RNZAF Sunderland Mk III - Transport - SW Pacific Circa 1945

[LDSModeller]

Hi All, a Place Holder for Tomorrows Start

 

I have a "In the Navy GB" F2A-2 Buffalo in finals, and a RNZAF P40M

also on finals, so should be able to get into this fairly soonish

 

The Kit box

 

I want (given timing) to recreate this scene from an RNZAF Photo in the Book "New Zealand's Golden

Age of Flying Boats"

 

The Sunderland is being "Warped" into the Braby at  Lauthala Bay, Fiji

(Photo used for illustration only)

 

I plan to keep the build fairly simple, but build a "Proper" Interior.

 

For your viewing pleasure, a Film showing the arrival of the 4 Sunderland's into New Zealand.

Yes, after thousands of Miles/Km's without major mishap, one of the escorting Hudson's collides

wing tip to wing tip - Thankfully both aircraft and crews landed safely

 

Arrival of the RNZAF Sunderland Mk III's

 

See you all after the kick off

 

Regards

 

Alan

Edited May 7, 2020 by LDSModeller

[Wez]

Great choice of subject Alan, welcome to the GB.

 

Thanks for sharing the film too!

[AaronKSJ]

On 07/05/2020 at 08:29, LDSModeller said:

For your viewing pleasure

 

I enjoyed that! 

 

I'll follow along, do like a Sunderland

[DaveyGair]

Look forward to seeing this take shape Alan.  Are the aircraft in the film Mk III's re-engined with P&W's ?

Was just wondering how your other builds are getting on?

 

Davey.

[Barf]

On 07/05/2020 at 19:29, LDSModeller said:

Hi All, a Place Holder for Tomorrows Start

 

I have a "In the Navy GB" F2A-2 Buffalo in finals, and a RNZAF P40M

also on finals, so should be able to get into this fairly soonish

 

The Kit box

 

I want (given timing) to recreate this scene from an RNZAF Photo in the Book "New Zealand's Golden

Age of Flying Boats"

 

The Sunderland is being "Warped" into the Braby at  Lauthala Bay, Fiji

(Photo used for illustration only)

 

I plan to keep the build fairly simple, but build a "Proper" Interior.

 

For your viewing pleasure, a Film showing the arrival of the 4 Sunderland's into New Zealand.

Yes, after thousands of Miles/Km's without major mishap, one of the escorting Hudson's collides

wing tip to wing tip - Thankfully both aircraft and crews landed safely

 

Arrival of the RNZAF Sunderland Mk III's

 

See you all after the kick off

 

Regards

 

Alan

Did I give you the drawings for the MkIII markings ? 

[LDSModeller]

4 hours ago, Barf said:

Did I give you the drawings for the MkIII markings ? 

Hi Nathan,

 

Really nice to hear from you

 

I trust all is well with and your family?

 

Yes, thank you, you send me the Drawings, which I have squirreled away

for later on (Matthew had sent me through some photos also, big help especially

for the flight deck).

Hope you keep checking in on this, as it progresses

 

Kind Regards

 

Alan

[LDSModeller]

On 5/8/2020 at 6:41 PM, Wez said:

Great choice of subject Alan, welcome to the GB.

 

Thanks for sharing the film too!

Hi Wez,

 

Thank you for the welcome, and glad you enjoyed the film

On 5/10/2020 at 10:23 PM, AaronKSJ said:

I enjoyed that! 

 

I'll follow along, do like a Sunderland

Hi Aaron

 

Glad you enjoyed, welcome to the journey, Sunderland's are real passion of mine

13 hours ago, DaveyGair said:

Look forward to seeing this take shape Alan.  Are the aircraft in the film Mk III's re-engined with P&W's ?

Was just wondering how your other builds are getting on?

 

Davey.

Hi Davey,

 

Thank you for joining the journey

The 4 Mk III's were all engined with Bristol Pegasus  Mk XVIII Engine (same as other Sunderland Mk III's)

Interesting story, in that just prior to departure from Britain to New Zealand, 490 (NZ) Squadron

ground crews had replaced the propellers (Non feathering) with feathering types.

That didn't go down well with the Station Engineering Officer (obviously not a Kiwi ), so the

whole of the 16 Props had to be replaced with the originals.

 

When "Aeroplane" Magazine produced their Book on the Short Sunderland some years ago now,

it contained a section written by some "Individual" who knows nothing about RNZAF Sunderland's.

He wrote that the Sunderland's had actually served with 490 (NZ) Squadron in West Africa, and were

flown home from there to New Zealand. See below an except from said section

(Posted for Illustration purposes only)

In truth, New Zealand being a member of the Dominion, Britain wanted to keep a hand in

our Military well being, offered the then New Zealand Government, 4 Sunderland Mk III's (Brand new)

configured as transports. Our Government accepted the sale.

During the early- mid part of 1944, members of 490 (NZ) Squadron had been in Britain, training for conversion to

the Mk III Sunderland (previously flying Catalina's). Some of those trained crew were selected to transport

the Sunderland's back to New Zealand, and the above film is them completing that journey.

