Italeri 1/72 Short Sunderland Mk. III

[ElCapitan]

Hi everyone! It's been a while, but I'm still very much alive and finding more time for modelling recently after downing tools for a couple of years. I no longer have a spare room where I can leave all my stuff out and ready to use, but I'm going to try and not let that put me off!

I went to a model show earlier in the year with my son, and managed to find this great looking kit that I've been meaning to buy for years!



Looks like it'll be a big one! It comes with a fret of PE which is nice - some of it will be hidden in the cockpit but that's okay. Also included is a bit of thread to use for the anchor chain, but likewise that will be hidden away, unless I decide to pose the forward turret in the retracted position for anchoring (I don't plan to).

I'm planning to paint it in this French Navy scheme:



So far I've made a bit of a start on the cockpit, which has been fairly simple so far aside from the fiddly PE seatbelts.



Looking forward to hopefully building up some momentum with this!

[digger303]

Good to hear from you again.
Been meaning to get a Sunderland myself.
PE seatbelts are a pain to work with, but that little trick with curling them over at the top works well.

[cor]

Great that you are back into the hobby and a cracking start with the pe.

[ElCapitan]

Thanks guys, it's good to finally have the headspace to get this going again!

Today I've been working on the interior a bit more. There isn't a lot that will be seen, so I'm not putting a massive amount of effort into detail or weathering, or even neat paintwork, but I've decided to pose the forward door open so that the anchor can be seen at least, and I've done some minimalist detail painting in the cockpit, but I'll leave it at that. There is the option to have the bomb rail hatches open, so that the bomb rails can be shown on the inside of the aircraft, or what I have done which is close them off with the plan of having the rails positioned under the wings. The kit also allows for the nose turret to be fitted in it's retracted position for the craft to be posed at anchor, which would probably make for a pretty cool diorama.



There were a few portholes that needed drilled out - I assume because there were other variants of this aircraft that had fewer portholes.



Speaking of portholes, I think gluing them in is my next job along with putting together the fairly detailed turrets.

[RangerNeil]

Builds looking good - I shall follow with interest as I have their Mk 1 in the stash - and the Airfix Mk III.

[ElCapitan]

Over the last couple of days I've been putting all the interior parts into place, along with the windows and fore and aft turrets. They are designed to be moveable, however I decided to glue them into place to make things easier. I never touch the models once complete anyway, so I'm not needing moving parts.





Annoyingly, some of the windows needed to be positioned on the centre line, meaning joining the two halves together was wayyyy more fiddly than I expected it would be! I got there in the end though, despite not having as many hands as I feel I needed.



It's looking good all buttoned up. As I expected, almost none of the interior sections are visible, so I'm glad I didn't waste time on them.

[RangerNeil]

Looking excellent so far! How good was the fit of the fuselage halves?

[ElCapitan]

Looking excellent so far! How good was the fit of the fuselage halves?

Actually really good and everything inside lines up properly too which helps.

[RangerNeil]

Looking excellent so far! How good was the fit of the fuselage halves?

Actually really good and everything inside lines up properly too which helps.

Excellent news - thank you!! I have the Italeri Mk 1 in the stash awaiting display space. And the Airfix Mk III - which I remember building as a kid.

[ElCapitan]

Things have progressed a bit with this, and I've come up against a few stumbling blocks which have been a pain.

Firstly, the wings leave a fairly prominent step when fitted to the fuselage. I sorted this with some squadron white putty - fantastic stuff!



Unfortunately though, all the sanding has created a lot of dust which has made it's way to the inside of the cockpit windows Aside from trying to saw the canopy off and causing a lot more damage in the process, I'm not really sure how to tackle it... I'm thinking maybe I could get a thin brush in there somehow through the open porthole in the top of the fuselage. I'm open to suggestions.



Also, on the topic of windows - the portholes keep falling out (or should I say IN)! I glued them in with white glue, but it's just not holding up to all the handling that's going on. With no way of getting them back in from the inside, I'm going to instead use Krystal Klear to glaze them at the very end.

Next pitfall - the engines. They have a small notched locator pin on the front of the wing, but it was far too big to fit the respective hole on the rear of the engine. Absolute nuisance!

On a positive note, the wing floats were fine. I'll attach them after painting for easiness.

[digger303]

There's always a problem somewhere when building.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Love the flying boats, such cool designs. Catalina is another wild shape

Ok the dust
A. Drill small hole in inconspicuous area, blast your airbrush in dust blows away from glass???
B. If no joy air blast, try shop vac with a small straw tip in hole and suck dust out. Maybe two holes: one for air blast other for vacuum.
C. Pry off glass…depending on cement; should be using white glue/PVA and it will pop
D. Cut the back edge of styrene/glass joint intersection with razor saw. Saw kerf gives access into cockpit…vac or blow out dust, then thin styrene strip to cover the kerf back up, paint to match fuselage
I have used very thin styrene strips on a cockpit ribs and it makes the cage look better than just painting it IMHO