Ok, so I have nothing to report because of the best laid plans of mice and men, however...

Harold: Your new masking method sounds interesting. Can't wait to see the Cat under paint.

68GT: Your Spit is really starting to look the part.

Patrick: That Buffalo is looking sweet. Top job on the decals and camo.

Bob: Wow! I thought I had fit issues with the Otaki Spit, looking good though. Are you sure puss is just a cat and not a familiar??????

Piers: That Beau is sweet! The paint job interests me as I have a 48th Fairey Battle in the same markings, but I had always planned to do it in a 1940's camo......mmmmm. The Winjeel sounds as if it has given you a fair challenge, but it seems that with Harolds suggestion you are back on track.

Cheers,

Ferg

lostagain

Harold, a photo of your suggestion in use: here you can see the brass plate in position CA'ed to the back of the firewall. Hmm, maybe I need to splodge some black onto it with a brush in case it is visible through the big canopy.

Piers, it never crossed my mind to use brass sheet. After seeing what you did for a backer, I looked online and found I could purchase 6" x 12" sheets of brass from K&S Precision Metals or many hobby shops that range in thickness from .005" to .040".

https://ksmetals.com/collections/brass/sheet

A less expensive source for 4" x 10" brass sheet is Burbank House of Hobbie which I have been a regular custom since the start of the Pandemic. They are not the least expensive but very reliable.

https://houseofhobbies.com/search?q=Brass+sheet

Today has been a day of revelations for me. Yesterday I though the resin tail on my PBY Catalina plus the Liquid Gravity in the bow section would be too much weight for the beaching gear. So today I decided to test the tail section beaching gear which is the most delicate part of the system. After many hours on its own there is no sign of fatigue or distortion in the plastic framework. I am quite sure if I pulled or pushed the hull from the bow the beaching gear would break, but I don't intend to do that, and I also don't intend to set the model down hard.

By realizing the beaching gear can support the weight of the resin tail I have decided to use the main beaching gear as well. Its much stronger and thicker plastic than the tail gear, plus I do not believe I need extra weight in the bow section.

Originally the weighted bow was done on a 1/48 PBY-5A, not the PBY-5. This is an important distintion because the PBY-5A is an amphibious aircraft that has retractable landing gear and no tail gear. The tail of a PBY-5A sits high off the tarmack when out of the water.

Since the PBY-5 is a true flying boat with only beaching gear that is placed on the hull when the aircraft is taken out of the water it has tail gear to hold it up. For this reason, I can use the beaching gear for display and resin water later in a diorama. All this new information creates the need to scribe panel lines under the tail section that were sanded out during the extensive body work. The most interesting panel feature is the 'tunnel hatch'. It had a .30 caliber Browning machine gun behind it in the tail that could be lowered and fire remotely. Please see pictures below.

Hi Harold,

I used brass here as the surface it was glued to was not flat and it was easy to bend it to shape.

The tail support looks hilariously spindly, but if it works....

I didn't know about the tunnel gun.

lostagain

Hi Harold,

I used brass here as the surface it was glued to was not flat and it was easy to bend it to shape.

The tail support looks hilariously spindly, but if it works....

I didn't know about the tunnel gun.

 

The spindly beaching gear under the tail looks hilariously to me too. Apparently, this simple beaching system was used on every Consolidated PBY aircraft from PBY-1 to PBY-5. Below is a picture of a PBY-2 being launched in the water with a tractor.

My father was in the US Navy before the war (1938) and told me about working on a BPY beaching crew. I was just 10-years old when we had that conversation and really did not comprehend what he was saying. But with his experience as a farmer, I can see him driving a tractor and towing this aircraft from place to place.

This morning I temporarily attached the main beaching gear to the hull so I could see how it fits and as far as I can tell everything functions the way it was designed.

Now it's time to get the panel lines finished and a coat of primer on the hull so I can see if there is any more body work that needs to be done.

Harold

Piers: Looks like you've got things back under control- nice work!

Harold: Nice work there too on all the masking. Those greenhouse canopies are a good reason I don't build a Cat! And yeah that aft beaching gear is rather spinely. Looks like my sister's old dog, he got really fat and still had skinny little legs.

