A Norseman Floatplane in 1.48

[rob Lyttle]

Time for me to commit on this excellent GB I think. I picked this up at a show just last weekend at a price that suggests most modellers tend to avoid it. If you're the type who enjoys assembling Tamiya kits and fiddling with tiny brass etched details, then you would indeed be crestfallen on examining these sprues of parts. Me?? It's right up my street 😎

The kit plastic is an unusual translucent white styrene, the flying surfaces are ribbed to an abundant extent, trailing edges are thick  .... this is not a sophisticated kit. 

The transparencies however are clear and undimpled!🤩 A slight trace of the tool machining is left on the surface, seen as the light catches it but that'll buff up.

I've done the old Matchbox Norseman in 1.72 so I've a few clues as to what to watch for. Immediately obvious is the wing leading edge which I want smooth back to the main spar. The float legs will be made over to add some structural integrity --  this is something I've learnt to do with any Floatplane. "Over-engineered" is my way of dealing with this situation. 

Here's the wee Matchbox job with brass wire legs and struts, stretchy line rigging and indeed the original kit decals...

(That's not an attempt at a water surface she's on, that's the state of my cutting mat. Am I proud or ashamed....?Can't decide 🤔 Antique dealers would call that a "patina")

I've tried de-ribbiing on some parts to see how this mystery plastic behaves,  or at least reducing it,  and reducing the trailing edges, 

Yeah, I think I'm in⁉️💃

[marvinneko]

What's your intended paint scheme?

[Mjwomack]

21 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

he kit plastic is an unusual translucent white styrene,

I'd have to get some primer on that before I could even make out the parts!

 

21 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

rigging

That's what Pat @JOCKNEY likes to hear (I assume he owns one of these on his loch on The Estate as it is😂

 

21 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

. Am I proud or ashamed....?Can't decide 🤔 Antique dealers would call that a "patina")

 

I think it's awesome.

[daneel]

Uhhh... I have one of those, half-built, lurking somewhere in a dark corner of the modelling room... Not quite Starfix, but truly atrocius kit nonetheless. Have you had a look at the engine cowling yet? I recommend downing a stiff drink before you do. 😀😀

[dnl42]

I love the subject, but dang, you are a brave one! 

[JOCKNEY]

9 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

That's what Pat @JOCKNEY likes to hear (I assume he owns one of these on his loch on The Estate as it is😂

 

2 actually,  his and hers, Mrs Jockney's is painted a nice bright red tartan to match the shortbread tin she keeps her money in 

 

Best of luck with this one 

 

Cheers Pat

[2996 Victor]

19 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I love the subject, but dang, you are a brave one! 

I couldn't have put it better myself! The box art subject is quite lovely and deserving of a kit to match it...... Looking forward to watching this build as it progresses.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[dnl42]

1 hour ago, 2996 Victor said:

The box art subject is quite lovely and deserving of a kit to match it.

@dora 

 

The rest of the world deserves a better kit.

[rob Lyttle]

23 hours ago, daneel said:

Have you had a look at the engine cowling yet?

Thanks for the steer, @daneel. Yeah, that's bad isn't it ⁉️🫣

I've made a start on improving it 😂

Basically some skinny styrene rolled round a Mig paint bottle and the front of the kit part attached. It now needs shortening and a little flared edge fabricated on the back. 

The engine component is none too good either. Just so happens I have a Wright Cyclone in 1.48 by Dora Wings at hand, the comparison is rather telling...

 

 

(Thinks... a Dora would qualify for this GB, wouldn't it? O wait, not old enough 🤔...)

On 10/09/2025 at 04:33, marvinneko said:

What's your intended paint scheme?

No idea yet Marvin. Not sure I can get a plane out of this 

[Mjwomack]

On 10/09/2025 at 20:56, daneel said:

Starfix

Starfix! That's a name we haven't had yet; can't think why!!!!

[rob Lyttle]

Been tinkering as time permits with the following results...

The flared trailing edge of the cowling is done, 

Skinny styrene again, plus a wing and a prayer. And my little radius cutting compass thing, 

No calculations or formulae were used,I just took a reasonable guess. Glued up around the mig paint bottle and then slid onto the cowling and "manipulated"😎

The engine got a ring collar too, which helps the fit inside the cowling and also facilitates fitting some push rods with a series of pinhole,

The centre has been drilled out to take some ali tube. Then the next size down tube is fixed in and that's the bearing that will carry the prop shaft when the time comes. 

