Tintin in the Congo (Udet U-12 "Flamingo")

So let’s begin. Here are the sprues... sorta. 

I used a glue stick to apply paper cutouts to some polystyrene. Thin for the fuselage and thicker for the structural bits. 

A bit of glue, a bit of pressure and a little bit of swearing, and voila! 

A little bit of water and the paper comes right off. 

A few more bits cut out for the upper fuselage and the tail. 

I’ll leave the crew compartments open for now. 

Just the tiniest bits of putty to close the seam... 

Lots of sanding, and I got started on the wings and the tail. 

Got the other two wings cut out and started putting in a floor for the cockpit. 

Had to add some strips to build up the wing thickness at the leading edge. 

Putty... sand... more putty... more sand. Getting the airfoil shape is a fair bit of work, but it should be worth it... I hope. 

Ok, after lots of sanding, I’m happy enough with the shapes. 

Now for some details. First glue the paper model back on and then mark the wing ribs. 

Next, glued on some styrene strips along the marks. 

Sanding, sanding, lots of sanding... 

Now for some work on the cockpit. I used a bit of styrene tube to make the raise rim around the cockpit. 

I don’t want to scribe any panel lines, so let’s glue them on instead. 

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. 

Cut out the wing supports... starting to look like a plane now. 

Yep... a bit of blue tack holding it together... it actually looks like a plane! 

Some paint (brown will do) to check the sanding. Looks okay. 

Cockpit details added. 

Now to add the tail. 

I kinda cheated on the fuselage struts, but using some wire makes the placement more forgiving. 

Tail sanded down and top wing added. 

Here’s where we veer off from a real U-12... cut a notch in the upper wing... 

I added some vents to the side of the cowling. There should be three, but I only added two by mistake... oh, well, no one will notice. Also I scrounged up some wheels from a 1/144 B-1... so that should work, right? 

Some two-part epoxy putty... and we’ve got a couple of huge juicy spats. Some sanding and shaping will be required. 

sanding down the spats was fun. 

ok... let's get the first coat of yellow on. 

looks pretty good from here. 

Hmmm... after the paint’s dry... looks like a few touch ups needed. 

ok... sanded back and ready to rumble.. again! 

After endless coats of yellow paint, we’re finally into the last few bits. 

Mainly assembled, just need a couple of decals and some windscreens. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE – Despite my best efforts at scratchbuilding, I decided to revisit this project and create a 3D printable model. 

Of course, 3D resin printing still needs a lot of putty and sanding to remove the pixelation. 

Pink undercoat to the make the yellow pop - and a hole for the small DC motor to go. 

A quick coat of all-yellow, and voila!