Harold: I hadn't realised quite what a difference there was between the pure flying boat and amphibious versions of the Catalina, in terms of the landing/beaching gear.

The tunnel gun was a bit of a surprise when I first saw it - the Revell kit has the hatch as a separate part, but no indication of what its for. If I hadn't stumbled across the HPH cutaway Catalina, I'd probably never have guessed. I'm not sure it would be one of the more comfortable gun positions on board, though.

It's looking good, how much nose weight did you need to use in the end?

darrenshinn

Harold: I hadn't realised quite what a difference there was between the pure flying boat and amphibious versions of the Catalina, in terms of the landing/beaching gear.

The tunnel gun was a bit of a surprise when I first saw it - the Revell kit has the hatch as a separate part, but no indication of what its for. If I hadn't stumbled across the HPH cutaway Catalina, I'd probably never have guessed. I'm not sure it would be one of the more comfortable gun positions on board, though.

It's looking good, how much nose weight did you need to use in the end?

 

Darren, I did not need any weight in the bow section. The beaching gear is strong enough to hold up the tail end of the aircraft. When the main wing is attached; however, I may need to put some weight in the bow to take pressure off the tail. Similar to a balance beam or child's teeter totte, using the main beaching wheels as a fulcrum.

This morning I put the first coat of primer on using my Iwata mini spray gun. I need to adjust the paint flow down a little, but otherwise it worked the way I hoped it would. I want very light coats of primer and paint, so I can preserve as much detail as possible.

As you can see in the second and fourth photographs below the transition to the resin tail is nearly flawless. The tunnel hatch under the tail turned out good too. I will give this coat of primer 24-hours to dry before I do any light sanding. I like to use a 3000-grit sanding sponge between coats of primer and paint.

Harold

Harold: Yeah, the primer coat looks perfect!

Bob: I love that camo, looks great sir! 

Harold, great work on the tail join, had to stare hard at it to see.

Bob, the Kittyhawk is looking really good there. What paint/colours did you use?

So, I painted the second cam colour and unmasked. There were a few issues so a bit of cleaning up and some freehand spraying and I'm pretty happy. Where's the grey gone for the camo you ask? This model represents an aircraft of 79 Sqdn and they were the only fighter squadron to have a green on green pattern. The two greens in my references are so close that it's hard to tell them apart. It was hell when freehand spraying the touch ups.

Piers your Winjeel is really happening now. Looking great. Same with you Harold. It's great to see your PBY in paint, even if it is primer. I too was fascinated to learn about the tunnel gun. Bob that P40 looks great. Youv'e done a great job on the camo.

Little bit of overspray to clean up on the starboard leading edge and then it's a gloss varnish for decals. Notice anything sad about the wing leading edges??? Yep, no cannon. I broke on off during painting, (still have that one), as for the other??? Who knows. I have searched high and low, but no luck, so a small bit of scratch building coming up.

Ferg, the Spit is looking great, love the green on green scheme for a change. It is a very RAAF scheme!

A step further on the Winjeel with the seams being filled with Milliput. May need to do some panel lines once I see it under primer.

Piers that is going to be one good looking model. I have only recently picked up on using masking tape to reduce the areas impacted by filling and sanding. Am yet to try it.

I now will call this entry closed...

DSC_1494 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

DSC_1486 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

DSC_1484 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

Definitely an "arm's length model", a right heartbreaker at times but deeply fun at others and much has been learnt.  Will now sit and watch the proper modellers delight.

Thankyou so much for the hosting and the kindness!

It's only been 4-days and this Group Build has move ahead, so fast I feel like I'm falling behind. Thank you, Bob and nice work on the P-40 paint scheme. Thank you, Nick, Ed, Cliff and Piers for your comments, Piers it's good to see your Winjeel body work coming along.

Thank you Ferg for your comments and nice work on the Spitfire paint. I have two sets of 1/48 Spitfire cannons I would gladly mail to you, if you want to wait for them. Patrick it's great to see another model finished, you earned your Boomer.

I finished the second coat of primer yesterday and I'm ready to start masking the lower surfaces in preparation for the first coat of blue gray finish coat. Blue gray and black is the colour scheme used in 1942 by the Royal Australian Air Force on this aircraft.