Pushrods in progress there, and now they're all done...

Most of these planes including the Mk V had P&W R1340 radials and there's more variations of the type than you could shake a stick at.. All I can say is, it's better than I started with. 😂

There's a little repair going on with the front opening of the cowling which was getting out of shape. I think it'll come good with some filling and sanding 

[rob Lyttle]

. Some work done on the fuselage sides inside and out, 

Perhaps most noticeable is the pilot's door which I managed to extract with little damage for refitting in the opened position. The 2 legs or let's call them sponsons are fixed on already, and the port side window in the door is glued in. I got to say, for all the shortcomings of the kit, the fit is perfect. Bevelled edges on the openings and the transparencies let reach piece in to just the right amount and the outer face flush with the fuselage side. I've dealt with a LOT worse 🤩 If the windscreen fit is as good as this I'll be a happy bunny!

Some cabin furniture has been scratched, 4 chairs and a bench seat on the back bulkhead, leaving enough cargo space by the doorways. 

I've tried something I'd previously thought about doing with the chairs. You know how seats and upholstery look so flat and rigid when made of stock plastic sheet? Well, I made a couple of cushions, just little squares of styrene, held one in tweezers and whafted the lighter on it till it yielded and started to distort. It's a high risk strategy alright, probably not recommended for a Wingnuts kit ⁉️😎

But I liked the results. 

Suitably emboldened, I took the lighter to the chairs as well, (before fitting )

Couple of seatback cushions for the front seats also. I'll see how this lot paints up but I'm currently liking the well-used upholstery look. 

As well as some internal panelling, I had a go at the ceiling because the wing spars must go right through there. There's a roof window here too, which has been discussed thoroughly, and some, including the inestimable Moa himself, choosing to relocate the window further back. 

The kit placement, probably copied from the Matchbox kit, seems right to me when considering the wing spars, that is between the front and rear spars. 

Well, for what it's worth, you can see my efforts in one fuselage half in the top picture. I'll do the other half and see how it looks. 

You gotta try these things....😎

[marvinneko]

4 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

held one in tweezers and whafted the lighter on it till it yielded and started to distort.

 

I have a sudden craving for marshmallows toasted on a stick... 🤔

[rob Lyttle]

@marvinneko this might be a good time to ask, what's the proper way to pronounce the name Norduyn? I saw someone online saying something like "Newer-dyne" whereas in my head it's more like "Nord-u-in", but with Dutch origin and probably French-Canadian influence i haven't a clue really. 

Thought I'd ask a local 😀

[marvinneko]

2 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

@marvinneko this might be a good time to ask, what's the proper way to pronounce the name Norduyn? I saw someone online saying something like "Newer-dyne" whereas in my head it's more like "Nord-u-in", but with Dutch origin and probably French-Canadian influence i haven't a clue really. 

Thought I'd ask a local 😀

 

Nor-dine, apparently, but I'm no expert.

 

He worked in the UK then primarily in the US. He died there and the Americans seem to claim him.

 

His connection with Canada was primarily the Norseman... my understanding is he designed it from info from our bush pilots to meet our needs. It was an extension of his work for Fokker's expansion into the USA, which was tainted by Fokker's association with German aggression. The Norseman was built in Canada... but the primary success by far was the Americans buying a huge number of them for the war. Postwar, there were so many surplus Norsemans from the US that nobody wanted to buy new ones. Oops!

 

In those days, Montreal was still dominated by Anglo business concerns with a port facility and industry...  It goes back to Montreal being the head of the St Lawrence seaway that led to a network of rivers and lakes that pioneers used for 100s of years to get into the interior to hunt beavers to make beaver felt hats back in Britain in ye olden days. So, no French aspect at play. Likely just a financial one.

 

The first Norseman was trialled in the St Lawrence just south of a condo I own.

[Mjwomack]

17 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

Suitably emboldened, I took the lighter to the chairs as well, (before fitting )

 

A very successful experiment- not that I'm brave enough to try it!

 

3 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

Thought I'd ask a local 😀

 

@marvinneko would love to help, but right now he's drooling like Homer Simpson🤤 except he's thinking about marshmallows😂

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

14 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

@marvinneko this might be a good time to ask, what's the proper way to pronounce the name Norduyn? I saw someone online saying something like "Newer-dyne" whereas in my head it's more like "Nord-u-in", but with Dutch origin and probably French-Canadian influence i haven't a clue really. 

