The Officially Shameless PBY/Halloween '09 GB

Nam,

Welcome back.  Glad to hear you're doing better.

I wish to thank you ALL for keeping this GB alive while I battled a easily beatable cancer. I am still catching up all around the forums.....but you folks have kept the spirit and have been turning in great work!

I am very proud of you!

MKelley wrote:

After a very busy couple of months, repairing the basement ceiling from fozen pipes, my online courses taking a lot of my free time, my honey do list, weddings, birthdays, work, and general lazines. I have picked up the exacto knife again and began working on the PBY. I will have her finished before the end of the build. Just wanted you guys to know that I had not fell off the face of the earth.

Glad to see you back Mkelley and to see some activity happening here!!!! I myself don't think that I am going to be able to get my build going! Have too many irons in the fire as it is. But won't give up hope just yet. Looking forward to seeing some pics!!!!

MKelley wrote:

After a very busy couple of months, repairing the basement ceiling from fozen pipes, my online courses taking a lot of my free time, my honey do list, weddings, birthdays, work, and general lazines. I have picked up the exacto knife again and began working on the PBY. I will have her finished before the end of the build. Just wanted you guys to know that I had not fell off the face of the earth.

Frozen pipes!!! Yikes. Hmmmm, even in Michigan I wouldn't expect frozen pipes in July! Haha...well I can't wait to see your efforts...I've generally noticed the group builds tend to trail off in the summer months. 

Tony

Agreed Tony, and you only make these mistakes once. Perhaps someone out there will read this and hopefully avoid the same pitfalls we have encountered.

Cheers

Sunnas wrote:

I had tried not to touch them for fear of damaging the burnt iron finish, and had kinda assumed they would be a drop-in replacement at the end. I was mistaken! They were far too long and

Haha...yes, that's why I asked. My PBY build is the 2nd time I've used moskit exhausts. My first experience with a Ju-87 build taught me that moskit makes these a bit on the longish side and they are definately not drop in replacements. They look great and are easily trimmed to size with a sharp xacto blade, but definately need some foresight when using them.

Tony

Thanks for your kind words chaps. I enjoyed building this well engineered kit very much.

Tony, yes they are the Moskit 'fishtail' exhausts, and it's funny you asked

I had tried not to touch them for fear of damaging the burnt iron finish, and had kinda assumed they would be a drop-in replacement at the end. I was mistaken! They were far too long and slightly too wide in diameter! If I had've test fitted earlier in the build I would have found this out and probably drilled large holes at the bottom of the indentations designed to hold the exhaust. I would have then fed the extra length into those holes and gone from there.

I want to point out that had I tried to fit them much earlier in the build, then this probably have not really been an issue and the modifications pretty low key. I blame my haste rather than Moskit. As there are no instructions supplied, I had assumed a drop-in situation. 

As it was, I decided the path of least resistance would be to try and modify the soft brass rather than drilling and scraping on the almost-finished model. I was forced to bring out my etch scissors (like fine curved nail scissors)and carefully trim about 10mm from the end of the tube. I also had to cut the tube on a 45 deg angle so it would fit appropriately. This was not easy and nor was it neat. I managed to hid most of the carnage but there is still some evident!

The moral of the story? Test fit, test fit, test fit. And early!

nick

Sunnas wrote:

Well, it's taken a long time but I finally got there. Back from the dead, here is my Promodeller PBY-5A in 1/48, with aftermarket engines, cockpit, wheels and exhausts. The bow rope was replaced with wire, MVP lenses and brake lines added along with a bit of etch. It's finished as A24-104, ZA-T, from 111 Air Sea Rescue Flight RAAF in New Guinea early 1945. Toward then end I just wanted to finish it and so I made a few mistakes, especially in the paint chipping which got a bit out of hand! In any case, I'm not unhappy with it. It needs a few more little things to finish but is 99% there. Eventually I will make a suitably grubby setting for it. nick

Great work Nick! The detail work in particular. Are the fishtail exhausts the Moskit set? If so, I'm curious how you liked working with them?

 cheers,

Tony

Well, it's taken a long time but I finally got there. Back from the dead, here is my Promodeller PBY-5A in 1/48, with aftermarket engines, cockpit, wheels and exhausts. The bow rope was replaced with wire, MVP lenses and brake lines added along with a bit of etch.

