I will not annoy you again with the story and development of this beautiful seaplane that continue to fly under civil registration especially on the North Continent, you’ll find it on numerous web pages! The Grumman Albatross “little brother” seems to attract attention of manufacturers that now propose the bird in 1/72 and 1/48 scale. For long time I wanted to add this particular aircraft in my collection and I was surfing  around  when I discover this outstanding French made kit, that I couldn't really keep only for me, due to the incredible value it brings to modeller looking for museum high quality models.

As you can see, it is a real multimedia kit, mixing plastic for main large parts and resin for ultra detailed interior, engines, gear bays, stabilizer, rudder, and all tiny bits around. Created and produced by a fine modeller, fragile areas have cleverly been reinforced with piano wires for the gear legs and the float structure, that will assure you to see your bird always well seated!  External surface is excellent with crisply engraved panel lines, and raised plates where it is necessary. It appears obvious that a first hand documentation was at disposal. The fabric representation on the control surfaces is excellent on resin parts, and the engines are great with only spark plugs to add (copper wire included) before painting. All you have to do by yourself  is the rigging around the floats with nylon cable, thanks to locating points on the wing.

With only 9 parts for each engine plus the floats, the wing assembly is not a problem, according attention to fittings that are required on all multimedia kits and you’ll finish with the navigation and landing lights. About the fuselage, you’ll discover a “state of the art” interior resin parts that you’ll only have to paint, according to the notice (English/French), and the back of the box that carry ten color pictures that you also find on the SIGNIFER web page. The forward fuselage compartment is detailed with anchor, cord and the entrance door in the bulkhead that support instrument panel on the other side. As the open access for mooring is a construction option, the detailed inside was necessary. Incredible, and useful for a diorama. The cockpit is fully detailed everywhere, gorgeous details for front, sides, back, and roof; instruments ,throttles are there. A close-up of one engine shows the quality of the resin.

  Sand carefully after dry test to assure a complete easy gluing part sequence. This way, an amazing and complete area is created. Via a second door,  you ‘ll penetrate in the radio space with the material and the seat for the operator.

The rest of the cabin is made of four seats for passengers and the backward bulkhead. All the windows are vacuum clear as for the front  single piece. To let the outside light enter the model,  you can open all the resin doors, and why not the entrance on the left rear side and create an access ladder. An other solution would be to install low voltage incandescent bulb lights inside. The notice is very clear, with “modeler” remark ,as <do not forget to place…before..>,a friendly step by step plan rather than a flat commercial paper that make us angry in some “cottage industry” kits. Really no headache during construction. About payload, you’ll have a choice of  bombs on under wing support.The decal sheet propose four different airplanes, French (blue), USN, UK, and  Japan (grey), with markings and stencils. The notice give you the Gunze/Humbrol references for painting and decals.

If you really prefer civil subject, some decals start to appear (drawdecal) and useful technical information could be found on the Naval Fighter Series by Ginter.

This is a hi-detailed Grumman Goose model that will enjoy a lot of modelers with a very good price/quality ratio as the close pics attest. The surviving seaplane in colourful color could also be an alternative to the common military scheme, though Japan grey with red Hinomaru is very exiting too! A beautiful model that I strongly recommend you.

Here is a link to the Signifer website.