The Officially Shameless PBY/Halloween '09 GB

namrednef wrote:

Hi All! Been way too busy with visiting relatives and the blasted Weekend GB!

Man, I mean Nam my eyes are bugging out of my head from immitating frank in an Optivisor for 48 straight. But it was a fun build and hey I actually improvrd my skills.

The new guy from Oz makes a very very good point about what to do with finished models. i'm gonna go down to the seaplane ride deal near my house and see if they want, oh, um, my Seagull, Mavis, and all the great unbuilts like Sunderland, Emily, PBM, in exchange for a kidney, HAHA!!

We're up for the SuperCat over the Holiday, that being as my friend Aaron sez, Channukah cuz he likes my Avia model, or Xmas or whatever reason I choose to make my company unprofitable. Nam give me a call later next week during the day, you got my ## and I'll call you back.

That's a deal, Bill!

You may have noted that I have most of today off. Finishing the P-47. That Weekend GB was great fun when I could sit down and do it.

Been tied up, obviously with that GB.....getting back to PBY's soon!

Chaps.

Work is progressing steadily on my cat. I have finally decided on my bird - it will be A24-104 - with 111 Air Sea Rescue Flight RAAF, early 1945. The squadron code was KP, but I'm not sure of 104's code letter, or indeed if they were painted at all on ASR machines. Any help appreciated there.

It's a debatable point, but in the absence of any photographic evidence I'm going for a finish of overall RAAF foliage green. I really wanted a matt black cat, but it wasnt accurate for a -5A so green will do!

Here are the floats - they required quite a bit of filler to get flat on top. The seam along the bottom however is practically perfect!

The Quickboost engines, painted and with the Eduard ignition loom in place. Pretty happy with how this has turned out. The red leads are not strictly accurate (presumably) but they really add detail that may have been lost if they had been black.

...and the engines in place on the wing. Have been playing around with a bit of preshading which is visible here.

Anyone else building Catalinas out there?!!

Nick

Sunnas that is impressive. Mighty fine lines on the preshading. Those mills look great, Alas, while I never quit on a GB I'm three deep till i get to "Always" so it's Jonny Jumps like you that get things started, and slugs like me that crawl across the finish line, nice build by the way. I do not recall ever seeing a green cat before so that is refreshing. Whats the 411 as we say, or more properly, your line of info?

Very nice.

I'm up with Mavis over in the IJN GB and hope to finish her soon, in a civilian color scheme which I also don't have much info on. The few models I've seen have her in silver, which would be paint since she's mostly a fabric a/c.

USN -5as were black often of course, maybe the bottom of yours is?

Hey- whats the drill amongst us all on anti-fouling/ fouled boat bottoms? Your thoughts?

Thanks Bondoman and Sean.

Generally I'm getting my info from the Australian War Memorial's online photo collection, a couple of books including Catalina in Australian Service, and anything I can glean from the aussiemodeller.com discussion group. The AWM collection is good but all of the pics are b&w, and the book has a number of colour profiles which cover the main camoflage schemes worn by RAAF cats. 98% of my reference pics are b&w.

From the blokes on aussiemodeller I learnt that the only -5A cats that were black were the ones converted back to 5 specs with removal of landing gear to save weight for the massive endurance missions they were tasked with. Cats operating from the north of Australia often laid mines off the China coast, with missions regularly lasting over 24hours, and one RAAF cat set the type's endurance record of over 31 hours (cant put my finger on the exact duration right now) And almost without exception these missions were timed to put the machines over enemy territory at night. Hence the black.

So anyway, one of the colour profiles I have is for a -5A in foliage green operating with 8 Communications Unit. Then today I found this photo:

You can just make out the letter codes ZA-T. The code ZA is for 8 Comm Unit but the caption says that the bird and crew were from 111 Air-Sea Rescue Flight:

MADANG, NEW GUINEA. C. 1945-01. IN 1944-12 THE STORY OF THE DRAMATIC RESCUE OF AN AMERICAN AIR-CREW WHICH HAD CRASH-LANDED IN THE SEA IN ENEMY-CONTROLLED WATERS NEAR BORAM IN NORTH EAST NEW GUINEA WAS TOLD. THE CAPTAIN OF THE RESCUING CATALINA FLIGHT LIEUTENANT (FLT LT) I. J. L. WOOD, IPSWICH, QLD, RECEIVED AN IMMEDIATE AWARD OF THE DFC FOR HIS SKILL AND GALLANTRY. WITH HIS CREW, AND AIRCRAFT OF NO. 111 AIR SEA RESCUE FLIGHT RAAF.

