I am considering building a 1/48th scale Supermarine Sea Otter from a Walrus, however I have heard that the SMER (ex Merit ?) model is not actually 1/48th but scales out at 1/50th.

Classic Airframes also makes a 1/48th Walrus, however is this an accurately scaled model or a re-box of the SMER kit ?

Part of the changes needed would involve fitting the engine / cowl / prop from a Lysander, so consistent scaling would be essential as a 1/48 engine on a 1/50 plane would look odd !

Ian

the classic airframes is NOT a re-box of the smer kit, it also includes some great interior resin detail.

paul

The Smer Walrus is very crude. The moulds date from the 1950s, including that lovely "put the decal here" engraving, chunky "detail" and a mostly hollow interior. It can be made into a reasonable model with about twice the effort and frustration you'd spend on the Classic Airframes kit. Do yourself a favour and avoid it.

I have both the Smer and the Classic Airframes kits. The CA kit is better molded and is also a Walrus II example, with the wooden hull. Smer offers the Walrus I with the all metal hull.
The CA kit has a decent resin Pegasus engine included, as well as other nice resin interior parts.

The Pegasus engine was used in the Lysander Mk.II only. The Mk.I and III had the Mercury engine. A very decent Bristol Pegasus can be ordered here:
http://www.ultracast.ca/products/Vector/Engines/48-Scale/48-008/default.htm

hope this helps a little.

I nearly bought the smer once. Quite fortunately I was in a brick and mortar shop so I was able to open it up and peek.

Remember when bugs bunny would run off and leave a bugs bunny-shaped cloud of dust?

Thanks everyone for the input, looks like the Classic Airframes is the way to go, although extra work would be needed to convert the wood hull to steel as well as the changed engine configuration to build the Sea Otter.

The Sea Otter was equipped with a conventional engine mount Vs the pusher and as I previously said, had the same cowl/prop/engine as the Lysander III (forgot to mention the MK)

Ian