Short Sunderland MkIII

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Airfix kit built in 1/72 scale. This aircraft should need no introduction.....

 

 

 

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Thanks for viewing, comments welcome.

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

Ah, the Porcupine.  Have seen one up close and personal and even crawled through parts of it.  Amazing airplane. 

 

http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.php/topic/1544-fantasy-of-flight-part-4/

 

Mutley and I will be visiting it next month.  Since the trip when the photos were taken, the interior has been closed.

 

Great job on the model.  Obviously yours is the military version; the one in the linked thread had been converted for pax service post-war.  Being in the Pacific, it avoided the fate of many of them, being essentially destroyed during the Berlin Airlift ferrying bulk coal and salt.

 

John

 

[Quickmarch 488]

There's another (I think) - in Auckland. Stored out back of the downtown aviation museum, sort of a work in progress, Pics when I get the boat back.

 

The model is incredibly detailed, Alan. What amazes me is the thought of grabbing the handles on the little dolly at the stern and ........what? Haul it up the ramp? The one I saw was in 1:1 scale and it's HUGE!

[allardjd 1,853]

@ March - the aft portion of the beaching gear on the one I saw was a bit different but I think the handles are only for pivoting the thing to steer it.  There's a set of dogs and a toothed wheel, so it looks like the aft dolly could be canted to make a turn of sorts if necessary.  I'm guessing the motive power had to be winches or tractors of some kind.

 

The worst job would be rigging and unrigging the beaching gear.  Bad enough in the SW Pacific, but SCOTLAND - brrrr.  That had to be some mighty cold water and I can't see how it could be done without someone getting very wet.

 

John

[brett 2,315]

Well made model with mad paint skills.   Thanks for the views.

 

I checked out the pic's John linked, cool looking old bird even if a bit grumpy looking from head on.  Thanks for the RW images to compare the model to.

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Superb model there Alan - really must get one one day!

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Thanks guys, I've had the pleasure of crawling around 2 of these things, a Sunderland at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon in North London and last weekend a beautifully preserved Sandringham at the Solent Sky Museum in Southampton. Talking to the curators I was informed that the aircraft was flown into Southampton, Dissasembled on the docks, moved to the museum site and reassembled....then the museum was built around it! It is amazing...and HUGE! 

[britfrog 180]

Nice model ! i end up with glue fingerprints everywhere.

 

Joe here is another fyi

When this a/c was again made airworthy just before kermit bought it the engineer and the man who signed it off as airworthy was a guy called Geof Masterton, he used to work out of a farm strip near Chessington Zoo, and was the engineer who also signed my planes off ,sadly only some months after Kermit bought this plane  Geof who lived near woodenbridge in Guildford went to sleep in his armchair watching television and never woke up he was in his late 40's or very early fifties!

 

My Dad also flew these a/c at the end of the war because luckily for him he was seconded into BOAC he flew them from Poole harbour to Hong Kong I have a few photos, his log books, and quite a lot of his stories if you want to hear a few and see the bridge (that is what it was called) not a cockpit i can scan a photo or two

[mutley 4,498]

Al, superb work as always, well done. I haven't been to the SSM since it was re-housed. Must go again.

 

@BF, we have a few flying boat fans so please do share. That must have been some flight to HK in that hulk!

[Gunner 69]

Very nice model...and lovely background for the first few shots

[allardjd 1,853]

@BF, we have a few flying boat fans so please do share.

 

+1

 

John

[britfrog 180]

Its a pity Kermit has closed up the interior of the a/c as that is where it is really interesting, the nice thing about the boat at the RAF museum is that you can walk around inside it and see the galley and the bomb racks and simply it size

 

 

Rather than detract from this thread I will start another with pics etc.

[britfrog 180]

just a small point, the a/c at weeks' place is an Islander created by Ansett Airlines which was a unique a/c officially a sunderland mk5 , i always thought it was a sandringham converted to islander spec (that is what GM the engineer told me)