I'd been thinking about buying this kit for a while and when I found a toy/model shop in Trondheim last year, which I thought could be the northern most one in Europe unless there's one in Murmansk, I thought 'why not?' It probably cost more than twice what it would have paid here but hey ho and to add to the memory I bought a set of decals for when it was used during an expedition to Svalbard. I've since bought an etch brass set as well. To digress we'd initially been in the shop but went back as Tracy wanted to buy some items for our children for Christmas, this is June but she plans ahead!!! So as we're buying them the owner said "do you want them wrapping?" and produced Christmas wrapping paper. He then asked me if I wanted the model wrapping and proceeded to do the same. So that's the back story onto the model. It's the Starter set of the F.13 with an option for making the F.13W with floats, which is wht I'll build. Online articles say that the underside of the tail and the bottom of the rudder are wrong for a 13W ut I'll check that out once I open the box (take the money - showing my age there, lol!!!)

Unusual. It'll keep you busy.

Got to give it to you Chris, you certainly pick some estoric subjects.
This one is probably more appealing to you with the link to Norway.
It will be an interesting build.

As ever the build starts with the cockpit which was painted with various Vallejo, Humbrol, Tamiya and Mr Hobby colours. I used part of the etch for the rudder bars but had to adjust this to get a reasonable fit. I used the kit console and decal as the etch looked too big to fit. I've also fitted the engine, which won't be seen but you need it for the 'rhinoceros' exhaust later.

Fair detail there.

I had to do a re-paint, I found some info on the Svalbard a/c that contradicted Revell's instructions.

The cabin glazing was put in place before the interior and engine were fixed to one fuselage half followed by the fuselage being closed up. This was followed by the wings, tailplanes and rudder of which there is the correct type for a seaplane in the parts, contrary to one online builder. The decal set supplies masks for the windows and also for the fuselage paintwork giving measurements for the wing stripes. Tamiya Satin black was sprayed first followed by Aluminium. Several touch ups were required to tidy things up. Once all was dry it was time to take on the floats and struts. One online builder said it took him several attempts to get a reasonable fit so I built a Blue Tack jig and proceeded to fit the cross members. The struts with the steps were fixed to the underside of the fuselage. When I tried to match the two together they were nowhere near. What isn't obvious from the instructions is that the cross struts lean backwards to meet the other struts. so I removed them from the floats, cleaned them up and fitted them to the 'ladder' struts. This took a bit of jiggling and hopefully I've got them square, I'll find out when I come to fit the floats.

After cleaning up the holes on the floats and dry fitting them first they were glued to the struts with the remaining struts added at the same time. Before everything had set I positioned the plane on the cutting mat so I could check that everything was inline and square as during an initial look the floats appeared to 'toe in'. This wasn't the case so I need to upgrade my glasses!!! The plane was then put aside for everything to set properly before a coat of Klear was applied in preperation for the decals. The intructions say care is needed when applying these as they can 'grab' quickly so I'll do the underwing ones first to check for any problems.

Getting there.

Nice use of the cutting mat grid to get everything 'square'. Will be interesting to see it with markings.

Coming along nicely.

Bob c

The plane for the Spitzbergen Expedition had what is believed to be a fuel filler cap fitted to the starboard side just behind the window for what is probably an extra fuel tank. This was made from spare etch sheet and an etch part. Diagrams also show something dangling below the rear of the fuselage. This could be a locking bar for the rudder so I made one from a 3D sprue spare. I approached the decals with a lot of TLC. Where they were to go had been given a 2nd coat of Klear and lots of water was applied to the area. They had a tendency to grip quickly and so more water needed to be applied but in one instance the number 2 curled on itself so badly so I had to resort to using another. A letter D also spiit so this was infilled with aluminium paint. Despite my best efforts I still had some silvering in places which I couldn't fully eradicate despite cutting with a scalpel and lots of Micro Sol. Thankfully there weren't that many to apply I must have knocked the aerial mast without noticing during taking the photos as it's leaning, ####, and the 2nd one is slightly out of focus. The last photo shows how big this plane was when it;s show along with my recent Beaufighter build

Good work, especially with the decals.
There is always something to test us, It never seems straightforward.

Thanks. I didn't quite get to nautical language, but I came close!!!!

Congrats Chris,
That looks really nice and unusual. Well done with the decals, corrugated airframes are the most difficult to deal with
decal wise, and your looks superb.
Big machine too, I was quite surprised by the size comparison picture.
Have a house point.