Peterpools Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 Chris Glad to see you're at the painting stages and working out a POA - which is so important. I fully appreciate the work and effort the rudder and tail required, after playing around with the Spitfires replacement resin ailerons which needed a lot of work to fit, I went the easy route and glued them in place, slightly deflected with medium thick CCA. If they fail to stay in place, I'll have to go the route of brass rod 🙃. Yup, the glass is going to be a delicate operation but my money is riding on you. Looking forward to the first round of photographs as the Big Cat works her way through the paint shop. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 9, 2023 Author Share Posted March 9, 2023 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! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 Very fine progress with the big Cat Chris. I was a fan of the Cousteau films and I started to snorkle, after I saw some of his footage. I was well aware that his son died in a PBY and was very sad at the time. Cousteaus Cat was my first encounter with the plane and I immediately fell in love with it and part of my juvenile thinking was enjoying the spirit of freedom, this plane and the adventures of their owners emanated. Your work on the blisters will pay, as they are the focal point of every Catalina build. Cheers Rob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 9, 2023 Author Share Posted March 9, 2023 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 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 Chris Amazing progress and all that sweat, worrying and hard work is paying off. Canopies and glass look good and the PVA will dry clear. The engines do look so good now in their homes and I just knew you would work the empennage assemblies into place and they do look good. Your Big Cat has made the turn on is pointed in the home stretch now. 👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 9, 2023 Author Share Posted March 9, 2023 Thanks Peter! Definitely is motivating that things are moving forward!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 Hi Chris , just catching up with your build. lots of great work on the big tail conversion. A have a question about masking, what is going on around those wiper blades cutouts ? Also, is the front portion of the nose turret going to be painted? Should be transparent. Cheers Martin 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 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 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy1 VX-4 Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 52 minutes ago, Martinnfb said: Thanks for the photo Martin!!! as Chris said above , never seen a bubble like that over the cats eye turret!!! Also like that it doesn’t have the tie off Cleat on the port side (It’s missing ) That’s the hole just under the gun barrels 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 I see now, sorry about the confusing bubble turret and dumb question I should have paid more attention :). Few motivational pictures of an eyeball turret pby.html 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 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. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 Chris Hang in there as your making terrific progress. I think the photograph of the wing with the worn off paint would be from water spray during takeoffs and landings, especially in salt water. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy1 VX-4 Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 On 3/9/2023 at 5:25 PM, Martinnfb said: I see now, sorry about the confusing bubble turret and dumb question I should have paid more attention :). Few motivational pictures of an eyeball turret pby.html 381.22 kB · 1 download On some photos of the gun turret the flanges around the gun barrels are plexa glass or painted black. Also most AC have the painted black sold back roof turret. Your photo is the first I have seen with that bubble clear top!!!!! Thanks for posting that Martin I have found one other PBY-5. early with that Bubble top in a photo and it is in formation flight 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belugawhaleman Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Nice work on the PBY. Still watching with interest. Good stuff! Too bad there isn't a good, modern kit of this bird.....you know, one that average modelers can successfully build. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 11, 2023 Author Share Posted March 11, 2023 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! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 2 hours ago, Vandy1 VX-4 said: On some photos of the gun turret the flanges around the gun barrels are plexa glass or painted black. Also most AC have the painted black sold back roof turret. Your photo is the first I have seen with that bubble clear top!!!!! Thanks for posting that Martin I have found one other PBY-5. early with that Bubble top in a photo and it is in formation flight Hopefully Chris won't mind if I post this Canso build cat turret here 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belugawhaleman Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 2 minutes ago, Martinnfb said: Hopefully Chris won't mind if I post this Canso build cat turret here Jeeez...that's one formidable PBY! Really, Martin, you find the best pictures! 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlrwestSiR Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Catching up on your PBY Chris and you're really moving along. Glad to see the tail is coming together, especially after all the extra work. Definitely a big plane. End of the month, I'll be at Heritagecon which is at CWHM and they have a Canso. I'll see if I can grab some pics while I'm there even if it a bit late for your build. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 11, 2023 Author Share Posted March 11, 2023 That would be awesome, thanks! I've never seen this modification on a Cat before so this is very interesting. SIX machine guns in the nose? Wow, a water-borne P-38 basically! 9 hours ago, Martinnfb said: Hopefully Chris won't mind if I post this Canso build cat turret here Never mind your pics, they are great! Thanks for posting! I wonder what putting all that weight on the nose of the plane did for the balance of the aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Chris Just seems to be one of those projects where there is always one more thing to do. The Big Cat has turned into quite a build and lot of work. So glad you keep moving forward and tackling each as they come. Nice work on redoing the tail and a nice solution for getting the horizontal stabilizers to sit at the correct dihedral for gluing and drying. (I made a note to myself to give it a try when needed). Seems some manufacturers just have issues with the canopy fit and it does take a lot of work to get them to fit and my Revell Spit has its canopy issues as well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HubertB Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Great progress, Chris. Regarding the tailplanes, should they not be perfectly horizontal, rather than with the slight dihedral you have glued them with ? Hubert 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Pretty weathered surface. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANicoll Posted March 12, 2023 Author Share Posted March 12, 2023 Martin, The tail planes are probably a bit flatter than they appear in the pictures but are not as perfectly flat as they should be. I'll see what I can do about that. VERY interesting that the wing float is perfectly black, while the rest of the aircraft is weathered. A new float maybe? Here she sits: The elevators do have a bit of a dihedral. 😞 Main wing is just sitting on its fuselage pylon. That is quite the wingspan... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 Chris, This build is looking great. I'm looking forward to seeing the masking off. The big resin tail has me concerned about the effects of gravity. But all in all, yer nailing it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 What's not to like about a Cat. It's build for purpose and that shows with lots of interesting details, blisters, turret, radar, wheels and floats, along with endless weathering possibilities. The way your build develops, all this will show and display a great model with lots of detail to please the eye. I can't wait to see your progress on this great project. Cheers Rob 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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