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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

ProModeler 1/48 PBY-5A Catalina + Goodies, RFI


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7 hours ago, KevinM said:

.Chris might be a bit much 24 pages but this guy is the one who went crazy on the 1/48 Cat lots of other info/pics from WWII ;)

 

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/done-1-48-consolidated-pby-5-catalina-commonwealth-gb.26851/

 

That diorama must be huge!  Can't believe he did the conversion (scratch built the landing gear??), lighting, scratch extras, and diorama in only 3 1/2 months.  Would take me 3 1/2 years!

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Making progress on two fronts - the Catalina and also the Voodoo. Have masks ordered for all of the clear parts on the Cat, as well as another bottle of Black primer which will also likely be the main coat for the bird.  SB was kind enough to let me know that they expected the masks in the coming week (and they came in yesterday!) so got my order in.

Been working with the IP, trying to highlight the gauges and, this is really embarrassing, just realized there is a DECAL to use.  :hsmack:  Will get to that shortly here!

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The Cat references seem to show a pretty blah cockpit - not a lot of color other than green.  Hoping to come up with some placards or SOMETHING to brighten up the front office a bit.  Seems like the plane was assembled, then the paint folks came in (was going to say guys, but more than likely it was women doing the work!) and sprayed everything.  Definitely will work on some washes and some other detailing.  Yes, the ejector pin marks are an embarrassment.  Will see about those and what will be visible.

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Starting work on the waist gun section- with the black non-slip applied to the walkways.  This area will be pretty visible so hoping to really get some nice detail in there.  Lots of clean-up to do yet.  The piece at the bottom is the seat for the nose gunner.

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Dry fitted the seats after doing a bit more painting.  REALLY hate the idea of covering up all that great detail - after starting to paint the seatbelts.  Ha ha!  But, there is more bulkhead painting to do here to liven things up a bit.  If only a bi.

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More later!

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Here is the late update...

So, yeah.  That IP decal.  It slid off the paper just fine.  And that is the end of the happiness.  So for your viewing pleasure, this gives you an idea of what happened next:

Under the dictionary definition of 'decal fracturing' this image appears:

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So this MIGHT be a good time for me to try out masking the national insignia.  There are not many markings on a Black Cat anyway.

Back to the IP - trying to remember the tried and true skill of dry-brushing...  I spent way too much time trying to find my AirScale instrument decals (which somehow have gone missing(!) and then decided at 1/48 scale it would drive me nutty putting over 20 decals on this panel... Plus, I'm not really sure what a bunch of them are anyway.  For a Mustang, you can find anything.  Catalina?  Not so much...

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Worked on the cockpit trying to pull a bit more detail into the sea of green.  I'm really lacking much in the way of color references other than current planes and restoration efforts - some of which contradict each other in terms of colors used.

The idea is that the seated pilots will obscure the seatbelts, but I'll add tape belts to go from the seat to the figures.

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That's it for tonight!

 

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16 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

Bummer with the decals. Try Microscale Liquid Decal Film?

Hey Scott - I've never masked the national insignia so maybe now is the time.  And what better aircraft to do it?  All black!!!  The insignia should be a medium gray if I remember correctly.  If I screw it up, I just paint over it and try again.  :lol:

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Well, already had to fix a problem I created.  I'm blaming really vague instructions, but also, I should have done some dry fitting before gluing the sidewalls in place.  Fortunately, the fix was not that hard.

This sidewall ended up too far aft, meaning it blocked the bulkhead behind the cockpit from sitting flush against the fuselage.

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The other side, fortunately, was already far enough forward - from trying to match the cockpit window outline.

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The fix was pretty easy, just remove back of the resin sidewall with a razor knife.  

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And the next step is to get the Dremel tool out and shave down those huge ejector pin marks.

Took the opportunity to hand paint around the gauges with a flat black and put a drop of clear on the gauges.

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That is the highlight of the evening!

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Thanks Peter and Gary!  I was hoping to make more progress and maybe actually close up the fuselage last night, but it was not to be.  Maybe tonight!

Still trying to get a bit more color into the cockpit but also not really sure how much of this will actually be visible anyway.

Chris

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Next stage was to work on the interior - cleaning up some of those huge Ejector pin marks and get the bulkheads installed. Took a bit of fitting but things MOSTLY went right.  For some reason put the wheel well interior section in.  Mostly in case something was actually visible through the tiny windows.  It will be very dark in there once the fuselage is closed up.  Notice the opening for a small window into the wheel well.

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The red lid is to the toilet - in pictures it is really green, but what the heck.  The waist machine guns get added after the fuselage is closed up.

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The fuselage looks like it will come together pretty well.  The main landing gear is a one-piece insert on each side of the fuselage.  

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There is a fit problem at the bottom.  Under the cockpit are the doors for the nose gear.  In-flight this is one piece which looks like it is a bit long for the opening in the fuselage.  The fit has been pretty tight in all of the previous test fittings so maybe with some work it will slot in ok.  Will look at it tomorrow or Friday.

Looks like there is a mooring rope molded into the fuselage nose.

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More to come!

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Chris

Nice work on finishing up the Big Cat's interior and I do like the red toilet bowl cover - adds a nice bit of color and interest for those that know. 

Yup, something surely is out of alignment in the nose end ... fingers crossed it won't be too hard to correct. 

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Thanks Peter and Gary.  I'm going to try and tackle it tonight - it got too late last night and we all know doing these things when you are tired is just asking for disaster.  I think the left side resin sidewall might be catching the bulkhead on that side.  I'll see if that is actually the case - but either way I think the fix will be fairly easy.  Worst case - I will grind off part of that bulkhead to ensure there is no interference.

We will see!  Oh, the masks for the Cat are 'Out for Delivery', and this also includes the Tan MRP for the Voodoo build.  Yay!  

Chris

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1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Nice progress Chris. Looks like the nose gear door might have some interference causing the fit to change. Should be an easy fix. 

Thank you!  Actually you were right - a little bit of gentle pushing and pulling and it pretty much snapped into place.  No cutting!  Thanks!

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