SPA Modeler

Just doing some research on the markings of this bird.

The kit comes with two schemes - the Pan American Airways ''Dixie Clipper'', the aircraft that flew Roosevelt back from the conference at Casablanca & B.O.A.C ''Berwic, the aircraft that flew Churchill to the states. As both of these are 40's schemes and outside the scope of the GB, I'm going to use the ''Dixie Clipper'' markings to depict a 30's Clipper such as the one below.





Cheers!

Stuart I just turned up this bit of info on Dixie Clipper- she was in service in June 1939, before the outbreak of WWII. So those markings will work.

https://metroairportnews.com/pan-americ ... to-europe/

EPIC? Perhaps. I am sure this will be a stunner. I really dig this aircraft. I bet it was fun to fly.

Stikpusher wrote:Stuart I just turned up this bit of info on Dixie Clipper- she was in service in June 1939, before the outbreak of WWII. So those markings will work.

https://metroairportnews.com/pan-americ ... to-europe/

Thanks Carlos, that's good to know. From what I can tell, for her wartime service a US Flag was added to the nose and a large red ID band was painted the full span of the wings - that's the marking option in the kit. However, as you've found, it looks like I can use all the other Dixie markings and just leave the wartime stuff off.

LyleW wrote:EPIC? Perhaps. I am sure this will be a stunner. I really dig this aircraft. I bet it was fun to fly.

lol! Thanks Lyle! I agree it's a nice looking flying boat, very sleek & I'm sure it probably was.

I've got the engines on, actually quite well detailed given the scale and the age of the kit. I made a bit of a mess of the front of the cowlings removing the flash, which means I've had to enlarge the open fronts on all, exposing more of the engine than there should be, but hopefully it won't look too bad with the props on and painted.



Cheers!

It's pretty rough but the first coat of aluminium is on...

She is looking beautiful so far Stuart. Are you going to buff out the aluminum a bit perhaps?

Thank Carlos! I will buff it a bit, but it's only on the first coat as yet.

The old skool has taken a bit of a back seat, as I didn't like the finish of the enamels, and of course realised I couldn't paint in the house - so I went back over to Revel Aqua colour. the first coat is on, but it's revealed some bad seams/joints, so I'm going back over it with filler. As this is the build to try new products, I'm trying out this new AK putty as a replacement for standard Revel filler, as well as a replacement for Perfect Plastic Putty. It doesn't clean up as well as PPP when filling fine cracks, as it dries to fast, but I'm looking forward to seeing how well it sands after being built up.



Cheers!

Nice work Stuart. What didn't you like about PPP?

In my case, it dried to quickly in the tube. I used it once on a model and then made sure the top was closed tightly to the tube. The next time I went to use it, half of it was dry. The mouth of the thing was dry and it seemed no matter how far I dug into it, all I found was dry putty.

Nice work so far on that Clipper Stuart. Yes, silver paint tends to show a lot of defects; that is why I try painting areas with it to see how much more filling and/or sanding is needed.