Republic Seabee - 1/72nd Mach 2 injected plastic kit

[Andwil]

Good choice of colour scheme Moa, that is a splendid livery.

 

AW

[Spitfire31]

A very inspiring WIP, this one. I really like the Seabee (we had a number of them in Sweden, one or two still flying, I believe). In the stash I have the 1:48th Olin/Lindberg/Glencoe kit, moulded in transparent plastic, waiting for its turn. 😉

 

Now, your beautiful canopy treatment has given me some 'bad' ideas for the Glencoe. I guess they will push its completion even further into the future…

 

Superb work on the Mach 2 'Bee, Moa! I'm following your travails closely.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[dnl42]

9 hours ago, Moa said:

Decision has been made.

I will represent any of the three identical Seabees owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service, in contrasting black and orange (thanks Mr. Christos Psarras!):

(Link to Seabee website)

http://www.seabee.info/rc3_758.htm

like their bigger cousin this Grumman amphibian:

(Link to photo on flickr)

https://live.staticflickr.com/1812/29198082097_98ae0721b2_h.jpg

Nice scheme on that Goose! It will look excellent on your Seabee!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

15 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

I have the 1:48th Olin/Lindberg/Glencoe kit, moulded in transparent plastic, waiting for its turn.

Hi Joachim

As you know there is bee crisis in the world, with dwindling populations, so get that kit out and let's repopulate the world with (sea)bees!

(we have a beehive in the backyard, no kidding, that pollinate our fruit trees).

Cheers

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

16 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Nice scheme on that Goose! It will look excellent on your Seabee!

I find it appealing indeed, but also like the fact that it's one of the earlier schemes, and the function of the plane was to protect wildlife.

You hardly ever see in the aviation world such an abundance of color scheme options, for so many countries, and even little "airline-like" enterprises that owned a few of them.

In fact, I spent hour after hour looking at them online.

Cheers

 

 

[Marklo]

Oddly in Ireland (apparently) 75% of pollination is done by bats, not bees !

 

i am tempted to seek out one of those 1/48 kits, it’s a wonderfully quirky machine.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Marklo

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Oddly in Ireland (apparently) 75% of pollination is done by bats, not bees !

 

i am tempted to seek out one of those 1/48 kits, it’s a wonderfully quirky machine.

But of course, you are all Guiness vampires!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The engine pan is glued onto the wing:

 

 

More elements are created for the resemblance of the engine:

 

The air intake in the kit is ill-defined:

 

So it is sanded down and a new frame is being glued on with stretched sprue, not easy. I wish I could have created just the frame, eliminating the kit's part*, or find a photo-etched part that could have fit the bill, that way the engine fan would have been visible from the front, but one can go so far, and there is detail enough:

 

* (What may follow now is a flurry of modeling advice as a reply to the rhetorical sentence, proposing methods as easy as using a laser beam, taking advantage of the space curvature created by the event horizon of a black hole, or employ a trained, genetically-engineered, steel-spinning spider, and other seemingly logical solutions that the proposers never tried)

 

[72modeler]

2 hours ago, Moa said:

The air intake in the kit is ill-defined:

After seeing dn142's linked photos, I now realize where I've seen the Seabee engine air intake before- just find a 1/72 fencer's helmet face guard and you're home free!

Mike

 

(Yes, I know- I will now go and sit quietly in the corner.)

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

47 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

just find a 1/72 fencer's helmet face guard and you're home free!

Mike

Not bad, Mike, not bad.

i have been given stranger advise. 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

50 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

After seeing dn142's linked photos

Those were my links, quoted by him.

NOW you can go and seat in the corner.

[Marklo]

Now now no stereotypes. I haven’t had a Guinness in thirty years if I drink at all I much prefer a nice red.

 

Never drank it before but was in an extended business trip to Connecticut and more out of homesickness started drinking it. At the time of course American beer was terrible, so otherwise drank Mexican, at the time I wasn’t a wine drinker.

 

Plus my only knowledge of Argentina is from Evita ( sorry about that)

Edited December 10, 2019 by Marklo

[Marklo]

You’re such a bad influence Moa, spotted a 1/48 glencoe kit on eBay, only €30 including the postage, but I said I wasn’t buying any more kits till next month.... well maybe I’ll at least wait till payday (Thursday btw) hmmm......

