Seaplanes

My wife went to COSCO this afternoon and brought home a book about Seaplanes by Bill Yenne. It was on sale. She bought it because it had a picture in it of a Savoia Marchetti S55 that her Uncle Joseph was a crewman/mechanic on and flew to the Chicago World Fair in 1933. Its a great book, but now Carol wants to know if there is a model available for it( I told her not to hold her breath) as she thought it would look nice on the mantle next to the Douglas Skyraider that almost killed me in Vietnam :-) Can you guys help me out...is there a kit? I hope so as I don't favor cold spaghetti and day old bread( you who are married to a daughter of Italy know what I mean) Mike IPMS

"Mike Keown" wrote in news:U2pMb.442$ snipped-for-privacy@news.uswest.net:

It was also kitted by Delta 2. I guess its the same kit.

Theres one on ebay ATM. But its in the UK.

You do see one from time to time. Just have to keep looking.

Yes, there's two I can think of and neither is readily available. Delta

Bill Banaszak, MFE

PENNSYLVANIA: Come for the cheesesteaks, stay for the pierogies!

By all accounts, this kit is a horror to build. I don't recall the specifics, though flash, poor fit and lack of detail hang on as vague recollections from the reviews I've read.

Mark Schynert

In an old issue of the defunct scale modeler there was a build up article on this plane. The guy said nothing matched up for alignment and one part of the tail boom was bigger than the other. He overcame the problems and built a right smart looking model. I thought it was so cool that I bought one and to this day it of course sits unstarted in my basement.

Also there was an old kit by Ideal or ITC (Ideal Toy Corp) to be precise. This kit is 1/96 scale and kind of simple. I have one of those too that sits in the basement. Good luck, Max Bryant

Okay, specifics, fit is a joke, with gaps between the center wing and the port and starboard sections that is easily 1/8" front to back. The engines are rudimentary at best, as is the cockpit detail. The model did NOT do justice to the aircraft, that's for darn sure. That being said, go to eBay and look for the ITC/Ringo version. Its a smaller scale, maybe 1:96 or so (if I'm wrong on that, someone correct me, please), but a much better build. But if you get the Ringo version (reboxed ITC), you'll have to supply your own Italian decals, most Ringo kits didn't have them.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

Mea culpa. The S.55 that I have was made by Delta 2, not by Supermodel, as I had thought. I dug it out today. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this has caused anyone and apologize for internetting inaccurate data. Jerry 47

Assemble the crew. ;-)

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

'Ringo' was ITC in the afterlife. The story I heard was that they had leftovers in the warehouse when they went into receivership so the trustees had cheap boxes made up with the Ringo name and threw the parts into the boxes and shipped them out the door. Making new decal sheets would have cost money so it wasn't done.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

I posted the 1970 Hobby Show picture over on abms. The S.55 is on the left, behind the Sunderland's wing.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Acccording to an old FSM article on collectable kits, you heard right. (although the storyline was about the Martin Bomber) I should have written "ITC or Ringo". I'll still stand by my statement though, even the Ringo version was better than the Supermodel.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger