pby fire fighter

Ardvark, this looks like a pretty tough modification. More than just taking out the turret.

A lot of pictures I looked at had a nice slope from the windscreen to the nose with the bomb aimer's window covered with sheet metal. Probablyhave to take out the whole top of the nose and build up the area with styrene and putty, to get the shape you want. This is just one of the many pictures I found of a PBY with a modified nose. Just do a search for PBY water bomber.

I did one a while back. If you can find the 1/72 Revell Cousteau kit it's a big help because it has the 6 tail, like Franks picture.

The nose is about what Frank described, but it's not hard.

The other major change for my model, a Super PBY from the movie "Always", tanker 53, is the R2600s and cowls. I picked up a cheap B-25 on eBay for that.

I had to build up my own tail, but it wasn't too hard with the right drawings

The Revell Cousteau PBY also has the faired over nose with no turret. 

Ardvark, I recently bought a Hasegawa P2V-7 (P-2H) Neptune to build one of the fire fighting Neptunes of Neptune Aviation in Missoula, MT. Neptune is all jet now but their tanker #10 is now the gate guardian for Missoula International. The build will test my scratch building skills to the limit most likely with the deletion of the underside radome, top turret, and shortening the stinger tail plus building the hopper for the fire retardent.

Please keep us informed of your progress on this build. I'm sure some of us will want to try to duplicate your build. Now I'm going to go looking for the Revell Cousteau PBY!

Rather than a great gob of filler, I'd cut a block of soft wood, like basswood or poplar, into the cavity after removing the turret, and just use the filler to blend the wood into the plastic.  This will take a bit of carving of the block.  Try to get the block to approximate size and shape before gluing it in, then fine carve to bring it right down to fuselage surface.

I took an approach as though I was building a hull, which seemed appropriate.

Warning, the following photos are gruesome and not suitable for small children.

Cut out the forward deck area.

Added some cross formers to shape the new turtle deck. You can also see I built up the fairings behind the engines, which got bigger firewalls.

Then I planked both areas with styrene and lots of CA glue.

Lots of chopping and rebuilding for the Super cat tail. Somebody like Belcher made a resin one, but I couldn't find it.

And, here's the decal set if you are looking for it.

ardvark,

Check out this video

https://youtu.be/4KGdP9_DHwY

I may help with the plane layout.

GM - That is some real nice scratch building on your "scooper"

ardvark002

GMorrison, Thank you for your reply. I'm going to try and find the revell kit. I'm also modeling from "Always" I thought the 53 was a Neptune, not a B-25. I guess I'll have to watch the movie again. Your info is gratefully appericated. Aardvark

 

He is talking about the engines on the PBY. They were originally built with 1200hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830s. Most PBYs used as tankers were upgraded into "Super Cats" by retrofitting more powerful 1700hp Wright R-2600 engines, which can be found in the B-25.

The other tanker in Always was a Douglas B-26 (A-26). 

I think a C-119 makes a brief appearance and maybe a Ryan Navion in a ramp shot.

Great A26 footage.

Up where I live fires are out of control. We are safe for now, but a lot of both friends and clients are getting burned out.

Cal Fire had a number of S-2 turbos running out their hours.

The DC-10 is almost not enough.

About to have dropped 1 million gallons of retardant.

Hunter

ardvark,

Check out this video

https://youtu.be/4KGdP9_DHwY

I may help with the plane layout.

GM - That is some real nice scratch building on your "scooper"

 

Those scoopers are CL-215s which are a kit originally sold by Heller and reboxed by Revell.

Other than the Lockheed products, a useful kit to build is the OV-10 forward control aircraft. You can scourge up kits and decals for that.

Hello ;

 Did you know about the Seaplane firebomber that is out by I believe an out side company ? It's called a Canadaire and it is a nice kit . T.B.

Building an S2T tanker here.  Thought you may be interested. 

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/175068.aspx

GM,

Nice build on the PBY.  I've watched Always about a hundred times, never really noticed the PBY had the Super Cat conversion (usually distracted by the A-26s and Holly Hunter).

FotoFrank,

I was going to suggest going to Lone Star Models for the P2V Neptune tank, but he doesn't have one listed on his site any more.

Aardvark, 

Your PBY is looking great! I was about to save you some time and tell you Belcher Bits has the tail, but it's in 1/48 only.  I really need to finish up my A-26.

Aardvark....hope it's not too late - but Belchers Bits makes a resin "Canso" nose conversion for the PBY that's exactly what you're looking for.  Have a look at the following:

http://www.belcherbits.com/lines/148conv/bb38.htm

Good luck!