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

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.

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

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.

Next is the tail. It's a weak connection, so I drilled two holes through the single piece  horizontal and into the vertical. I stuck in brass wire, then with the squaredness (yes that's a real word) checked, I superglued the bits together.

So this is where we are at now - some glossy puddles in the cockpit where I have used excessive CA and touched up scratched green paint. But a definite step forward.

WHat I should have done differently: I used gel CA and glued all the mating surfaces when I added the fuselage to the wing. The short working time of th eCA means the side walls of the cockpit are not lined up properly and there is a step in the fuselage to wing root join. Would have been better to only glue the front and back ends of the cockpit area, then get the sidewalls held in the right alignment before flowing thin CA into the seam.

Patrick. Sharp RAF camo Brewster !!

Bob. It's taking shape 

Piers. Very bright Beau. stunning. I had to refocus on the Winjeel lol..

Harold Very fine work w/PE.

Hi Harold,

Thank you, yes I am smiling, very happy with everything we have seen and done in the group build.

And yes I am going to get another GB going in the middle of the year - the Between the Wars GB for any subject you like between December 1918 and August 1939. Much like the RAAF GB, it is designed to thin out my stash a bit!

The PE details on the Cat look great - I like the mooring gear up the front particularly.

I used your advice on the Winjeel. I did a little bit of trimming on the front lip so it wasn't such a tight fit. Then I put the fuselage in place and clamped it to close up the gap at the firewall. I tacked it with CA (I had scraped the old stuff off) and slipped it off the wing. Then I smeared the inside of the firewall with gel CA to glue on the precut piece of brass and held it in place with a clip. Then I put the U shaped member that broke off in place - just held by the cockpit walls and also the rear bulkhead from beneath, not glued. Then the fuselage goes back in place, make sure the bulkheads are lined up corrwctly, then tacked them to the cockpit walls with thin CA. (not to the floor though)

I wish I had taken a photo at this point so anyone making this kit in the future could see what I had done....

Then lifted it off and glued the bulkheads in place properly. Then I glued the fuselage in place and ready to go

Ferg, Ed, Nick, Paterick, Bob, and Cliff there is a lot of great work going on in this GB and I can only imagine Piers is smiling. He has had a very good turnout and I hope Piers will do another GB in the future.

I have made a slight sequence change on my PBY Catalina. I had planned to start primer yesterday but changed my mind after reading instructions on my CA glue remover. Originally, I was going to give the hull one coat of primer, mainly so I could see if the body work is ready for paint. But I have photo-etched parts to add on the exterior and while they can be added to primer or paint without a problem, the CA remover is not paint friendly.

If I have more body work to do now, I will need to be very careful since a little twist in the hull or pressure on photo-etched parts and they will pop off. I guess what I'm saying is I didn't trust myself to get these photo-etched parts added without a problem involving CA glue remover. However, as it turned out everything went according to plan.

Harold

Piers, this is one of the most interesting paint schemes I have ever seen on a military aircraft.

This situation has happened to me as well. It looks like your model is O.D. green polystyrene in which case I always use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement which melts plastic creating a good bond. However, it has come apart on me too when I don't use enough and when that happens I have in the past resorted to epoxy like Cliff mentioned. Lately I have used what I call a 'backer' which is nothing more than a piece of polystyrene that I glue on the back of a seam or joint that reinforces the glue joint. It looks like your fuselage has room on the back of the firewall for a backer.

If that O.D. green plastic is resin then CA glue is what most kit manufacturers recommend; however, CA glue has a tendency to pop loose sometimes, in which case I would still use a backer to take the pressure off the glue joint. The nice thing about CA glue is it doesn't mess with paint like glue designed to melt plastic.

Harold

Oh WOW!!! The Beau looks awesome Piers! 

And sorry to see the issues with the WinJeel, looking forward to seeing how you fix this situation since stuff like that's happened to me before too. I normally just slap some epoxy or other insanely strong glue in there. Probably not the best solution but it works after a fashion. 

