Landlubber Mike

Thanks Peter! Always appreciate your support as I fumble my way through on things. After my last Super Hobby kit and now this one, I feel like construction wise, I'm pretty far up the learning curve and can handle most anything. It's certainly extra work when the parts don't fit, there are no locating pins, etc., but in the end it probably makes you a better modeler - at least that's what I'm telling myself.

I totally hear that Kevin. That's why I stepped away from wooden ship models for a break to move to "faster" plastic builds. Of course my plastic modeling takes forever too Are you getting any aftermarket for this kit? From Scalemates, looks like KA Models came out with a bunch of PE sets. Certainly adds to the cost of the build, but the detail you can get is amazing. There is a live 1/200 Bismarck build on MSW with the Pontos sets that is very inspirational.

Wow, for all the challenges, you have really made a beauty out of this one. Great job Peter!

Yes Kevin!! Great subject and kit - looking forward to following this one!

Oh interesting, so the bullet must have gone through the back of the seat and was stopped by the armor plating. That looks to be the case from the picture. That confirms that the armor plating sat inside the seat as opposed to behind it. Thanks for posting the interview and the pictures. Very interesting account!

@FullArmor thank you for that link. I believe this is the aircraft that was pulled from a lake in Russia. This picture is wonderful - I've been struggling with what to do with the pilot's seat: The kit includes two seats - one with a rounded top like in the picture, and one with a squared off top. The instructions tell you to use the rounded top one, but I came to learn that the BW239s had armor plating - the display to the right of the seat - which extends above the seat with the top connecting to a frame directly behind the pilot's seat. The kit's instructions have nothing on the armor plating, but have some parts that are not used that seem like they would be used for the upper part of the armor plating but seem too small as if they were for 1/48 scale. I couldn't quite figure out whether the armor plating went behind the seat or was inset inside the seat. One modeler, and a couple of other kits (as well as the CMK 1/48 interior instructions) had the armor inset into the seat. From this picture, it looks like the armor plating indeed sat inside the seat, with a shoulder harness included and what appears to be a leather seat pad. The other kits (and CMK aftermarket set) use the squared off top seat, but it looks like I could use the rounded seat as well. From the bullet hole in the seat, my guess is this seat isn't necessarily the same seat that went with the armor plating next to it. Anyway, thanks again! This really helped. I spent an hour a day or two ago trying to figure out how the seat was configured, and now I think I have a better sense with this picture.

Wow, some really talented folks up your way. Some kinky ones too 🤤

Wow, that came out great John! That color couldn't have been easy to get such a perfect finish. Can I ask what brand paint you used?

Tough people for sure!

Thanks for looking in PW. Yeah, I agree - pretty cool reading about the successes of the Finns!

Well since I can't seem to decide on what materials to use to rig my Walrus, I dusted this one off the shelf. I first started with the wings, gluing in the ribs into the landing gear area, filling the extra landing light hole on the right wing, and added the Brengun flaps PE set. All went together fairly well. As I noted in my 1/48 B339-23 build, Brengun had the triangular pieces in the upper part of the wing, while the 1/32 set has them correctly in the flap itself. I thought about removing the ailerons, but given that they are angular where they insert into the wing (the top half and the bottom half are different widths), I thought it safer to just deepen the lines so they look like they are moveable parts of the wing. The kit's wing guns looked too large and out of scale, so I decided to go with Master brass barrels. Because the barrels are slightly smaller in diameter relative to the gun opening in the wings, I used my RP Toolz punch set to create small rings that I could inset into the opening to close the gap around the Master barrels. I also added a Master shark fin pitot tube which is more in scale and I think the proper shape on the B239. I epoxied it into the wing, but left off the delicate shark fin end which I will add at the end of the build since it's easy to break off. Learned that lesson on my 1/48 build and had to buy another pitot set to replace the end which broke off and cracked. Next I worked on the edge of the fuselage halves before the cowl. With the cowl panels open, I need to replicate part PUR9 in the picture below - the part that goes at the end of the fuselage just before the cowling: I thought I could work with the kit fuselage halves, but the just don't go far enough forward (see below). So I'll have to scratch build something like PUR9 or just figure a way to add extra material to the end of the fuselage halves to extend another 2-3mm out and cover up/extend past the exhausts. Still working on a solution for this, but I think I have a game plan. Next I worked on closing up the fuselage. Like other builds I came across online, this was certainly a battle. The fit is poor to say the least, particularly at the front end of the fuselage halves and where the tail is attached. I started by gluing the middle of the halves from the rear of the ventral window towards the back of the plane. Then I worked on the front end, which just wouldn't close. I found the cleanest approach was to first glue the bottom parts together, then when set, add a strip of styrene about 1.25mm across the top in between the two halves. Both sections were glued using two-part epoxy, and three clamps were used for the top to keep the halves not only together, but to push the right side back and in place because it kept having a tendency to slide forward. Was a real pain to say the least! Then when I went to attach the tail, things were a total mess. The two halves of the tail just don't fit properly against the joined fuselage halves. In particular, the flat section at the tops of the tail halves are wider than the fuselage halves by a good 2mm. So I ended up opening up the gap at the top of the fuselage halves where the rudder sits and adding thin sheets of plasticard until I got the proper width to match the tail halves. Then I glued the tail halves on, connecting them at the top and running them along the fuselage halves sides to follow the fuselage lines. That left a 1mm gap at the bottom of the tail halves which was also filled with plasticard. Thank you Neil @npb748r for the heads up! So, a lot of work, but the fuselage looks pretty good now I think. Hope these steps help others that might be building this in 1/32. Thanks for looking in!

Came out great! Very nice!

Just saw this build for the first time this morning. Wow Martin, this is modeling at its finest! Amazing job! Hope you pick it back up!

Great job!

Wow, that's fantastic!

Nicely done Kevin!

Great show, thanks for posting the pictures! I have the AMK kit - was thinking about getting the Black Bird set but it's a bit pricey. Now after seeing the pictures, I might reconsider...hmm...

Thanks! Really appreciate it. I've got the catapult painted up now, just need to do a little highlighting, shading and weathering. Eventually I have to turn back to the Walrus itself - having little motivation to working out how to do the rigging. I might just try the AIMS PE rigging as one log I found said it made things much easier -- and then another said some of the rigging lines were too short -- so who knows.

Nice pickup Kevin! I have it the Roma in 1/700 scale. I was trying to limit the bigger ship models in the stash. The 1/350 kit works into a fantastic looking model though. I'm jealous!

Looking really good!

Harv, we are all pulling for you! Get better soon my friend!

Thanks Chris! We'll see how it all comes together. I could try a circular base, just need to find one big enough. Thanks for the suggestion!

Glad to see you pushing through with this John. Good luck!

Hmm that could work too - hadn't thought of that, thanks!

Thanks Chris! The Walrus is a bit of a weird bird, so it's kind of cool to be able to model it on the catapult. Speaking of the catapult, I ended up attaching the rear extension add-on to the main frame, and added the rigging. I'm really happy with how this is looking. I ended up taking off the wheels on the carriage as they won't be seen, and this is what the combo will look like: I ended up testing out my display idea. I was thinking about a squarish rectangular base, putting the Walrus on the back side towards one corner, and the Albatross on low brass rod pedestals towards the front side opposite corner. Something like this: I didn't realize the Albatross was almost as long as the catapult/Walrus, so I'm possibly rethinking how to display the two models. An alternative would just be to put the two models on a longer skinner rectangular base, side by side rather than stacked front and back. That might be a better approach so the Walrus doesn't get hidden by the Albatross as might be the case with my first idea. If anyone has thoughts or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!