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Can you cross kit Airfix and Italeri Sunderlands?


gamevender

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The old Airfix Sunderland is covered in rivets but the Italeri one has trenches for panel lines. It would seem to be easier to sand off the rivets than fill the panel lines and use the Airfix hull/wings/tail with the rest of the Italeri parts. Anyone have any thoughts about or experience with this idea? Will it even work?

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2 hours ago, gamevender said:

The old Airfix Sunderland is covered in rivets but the Italeri one has trenches for panel lines. It would seem to be easier to sand off the rivets than fill the panel lines and use the Airfix hull/wings/tail with the rest of the Italeri parts. Anyone have any thoughts about or experience with this idea? Will it even work?

the chap for this is @LDSModeller  

IIRC there were comparisons of the different kits.  I suspect that the bother of making the Italeri interior fit and the redoing of the Airfix surfaces would be as much, or more work, than dealing with the Italeri trenches. 

tip I just stuck "Britmodeller Airfix italeri sunderland" into google and got page of hits, 

but this by @LDSModeller  

Which may help.  The whole thread is worth a read, as are the others.

 

Finally, it would depend on which mark of Sunderland you want....

 

HTH

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Rather than buying an Italeri kit and using just a few parts of it I would look at what aftermarket there is for either kit and using that to improve one or the other kit. Things which bugged me abouit the Italeri kit of the Mk.I were :-

 

1) It comes with cowlings with cooling gills wide open - only applicable to take-off and flight

2) The propellers are not designed to be used without spinners which were not fitted to some Mk.Is

3) The cockpit canopy is rounded, rather than a set of angled flat panels

4) There is no option to have the mid upper gun hatches closed.

 

1 & 2 were solved with AM parts, I failed with 3 as the Falcon part intended for the Airfix kit wouldn't easily fit and 4 was fixed with plastic sheet and filler. I didn't let the narrow bow bother me but it is fairly obvious when compared to photos of the real thing.

 

If I was doing a Mk.III I would be tempted by the Airfix / AM route although finding 4 Pegasus engines would be expensive. But the only parts I think I would use from the Italeri kit would be cockpit details, engines and gun turrets. Clear parts would be Falcon/Squadron, Pavla cowlings and propellers and maybe some Eduard etch, exterior set and Zoom cockpit set at most.

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I've built both. Each has its shortcomings, but of the two the Italeri is slightly better (the Airfix kit, all said and done, was first released back in 1959 or 1960. It has endured extremely well in the intervening period). Fill the Italeri trenches and you can probably live with most of that kit's other shortcomings. I used the kit props, because my subject did have spinners, but otherwise rossm has identified the areas needing most attention.

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11 hours ago, gamevender said:

The old Airfix Sunderland is covered in rivets but the Italeri one has trenches for panel lines. It would seem to be easier to sand off the rivets than fill the panel lines and use the Airfix hull/wings/tail with the rest of the Italeri parts. Anyone have any thoughts about or experience with this idea? Will it even work?

Believe me,  I have toyed with the idea of an Airfix/Italeri composite Sunderland,

and that's where it ended.......

 

These three photos show how much of a mismatch the Airfix Sunderland Fuselage

are with the Italeri Sunderland wings

 Chord wise Italeri too large

d17d4110-bc76-426f-a563-3a7014af5e91.jpg

 

The wing at the joining edges are a tad too wide also

b47c4e39-0e47-46ff-95b6-c623f306c9ea.jpg

e9721d63-f260-4435-9d44-5b984f76f86a.jpg

 

Yes in the background is the Special Hobby Sunderland - also not without its own issues :hmmm:

 

Being honest, having both the Airfix and Italeri kits, choose which you think will suit you?

The panel lines on the Italeri Sunderland's can be dealt with, just as The Airfix rivets

too can be dealt with.

As Troy has posted above, my comments on what are the pros and cons

From memory the Italeri Cowlings will fit the Airfix wings

 

If you can find one, the White Ensign Sunderland Mk III Photo etch flight deck, is about

the most accurate (they also have a Mk I as is link below) of any aftermarket

accessories (Eduard is pure fiction)

 

White Ensign

 

The White Ensign Bomb room has issues- they get you to put some crazy bend in it.

From the model builds I've seen (and it could be the modellers mis-interpratation)

the Rear Spar Bulkhead would be impossible to use on the real aircraft, or the bulkhead

between Galley and bomb room would be at an acute angle. In real life the bulkhead does

have angled lean to it, but it would be barely perceptible in 1/72

 

Rear Spar Bulkhead on Real Sunderland - having been through that door many times it's straight up and down

vertical

f856672e-1df6-49d5-b8d1-35600121a649.jpg

 

Here in this photo, you can see the slight inclination (bomb room side of bulkhead)

fe9ea428-43a3-411f-ae5e-58717c648520.jpg

 

Hope that helps?

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

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The answer to the OPs question is - yes, it will work, but............... I have also built (several of) both.The choice probably boils down to your own preferences - are you a sander or a filler? I agree that it is not worth the (dubious) reward trying any form of cross kitting beyond just taking the nice detail bits from the Italeri and plonking them on the Airfix kit. To my mind not worth the effort (and money).

The Italeri is an all-round better kit but takes a bit more work to fix.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234940047-italeri-sunderland-mk-ii-raaf-10-squadron/

My build identifies one way to deal with the trenches. I also tried just spray filler on one but, in my hands, this method was inferior.

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Very interesting thread, especially for somone like me who has both in stash... So far I thought that Italeri declassed old Airfix, but it seems that it is not so...

Is the Special Hobby very different (apart other version) from Italeri? It was said in past that this is common project.

J-W

 

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5 hours ago, JWM said:

Is the Special Hobby very different (apart other version) from Italeri? It was said in past that this is common project.

Although they did indeed start as a common project, the SH one is now quite different. Their evolutionary tree diverged some years ago. The SH Sunderland has the development potential to model any mark and I'm sure they plan to get more boxings from the moulds. I haven't made mine yet but I think if I was to buy just one Sunderland kit it would be the SH kit.

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9 hours ago, JWM said:

Very interesting thread, especially for somone like me who has both in stash... So far I thought that Italeri declassed old Airfix, but it seems that it is not so...

Is the Special Hobby very different (apart other version) from Italeri? It was said in past that this is common project.

J-W

 

I'm currently building the Special Hobby Sunderland in the

Flying Boat GB - you see my Review and build comments below.

To be honest the only part that really lets down the Italeri Sunderland's (Mk I/III)

is the narrow bow section, otherwise, with bit of work, you've a nice kit panel lines excepted

 

Regards

 

Alan

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14 hours ago, LDSModeller said:

I'm currently building the Special Hobby Sunderland in the

Flying Boat GB - you see my Review and build comments below.

To be honest the only part that really lets down the Italeri Sunderland's (Mk I/III)

is the narrow bow section, otherwise, with bit of work, you've a nice kit panel lines excepted

 

Regards

 

Alan

So if I read between the lines - you're saying Italeri makes the least bad Sunderland kit currently? Great info in your SH build by the way, but could you perhaps make a list with some of the key pros and cons of each kit?

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