Sword. Curtis SO3C Seamew. 1/72

[Markh-75]

This started off as a side project while I was working on the B-25C, but now I don't have that much to do on the B-25 this will be the main project (until I start summat else). This was one of the less favoured kits I came to buy; even the Special Hobby kits have better fitting parts. I liked the picture on the box, the shape was appealing to me and I felt it would look nice in my collection as one of my more unusual models. I do hope mine was a 'one-off' as its not the kind of model I'm used to. I bought this for my liking of seaplanes and it has been in the stash waiting to be built now for a year and a arf, while I plucked up the courage to tackle it.

What makes the interior awkward is having no visible ref' points inside it for locating the 'furniture' and that some of the 'furniture' is a collection of resin parts and polystyrene parts; it doesn't normally make too much difference to me but with a model that I had to make a few calculations for and fit little blocks of plastic inside to sit the interior parts onto, they're not quite exact and I ended up putting it aside until such time as I was confident to tackle it. I've ended up having to carefully grind bits of the blocks away to make stuff sit where it should be, but at least it was a start. The only thing about having half the parts as resin parts is that gluing them in can be an issue because they require supergloop and you dont get alot of wiggle time with that.

 

 

The Seamew was not a completely successful aircraft, in fact at one point the US Navy put them all aside and reverted to using the aircraft they were supposed to replace, the Seagull. Later it became the case that even the little Kingfisher scout plane was more popular than the seamew (I have a Kingfisher in my stash, just waiting to be started). Some of the problem was the Eagle 12 cylinder inverted engine, it wasn't that powerful and also had issues with reliability. A strange comparison that I ended up putting my Seamew aside as I found it too daunting to build earlier, and that the Navy reverted to using the aircraft the Seamew was to replace!

 

Last time I did anything it was to channel some time into making the interior fit 'somehow' and thats when I fitted the little blocks inside it. I lost heart in it after that but more recently I decided that if I can build the Special Hobby limited runners then I should be able to build this too. I would like it OUT of my stash and IN the cabinet.

 

 

You can see the little blocks I cemented into the fuselage to aid better placing of the interior, and in these pictures I have now been able to start locating the interior parts, I have done one piece at a time and checked each time to make sure that the fuselage will close around it without difficulty, I have also started painting the interiors, I'll do inside the fuselage halves too, before I close it up. I had already glued up the wing halves last time I worked on it, I have now assembled the wing floats and a few other parts, set the exhaust stubs into the panel with fits under the fuselage, drilled holes where needed such as on the beaching gear and the wings (to locate the floats and the bomb racks, these were not marked anywhere on the model so I have had to carefully mark up and drill on my own). I drilled out to fit a mounting post for the rear machine gun, I'll do the same for the machine gun ring and for the seat in the ring so it sits on the floor instead of hanging on the back shelf!

I'm determined to have this looking good, it may take time but I'll get there.😉

[Jackson Duvalier]

Congratulations on taking up the challenge, Mark.  😎

 

This kit is in my stash of ugly ducklings and obscurities to be built someday, along with the Naval Fighters series Seagull/Seamew volume.  If you have any reference questions I can take a look for you and see what Mr. Ginter has to say.

[Markh-75]

Thank you for this, I suppose now I’ll have to find and buy a Seagull to sit next to the Seamew! Although there are plenty of them flying around outside.😂🤣

[Markh-75]

As it happens I DO in fact have a Hasegawa kit of the Curtiss Seagull! Just waiting to be built!

[Courageous]

That is one ugly duckling but it's a floatplane and that is good enough for me.

 

Stuart

[Mr T]

I think I have the Fleet Air Arm boxing somewhere and so will watch this one with interest. It must be one of the early Sword kits. Good start, once the fuselage is together, the hard work is done, said he, in an encouraging tone of voice😉

[Markh-75]

Yes I think it was an earlier kit, that seems to make sense! Thanks for that, and yes the main challenge for now IS the interior, I have been assembling the other parts where possible so they can be ready to add later! Love 'the encouraging tone'!😂

[Mr T]

Years of practice encouraging students that yes, they can do a manual blood pressure, or write a healthcare ethics and law essay that I might actually want to read. My daughter teaches five year olds (Year One), it is surprising how alike our experiences are. 

[Courageous]

I was thinking how awesome the finished model would be if we could display it on its launcher....

 

Stuart

[Markh-75]

43 minutes ago, Courageous said:

I was thinking how awesome the finished model would be if we could display it on its launcher....

 

Stuart

It comes with detachable beaching wheels, I’ll just fit those, I don’t think anyone does a kit of a ships aircraft launcher.