Well Cobbers, this GB has been going on for a year now so no more new entries will be taken, and of course there is no restriction on when you need to have your builds done by. Thanks everyone for sharing your builds and great Aussie models!

Ed, that Spit is coming together really well. I can understand how the kitchen may take priority.

Patrick your Buffalo's finish and markings are looking great, nearly there!

Bob, The cockpit looks really good on the Kittyhawk with a well done IP. Looks like you have made good on AMT's QA issues too.

Hmm, your black cat is taking sprue cutters to his bowl? Notice anything else missing? Do you have geometric shapes or latin inscriptions clawed into the floor? Very strange...

I have managed to progress the Beau a bit more. The decals are on. The Red Roo decals are very thin and want to curl around the edges of the paper as I tried to slide them off. Much worse with the little stencils of course.

And i have put the engines together. The resin cooling gills are in the open position as a Beau would have them on the ground.

For the Winjeel, one step forward, two back. After a bit of trimming I thought I had the fuselage ready to glue on the wing.The two resin halves were together and I followed the kit instructions to slip it over the top of the cockpit components already in position. It was going well, until the final push to clip it into place at the firewall, when crack and the fuselage seam split open at the front and the cockpit internal structure came out. I have set it aside as I consider my reply.

Bob: She's looking pretty darn good to me!

Thanks sir!  Appreciated...

Nice work! The camo came out great!

OK. will avail of the extra(extra) time if you don't mind?  Some progress:

DSC_1477 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

Landing gear and flaps on, decals over base gloss coat, need to re-gloss, weather, matt, add antennas, take the masking off (after going round the edges with a knife?) and probably quite a bit of retouching.  Fun though...

Harold.Yes very nice patch work.

Ed. The spitfire is looking good.

Nice to see she's all ready to paint!

Been doing a lot to the kitchen but made some progress on the Spit.  Pretty much been sitting for the last few weeks waiting for me to mask the canopy and start painting.

Ferg, good to see the colour on the Spit, it is looking good. Yep there are always those moments as we unveil the canopies...

Nice patch on the hull Harold. It's times like that I start to think '91 days to this point - I am going well!' (130 something days on the Beau...) I do like your cockpit masking technique - it is always so hard to get tape to stick on the cockpit edges, so filling it should work well.

Yep another vote for Dymo - picked a stack of it up when our paper mill closed down ten years ago.

Dodgy

Looking good Harold. I used the Dymo tape on the Spit as a guide when I was rescribing the panel lines. Great stuff.

Two things that have made a big difference for me in recent model body work is the Dymo tape material and sculpting with a flat blade hobby knife. In the past I would attempt to put on as little putty as possible and sand it 24-hours later. I frequently lost details in the plastic model because of excessive sanding, plus I usually had to add more putty which takes time.

Now I don't worry too much about the amount of putty I use because I simply sculpt away the excess with a semi-sharp flat blade hobby knife down to the plastic surface, then light sanding with 600, 1000, 2000 and 3000 git sanding paper or sanding sponge and I am ready for primer. Having a semi-sharp hobby knife and keeping it at a low angle is important so I don't cut into the plastic. I also use a Tamiya .01mm to .05mm engraving tool to clean out panel lines.

This morning the hole is patched, and masking is done, so today is the day I start painting. It has taken 91-days from the time I first discussed this project with Jack Geratic to get to the point where I am ready for primer on the exterior. I am always surprised how long these model projects take.

I'm trying a new masking method using Tamiya ultra-thin plastic masking sheet wadded-up and covered with 38mm wide Tamiya masking tape. I traced the canopy outline on the masking tape and cut it with a sharp hobby knife. The masking tape sticks nicely to the wadded-up plastic sheeting which means I should not need to seal the opening as carefully because I have a two-layer masking system. We shall see if my new system keeps the interior free of paint-spray. I also used 3M masking paper to cover the photo-etched seat belts before I stuffed the plastic sheeting in the cockpit.

