CANicoll

Thanks gents! Took a break for a week to try and get caught up on other things, but hopefully will be a bit more consistent for a while. Nice to get back to the bench actually. Working on both ends of the plane tonight, After getting the resin tail attached and blended into the fuselage, time to work on the rudder. Cleaned up the join as that is where the pour plugs are (sorry no picture of that). As you can see, the fitting is VERY tight - too much so - and big gaps. There are a number of points that need to be cleaned up on that resin tail. Have not tried to fit the elevators yet. A little bit of sanding and things look a bit better. More sanding resulted in a better fit. After getting the rudder fitted to the tail and ready for paint, moved back to the nose of the Catalina. After taking a mm or two out of the pilots, the canopy fitted better, but was sitting proud towards the rear. Had to do a bit of sanding on the bulkhead behind the pilots. Now the canopy fits pretty much flush to the fuselage. The nose turret fits pretty well. The Eduard masks are only for the observation nose glass, not the 'bug-eye' nose turret. So this is just ZM tape cut to match the panels on the clear plastic. But yeah, hamfisted sanding the bulkhead and knocked over one of the pilots: Drunken pilot! Did some test fitting to see what the waist blisters would look like and how they would work with the windows retracted. This is going to work! There are not really any positive attachment points inside the blisters for the retractable window so it will be interesting to see how the windows will ultimately get attached. But there is plenty of clearance for the waist gunner. So that is fun - Should work out! And since the rudder can be dry-fitted, maybe its time to see the silhouette of the big bird. Not sure the resin tail makes that much of a difference without a direct comparison. Maybe will pull out the 1/72 Cat in the display case to compare. The tail looks almost as big as one on a Helldiver! More to come! Chris

Gentlemen, thank you!! In 1/48 scale the figures are so small so it is more showing the gist of what they pilots are doing. Thanks for the comments!!

Finally just bit the bullet, sat down, and figured it out. Its not 100% perfect, but with the canopy closing this will hide many of the imperfections. Win Win!! After spending too much time trying to fit the figure to the steering wheels, flipped the script. It actually worked out pretty close. The arm placement is kind of random but actually is probably more natural looking instead of having all four hands tightly on the wheels. The pilot on the right has had its head removed and turned slightly to his left - like he is looking out the window. They do sit a little proud in their seats, still. Hopefully with a bit of adjusting still will not have an issue getting the canopy to sit tight. Both steering wheels were actually a mm or two away from the bar so fabricated a piece to span the distance for the pilot, and just used some CA for the co-pilot's wheel. Doubt much of this will be seen anyway. Next step is to construct some tape shoulder belts to go from the seat to the pilot's shoulders. Not sure how much will be seen, but I think it will be visible through one of the many windows for the canopy. Also, getting the waist gunners set up. Still figuring out the window situation. But at least some progress, Finally!!

Peter, Now that is a beauty! Well done and none of the trials and tribulations took anything away from your excellent work. And you are STILL first to complete your build. Gotta love Dana Bell - the man knows his stuff. I agree with Mike - this should be the cover art picture. Excellent choice of background color, too. Really sets off the plane. Another build to be proud of. Congrats! Chris

Super work!! Love the PE, since I'll never do anything nearly as detailed (or tiny!).

Hmm, I will see about the fit, but leaving the 'window' off is certainly an option I had not considered - thanks for suggesting. Definitely the parts are way over scale and I agree with Rob that maybe just leaving them off is best. Peter - fitting the figures is giving me fits and definitely slowing me down. I'll sit down and fiddle with it, find that I have another variable to deal with and decide to hold off for a while. (for example, once the torso is attached to the legs, then it's a matter of attaching the arms so the hands are on the steering wheel(s), which have come off the steering column for better or worse). Thinking of starting another build but can't clear my head enough to figure out what to start next. Maybe tomorrow will bring more clarity and motivation.

Sasha, Beautiful and thanks for the updates. Your cockpits are amazing. Love the detail and your weathering is very well done. Very few people weather props well but you have cracked the code. Looks good. The black looks nice so far and there is a lot more surface detail than I thought for this kit. Thanks for sharing! Chris

Did some test fitting and will have two potential problems to address this weekend. First, not sure how to address the blister window. It slides up under the blister itself, but there are not any points to adhere the window to. I'll get some better pictures but the other problem is that I'm going to have to paint the window first, THEN assemble the window into the blister securing it to SOMETHING inside there, and then paint the blister. The second problem is fitting the pilots. Probably should have ground down the seats but may need to cut out some of the middle of the pilots (which will be easy since they are cut in half already). Test fitting showed the canopy fits onto the fuselage, and the pilots heads just barely touch or maybe just barely clearing the canopy overhead. Just need to make sure there is additional clearance for the engine controls which are mounted on the canopy roof. All of this has slowed down work on the Cat, for some reason. I COULD have masked and painted the wing insignia, but I like to spray all of the insignia at the same time to ensure color consistency. More to come!

Really nice work on the adaptation! Not sure I would have thought of that. Thanks for the pictures!

