Seaknight & M16, red : primary seaplanes

[ericr]

So, the thing is, I like seaplanes : floatplanes, single-float and double-float or even more, and flying boats as well (single-hull, double-hull or more).
Actually I like them so much that I sometimes floatplanize, or even flying boatize aircraft that were never meant for that, but to me it looks like an improvement (like, to some others, fitting longer wings, it seems).

And I like to paint in primary colors : plain yellow or red or blue, sometimes two of them, or the three.

In the past I have already posted quite a few of them, titled by the aircraft type or name, but the effect of series gets lost in separate posts.

Therefore I thought I might as well start a thread on this.

To begin, here comes a Vought Kingfisher, at the funny scale of 1/200 : it came with its own catapult, which is very nice.

And to give it a bit of context, I looked for a support for the catapult : a boat not too large, just enough to carry it, in a spirit remembering the Aurora boat in the Tintin adventure where he flies a yellow (!) Ar196.
At the scale of 1/200, I found out about the ETV Waker (that had a life as a Greenpeace vessel too apparently), already gifted with a helicopter deck, and featuring a nice rear deck, with good room for the catapult :

[Volkodav]

 :) Excellent

[Modelling_Mushi]

And I like to paint in primary colors : plain yellow or red or blue, sometimes two of them, or the three.

I like your primary colour approach Eric, breath of fresh air it is ...

...  the effect of series gets lost in separate posts ... therefore I thought I might as well start a thread on this.

... and this is a good idea, the animal/airplane thread and this one, a great way to organise your very original work.

This one looks good, proportions look right. Will be good to see more of your floaty things  :)

[ericr]

thanks! I also tried something with the same scale Marwede rescue boat : pictures soon ...

[ericr]

And to give it a bit of context, I looked for a support for the catapult : a boat not too large, just enough to carry it, in a spirit remembering the Aurora boat in the Tintin adventure where he flies a yellow (!) Ar196.

here is a picture of the inspiration by the way

[Tophe]

Beautiful model (usually I do not love boats/ships, but with these flashing colours, I smile and like, yes)

At the scale of 1/200, I found out about the ETV Waker (that had a life as a Greenpeace vessel too apparently)

Thanks to build a new vessel for Greenpeace (our president destroyed one abroad, without asking our approval, I say Sorry, blame him not us...). I don't know if Greenpeace can use this vessel also for Whale campaigns (the animals may come and laugh, instead of going away far to save themselves)...

[ericr]

thanks Tophe!
I am not too much into boats either, but when sealplanes are concerned, I am interested 

[ericr]

So I had this 1/200 Kingfisher and catapult kit, and it has two of each actually, and I thought, instead of making two Kingfishers, why not use this centrale float and pair of secondary floats for floatplanizing another aircraft?
The trick was to find a kit for an aircraft with the roght size for the float to fit : I finally decided on a 1/144 Po-2, which has the right length, and did exist as a central-float version known as Po-2M :



and I installed it on the same seaplane tender :



I also tried another 1/200 boat : the Marwede rescue ship, which also has a helicopter deck (actually not for landing, I read afterwards, only for manoeuvering, but well, this is whiff anymay  ) :



but the Po-2 looked a bit too large for that, so I prefer to assign it to the Waker :



whereas the Kingfisher looks quite right on the Marwede :





don't you think? 

[Brian da Basher]

This is one of my favorite projects of yours yet, Eric! Those primary colors remind me of Southwest Airlines.

Maybe Southwest Airlines Search & Rescue?

I'll get me coat...

Brian da Basher

[ericr]

This is one of my favorite projects of yours yet, Eric! Those primary colors remind me of Southwest Airlines.

Maybe Southwest Airlines Search & Rescue?

I'll get me coat...

Brian da Basher

thanks!


actually, if this inspires you for a series of Southwest Airlines (nice color choice indeed  ) Search & Rescue, please go ahead!  :)

[elmayerle]

*snicker* I can just see Southwest Airlines SAR aircraft with all female crews wearing uniforms like those their cabin crews wore when the airline first started but adapted for working in a water environment.

Seriously some nice seaplanes and tender, the primary colors work well.  I presume a seaplane working for a research ship at either Pole would be bright red?

[ericr]

*snicker* I can just see Southwest Airlines SAR aircraft with all female crews wearing uniforms like those their cabin crews wore when the airline first started but adapted for working in a water environment.

Seriously some nice seaplanes and tender, the primary colors work well.  I presume a seaplane working for a research ship at either Pole would be bright red?

thanks!

I might have tried red for the seaplanes indeed ;-)

[ericr]

speaking of red seaplanes, here is a central-float version of the Ar196 :
I had been longing for this kits for quite a few years, and suddenly found it,
and built it in red.





The twin floats set is in the kit, so I have it as a spare "for something else"  as someone said recently

[GTX_Admin]

Which kit is it?  I didn't know the single float version was available in 1/48.

[ericr]

Which kit is it?  I didn't know the single float version was available in 1/48.

the kit is a bit rare indeed, it can be found on ebay now and then, and can be seen there :


the what-if story for mine could go like : after building the prototype a special primary coat of anticorrosive was applied, and the pictures were taken just before the camouflage paintig that followed ...

I intend to use the spare floats for seaplanes, probably imaginary, and also probably two signle-float seaplane (to maximize fun  )

[GTX_Admin]

Interesting...I knew of the original version of this kit:



But not the one with the Ar-196B option.  Will have to keep an eye out.

[ericr]

recently a discussion about twin-seaters reminded me of the Meteor Prone, and so I was induced in acquiring the MPM kit, a lovely one, but although the topic is surprising enough to be nearly whif, I felt it could be improved, not in this case by fitting longer wings (which it does deserve, honestly  ;-) ), but by floatplanization.

A motivation was the availability of the AR196 1/48 floats from the kit above : I considered putting both, but that would have looked a bit heavy, so I preferred a central-float layout, like this :





and I noticed the clever bottom-window for the front crew, now nicely in front of the float for full visibility :



and the second float is waiting for an assignment ...

[elmayerle]

That does look fast just sitting there.  I'd go with pylons instead of struts to mount the floats (better streamlining) but it looks superb.

[GTX_Admin]

That looks great

[ericr]

thanks!

struts are maybe a bit old fashioned for such a fifties design indeed, and pylons have elegance :
if I make a second version, I might try to remember that 

[Tophe]

Wonderful Prone Meteor floatplane!
I had forgotten this prone Meteor, and I am willing to draw P-51 and P-38 dérivatives on the same principle (maybe not seaplanes for my side but your model is perfect this way, thanks for sharing with us!) :)

[ericr]

thanks Tophe!


and now for something completely different

(but still in the topic of course)

Sometime ago a discussion reminded me of the possibility of three-seater P38, combining Droop and P38M, where I learned there actually was one :



so I was fired, and went out to find a P38M by Revell



to which I could not resist adding ... guess what? ... floats : coming from the classical Airfix Ar196,
and the nose comes from some larger glass-nosed aircraft (Dassault Flamant? Pembroke?), so it required to use some putty but it ended up not too badly.

and so here it goes, in yellow :

[GTX_Admin]

I like

[Silver Fox]

Nice! Never knew there was a 3-seat P-38.

[Tophe]

Thanks for the discovery of the 3-seat P-38, that I am willing to draw soon.
In the meantime, I made the prone-post P-38 that your great prone-Meteor floatplane made me dream of (thanks again!):