Harold

Looking good Harold. I used the Dymo tape on the Spit as a guide when I was rescribing the panel lines. Great stuff.

Crown, Harold and Gamera, thanks for the kind words, it really helps keep the motivation going. Will paint the second camo colour over the weekend and report back.

Harold: Looks like you've got the situation under control- nice! 

Harold. Nice work with the PBY..

Patrick. Beautiful Brewster camo.

Dodgy. Moving along nicely on the spitfire.

Dodgy

Harold: Your Cat is looking great. The work on the tail/fuselage pairing is masterclass. Bummer about the window, but the 50cal looks fantastic.

Ferg, I wish there was a way to paint camouflage that could be easily undone if you mess up, but unfortunately there isn't. I have been where you are four times with a camouflage model and on the fourth model after the second attempt, I finally got an acceptable paint job. I decided camouflage painting and extreme weathering are the most challenging part of scale modeling for me.

This morning I patched the hole I made in the tail section of my Catalina and tomorrow I should be ready to start primer. Surprising was the fact that cutting a hold in this model, while time consuming was nothing compared to cutting the tail off.

A new technique I recommend for anyone doing body work on a plastic model is using Dymo Label material as a protective barrier. You know the heavy plastic tape that people use to make inexpensive labels. It sticks well to plastic, can be pulled off by hand and cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol, I use 70% alcohol because that is what we have around the house. The Dymo Label material protects the surrounding plastic from minor cuts, sanding scratches and abrasions. However, I have never used it on a painted surface and I'm guessing it would not be kind to paint.

Harold

Ferg: That's looking fine. Despite your issues the upper coat looks pretty darn good. 

Harold: The .50s and the gun blisters look good, nice work! 

Well things are finally moving here. The white areas are sprayed and masked. The grey underbelly is painted and masked, the spinner, prop and undercart are all painted, and now the first camo colour is on. Today I will attempt the masking for the other camo colour.

Darren: I love the way your Cat turned out. Top paint job and weathering! Absolute bugger about the undercart. However I have no doubt that you will be able to resolve those problems. I hear what you're saying about Tamiya paints. I'm going to stick with acrylics, but I will mix it up. I will eventually try different brands and continue to use enamels when required. This Spit, if nothing else, has given me some excellent experience with airbrush, paints and pressure issues. Also, given that it was  an old Otaki cheapy and not an expensive kit, it's been a great way to get back into aircraft.

Harold: Your Cat is looking great. The work on the tail/fuselage pairing is masterclass. Bummer about the window, but the 50cal looks fantastic.

Patrick: The paint job on your Buffalo looks top notch, but I hear what you say about unmasking the greenhouse. For me I'm dreading unmasking the whole plane!

lostagain

Harold that is so annoying - and major surgery for such a minor piece. The 50 cal is looking really good though and has to be a respite from that little window...

Darren, Harold you guys are really not having any luck with the Cats and they are not even black!

Patrick good to see the Buffalo under paint - and don't rush to be finished by the 31st - mine sure won't be complete then - we all have to balance our hobby with the other demands in life.

Harold that is so annoying - and major surgery for such a minor piece. The 50 cal is looking really good though and has to be a respite from that little window...

Darren, oh wow, that is so harsh. Good work getting the gear bay back in place - not sure what to do about the front wheel though. Not sure if there is a metal replacement?

Patrick: Looks good, I really like the camo. Good luck with getting the kit done. 

Harold: ACK! I hate it when windows pop out like that. Nice recovery! 

...and at the other end of the pool...

(poor picture, apologies, to show willing.)

DSC_1475 by Patrick Nevin, on Flickr

Lots of tactical work happening here, leave booked and still a (small) possibility of completing on time.  Things that worry: the finish being complete on time,  aligning the metal undercarriage, a butt joint for the antenna and what happens when all the masks come off the greenhouse. 

Best - Patrick