CANicoll

Rob, That looks awesome under the primer. I hear you about the tools you need keep on hand. But it is really handy, necessary actually, to have the right tools available. All of that PE really does pop on the ship. Nice work!

Wow Rob, are you sure you want to paint this? The boat racks look terrific in the photos and to the naked eye they will be even more amazing. I'm still amazed you did all of those port holes on the boats. "Fiddly"? You have the patience of a saint to do this detail work. I'm still amazed at how tiny these details are, but also how much they add to the kit. All of that superstructure just looks fantastic.

Nice work! So much goes into this it is fun to watch.

Gus, just saw this and love the livery. Very nice job modulating the gray and the white - very tough to get that done so it looks good but you managed it very well. Nice job! Chris

Great watching the build, but your photos of the completed plane really do it justice. It just looks so good! You have to be pleased with the final result, even with all of the challenges - even more so because of the challenges. Well done!

Yeah, I'm probably going to have to do some touchup work on the nose turret, now that we have some better pictures. The weathering will be very interesting... Had to do some filler for the canopy glass and it seems like the clear parts either shrunk (not likely?) but the canopy is a bit too narrow for the opening, by about a mm or 1.5mm. Maybe it has always been that way. Added some filler around the canopy rear and port side. Any light color you see around the radar mast is white glue, to reinforce that bond. Also finally masked the rest of the fuselage windows. Between the cockpit and the waist blisters it must have been pretty dark. On the other hand, small windows make it much easier to black out the windows so no light escapes which could give away the aircraft. I also wonder about civlian use (mini-Clippers!) and how cool that would be. Since no painting was going to happen today with the filler going in, decided it was a good time to affix the elevators. Right side first. Notice the high-tech, flexible elevator prop holding it in place while the Gel CA sets up. The clamp provided the means to set the right angle pretty easily. Fancy set-up!! The view from the nose. The right side fit pretty well. The left is going to require more filler and it seems like the join is off a bit, but it fits into the groove on the resin tail. I do wonder if the updated Belcher Bits resin fits better with the kit elevators. The old, one piece resin tail has a different profile where the elevators attach compared to the kit pieces. Oh well. it will all be painted shortly! And the new view from the nose. This thing is pretty big. More to come!

Martin, no worries!! I'm sure that my masking is off on the turret, but will see what I can fix up. Made a bit more progress tonight, but first a few pictures: I had not realized the radar dome was so far forward as to be over the pilots heads. Note how open the blister is. Very cool the mechanic working on a running plane. Notice the wear on the underside of the leading edge of the wing, too. Never seen that before. Another shot of the radar dome as well as the nose turret, as well as those props and all the stuff on the top of the wing. And the model. Shockingly, I think the radome is close to being in the right place. The instructions were bleak and not helpful (or specific) at all. But the internet was a huge help with some key shots. Still hoping the liquid mask is holding on the windscreen. It has been on there for a long time. The view through the blisters is going to be cool. Here is a view you never get to see of a Catalina. It kind of reminds me of a blue whale... There is so much detail that could be added to the waists of these aircraft since there is so much open space. Not sure it is worth detailing the cockpit or the rest of the aircraft as so little can be seen.

Hey Martin, You have the best pictures. The wiper blades are molded onto the windscreen, so we will see how well the masks worked to paint the wipers. I have a feeling it will look way too fat. There were not any masks available for the nose turret, so I winged it best as I could with small pieces of tape, and liquid mask. HOPEFULLY the liquid mask worked for the front of the turret and the top as well. Thanks for the photo, it helps immensely. Interestingly, I've never seen the 'bubble' shown in the picture on the nose turret. Maybe I just missed it, but it is not part of the kit's piece. I can already see where I have masks on the front of the turret, but in the picture you sent it is metal (around the gun port). The kit instructions were hopeless but I should have done better research for the masking. Thanks again, Chris

Thanks Peter! Definitely is motivating that things are moving forward!!

Thanks, Rob. I wonder how many of us got into snorkeling and diving because of Cousteau and became much more aware of our water world? His and the family's impact is enormous! Chris

Peter, Thanks for the vote of confidence! Hopefully this will be up to snuff: Dry fitted the engines to the wing and the fit is very good. Exhausts still need to be painted but will be added last. Did some seam work on the leading edge of the wing. Also shows me that the inside of the engine cowlings need to be painted! Next up was to get some of the glass attached. Spent yesterday painting the glass (about 20 coats!!!) and then just letting it dry completely. I THINK it is opaque enough not to let light through. The blisters turned out to be easier than expected. Masked the inside where the windows are but painted the inside of the blister where the windows are not to prevent the show-through. The windows actually have a lip (which restricted the opening of the window)that provided a convenient place to glue the window to the blister. This is the view from the inside, which sadly shows a white glue spot inside the window. Hopefully it will dry VERY clear. The fit and the look is pretty good - dry fitted for now and in need of touch-up paint. With the blisters in place (not glued in yet) the rest of the fuselage and finally get painted. Finally!! Spent some time on the front as well. The canopy is mostly secured, but waiting for the Formula 560 to fully cure, then will finish the job. The canopy fits, after trimming the rear cockpit bulkhead, and the nose turret hopefully will in stay in place with the little bit of gluing surface available. It literally just sits in place. Will be interesting to paint the rope molded into the nose of the aircraft, the bumpers and the cleats. Unusual for an aircraft! The fit of the rudder to the tail isn't too bad after all. The rudder is narrower than the tail, as it is on the actual aircraft. Painted black, it should not be too bad. The rudder, after a bit of trimming of the tail, fits pretty closely. Definitely having patience with the sanding sticks, and having flat sanding sticks, is a huge help to getting the rudder to fit properly. Fitted the elevators, but they hang a bit (NOT a tight fit) so in the photo they look a little bit like the Phantom's, pointing down. But, after spending a bit of time with some soft sanding sticks, the fit to the tail is actually pretty tight. Likely will still need some filler, but much happier with the fit than originally. The jury is still out regarding if the tail is worth the effort. The panel lines on the resin tail do not even come close to matching the lines on the fuselage, the resin is kind of rough in spots, the fit under the fuselage is off. And for the solid tail - the weight is not insignificant. No clue what the issues are (if any) of the hollow/two part tail update. Not sure the old, solid tail is worth the effort. I wonder if Mr. Belcher would swap the old version for the new one? Getting close to putting all the pieces together! We are expecting snowy, icy weather on Saturday so sounds like a good build day. Whew!