[Courageous]

22 minutes ago, Markh-75 said:

detachable beaching wheels

So can be displayed in water and on land but that launcher....might look into a scratch option .

 

Stuart

[Markh-75]

My models are all on a small stand or on their landing gear and in cabinets, right now I don’t have the space for dioramas but I might dabble at some point 💡

[AliGauld]

Nice to see this on the go.

Looking good so far.

Looking forward to more.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Markh-75]

1 hour ago, AliGauld said:

Nice to see this on the go.

Looking good so far.

Looking forward to more.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Lol, and more there will be! Just about finished the interior now, just the machine gun to paint; there was absolutely no means of mounting it or the machine gun ring, so I did as I always do and drilled a hole then cut a short length of sewing pin. That’s what I’ve done with the machine gun, it’s in a clamp while I wait for the glue to dry.

i also started painting the centre of the wheels and the beaching gear. 

Will post some pictures later😉👍

Thanks everyone 😀

[Markh-75]

Got more done to this today; I have painted the beaching gear and wheels, the propeller (only a two blade), added details to the interior areas, painted the machine gun and even managed to close the fuselage over!

 

 L to R. the wings, the engine cowl for the front of the nose, the engine, the engine exhaust stubs set into the lower panel, the rear shelf in the radio compartment and the gunning with its holes for mounting it and the machine gun.

 The wings had a bit of a crack which was better dealt with by adding some filler. I also filled the rearmost hole for the bomb racks and gave the areas a rub back. It'll look better once given a final smoothing over.

 I had to drill a tiny 'ole and insert a short length of pin to give me something to attach the gun to the gun ring.

 Wheels for the beaching gear.

 

and then closed the fuselage over! getting places now.

 

 I'll fit the machine gun just before I fit the canopy. it'll fit into the little 'ole in the gun ring; I had to do the same with the gun ring to make sure its actually fitted because there was nothing to attach it with; like the machine gun, I drilled a hole and fitted a short length of pin.

 Note that the tail looks to be askew (over to the stbd side at the back end, its made this way; why? I just dunno tbh!

the engine is not glued in, its held nice and tight and can't move anywhere, saves me poking supergloop in it!

 I also fitted the pilots controls and the console, you can just see the details in the radios although a bit smudged.

 

It all looks a bit squinty, its because the clamps holding it aren't sitting straight. Just getting this one to this stage is good, now the fuselage is closed up I can think about fitting the wings etc, was unsure if I should fit them first or the main float! But I think it'll be the wings, to give it a sense of balance and symmetry! I can work on the main float later!

 

Thats all folks!

[Jackson Duvalier]

20 hours ago, Courageous said:

19 hours ago, Courageous said:

So can be displayed in water and on land but that launcher....might look into a scratch option 

I was thinking how awesome the finished model would be if we could display it on its launcher...

 

Don't start looking for plans just yet, I know of a man who makes 3D printed US Navy floatplane catapults on a production basis.  I saw and handled them in person at the last IPMS show I attended.  Unfortunately I forgot to buy one, but I can attest they do exist in the wild, they look very nice once done up, and I might be able to track them down.

[Planebuilder62]

Hi there

White Ensign used to make a US catapult launcher in 1/72 in brass PE, I bought one in Telford a few years back and its sitting on the shelf at home waiting to be built by someone.

regards Toby

[bigbadbadge]

Sorry ti miss the start Mark, this is one of the kits I would like to get for the FAA option.

Great work so far and the interior looks good.  Can't believe you've closed the fuselage already too.

Looking forward to the wings going on.

Chris

[AliGauld]

A lot of sterling work there Mark,

It's all looking splendid.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Markh-75]

Thanks everyone.

Now that the B-25C is in the cabinet in all its glory, for all to see, I cleared the operating table and brought in the patient who has been waiting!

 

I took the clamps off and gave the join all the way around, a good rub back to flatness and turned my attention to fitting the exhaust panel under the cowling; but I realised I had fitted the exhaust stubs into it the wrong way around! They were resin ones thus fitted with supergloop and no matter how carefully I was they still broke while trying to remove them!

Luckily I do have a few sets of spare stubs in my ever growing collection of spare model parts; but I had to modify the panel by lengthening the slots and widening them; and being polystyrene parts I was able to set them in place looking rather nicely and even had a little 'wiggle' time!

I found that the gun ring had popped down so I pulled it up and wedged it while the glue set, I then decided to fit the machine gun; its pretty well out of danger where it is, so I'm not too worried about it being there as the fragile pointy end is hidden in the tail root.

