So I built the Clipper mostly OOB; the upper fuselage seam needed some puttying, sanding and rescribing, but apart from that it was a mostly hassle-free build. The two small antennas above the cockpit were replaced by fine wire, and I decided to replace all the overly thick transparent parts. To this end, I added cockpit bracing from stretched sprue. After completion, all the windows were carefully filled with a thin layer of white glue. In this respect I found out that not all brands of glue dry as crystal clear as desired – better do some tests. The open door to starboard was thinned out, but nothing was done about the complete lack of an interior.

The flying boat was primed with enamels and sprayed with JPS Acrylic silver. Prior to decaling, Future was added for a good gloss. The kit decals, even though sometimes a hassle, were used, even for de-icer boots, anti-glare panel and wing markings. Micro Sol worked well on them. Luckily Vallejo´s Amaranth Red is a very close match for the orange wing panel, so I was able to repair gaps in the decals around the engine nacelles. The decals were sealed with Future and later with Xtracrylix satin coat. Weathering was minimal and mostly consisted of some slight and not too dark exhaust staining. Aerials were made from Caenis ultra-thin fly fishing thread, glued with white glue and tightened by heat from a dental waxing instrument. That stuff is about as thin as stretched sprue, but about ten times as strong. The downside is that styrene glue does not dissolve it, which is very handy while working with stretched sprue in trimming off excess.