Carl, We all hit these lulls, just be patient and you'll get thought it. I'm trying to get out of one myself - life issues and such interfering. The bench is always there waiting for us! Looking good, keep it up! Chris

Very interesting start, John, looking forward to your build! Chris

Quick update, and sorry but no photos, yet. Working on getting the parts ready for paint, starting with the cowlings and the props. Want to get paint on the clear parts so figuring out the strategy for how to deal with those blisters and the windows in the blisters. The props were a lot of work with LOTS of clean-up and mold lines to deal with and an injector mark on the inside of each prop blade. Each prop also had a line to designate where the yellow tips go. Now gone. Amazingly, Monogram did a really nice job with where the sprue attachments points are on the engine cowlings : NOT on panel lines! So much easier to deal with. The other work area was working with the elevators and the resin tail. working with the elevators I think the profiles match with the tail now. I could not figure out how to hold them in place and take a picture, without a ton of tape. The tail is wider than the kit tail, which means it will be sticking out a bit wider than the kit tail/rudder combination. We will have to see how much of an issue that becomes - and after trying to find some pictures showing how wide the tail/rudder actually is. Sorry for the lack of progress! Chris

That's true! It would not really work with Vallejo. Used a few of the Tamiya acrylics many years ago but I was never very consistent with them so I gave them up. There are so many good paints out there now.

Gary, Excellent fix for the stanchions! So frustrating when a tool doesn't quite work up to how it is supposed to work. But your resourcefulness won out in the end. Not sure I would have thought about the .7mm option. The boat is really looking spiffy. I have Mr. Color SLT, too, but actually don't use it very much. MRP doesn't need it and I have not tried it with Vallejo. I used to use a retarder with the Vallejo and ran into the same problem you did - paint drying times were greatly extended - far longer than I was expecting. But for brush painting I can see where it would probably eliminate brush strokes. Hmmm.

I don't even know what that is!!!

Kev, Really stunning! You'll need to post a series of detail photos so we can see all the goodies in their final splendor and glory. Nicely done!

Ernie, The Decals and paint are looking really good. The hard-line camo also looks good. These birds saw a lot of wear and tear, and field maintenance. Whatever you do, it will look good!

Ernie, Definitely glad to hear you and everyone is fine. Scary how destructive the weather can be, with very little notice! That hail was amazing.

I just looked it up on Amazon. Mine is just over 5 years old. Wow!!

This is the LED magnifying light I use: it has buttons to change the color profile of the light, but most of the time I just go for full illumination on both the red and blue buttons. It actually has two rows of LEDs, Red and Blue (ish, not really red or blue, more warm and cool) and five degrees of adjustment for each one. The light is good, the adjustment of the head is so so. But it is LED and it is very bright. But I would love to also have a wider LED light for the overall workbench.

Whoa, I dont think I've ever seen that aircraft, or that model for that matter. I didn't realize one of his son's was killed in the plane. ugh... Thanks for sharing. Chris

JC had a Catalina?!?!! I'll have to look that one up! I watched his shows all the time, and started diving back in 1972 after watching his dives. Very cool!! On to the build: So, the resin tail is the gift that keeps on, well, 'GIVING' is not exactly the right phrase. Finally test fitted the elevators (after clipping off the locating tabs, per the Belcher Bits instructions) and found the profiles of the tail and the elevators are VASTLY different. Yay. The original tail has grooves to fit the elevators. The resin tail's surfaces are flat. This is a pretty big difference and the fit of the elevators, after correcting their profile, is not terrific. The tail surfaces are curved, it is just that the resin tail's curve does not quite match that of the styrene pieces. Something that will take a bit of thought on how best to adapt. An additional challenge is that after having to cut the tabs that were on the elevators, the entire mating surface is this mis-matched curve. It will be necessary to carefully fit the elevators in order to make a strong join. And as with the rest of the build, the elevators are not small. Oh yeah, started work on the engines as well! The cowlings are pretty tight, so not a lot will be seen. Started with a base of aluminum, then did a black wash over the cylinder heads to pull out the detail. Painted the push rods with a gloss black and the covers with a medium/dark gray. Tried two things here I have not tried before: Tried the Molotow Blackliner pens on the pushrods but found the 'ink' or whatever it is, tends to bead-up on the existing silver paint. Really beads up on bare plastic. And the black is very flat. Then was going to use the Liquid Chrome Molotow pen to pick out the bolts on the cover, but the point is far too big for that task and I wasn't willing to take a razor knife to cut it down. So not great progress this evening. Sometimes that happens!

Thanks Gary and Rob. I appreciate it!. I'm happy the bird is coming together but wish I had more time on the workbench. Hopefully this weekend. Time to get back to the spray booth and get the clear parts painted and attached. Then there is that wing...