I've also checked the clear parts for this and after a few seconds of filing here and there in the opening and off the end of the parts, they fit very nicely indeed! The box for this model now contains a few completed sub assemblies! Any smaller parts for a model I keep in the table in the little dosage cups you get on a bottle of medicine! Keeps them all in one place.

I did one or two little fidgety jobs and packed it in for today as I'm tired; I wasnt well again during the night.

 

 

 

 

 

More tomorrow!
 

[Markh-75]

 Man at work!

Done a good bit on this today and nearly went a bit too far ahead of myself with it!

 

 The model is standing this way because it's better for the glue join at the wing roots; if I set it on its belly the wings sag downwards; putting the model up this way makes it harder for the wing to come off and doesnt allow the wing to sag. Its important to put glue on the wing side of the join, then give it a couple of minutes BEFORE trying to fit the wing! It gives the glue a chance to go to work and provides the 'grab' needed for the join.

Got the wings and tail on it now!

 

I also fitted the engine cowlings.

 

I have some rubbing back to do on this; the front of the cowling needs to be shaped and blended in to the shape of the fuselage. I also need to make sure that the top of the cowling matches the curve on the prop spinner!

This is the propeller in the front of the engine cowl, as you can see it doesnt follow the same curve but I can only sort this when the panel is fitted to the model!

This is the picture on the box; If you look at the curve of the top of the engine cowling, there is a constant curve that terminates with the prop spinner/nose cone; this is wot I want to achieve!

 

The pencilled line is the outer edge outline of the pilots clear canopy, I'll paint the area back to the instrument coaming with black!

 

Another job I did was to add this elongated slot in the ridge on the rear canopy; what its there for I don't know but its in the picture on the box (see my first post in this WIP).

I did this using a fine drill bit in the pin vice, drilled two holes (carefully) and carefully joined them up!

 

I'm pleased I got the wings and tail on; at first I thought they were wrong but what throws it is the tail fin! If you look at the picture you can see that its off to one side! Its not bent or malformed, its meant to be like that (for some reason or other), I checked it when I was testing the fit of the rear canopy. The wings are at the right angle and match the tail! I'm pleased I managed to get this sorted easily.

 This picture shows the offset on the tail fin!

 I still have some shaping and smoothing on the engine exhaust panel join.

For a model with no wing spars it's gone together nicely.

 

I also used some PVA to fill the gaps in the wing roots.

 I also did the tail roots in the same way. I applied it on a cocktail stick, and rubbed it along the join, even turning the stick in my fingers to make sure all the holes were getting filled; finally wiping away the excess with a damp cotton bud!

 

Pleased with what I achieved today I automatically went on to fit the floats to it; but managed to stop myself; I still have some rubbing back around the engine cowling yet, I don't want to tempt fate and knock anything off! There is plenty to do on it yet, and there is plenty of time! I didnt think this would build so quickly! I thought it might fight me all the way!

 

More tomorrow!😉

 

 

[Courageous]

Lots of good work there Markh but she's still an ugly looking thing.

 

Stuart

[Markh-75]

Ok, ugly or not, here it is!

 

On the lower edge of the main float there is a lug that connects to the catapult on the launching rails, I drilled a hole in a small piece of etch and glued that in.

 

I also attended to shaping the front of the engine cowling and got it looking the way I want it!

 

I also fitted the floats to it, the main central float and the wing floats. I use whatever I have to trying hold things in the correct positions but if that doesn't quite work out I can use a tiny bit of liquid poly to soften the glue and then adjust it; the liquid poly dries pretty quick. I'll give it an hour or so like this and then I'll remove them and put the model in the jig the right way up. That will sit (after any necessary adjustments) over night and tomorrow I'll strengthen the join with a little superglue. It's really going together now! Looks more like a seaplane. For a good couple of years I had my doubts if I'd ever see this built up! I'm rather pleased with it.

 

Next step is much tidying, masking, priming and then painting!

[Markh-75]

I have done 'some' tidying, but not all as I need to re define some feature lines on the model; but I've now fitted the aerial and Pitot and the bomb pylons, careful application of supergloop at the wing sponsons (I believe thats the right name for them; calling them floats has me going back upstairs to make sure I flushed!!!😂🤣).

 

I've just to complete the last details, add masking over the engine cowling and exhausts and the two cockpits and it'll be sprayed with Tamiya surface primer. White for the underside and grey for above!

 

 

I'm a bit busy tomorrow but I might get it primed when I come back in the afternoon.😉

 

 

[Courageous]

On 8/1/2022 at 3:28 PM, Markh-75 said:

main float there is a lug that connects to the catapult on the launching rails

Do you have a pic of this at all?

 

Stuart