Against better judgment but true to my word from CC 11, I've started customizing my cargo plane. I'm hoping to keep this a weekly update as I go along to document the process and to keep me motivated.


Inspired by Dr. Bindy and needing a base of operations for my Talespin crew, I've moved forward on the SeaGoose. (I'm not married to that name, but its the best I've got for now.)

Day 1 started with the dismantling and discovering just how much space was lost to the electronics. That was much needed cockpit room. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I wish I had not removed the entire wall between the cabin and the cockpit, but I'll make do now. Day 1 pictures show the plane bisected and I began trimming the plastic using snips and a cut off wheel in my Dremel to remove the large chunks.




On to Day 2 and thanks to a good March wind, I was able to go outside and trim with my cutting bits and sanding discs to smooth the cockpit walls.



Day 3 was all about building, or so I thought. Salvaging the navigation console that came with the airplane, I found I had to trim it a lot to get it to fit how I wanted. Originally I intended to put it flush against the wall but found I liked having it separate the cockpit and cabin. Really should have kept the left half of that wall. The floor is cut from a Dollar Tree picnic plate. Hope it takes paint or else I'll have to print out a floor decal. Not bad progress but not exactly moving as swiftly as I hoped.



On Day 4 I was determined to get a dashboard in here. Found an extra console from the Tactical Battle Platform that will make a good enough dash. It's already got a good angle on it, although it upside down. I tried and tried to get two seats in the cockpit but everything felt crowded. I reasoned that Wildcat designed the airplane to be piloted by a lone individual and removed the excess for ease of access for Baloo. The BTR seat and propeller mount came in handy to make a swiveling and reclining pilot's chair. I still need to trim those BTR lugs or cover them in some way. In the shot of the right side you can see I've got one of the folding bunks fitted but it is not mounted yet. I plan on another one of those mounted to the left wall and smaller one to fit neatly in between in the tail section.







Respect to all of you that regularly do these large builds. This is way harder than I ever imagined.

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I did one of those once and the Submarine after that I promised myself to never customize another True Heroes vehicle, they are junk. I do like what your doing to it I have seen a few with cockpits built up. One thing I recommend is test paint that plate it will save you a lot of grief. If it doesn't work I'd use Ever Green sheet plastic found at your hobby store.

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good job smoothing all inner bits! the tear down is my favorite part! even with jewelry I can sit and scrap for hours I've never done as large a vehicle as this , and I am cheering you on!

any idea what you will use for pontoons? maybe a cheep plastic boat split down the middle? or take a idea from Dremel use capped off pvc and it will really float!

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Nice work so far man. I did a very poor job smoothing down the plastic I cut out when I did mine, so I used a lot of styrene to cover it all. I think I like your way better.

I did what you made reference to though, and left one side of the wall up - so there is a wall to the left of the side door when you first walk in, but then it open into a doorway to the cabin. I think you can make this work fine though, and the extra space could be useful.

Biggest draw back to mine now is that it's difficult to access the cockpit for play/set-up. So keep that in mind. Don't let it get too cramped up front.

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Fantastic work so far.

I really envy the conviction it takes to tackle something like this.

The plastic is very flimsy and I should have just done a repaint but I'm too far invested now.



This would have been better if I could have fit it in my lunchbox to take to work with me. I've got lots of free time while the machine runs to tinker with stuff but this might garner some strange looks.

I picked up some bath time plastic boats from the dollar store that I think will work for the pontoons. Gotta work out the struts to connect them to the wings. I'm thinking some 3/8 to 1/2 dowel will work.



I hadn't thought of the play aspect of a more open cabin. Thanks to that advice this week I scaled back my plans for some of the interior detail.



Stay tuned, I'm trying to keep on top of this. I've cleared my desk for this project, even putting Kit's skyboard on the back burner. I'm not pulling out any paintbrushes until I start detailing this thing.

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Week 2 update.

Been a bit of a struggle this week with daylight savings time messing with my internal clock. I only got to work on this yesterday after some much needed family time.

I managed to repurpose the guns on the window side to make a hinged countertop. I'm going to add in a stove top element and a sink. Underneath you can see the barrels for clean potable water while in flight. You can also see the left side bunk over the cargo door and one of the gun mounts.



On the right side I kept the folding seats but I was not happy with how far they protruded when folded against the backs. Solved that by trimming the backs from their mounting strip and attaching them directly to the cabin wall. Another of the gun storage mounts on this side, the right bunk and the rearmost bunk for Molly.



Here's the cabin set up for living quarters:



And more storage for those cargo runs:



In the cockpit I mounted two more gun storage mounts that I trimmed from the cabin seat backs.




And a final shot of the cockpit from the front:




Still got to smooth out that glue and some of the plastics but I think I'm close to priming and painting the interior.

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looking good!

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Great progress!

this looks amazing! can't wait to see it finished!

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I think you have it with the bigger more open space. The Sea Duck didn't have interior walls in the back, just a curtain and all the stowage tied or netted up.

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It never occurred to me to look for interior shots of the Seaduck! I may do something like the curtains. I've got a piece of cargo net attached to the underside of the removable top. Looking for places to store at least one more net.

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No picture update this week.

I finished smoothing the cockpit walls and the excess glue. Today I battled the wind to put the first coat of primer in the cabin. Tomorrow I'll be back in it smoothing things down again I'm sure but I'm happy to move past the modding stage.

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Looks good!

Thanks for bumping this back up and reminding me to give an update!


So the main part of the airplane is yellow now.....really yellow. For inquiring minds it is Rustoleum American Accents Summersquash. Supposed to be 2 in 1 primer and paint so I didn't primer and gave it 3 coats before putting the two halves back together for a final coat with at least 24-48 hours between coats.


The pontoons have been a conundrum and then I found these bathtub toy 3 packs at the Dollar Tree. The battleship looked promising and I planned on attaching with dowel which would have been so much simpler but then I wanted a more streamlined look so I hacked up another Barrel Roll jet pack. A Marvel SHS rocket launcher filled a gap and I was okay with it except the one has the molded gunbelt details and both have that gun barrel molded into them.



Well I needed some more of those battleship hulls to add to the underside of the body to help the plane look more seaworthy. My wife went out today and picked up some more of those bath tub sets as I requested. These packs not only had the battleships I wanted but they also had these nice catamarans that I instantly new would be great attachment points for my pontoons. It took about 45 minutes to whip this one up but I like the look a lot more.



Now to put the other pontoon together and mount those hulls to the belly of the plane. Some more yellow on the wings and then tape it off for the orange details. Pop it back apart and detail the inside and the Goose will be complete.

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