It's finished as A24-104, ZA-T, from 111 Air Sea Rescue Flight RAAF in New Guinea early 1945. Toward then end I just wanted to finish it and so I made a few mistakes, especially in the paint chipping which got a bit out of hand! In any case, I'm not unhappy with it. It needs a few more little things to finish but is 99% there. Eventually I will make a suitably grubby setting for it.

All the best

nick

Holy smokes!  For some reason I didn't get any e-mails showing the posting here!  I thought  things had hibernated but wow!

 Hot Pb! That is one tough looking PBY!  I really like your work with the ventral at gun and ordinance!  It really turned out sharply! ery sorry for being so slow to reply!

Bondo that looks like it flew right out the movie!  The colors had to be tough!  Mine woulda turned out pink!  I can't say how well I think it turned out and very clever photography! It could pass for a real aircraft on the Tarmac!  I Always new you were smarter than the average bear!

Very spectacular looking work on both counts fellows!  Rumor has it that there is a 1/72 scale steering yoke part in his basket! 

bondoman wrote:

Here comes my entry into the GB. The Super Cat, as modified by Slafco and featured in the film "Always". Originally a PBY-5A, she was retrofitted with R-2600 engines, a new fore deck and a larger rudder.

Spectacular work Bondo! Well done....  

And the photography is outstanding...you got the scaling perfectly.

Here comes my entry into the GB. The Super Cat, as modified by Slafco and featured in the film "Always". Originally a PBY-5A, she was retrofitted with R-2600 engines, a new fore deck and a larger rudder.

My model started with the Academy 1/72 PBY-5A "Black Cat", and included Draw Decals set for the aircraft, new engines, cowlings and props from a donor Italeri B-25, kit bashed nacelles, resin tires to replace the really inexplicable Academy rubber ones, and a scratch built rudder. Eduard masks, which are wrong for the blisters but will have to do.

This took a fair amount of time but I'm pretty happy with it.

Photographed at Buchanan Airfield, Concord CA, May 2009.

Thanks for looking.

Nam I hope you are following this. This one is for you, my friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkE24axSBTI

Division 6 wrote:

That turned out great. Love all the little details on the guns and the torp. Where did you get the feed shoots for the guns?   Eric...

 Thanks Eric...the guns are the 1/48 Aires waist guns to which I added the Eduard 0.50 cal photoetched ammon belts.

Tony

That turned out great.

Love all the little details on the guns and the torp.

Where did you get the feed shoots for the guns?

Eric... 

All Done!!!

Haha...finally. For me, this one took me quite a while and I was eager to get it finished up and move on to my other builds. In retrospect I'd have done a couple of things differently, but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Here's some pics I took this morning...thanks for looking.

Tony

Here's an update. This has turned out to be a great project. Airliner/ firebomber/ highly modified.

I like kit bashes, so I took on the nose, the rudder, and the upgraded 2600 engines.

That took a lot of time.

The only AM was: the resin wheels and eduard masks. And decals.

Donor parts; a B-25 from the bargain bin at the LHS that yielded a set of R2600's, props and cowlings.

Life goes on. I'm at about 100 hours, and am close to "I'm calling it done", but still have a whole project with vhf/ uhf and cell phone antennas all over the cockpit.

More later.

Where's the BVD?

Just found this tiny pic as well.

Here are the torpedo rack pix I have.

Eric... 

Yeah. I'm not really worried about the hole since it's will be sitting so low to the ground and it's hidden behind the wheel.

Eric...