1:72 Short Sunderland Mk.III 'The Flying Porcupine' *FINISHED*

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Another quick update. Whilst fixing the front dorsal Yagi, I noticed that a fair bit of plastic swarf had accumulated in the cockpit:

 

 

Of course, it would not respond to any amount of coviddy blowing down the front turret 'ole, so there was little choice but to pry the canopy away. After a few buttock-clenching moments (and a de-Yagi 🤬😞

 

 

On the plus side - I do get to see that lovely cockpit again! I also noted that the Yagi frames needed touching up, so after all that we ended up back here:

 

 

Belatedly I also realised that I hadn't demasked the two portholes aft of the cockpit. I have since done that (well actually I pushed them through, so will have to rectify that with some Krystal Kleer - no biggie!). One step forward, two steps back - this is the SH way...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

[AdrianMF]

44 minutes ago, Dunny said:

One step forward, two steps back - this is the SH way...

I think it’s a method we all share from time to time! 
 

it is looking superb! Glad to see you are getting a taste for rigging…

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Dunny]

1 minute ago, AdrianMF said:

I think it’s a method we all share from time to time! 
 

it is looking superb! Glad to see you are getting a taste for rigging…

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks for the kind words Adrian. I would say a taste is pushing it a little, but I thought I'd get my eye in before I tackle the Gladiator!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

A final update for the day (promise!) I couldn't let the gaping portholes lie, so quickly set to with the Krystal Kleer:

 

 

Whilst I had that on the bench, I thought I may as well take care of the wingtip lights, which were quickly drilled, 'oles filled with red/green, then the back painted with aluminium. Here's the port light in position:

 

 

Whilst I often grumble about SH, they do get so much right - not many kits in this scale would include that detail. Finally, here's a shot to show the overall state of play:

 

 

State of play - one mostly completed Porcupine! Outstanding list of activities:

 

- Turrets & associated gubbins

- Aileron balances

- Mooring mast

- Landing lights

- Antenna wire (more bl**dy rigging!)

 

Don't tell anyone, but there might be an RFI soon 🤫

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

Edited July 15, 2022 by Dunny
Spelling

[jackroadkill]

Lovely to see she's nearly there now.  I feel your pain, sneezy-wise; I'm on my second bout now, and very boring it is too.

[Dunny]

3 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

Lovely to see she's nearly there now.  I feel your pain, sneezy-wise; I'm on my second bout now, and very boring it is too.

Thanks for the kind words JRK. It is rather a bore - hope you pull through soon!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[AliGauld]

Wow, that is looking wonderful.

Nice work with the rigging and what a save on the canopy.

 

I'm just waiting for a fresh masking set to arrive as the canopy on mine may not have survived the "Thinner Incident" unscathed and then I'll get on with it.

Looking forward to the finish on this as it's a work of art.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[LDSModeller]

3 hours ago, Dunny said:

Although I won't start the turrets today, I do think I remember @LDSModeller stating that the Mk.III would still carry the single Vickers in the front turret (please let me know before I dive down a rabbit hole Alan!!)

 

3 hours ago, Dunny said:

Stage 70 & 71 I believe will furnish me with the correct turret - huzzah for t'internet! 

Hi Roger,

 

Looks like you've got this well and truly sorted

 

Coming along nicely

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Dunny]

18 minutes ago, AliGauld said:

Wow, that is looking wonderful.

Nice work with the rigging and what a save on the canopy.

 

I'm just waiting for a fresh masking set to arrive as the canopy on mine may not have survived the "Thinner Incident" unscathed and then I'll get on with it.

Looking forward to the finish on this as it's a work of art.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks very much Alistair - the masking set will be worth the investment!

10 minutes ago, LDSModeller said:

Looks like you've got this well and truly sorted

Phew - thanks very much Alan, I will owe you a credit on this build!

[bigbadbadge]

Hope you are okay Roger and make a swift recovery. 

 

Great work fella after the old one step forward two step back dance.  It looks absolutely superb and definitely agree re SH kits, without them so many subjects would not be covered.

 

Great work,  I am in the waiting room at tge Dentist with a horrible tooth ache may have to have it pulled!!!

Chris

[Dunny]

13 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hope you are okay Roger and make a swift recovery. 

 

Great work fella after the old one step forward two step back dance.  It looks absolutely superb and definitely agree re SH kits, without them so many subjects would not be covered.

 

Great work,  I am in the waiting room at tge Dentist with a horrible tooth ache may have to have it pulled!!!

Chris

Thanks very much Chris - absolutely agree about SH. The modelling world would be much poorer without them. Sorry to hear about the dental woes. I hope it's not a mission-critical tooth, such as one required for a winning smile to convince SWMBO that you really need to buy an SH Sunderland? I think @AliGauld knows the smile I mean?

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Quiet Mike]

This really has turned into a spendid build Roger, can't wait for the RFI!

[bigbadbadge]

1 hour ago, Dunny said:

Thanks very much Chris - absolutely agree about SH. The modelling world would be much poorer without them. Sorry to hear about the dental woes. I hope it's not a mission-critical tooth, such as one required for a winning smile to convince SWMBO that you really need to buy an SH Sunderland? I think @AliGauld knows the smile I mean?

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Thanks Roger, not a smile dependent one thankfully,  it was a wisdom tooth, I look like something from a horror movie at yhe mo with a mouthful of blood covered teeth and a droopy face!!!

Am loving being pain-free since it started a few days ago, although once the anesthetic wears off !!!

Chris 

[AliGauld]

24 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

although once the anesthetic wears off !!!

Aye, that's the fun bit.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Dunny]

1 hour ago, Quiet Mike said:

This really has turned into a spendid build Roger, can't wait for the RFI!