Rob, your skill with the Flying Bridge PE and all that brass is amazing. Can't wait to see this progressing. And yeah, have also had some issues using Thin CA. Mostly ending up on my fingers. I also now use an applicator to apply it (the very few times I use it). Since I do very little small PE work and what I do is pretty basic compared to your work, I tend to use CA gel. A lot! Not sure how useful you would find it. Sadly, I can't add anything to the Hi-Fi discussion. My most sophisticated stereo setup was an MCS stereo from JC Penny's (a department store). And the ones in my vehicles. I do like my music which tends heavily to rock music from the 70's, 80's etc. I'm sure I'd be very happy listening to what you and Hubert listen to. Must be our age!

Mike, A build log! Great idea. I've also annotated the instructions but since I don't (usually) build in order, I can miss my notes. So a build log makes an awful lot of sense! I get you on maintaining the mojo. But I usually just have two builds going so I can switch back and forth. How you keep up the amazing work after so long is amazing. Great job! Chris

Peter, It is such as great looking aircraft with so many different marking options. On the wish list!

Thanks Gary! Much appreciated! Glad I'm done so can spend more time on the Get Wet GB, and the next build. Have to figure that one out tho. What next?!

Thanks Peter! This was a warmup for a SEA F-4 Phantom, trying different things out. I do wish there was a really good Voodoo kit out there!

Beautiful!! Nice job on the LT4, that looks like such a nice, clean fit. I have to agree, the chrome on that Vette is too beautiful to black out. Kids these days! But nice line of work your son is in. Well done dad!

Mike, TEN builds??? I've gotten TWO builds confused, and you have other wood builds too. How do you keep them organized?? The walrus will be a very interesting build. BTW, those aren't ejector pin marks, its styrene acne. That's just terrible engineering these days. How much will you see from the outside? The windows look as small as the ones on the Catalina - hence can't see anything except through the blisters. You certainly have a wide range of interests!! I have two submarine kits and am not even to the point of THINKING about cracking them open. Chris

TWO steering wheels! Oh man. My dad had a Mobil Station which I worked at starting when I was 12 years old. Oh yeah, I crushed some number of cardboard oil cans in my day! And also checking the oil, the air filter (on the TOP of the engine - can you imagine such a thing!!), and the level of the water in the battery. Those oil spouts looked like a dangerous tool! The kids these days have never driven a vehicle with manual steering, manual brakes (drum brakes!) and most can't drive a manual trans. My oldest son, 29, drives a manual. Loves it!

I have an AccessPort now that tunes my car and it is amazing the wide range performance I can get out of it. Crazy...

Those were the days. You played with the timing by turning the distributor by hand. Changed the jets in the carb to get more fuel flowing. Now it is all about the ECM tuning, and turbos are electrically controlled. I can't even find my spark plugs these days...

Thanks, Peter! I'll keep working on them to see if I can do better.

Thanks Gents! The worst part is the pilots will not be that visible under the canopy. Oh well!

I'm not quite up to making my own figures, but appreciate the thoughts, guys. Swapping heads would have been a pretty good idea. Here is where I'm at so far: These guys just look horrible close up! Arrgh. Hopefully the pilots look a bit better! Testing the fit and it is TIGHT. These are the kit figures and had to remove one of the 'steering wheels' to get the legs to fit. Arms, well, they will be another story... Painted now, and glued into place with some white glue so I can move them later if necessary. And both halves. Once the pilots are in place, I'll construct seatbelts to the cockpit seats. Getting there! Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone. Italy gave England a late run but came up short in the Seven Nations Championship. Chris

Thanks Rob and Gary - Now that the poses are basically correct, and I have a better idea of what detail can be seen, I'll do the painting in earnest. Rob - thanks for the link, I didn't see anything there, but it did give me the idea to check out Hannants as SB didn't have any tropical figures that I could find. Was hoping to maybe find a maintenance crew/ground crew set. I'm sure there is one out there. Phil, Figures are something I need to get better at. Hoping Gary/@gazzas does a tutorial on how he does his masterful work! She will be 'in flight' but the dio I was thinking of is just too big to do. In 1/144 maybe!

We definitely have come a long way but it is good to see that some of the old kits still hav some life left in them. I just wish there was a bit more AM for them to really spruce them up. Thanks for the comment!

Did a bit of adjusting of arms (heating over a candle) to try and get a more realistic pose to the crewmen. Since the idea is this is a search and rescue mission, these guys would be looking out their blisters for downed crewmen, as well as potentially airborne threats. These pics are before some touch-up but after (for this poor fellow) some surgery on his left arm to position it down. Right arm was straightened to brace against the blister. This guy is leaning over his machine gun and his right arm will rest on the internal framing by the blister. Did some touch-up painting, trying to replicate a pretty severe tan, as well as faded uniforms. Will keep playing with the skin tone, but the uniforms look a LOT better to the eye than close-up in these pics. My figure work leaves a LOT to be desired, for sure!, Ugh, these look bad!!