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

You’re such a bad influence Moa, spotted a 1/48 glencoe kit on eBay, only €30 including the postage, but I said I wasn’t buying any more kits till next month.... well maybe I’ll at least wait till payday (Thursday btw) hmmm......

Chain yourself to the desk, resist the urge..

[Marklo]

But it’s So cute and so reasonable. Anyways even if I do I can still use Siri to order it. 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The vertical members are added:

 

Some priming and basic painting:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Meanwhile other parts are being prepared for the same treatment, including a little anchor:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Some more painting:

 

And the new air intake previous to the black wash:

[Blue Monday]

I see something that I have in common with you, Moa. Spray painted clothes pegs! Sadly, this is all we have in common when it comes to modelling☹️. 

 

BM.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Blue Monday

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

8 minutes ago, Blue Monday said:

I see something that I have in common with you, Moa. Spray painted clothes pegs! Sadly, this is all we have in common when it comes to modelling☹️. 

 

BM.

A modeler can never have enough clothes pegs!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

This kit is so interesting from a philosophical perspective, or even an epistemological modeling perspective.

You can tell that there was a lot of effort put on the masters, the seats have detail on the cushions, their backs have structure, the surface of the of model has some convincing detail, and the engineering is sound.

We all know that small companies can't afford certain technologies because of the cost, and this is patent with Mach 2, with the flash, ejector pins, and the like.

Still, this kit has more detail and better represented that much modern examples that use better technology but fall short of detail, rendering slab seats and panel lines that are still, after all these years, dismal trenches.

When I work with "frontier" (no mainstream) kits, the build either turns into an ever-deepening hole of frustration and lots of effort and time exchanged for a poor result (Merlin, Old Dujin) or the atmosphere gradually clears and you enjoy a relatively pleasant build, like in this case. I repeat that I have seen other Mach 2 molds that did not tempt me at all, but this little "frog" (pun not intended) from the French manufacturer is turning into a (so far) nice build, and I would build another in a snap.

Yes, it takes time and and things need replacement or alteration, but all told (and again, I hope this still stands at the end of the build) I am pleased by my acquisition.

 

[Graeme H]

14 minutes ago, Moa said:

A modeler can never have enough clothes pegs!

 

so very true

 

Only just caught up with this one, outstanding as always, strangely there was one of those here in my home town for a while back in '80's that belonged to an Airline Pilot I knew, it spent most of it's life being U/S due to not being able to get parts for the Engine, never did get a ride in it. 

[Marklo]

I like bringing old kits back from the dead. As I am now the proud owner of a 1/48 glencoe Seabee I will be following in your footsteps (again) soon  

[Herb]

8 hours ago, Marklo said:

...bringing old kits back from the dead...

Is he a Shaolin Modeling Monk, or really a Plastic Necromancer? Only time will tell...

[gingerbob]

On 11/30/2019 at 5:51 PM, Courageous said:

I've never given up on a kit yet and it's not going to happen on the Dujin kit either .

 

Stuart

 

I was going to say that I've never given up on a kit... I just haven't finished them yet!  But then I remembered the nuclear submarine with one fuselage hull half in clear and all the interior gubbins and an elastic-launched missile in one tube and... that somebody gave me when I were a lad.  Memories of that thing still make me shudder.  Then when I was typing this reply I also remembered the ICM 1/48 MiG-3.  Probably not that bad, but there were so many separate parts just to put the basic wing together.  In an almost unheard of event, I actually gave that one up in favor of the Trumpeter kit (which I haven't built either yet).

 

On 12/1/2019 at 3:58 PM, Moa said:

 

Note the just-visible dustbin upper right where all the kit parts have been sent 😉

 

I'm another with the 1/48 kit.  It is apparently not terribly shape-accurate, but this is a case where you won't mistake it for any other aircraft, except possibly the Spencer Air Car.  I was delighted to recognize the "arms and shoulders" of a SeaBee (the view from behind) across the way on the airport ramp this summer.  (I drive by this airport on the way to my boat job.)  Sadly, I never tried to investigate more closely, but I kept checking to see if it was still there.