Thought I'd ask a local 😀

I’ve always heard it pronounced “Nor-du-ween” myself. 

[rob Lyttle]

We have progress so time for a quick update. 

Paintwork on the interior, 

 

I did some additional structure up front with a firewall bulkhead and support for the instrument panel. It also gave me something to attach a pair of rudder pedals to. 

Window masking done while it's still possible to perform a rescue--  few things worse than a Window falling into a sealed up fuselage 🫣

So eventually I'd had enough of fussing over furniture etc and decided to crack on with making a plane, 

And final transparency glued in place, still with a sprue handle...

Don't want to go on about it, but the windscreen fit IS as good as all the rest of the windows 👌 

The roof light proved to be the tricky one as it only has ½a frame to attach to, and then it becomes part of the fuselage joining ceremony but you want it to in nice and flush with the rooftop. I found that with the doorway open I could slide a needle file in past the seat and up into the roof area to apply a little upward persuasion 👍

[marvinneko]

This plastic might benefit from primer to block light from passing through.

[rob Lyttle]

Once I get the windscreen masked up I'll deploy the rattlecan and see what I've got. It does look a bit wierd and quite difficult to see the surface, but it has been well behaved as a functional plastic to work with. I've got a lot of the ribbing reduced already, so primer will help reveal the surface appearance 

[rob Lyttle]

I decided to sort the tailplanes before primer. Rigging done with stretchy line. I'd fed some ordinary threads through the bottom holes prior to joining the fuselage and left the ends exiting through the holes that are there for the tailwheel or ski. So once I'd fed the stretchy line up around i could fix it to the thread, pull it through the final hole and out the bottom of the fuselage, apply some tension and fix it with a styrene plug.

 

The elevators got smoothed down,and trailing edges thinned. I removed the trim tabs and made some from a strip of 1mm styrene suitably honed away. So that accounted for ½ the t,e. length. Then fixed on with a good bit of droop. And little bit of up deflection on the trim tabs helps. 

I've started looking at the floats and figuring out a plan of action... that's going to be the next challenge 

[AdrianMF]

Looks like a good kit to me...

 

...and I know of quite a few kits that would be improved by holding them in a flame for a bit!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[rob Lyttle]

On 21/09/2025 at 13:45, AdrianMF said:

Looks like a good kit to me...

 

Well, I think it depends on what you want or expect from a kit, @AdrianMF. Must admit I've been looking at the recent products from Dora Wings, there are Norsemen and DHC Beavers and they look superb. Not sure which have float options 🤔 

I've got floats...!

... and plans...

My calculations suggest a spacing of 88mm between centres. That's a little more than the kit crossbars, but the kit parts have the upright struts attaching to the centre of the floats and I want them attached along the inner edges. In the absence of any good measurements data, I'm moving the inner edges outwards a bit to compensate, otherwise the upright struts will be too vertical. 

I've also cut off the bottoms of the keels so the plane can be more easily fitted into a water surface base. Also gives me access to the inside of an assembled float. 

My brass tube crossbars go through the floats to the outside face where it inserts in a bit of 1mm plastic with a hole in it. Still visible through the gap in the keel...

The brass crossbars are given some width with some 1mm plastic attached between the floats. The brass tube is more than 1mm diameter but I'm making the top face flush and not worrying right now about the underside which will be pretty close to the water surface. 

These are the given attachment points for the upright strut frames, right on the centre line of the float, now filled in. 

And rigging should be a simple procedure with access through the bottom of each float. 

The whole thing feels reassuringly robust which is just the way I like it 🤩

[AdrianMF]

It's all looking very tight and tidy. The transparencies are remarkable!

So, if I understand it, you have a flat bottom to the float so you can glue it to a baseboard and then you will add a few mm of something to bring the water surface up to a higher level?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[rob Lyttle]

That's right, Adrian. I tend to use a piece of plywood or similar  and a layer of foamboard--  just put a rule on it and it's 5mm thick. I cut slots to accommodate the floats and use a layer of that foamy plastic wrapping stuff on top for a water surface. 

"Under construction" might give the idea better...

 

5mm works okay for 1.72 scale and even with the Beaver there I rubbed off the bottom of the keels at the step. So in 1.48 I may have to try harder to sink the floats to a decent level. 2 layers of foamboard may be necessary. 

Here's a little ferry boat I made from the deck boat that was spare from a "Bounty" ship, using the same procedure...

The glue used started to melt the foamboard  in places and I took the opportunity to make a bit of a rip current 😋