Thanks very much Mike - a bit of a journey, this one...

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Thanks Roger, not a smile dependent one thankfully,  

Praise the modelling gods for that - we wouldn't want to deprive the world of your stash replenishment smile 😉

1 hour ago, AliGauld said:

Aye, that's the fun bit.

You sir, are an evil man. I knew I liked you *in a Dick Emery voice*

[AdrianMF]

The Sunderland is looking wonderful and I hope everyone gets better! Chris, wisdom teeth are a crazy anachronism so you’re better off without (and it won’t spoil your smile unless you’ve got a very wide grin).

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

The Sunderland is looking wonderful and I hope everyone gets better! Chris, wisdom teeth are a crazy anachronism so you’re better off without (and it won’t spoil your smile unless you’ve got a very wide grin).

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian , fortunately all now normal looking and settled down, no pain too, which is lovely.   I couldn't resist smiling at some people waiting for their appointments in the dentist on my way out as I had the droop on one side and teeth covered in blood, their faces were a picture, although I didn't see anyone run out in fear!!!

Chris

[Dunny]

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The Sunderland is looking wonderful and I hope everyone gets better! Chris, wisdom teeth are a crazy anachronism so you’re better off without

Most kind Adrian, and wise words indeed

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

 I couldn't resist smiling at some people waiting for their appointments in the dentist on my way out as I had the droop on one side and teeth covered in blood

The good people of Kent do not deserve you Chris. Get back to your bench immediately! 🤣

[mark.au]

Rigging on a Sunderland, who’d have thought (well, I didn’t, thought there’s at least one of us…).  You did a lovely job on that.  The whole model is looking splendid, including removal/replacement of the windscreen - very brave but I suppose no choice either, in the circumstances.  A long list of things to finish, but a solid weekend and you might be done?  
 

By the way, I’m coming to Adelaide next month, I’ll ping you the dates.

[Dunny]

16 minutes ago, mark.au said:

Rigging on a Sunderland, who’d have thought (well, I didn’t, thought there’s at least one of us…).  You did a lovely job on that.  The whole model is looking splendid, including removal/replacement of the windscreen - very brave but I suppose no choice either, in the circumstances.  A long list of things to finish, but a solid weekend and you might be done?  
 

By the way, I’m coming to Adelaide next month, I’ll ping you the dates.

Thanks for the kind words Mark. Yes, I've been living in unwarranted fear of the rigging, which really wasn't that bad in the end. Do let me know when you're going to be in town,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All, 

 

Today has seen the final push on the Sunderland. As I intimated yesterday, today would mostly be about the turrets! First job was to finish off the masking of the turret transparencies:

 

 

Although I had Montex masks they were for a Mk.V, which sadly has a different turret combo - it was therefore out with the Tamiya tape and a new scalpel blade! Here's all of the internals after dry-brushing with Neutral Grey:

 

 

I had initially thought that the turret internals would be aluminium (like the Stirling), but it seems that they were black. I also painted up all of the other greeblies that needed adding, including the retractable hood for the front turret. You can see here after I'd tried a dry fit, and found that it needed about 5mm removing before the turret would sit in the correct 'retracted' position. Here's before surgery:

 

 

And in position with the single-Vickers front turret:

 

 

Doesn't look too bad? Next the rear turret:

 

 

Bit blurry that one - soz! Finally the mid-upper:

 

 

Now down to the last bits & bobs. You can see that the landing lights have no contour to them, rather a flat rear surface:

 

 

Again, not the best photo. The only way to incorporate lamps at this late stage was to attach two lengths of transparent sprue, polished at the end with the lamp frames painted on. Here's before attachment:

 

 

And with the transparencies in place:

 

 

Sorry, another cr*p photo, but you get the general idea - it was worth the effort rather than just having a blank lens there. The final acts were to add the aileron actuators, and the antenna mast & wire. Here's the actuators:

 

 

And finally, a big Porcupine drum roll - here's 'N-Nuts' in all her glory:

 

 

 

 

Well this has been a big build, both in terms of complexity and obstacles to overcome, but I'm quite pleased with the outcome despite the usual plethora of niggles and minor errors. I do believe from what I've read that the SH kits are the best OOB representation of the Sunderland in 1:72 (unlike @tomprobert's superb 1:32 vac-formed project, which was at least a partial inspiration for this build - amazing work Tom!). Special thanks must also go to @AliGauld, whose lovely Mk.V build caused me to invest in this kit in the first place. Let's hope she rises like a Phoenix from the thinner-fuelled ashes - at the time of writing new decals have just arrived, so there is yet hope (can't wait to see some progress Mr G)! @LDSModeller has proven to be a font of knowledge on the Sunderland - many thanks Alan for your efforts in making this a more realistic build! Thanks also to all those kind folk who have added encouraging words along the way - it really has helped! I'll post some photos over in RFI (just as a teaser I may not be able to resist a couple of shots with another Short Brothers airframe) 

 

Thanks very much for looking,

 

Roger

 

[AdrianMF]

Magnificent! Everything a Sunderland should be.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[mark.au]

Fabulous.  You’ve done Nuts justice, a very nice result indeed.  As expected. ☺️

[bigbadbadge]

Absolutely wonderful Roger, a splendid looking Sunderland, great work as usual.  As we said previously hats off to SH for bring us modellers such wonderful subjects too. 

But really this is all about your great job on this large model and yes please to shots with the other Short family aircraft. 

Enjoyed following your WIP.

Chris

[AliGauld]

just 

 

She is a stunner Roger.

What a build, what a thread.

I've had a blast stalking along.

 

An attempt will be made to resurrect the MK.V very soon.

I just need to get the oomph up to start the stripping process.

 

Thanks for this though. What a beauty.

 

Cheers,

Alistair