Flight 714 to Sydney (HU-16 Albatross)

Ahhh... what an old box!

Everything was off the sprues. A couple of pieces of the landing gear missing, but this will be wheels up anyway, so I won't miss them.

Assembled the wing and drilled some holes for the DC motors. Dry fit the fuselage to check the fit.

As the Rolling Stones says... I want to paint it black! Not spending any time on the interior no one will ever see...

This is an OLD kit... so it's going to need some TLC to get the seams to close up properly I think.

Time to get the engines all wired up. Not much to it and the in-wing wheels make it easy to hide the wire path.

Wing attached... putty galore!

Now to get the wheels in place. The landing gear bits were mostly missing from this jumbled box, but I knew I only really needed the wheels and the covers to make it work. Would have been neat to see the folding mechanism though... oh, well.

The windscreen fit was horrifying. I had to add 1mm of plastic card to fill the gap.

Usually I go for the pink primer coat, but since I just used that on my Tintin Short Sunderland project... let's switch things up a bit and go with the white. The grey plastic isn't all that hard to hide anyway.

You can't tell, but I painted the sides white. Now for some careful masking. I doubled the tape before I cut it so that the zig-zag line would be exactly the same on both sides. The raised rivets extravaganza is going to cause some issues I think.

Not bad... pretty sharp line actually. I surprised myself!

Ahhh... and there's what I was worried about with the rivets. The black coat made a bit of overspray where the rivets lifted the masking tape ever so slightly. Not much I can really do about that though... there are rivets EVERYWHERE. I can live with it.

Added the fuel tanks (painted grey in accordance with my Scale Modeller's Guide to Aircraft from the Adventures of Tintin. Also got some homemade decals put on. I think the ones on the tail are a bit high though... maybe I shouldn't believe EVERYTHING in my guidebook.

Cut my dinghy free. A bit of silicone and paint will make better water for the base I think.

Comments

63 10 April 2022, 17:10

Cuajete
Great! A beautiful vintage 👍
That yellow with the white stripe has to look great. Following!

10 April 2022, 17:36

Alex K
Following of course... This will be magnificent - and a great companion to the Sunderland! 👍

10 April 2022, 17:39

Cuajete
I agree with Alex 👍

10 April 2022, 17:48

Yigal Levin
I have one of these, very interested at the resulat

10 April 2022, 17:51

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. Yeah it's kind of a "Sunderland... part 2" build. I just love flying boats. 🙂

10 April 2022, 17:56

Erik De Smet
Real vintage, following of course

11 April 2022, 16:40

Spanjaard
looking really interesting

11 April 2022, 18:45

Matthew A
What a great looking kit. Must admit I do like rivets. 🐻

12 April 2022, 11:01

Matthew A
Ps you have the 1959 box not the 1999 one

12 April 2022, 11:03

Michael Kohl
i am in too.

12 April 2022, 11:10

Greg Baker
It makes sense that I'd have the 1959 box. The plastic is a bit brittle in places. I snapped off part of the landing gear (luckily a bit I won't be needing) and put a hole through the wing while drilling holes for the DC motors. I think I hit a support beam and it tore a chunk out of the wing surface along with it. Some very careful glueing of the missing piece, and some even more careful putty and sanding later, and it's looking passable.

12 April 2022, 14:05

Greg Baker
Some more sanding and putty, but at least I've got the engine motors in place and working.

15 April 2022, 17:21

Alec K
Looks like the props are spinning! I'll follow along 👍

15 April 2022, 17:59

Pantelis Antonoglou
An amazing airplane with spinning props, i love it!!

15 April 2022, 18:59

Ben M
Always good to see an old kit get built.

15 April 2022, 19:43

Kyle DeHart
Awesome. Cool old kit. Nicely done so far.

15 April 2022, 20:42

Michael Kohl
Looking good. I should consider using electric motors too to spin my propellers. Looks just much more the part than any other method to simulate rotating propellers.

15 April 2022, 21:22

Alec K
This is coming along nicely!

3 May 2022, 11:18

Greg Baker
Thanks Alex! Just to make sure I wasn't too predictable, I used a white base coat on the yellow this time to try and differentiate this one from the yellow Short Sunderland project I just finished.

5 May 2022, 06:38

Kyle DeHart
This is looking great!

5 May 2022, 07:42

Ben M
Yes, a more saturated yellow, less orange. Interesting!

5 May 2022, 18:02

Cuajete
Looking so good!
You've done a great job on the joints with the putty. It looks like you haven't lost any relief rivets in the sanding process. How did you do it, Greg?

8 May 2022, 17:45

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Lemon 👀

8 May 2022, 19:03

Greg Baker
Thanks guys! Cuajete, I was very careful with the sanding. With a kit this old, that was a real challenge actually. Took a few goes with the putty to get some of the gaps closed. Just about done now though. And yes, with a white undercoat, the yellow is a lot more lemony. 😉

9 May 2022, 06:05

Thomas Bischoff
I know this kit and you turned this into a gem 👍
Could'nt remember this plane in the comic so had to read it again 🙂

9 May 2022, 06:11

Treehugger
I can recommend using a tiny brush for correcting minor overspray. I use Vallejo colors and it seems additional coloring seaps into the layer of primer underneath. Simple, and once you add a gloss coat (assuming you painted over with the very same color/hue), you won't see any difference imo, and you can even sand the paint a little if needed before adding a gloss coat, but obviously, sanding painted edges or rivet heads will likely sand through the paint requiring a re-painting, so gentle sanding only works for plain or large smooth surfaces like an airplane frame or a ship's hull, not any surface with protruding details.

9 May 2022, 08:00

Spanjaard
it looks fantastic

9 May 2022, 10:28

Łukasz Gliński
Beg your pardon, but where's the (in)famous pink primer? 😛

9 May 2022, 11:18

Lost_Erik
That's a righteously fine yellow paint result 👍

10 May 2022, 01:13

Erik De Smet
Greg, can you show a picture of the Sunderland and the Albatros together, so that we can see the effect of yellow on pink and white primer?
And maybe a yellow of white tip on the propellers to see them spin ?

10 May 2022, 07:05

Finn
Cool

10 May 2022, 09:58

Greg Baker
You read my mind again, Erik. I was planning a side-by-side comparison of the two. The effect is certainly noticeable. I will say, I still prefer the rich colour of the pink primer, but it is good to have options.

10 May 2022, 13:55

Greg Baker
And... done. It almost survive though. While taking the final pics, I tripped over the cord and pulled the whole thing off the table and dropped it on the floor. Luckily I was mostly able to pop the cracked bits on the wing back into place. I also had to re-attach one of the floats and most of the antennas. All-in-all, it could have been much worse. The hardest thing to overcome was the wiring was broken inside the fuselage. However, I popped off one of the wheels, carved out a giant hole behind it, and then fished around with some tweezers until I found the ends. A little bit of soldering and we were back in business.

There's still a rather large crack on the under wing where it meets the fuselage, and I only brushed over the cracked bits on the top of the wing, but all in all... could've been worse. If you want to try and play "before and after", the only pic I managed to get before the fall was the one where it's plugged in and the props are spinning.

I also included a side-by-side comparison pic of the Albatross and the Short Sunderland. You can clearly see the difference the pink vs. white undercoat makes. I'm still fond of the pink, because if gives the yellow a richer feel to it... but always nice to have options!

20 May 2022, 15:12

Greg Baker
And here's the video to prove the props spin:

Youtube Video