¹⁄48

February MOM winner

iintroduction

The Grumman Duck follows the concept of the Loening Air Yacht of 1923. This is hardly surprising, since Grumman was formed by a group of former Loening employees after the Loening company was bought out and the Manhattan factory was set to close. The Duck was a biplane flying boat of novel concept where the entire lower fuselage was basically a single large float attached directly to the fuselage rather than being suspended below on struts. This allowed for a substantial volume for cargo or passengers to be carried in the float structure.

The Duck was used for scouting, Maritime Patrol, Search and Rescue, Photographic Reconnaissance, light transport, target towing and utility work by the US Navy, US Coast Guard, USAF, Columbia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru.

The Military Ducks had all been retired by the mid 1950s, but it remains in the public's consciousness due to film appearances, most notably in Murphy's War

the model

The Classic Airframes kit is OK. No more and no less! When building this kit, the worst mistake you could make would be to buy Steve Ginter's Naval Fighters Number Eighty-Four, because then you are automatically bound for detailing and you should also buy a lot of polystyrene in the form of profiles and sheets!.

I scratch built almost the entire interior including much detail in the lower fuselage which is now forever invisible, but who could stop me? I did some reshaping of the forward fuselage and engine mounts, adding better air scoops to replace the kit items.

I painted the airplane with a layer of aluminum airframe Alclad over gray primer. The original was also painted and not natural metal due to the necessity to prevent corrosion. Without pre-shading I painted evenly over everything and stressed/soiled the panel lines with dark chalk which I finished with satin varnish. A bit dirtier seaplane could be more realistic, but that's not my style.

The homemade wooden base is filled with Styrofoam, which was designed in the shape of the ramp. I gave it a coat of house paint, then after sufficient drying time the stones in the wall and the joints of the concrete were scored. Various shades of grey add life to the scene.