Big resin flying boat! Pend orielle 1/48 Sunderland.

[gunpowder17]

Pend Orielle or pomkit, What great kits they made. I built their 1/48 Mariner a while ago and i loved it. The resin is smooth , and the quality is great. Not up to todays standards but good enough for me.

This is their 1/48 Sunderland kit. I have had the Alpha flight one and im really starting to wonder if they bought the pend orielle masters and improved them. Theres some things i recognise , like the cockpit detail. I could not find any info on this kit other than a couple of pics of the box , so was surprised how small said box was when it arrived, Its such a big kit. The fuselage was in quarters and the front parts were warped quite badly , luckily the hot water technique worked out OK so the first thing i have done is to join the front and rear parts to make the fuselage halves.

 

 

[gunpowder17]

Next up it needs some rigidity. The Alphaflight kit has an interior to make it strong , it is also made from a harder resin. The pend orielle kit is a softer white resin. I have made some formers from plasticard to give it more strength. Im also going to spray the main interior black , as theres nothing in it!

The cockpit has been assembled and primed and looks OK. I may add more detail but im not sure yet. It needs seatbelts at least. Heres a photo of the cockpit. I need to put the armrests on the seats and add the control wheels. I will use my special hobby kit for reference.

 

 

The molded in detail

 

 

The progress so far....

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo this looks interesting,  never heard of this manufacturer before.

Should look very impressive when built. Great start.

 

Chris

[noelh]

I'm definitely intrigued. A 1/48 Sunderland. No pressure but I'd love to see that  finished.

 

OK pressure. I really want to see it  finished 

 

[gunpowder17]

Things are progressing. Fuselage is now joined and is very sturdy.  Did they fly the mk5 with top turret and upper camouflage? most of the camo ones i have seen are mk3s

One of the things i like about these big resin kits is that i can use car filler on them.It dries fast and sands beautifully. I will post some photos later.

[Shorty84]

Cool, that must be the first time I see this kit being built. Quite a big and rare beast and a lot of resin. Looking forward to the next update 👍

 

Cheers

Markus

[gunpowder17]

Heres the fuselage assembled.

[LDSModeller]

2 hours ago, gunpowder17 said:

Did they fly the mk5 with top turret and upper camouflage?

Some Mk V's did have turrets, some without (depends on production date)

The Air Ministry made a decision later in WWII that due to decreased Luftwaffe

activity (say in Bay of Biscay) the Upper Turrets were to be deleted on both Mk III

and Mk V (both of which were on the production lines at same time).

Generally by the time the Mk V came off the Production line, the upper colour

was Dark Sea Grey

 

From the book "Ocean Sentinel"

 

There is a nice photo of a 209 Squadron Mk V (NJ261 - "T")

flying over Mombasa Harbour with upper Turret and with Dark Sea Grey uppers

 

There is another photo of a 330 Squadron Mk V (conversion from Mk III) NJ172 - "WH*F"

flying from Sullom Voe (1945), with Upper Turret bit with Dark Sea Grey uppers

 

Again one more of a 209 Squadron Mk V (PP103 - "U") flying over Rangoon September

1945, with upper Turret, with Dark Sea Grey uppers

 

Hope that helps?

 

Regards

 

Alan

[gunpowder17]

Thank you Alan.

 

[gunpowder17]

Theres no pics on the interweb of this kit so heres the parts

 

 

"whats in the tube?" i hear you ask

 

Some lovely cowlings....

 

Beaching gear , guns and stuff!

 

Here are the props. They are quite nice , but i have noticed they are virtually identical to the revell 1/48 DC-3 props , so i may replace them with those.

 

Ailerons are nicely done.

 

 

As are the floats

 

 

2 sets of clear parts