Harold

Patrick, super job on the Buffalo! You have wrangled that together really well, none of your issues show up in the finished product. The finish looks great, and your weathering tops it off nicely.

I have you in the Hall of Fame. I have also belatedly got Darren's Catalina added too, great work Darren!

Harold, primer coats are looking solid.

The Beau has a lot of bits stuck on the underside - rocket stubs, the pulley for the target and the wind deflector.

And the Winjeel has the engine installed, they did a good job moulding it.

I had to superglue some scrap resin in behind the fuel tank as the engine was a bit precarious without it.

Lost - thanks for that, and for running the GB. I'm loving the colour scheme on that Beaufighter.

Patrick - that's a very cute looking Buffalo. Might have been a pain getting there, but it looks worth it in the end.

Harold - have you found a ready-made colour for the blue grey, or are you mixing your own? I went with a mix of Tamiya paints from Doogs Models build of an F4U Corsair. It needed some lightening for scale, but seemed "close enough" to my eyes, and any over-lightening could be written off as sun bleaching. (Mix is 80% XF-18 Medium Blue, 18% XF-12 J.N. Grey and 2% XF-71 Cockpit Green)

Piers & Harold: Fantastic work guys!!! 

Patrick: Great job there, love the camo! Always great to see something a little different - everyone has a 109 and a Spit, not everyone has a Buffalo!!!

Bob: The decals on my Spit kept coming apart. I sprayed them with an old can of Testor's decal bonder. Not sure if it's still available. 

Gamera-thanks for the tip-I had an old can of Testor's decal bonder in the drawer and tried it first-not sure if it had lost it's bonding ability, I didn't shake it enough or apply heavy enough-I'm guessing user error.  Replacement set has decals for three different planes-I'll seperate them into multiple sections and test individual sections with Testor's, Future & Microscale before coating the RAAF decals.  Funny but that's the first time I've had that happen over the years.

HURRAH!!! I think that's the first advice I ever gave anyone that was actually useful!!!

Seems it's always a good idea to use anything old like that on a test subject before the real deal. I sprayed some old Testor's acrylic gloss coat on a tank over the weekend and the had turned white and frosted the whole thing. A second coat cured most of it but there still are white patches.

I could have repainted it but I just shrugged- I'm just going to hit her with a coat of whitewash and the white won't really show. It was a Soviet tank fighting around St. Petersburg in WWII so that's not out of place.

Great to see we're sharing the knowledge!

Getting closer on the Beau, it wil definitely be done over the weekend.

I have got the empennage protective cabling done - the PE brackets on the stabilisers and the metallic thread (supplied) glued on

And the engines, undercarriage and wheels are on. I gave it a shot of misted gloss which make it look semi gloss looking.

For the Winjeel, I have got the cowling on, and seats and other bits in the cockpit

G

Oh wow, great jobs there Piers. The cables are really impressive!

Thanks Cliff, it was interesting gluing cable around the thin edge of the PE bracket.

Next was the scariest part of any short run kit - cutting out the vacform canopy...

Fortunately Red Roo provide two in the kit!

Next is another great use for dymo tape - making sure the very new and sharp knife blade does not go astray, and Tamiya curvy tape for round the curve, which gives a much steadier result

The test fit shows I did not get it right as the edge is a bit indistinct, but fortunately I left extra on the rear part of the canopy.

So I repeated the steps to trim a millimetre off the lower edge, a bit of sanding to smooth it out and the fit looks okay now. As you can see the inside of the canopy is really blotchy because I used blu tack to support it as I trimmed off. That's all been cleaned up and the whole dipped in future to be left for a few days before I get round to masking and mounting.

And the Beaufighteris finished! I am really happy wih the result, but I am frustrated with the way any stray piece of fluff, dust and crud was and still is attracted to the finish. The Red Roo conversion kit was really good, just surprised the didn't include the upper canopy as a vac form when they do offer it separately.

Here it is in all it's glory.

lostagain

Piers: WHOA WOW!!!! Love that!!! The Beaufighter looks friggin' amazing!!! Very eye-catching!!! 

And nice work on the canopy of the WinJeel too!