"Hard labor! Here am I grinding down the hull halves on the sanding board. The thick and sturdy .060 vacuum formed styrene is a big plus for this very large model".
"I've marked out the panels and windows. Thank goodness the windows are round, as an electric rotary drill bit can be used....less than 5 minutes work. Pictured above the hull are the bulkheads, cut out of .060 styrene stock provided in the kit. The central wing supporting bulkhead is cut from 3/4 inch balsa".
"Here is the Hull now glued, with both halves taped together and curing".
"The lovely Princess, showing off her voluptuous figure the glue having dried. Instrument panels and crew seats have been fitted. The tiny porthole windows would not show interior detail, so no passenger compartment details were installed".
"The Princess shows off her fine chine lines. Mike Herrill has done a beautiful job of pattern making and vac-forming, as can be seen by the perfect match of the hull halves. Also shown in this picture is the wing spar, cut from a wooden yardstick. Now I'm starting work on the wings, shown on the lower left. More to come next week....."
There will be more to come as Jim continues with this fantastic kit. I must admit looking at it, she really does look great. You have to remember that Jim is a time-served, long standing, master craftsman when it comes to model flying boat building, however the ease to which this kit is going together should bring it well within the reach of reasonably experienced vac-form builders, as it appears to be extremely well engineered.
And, given that there is now no shortage of reference material - all you could possibly want is right here on SEAWINGS - then that just leaves the painting and decaling to sort out. It will be interesting to see how Jim deals with that in the coming weeks. Keep going Jim, she looks great!!
Regards, SEAWINGS
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