama one day.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I don’t know whether you have already glued the rear cover, but all the photos I’ve seen of rescues with a Walrus show the ditched aircrew being recovered through the rear, not the bow / nose.  It makes sense, if you think about it; taxying in even a small swell with the nose open sounds like a recipe for a rapidly sinking aircraft...

 

Whatever you decide, it’s looking great - I just thought I’d point it out

[Kallisti]

Ahh good point then - the covers are currently only held on with canopy glue so I can take them off if required. The scene I intend to depict is not the immediate recovery but the Walrus approaching so I can depict its wake in the water, so for that the bow would be a better observation point but when recovery begins the crewman would go back to the rear

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

9 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Ahh good point then - the covers are currently only held on with canopy glue so I can take them off if required. The scene I intend to depict is not the immediate recovery but the Walrus approaching so I can depict its wake in the water, so for that the bow would be a better observation point but when recovery begins the crewman would go back to the rear

Makes perfect sense!

[andy.m]

Loving watching this build. Several years ago I built the Airframes Walrus and did a similar diorama. I've taken the liberty of posting a couple of pictures of it - I hope you don't mind! I think my dio is a short while after yours in the rescue attempt and from earlier comments it's about to sink 😂😂😳!

I'm wishing I had seen this group build earlier - I'm just getting my modelling mojo back after a year or two off...

 

 

 

[jrlx]

20 minutes ago, andy.m said:

Several years ago I built the Airframes Walrus and did a similar diorama. I've taken the liberty of posting a couple of pictures of it

Thanks for the pictures Andy! Really excellent dio! You still can join the GB, it will run for another 8 weeks. I hope you get your modelling motivation back!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[Kallisti]

That looks great, exactly the sort of scene I was thinking of!