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There are very few options
for finishing the Walrus, its either WW2 camouflage or nothing…Oh Yah!
During the late 1940s, Kenting Aviation, a photo-survey company, utilized
a Walrus MkII on the Labrador coast and because I like doing odd-ball models,
this looked like a natural for me. The
following photo is not one of my digital fun things but the rear cover from the
Canadian Aviation Historical Society magazine.
The
Kit
The kit is very
well cast in grey styrene with plenty of small resin parts to really get your
blood pressure up. And a riggers
nightmare! For the most part the
kit went together with few problems…until I tried gluing up the engine nacelle
and the eight struts that hold the nacelle and centre section of the upper wing.
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My kit nacelle
did not have any locating marks on it for the struts and of course there were no
locating pins on any of the struts. After
studying a few photographs of the Walrus, I eventually glued the struts to the
nacelle then while the joints were still soft, I glued the struts to the
fuselage top, twisting things to get the correct angles.
With that bit of frustration over, I glued the lower wing, horizontal tail
and rudder in place…the upper wing was assembled but left off for
painting.
The
nacelle to fuselage rigging was installed using fine steel wire inserted
into pre-drilled holes One very time consuming bit of work was cleaning up the
small resin tear-drop shaped fairings for the wing rigging, sixteen in
all. And each one the size of
a gnats eyeball. |
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The fuselage colour was in question, grey or dull aluminum dope…As I had
seen in a number of post WW2 aircraft, aluminum dope was the quick and
easy way of covering the hull which was wood with fabric covering.
I mixed Polly Scale Medium Sea Grey and Dull Aluminum until it
looked close. The yellow
areas were then masked and the fuselage was sprayed with the mixture.
The
bottom of the hull, wing tip floats and wheel hubs were painted with Model
Master Acrylic Guards Red lightened with a bit of yellow. |
The wheels were
painted with a dark grey Polly Scale mixture of Ocean Grey and Black.
Final
Assembly
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With
the model painted, it was time to get at the upper wing, wing tip floats and
undercarriage. The fuselage was
jigged up in a small vise, then the interplane struts were
installed
and while the glue was setting up, I glued the top wing in place and
ensured that it was properly aligned with the lower wing.
The centre section upper struts were then glued in place, as close
as I could get them keeping in mind there were no locating marks.
The wing
tip floats were installed and it was time to tackle the rigging.
Pre-drilling made the job a lot easier and the steel wire was much
easier to handle than stretched sprue. |
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The engine and prop were finished and attached to the nacelle and the
landing gear was installed at the same time.
Because of the lack of locator marks on the nacelle, the engine did
not fit quite right but that is one of the problems with limited run kits.
I added
the rear hatch cover, bird cage canopy and a few other bits and then it
was time to decal the beast. I was going to try using Bare Metal Decal Paper in my Epson
Inkjet printer but then all that work was taken over by Gordon Parker of
Whiskeyjack Decals.
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Decals
Gordon Parker
has been producing Whiskeyjack decals for some time and his specialty is
Canadian airlines and “bush” operators.
I visited his home/office in Chilliwack, BC to get a close-up look at his
product line. Gord does all of the
artwork using Coreldraw and the printing is done on an Alps printer.
The decals for
the Walrus are part of a sheet of other Kenting Aviation aircraft which include
a very colourful B-17 and the Sea Hornet, all of which were used for airbourne
photography of Northern Canada after WW2.
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As can be seen
in the above photos, the markings are very sharp with a thin black outline.
With the Alps printed decals you have to be very careful in handling, and
with that in mind I coated the markings with a brushed coat of MicroScale Decal
Film. Using
Testors Decal Setting Solution, the decals were slipped into place and
when dry, the clear carrier was virtually invisible.
The quality of
the artwork and printing is extremely good and if you are interested in Canadian
civil models, then I can recommend Whiskeyjack decals.
Gord Parker can be reached at gorlem@shaw.ca
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Conclusion
The Walrus
served with distinction during WW2 as an Air/Sea Rescue aircraft both in Europe
and in Canada. After the war, those
that were still serviceable were put to use as can be seen here.
The kit has
some short-comings but nothing that a bit of modelling skills and patience
can’t overcome to get a good looking model.
The Whiskeyjack
Decals were of very high quality and a product that you might want to have a
look at.
Barney
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