In addition, the RAAF museum is restoring an ASR cat and have, in their wisdom, decided to paint it foliage green. http://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/exhibitions/hangar180/catalina.htm

So that's my 411. Sorry for the essay!

Ok, so the question of boat bottoms.

For me I'm almost certain that the all over colour was foliage green. However, this painting was done at 1FBRD Lake Boga, it's a -5A, in green, and has a silver hull. Was this machine having a hull clean and respray?

A partially restored -5 at the current Lake Boga museum. Not sure about colour scheme. Could have been post war...

USN Cat

And again

And finally, especially for you bondoman. A post war civillian cat

So, no definitive answers, just some fuel to the fire!

And whats the color on the bottom of the Cat??? Looks like black to me!!!

Fine stuff.

Good work, to which I reply with the ever popular;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxJys2XKjJA

simpilot34 wrote:

Sunnas that is exquisite work there!!!! Thanks for the info as well!!!

I agree, very fine work indeed.  Keep those pics coming, I need the inspiration!

Sorry for the absence Folks......

Nick! Very wonderful work! There will be some front-page updating!

simpilot34 wrote:

Nam PM inbound

OK so I was the guy in 5th grade where they chose up the softball teams, the captain goes: "I get Mary, you get Bill". Turned out I took her to the prom and I'm now friends with her and her wife. Whatever.

Whats up Nam? I was hopin' we'd talk soon. Are you ok? Can someone pass me the note? Best, Bill

I have started my Catalina. I have very little done but, I wanted the group to know that I started. It will be OA-10A Catalina from the 4th Rescue Squadron, Hamilton AFB, California from the late 1940s. 

MKelley wrote:

I have started my Catalina. I have very little done but, I wanted the group to know that I started. It will be OA-10A Catalina from the 4th Rescue Squadron, Hamilton AFB, California from the late 1940s.

Hey All! I had some issues about logging on to FSM....pop-up related.....got in a few times but it was a fight. AND, as always, kit building issues!

Mike! Glad you broke it open! I'll update the front page shortly! My decal set is a bit different but I'm not using them.....so if anyone needs any from me, simply ask!

Thanks for hanging in Friends!

kg4kpg wrote:

Okay, gents, I will not be participating in this GB.  I really just don't have the space for it when completed.  I put the kit along with the fire bomber decals up for sale on Hyperscale if anyone wants a look.  I think I'll just stick to my WWII fighters.  So with that, please remove me from this build.  Thanks, Chris

NP Chris......sorry to lose you....you may get offers here for that kit.

As Richie has written.....life kicks the door down. And usually when least expected

Hang in later if you feel like it!

bondoman wrote:

Have a good weekend, everyone!

You going somewhere? Again? You have been almost as absent as I!

 Just out of curiosity was there any difference betwwen the PBY-5 aside from the landing gear?

 I guess what I am asking is the earlier dusty bird I showed with out wheels compared to this new rereleased kit?

See wiki- yes there are.

It would seem that a thorough go thru is on the boards. I strongly suspect that the re-released 1/48 is based on one a/c on the ramp somewhere. As is the Academy 1/72 I spent $30 for.

This GB needs to be abt research, fellas.

I redesigned a little bit of Hamilton Field.

Here is progress photo on my Catalina. I decided to work on the wings and such before tackling the cockpit. The beast is going to be good sized, that is a foot long ruler sitting on the main wing.

So far things are going well no major fit problems, as you can see I have added weight to keep her off her tail. I think that I may have to add more yet. Oh by the way those are .40 caliber bullets that I use for weight. They are relatively small and heavy so they work pretty well. Easier to glue in than a car load of BBs or sinkers.

namrednef wrote:

bondoman wrote: Have a good weekend, everyone! You going somewhere? Again? You have been almost as absent as I!