RC.3 Seabee

Working on a scratch built interior. Pilot, front, and (eventual) rear seats come from Academy/Hasegawa MH-6s; floor and instrument panel by cardboard. Not sure yet what the controls and pedals will be made of. Maybe paper clips? 

Some very inconvenient locator pins and ejector marks. 

They’re on the right side also. The front ejector mark and locator pin are unfortunate because there’s no instrument panel on this side. 

 

Could not have cleaned this up without a Dremel. 

For some reason Glencoe drilled holes on both sides of each float and then included 4 poorly fitting parts to fill them. (I removed one for test fitting.).
 

On the upside, the filler pieces are a pretty good size for lights. Something for the spares box.  

What the exterior should look like. 

Rear view  

 

Cabin floor attempts 1-4 

 

Approximate layout shown on #3, but floor does not fit properly.  

 

Basic layout minus main flight controls and other levers. 

Another view 

Control “wheels” and arm 

Another view 

Attempting to make the 4 foot pedals using pieces of paper clips. 

Gluing one foot pedals to the control arm. Of course each pedal attaches to a different arm. And they’re 2 different lengths. 

Here’s what they’re supposed to look like. 

Taking a break from the interior to work on the landing gear. Sanding off the triangular portion to replace with photoetch parts from a 1/72 F-4 Phantom. 

Finished cockpit, complete with coiled wire to his headset. 

Finally making some visible progress. Interior is painted!! 

Exterior view 

Now, how do I get the Micro Mask off...? 

Answer: Extremely slowly, with tremendous patience, and accepting of the need for touch-up. 

Cockpit is finally taking shape! Passenger seat is fully reclined, against FAA regulations.  

In compliance this time. Control arm is on the ground to the right. 

Roughly in place. Pilot’s arm needs to be repositioned. 

Side view. 

Showing the foot pedals and fire extinguisher, which will barely be visible once assembled. 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t glue the front seats in symmetrically because they are multi-way adjustable and slide forward and backward on tracks. The Pilot adjusted his seat. Yeah, that’s the reason... 

 

 

This should’ve been an overhead shot, but I dropped the phone on it...So i have to glue it all together again. At least nothing broke... 

Only photo I have since I painted it. It needs another coat - I had to sand down some of the joints to smooth them out. 

Sigh…and now decal issues…  

Hopefully some Pledge will hold them down. 

N number is coming along well. Now I just need to finish making the K. 

Close up. You can also see where I ran out of metalizer paint. Not sure how to fix this since it’s been discontinued. 

Getting close… 

Almost done…just need the propeller, landing lights, and some window cleaning… 

Finished!