 

As far as my Mk V goes, I got somewhat frustrated by issues having to be rectified, so put it aside,

and for "Pure" therapeutic purposes, built something else (see my build in "In the Navy GB")

I have got the model out again and plan to re-start, and build alongside this one (watch the WIP space).

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Colin W]

The work you did on the MKV was fantastic and its a real shame you never finished the model. Try not to get too bogged down in the interior with this one!

 

Colin

[LDSModeller]

1 hour ago, Colin W said:

The work you did on the MKV was fantastic and its a real shame you never finished the model. Try not to get too bogged down in the interior with this one!

 

Colin

Hi Colin,

 

The problem with the Mk V is, I used the Special Hobby parts and added my refinements.

If I had just scratch built the interior, like I did with my Airfix Mk III, it would have been better/easier

(I think )

Airfix Mk III

 

With the Italeri Sunderland, I plan to scratch build a similar interior. I have photos

of the RNZAF Mk III's and the Fight deck is quite basic, compared to other Mk III's

Sooo we shall see

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Regards

 

Alan

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

Something of an Update, finished the Buffalo in "In The Navy GB", so

can turn my attention to this build.

 

So this is where we are at thus far

I really don't like the Italeri Panel lines/rivets, as they are not at all representative

of the real thing, so I have begun to putty the lines and rivets

While the nail polish remover does smooth down the putty, I will need to wet sand the surface to

smooth it all out - need to stop by my local Mitre 10 and pick up a supply of very fine wet & dry sand paper

 

I have added some styrene to block up the hole for the Upper Turret

The riveting is totally wrong here, as the reinforcing is in inside the fuselage as in this photo

 

There is an upper hatch in place of the turret - I have actually been up through there, when the Sunderlands

where in RNZAF Service

 

I have been removing the interior detail (its fictitious), to 1) prepare for for the new Ribbing/stringers,

but 2) also to allow for cutting out the new windows

Note above, the Italeri Hinge Placement are also wrong, note the photo below and how the actual door opens

 

Note I have filled in the holes for mounting the beaching gear too, more on that later.

 Removing the interior pins etc allows me to properly position the flight deck, which runs just below the

Flight engineers Porthole (the ones under wings)

Real thing

 

I have started filling in the redundant portholes also, the photo also shows where the new windows will go

 

What it looks like outside of fuselage - I am thinking of opening the Galley hatches also

 

One final thing as they will be open, the Italeri kit for all its wort's etc, actually has the most accurate placement

of the Bomb bay doors out of all the current Sunderland kits

 

Thanks for looking in, more soon

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

A bit of an update

 

I have removed the Italeri version of the internal ribbing and stringers.

A dremel and some decent sanding discs helped out immensely

 

 

A quick clean up with fine grit wet & Dry with good old H2O, and it's good to go

 

I also added in styrene discs to cover the redundant portholes.

For those of you wondering at my sanity () the ribbing/stringers were in a different positions with

the Porthole deletion to accommodate the new "Airliner" type windows

 

a covering of Tamiya putty, again Wet& Dry sanded and there we are

 

You will note in the above photo the pencil lines, the horizontal one is for the flight deck support,

and vertical is for the Frame for the Bomb room/galley rear wall (the observant will also note the wing

stubs in the fuselage openings. I wanted to see how far the stubs protruded into the fuselage void (more on that later)

Flight deck support in

 

I have chosen to use kit parts where practical, so I am going to use the pilots platform sans the

attached flight deck part

 

New proper flight deck with Pilots platform and first of the main frames/bulkheads for the

lower deck

 

In the above photo you will note the opened galley hatch

 

Here's how I accomplished that

Using a Tamiya scribing template,  scribed around the hatch outer

 

Removed the kit piece and again using the template along with thin styrene rebuilt a new hatch opening

 

What the real thing looks like from outside and inside

 

The other thing which has been occupying my time, is the filling and sanding of the Panel lines.

It's a small step by small step process, but getting there

Every time I think I have it, a new line/rivets appear, so back to refilling/sanding

But hey that's what modelling is right?

With  less than a month till finish, I'm going to need to spend all my time on this, so

I can at least have something at the finish line

Once the Fuselage is done, the rest will be  relatively simple to complete (I think )

You will have noted too, that I have not yet cut out the Main windows. To be honest I have been

racking my brain how to best accomplish this, and  I have come up with a plan. More next time (soon)

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by LDSModeller

[stevehnz]

Looking good Alan, you're a brave man taking on a build like this in a GB.

Steve.

[Wez]

Wow Alan, that is a lot of work you're taking on there, clearly a labour of love.

 

Thanks for providing the reference photo's as you go along too!

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

Apologies for not getting my build finished, family illness

and mine, plus this whole Covid Level three lock down

here in Auckland has put to rest any completion for this GB

Thanks for having me along especially our GB Hosts.

I'll put this in the WIP Forums, as I want to get it finished (man on a mission),

so I like to invite you to join me there

 

Thanks/Regards

 

Alan

 

[alt-92]

Unfortunate, but understandable. Take care, Alan.