I've finally got another idea sorted out, I'm going to convert an Airfix Short Sunderland into a turbo-prop powered amphibian water bomber, probably with some Canadian operater markings, like Air Spray or Buffalo Airlines.
I plan on removing all the turrets from the kit, bomb racks will be gone and I intend to straighten out the wings so that the engine nacelle centerline is back where it was, which is parallel with the fuselage centerline. I'm going to use a couple of RR Dart engine conversions which Heritage Aviation sell for their Dart Dakota set but I won't use their propellers which come with it as they're a bit small in diameter. Instead I'll use an Aeroclub set, P018.
Reading about the Sunderland I found that Short had originally designed the Sunderland to have a C.O.W. 37mm cannon in the nose and a hand operated Vickers 'K' machine gun in the tail. The requirement was changed after the prototype had flown, the 37mm was deleted and a power operated four-gun turret to go in the tail position. This changed the cg point quite a lot and to overcome this problem, Short rotated the whole wing backwards from the rear spar connecting pins, and added a spacer in between the front spar connection. From what I can figure out, this change the rear spar angle from 4 degrees forward of perpendicular to the fuselage centerline, to 2 degrees backwards of the perpendicular line. In the top photo here you can see I've marked the various center lines (nacelles, spars etc), also you can see the turbo-prop nacelles I'm going to use which are practically the same diameter as the corresponding section on the wing.
For the undercarriage, I'm going to go with something that will look like what you find on a CL-215/415 water bomber, but modelled from what you find on a Catalina. Nose u/c and wheel will be from a 1/72 B-24 and the main u/c gear will be a modified 1/48 Catalina set. Main wheels I've not quite decided on at the moment, I've order a bunch of different wheels so until I get a visual on the things I will leave that for the moment.