Floats and Boats GB 2022, extended to end of 2023

Wibbits, ribbits, and more rivets! 

There are many tutorials on-line to show how to add rivet detail with several different devices. After some research I formed my opinion that the good rivet tools cost between $30-$60.00; my Trumpeter plastic handled rivet tool was around $12.00. I've seen several home built rivet tools that work better than anything, regardless of price. So I guess it's really up to the modeler, rivets or no rivets, purchase or make your own.

Some time past I purchased the Trumpeter scale rivet tool. It has four round disc's of various sized rivets for embossing plastic model kits to add rivet detail on kits that may be lacking. Since I have the tool, the kit, and the time, I thought I should try my had at it. How else am I ever going to learn or get comfortable with one, right?

Before I booger up the kit right away I thought it would make sense to practice on other plastic. Once I could roll a straight and consistent depth line of rivets I moved on to a spare part of the kit so I could see if the kit plastic is the same hardness as my practice plastic. The kit plastic is much harder making it more difficult to emboss the rivets from the round wheel. I'm going for it anyway......

In most cases, this kit already has the recessed panel lines so that was one step I did not have to do (create or mark the panel lines or draw rivet wheel lines to follow). With the panel lines as the guides I set off on adding thousands of rivets to the wings, stabilizers, rudder, and fuselage.  

Almost three hours later and a very sore set of fingers, here is my results. 

NO RIVETS:


RIVETS GALORE:






Now it's time to go back to the steps in the instructions to finish the fuselage panels, then finish the engine (exhaust +), and finally build up the cowling around the engine.

The Light Olive fuselage color and letter identifier decals to not excite me very much. I am pondering other options such as creating one of the AR196's that served in foreign service, or perhaps a "what if" paint scheme using one of the camouflage schemes of a colorful BF109 or FW190 or Dornier 335? What do you think, or do you have any other ideas?

Ben and Jarrod (DRUMS01)

I mentioned on the last update that I completed the back of the engine and then began work on the engine cowling, beginning on step # 32. If you look close, in step 38 there are no side cowlings but in step 39 they are shown already added even though there was no instructions to add them (?). Then looking forward to steps 41 forward they are not shown (??). 



In fact, there is no part of the instructions that shows to add them in the closed position until step # 46, then in step # 47 the image shows the engine exposed again (?). I think you get the picture (see what I did there) "the picture".

Starting with the exhaust manifold on the back of the engine I found that part of the kits manifold was sprung a little. Perhaps it came out of the mold still playable and sagged to flexed slightly. Adding to that the after-market resin parts for the exhaust ends and I had a little work to get the exhaust to settle down correctly. Here they are completed. I painted them initially rust then followed by a light silver dry brush on the corners. I did that to bring out the Tamiya transparent blue and red on the corners to reflect heat coloring. Next was a dry brush mix of copper and rust pigments and last a dirty wash mixture of flat black and rubber. 



When adding the cowling, Revell did not provide a strong and positive contact point on the engine cylinders for the frame/cowling supports. This was even after careful cleaning of seams and flash. I started to become concerned when I noticed how tight the three supports were when adding the front ring of the engine cowling. Another important thing to bring up is the orientation of the front cowling ring. While it is not strongly emphasized in the instructions, you need to make sure that the small hole in the front cowling is matched up to the engine bracket which is also in line with the fuselage mounted MG. The assembly only got worse when trying to add the rear cowling ring. To complicate this further the cowling supports also acted as the framework for the larger side cowling with blisters, so they needed to be square with other parts to ensure the side cowlings align in between the front and rear rings. I could go on, but after some steady effort I got the front, back, and sides of the engine cowling assembled. While not "perfect", it was still an acceptable fit.





I then went back to the main float to begin adding the brackets to attach it beneath the fuselage. I am happy to report that after some minor cleanup they fit into the float very well. Once dry I test fit them into the fuselage which will also fit near perfect. 



After looking into the actual photos closer another thing I added was the control wires for the float rudder.



Next was performing some small filing to the wing to fuselage junction to ensure they fit tight. Once again I am happy to report that the seams closed up just fine with just a small amount of pressure. Here are a couple photos of the wings attached. The ailerons and flaps are just sitting in the wing for the photos







Then I just couldn't help myself and set the engine assembly on the fuselage to get an idea of how it will look once actually assembled. It then occurred to me just how large and heavy the kit is, and this doesn't include the weighted float assembly and outrigger floats yet. Note the A models three blade prop sitting on the engine instead of the "B" model two blade set-up. 





Still haven't made up my mind regarding the paint scheme. I really do not like the solid light olive "turd" color, so I'm still thinking of something different. Some of the ideas spinning in my head is the "A" models camouflage; a what-if scheme based on a fighter scheme; or even a camouflage scheme used by one of the other loaner countries (?). If you have any ideas, chime in and let Jarrod and I know (thanks).

Thanks for following and comments welcome.

Ben and Jarrod (DRUMS01)

Ben, the work you are doing is fantastic. The rivit details really make the kit look tons better.

Regarding the paint, that's totally up to you, it's your kit. If/when I build one I will go with the correct scheme for that bird and avoid the what it stuff. The reason being as I want to represent what the real thing looked like, even if its kinda dull. If I were to have more than one, then perhaps I might get kinda fancy with one. A splinter camo would look great, but may not be appropriate. Anyway, your kit, your choice. You are the one that has to like it when it's done. Keep up the great work.

BK

Great stuff Ben.  Your build inspired me to hunt down my own Arado.  I got the 1/48 Tamiya kit and they have a couple splinter camo from the Bismark and Prinz Eugen as well as a French and Japonese livery.

Here's the scalemates instructions with the finish options: 

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/1/2/6/149126-76-instructions.pdf

Wow Ben! The standard of your work is fantastic and with so many challenges! This is going to look awesome.

Dodgy

Drum

I just saw your thread on the Revell Arado, looks amazing so far. It’s an awesome kit having fantastic detail. I built mine when it came out 5-6 years ago and entered it in the Nationals here in Orlando scoring 3rd in Large Scale. I did mine all panels opened up, wings folded and in splinter paint.

Be careful with the Montex masks, they will lift up and will not stay down for long so you need to keep pressing just before painting to get sharp lines. Eduard masks are the ones to use.

Thanks for the heads-up on the masks.... I'm not a fan of the notch and key seams on the canopy glass. I'm polishing them to try and minimize the seams. Mine also has a small imperfection on the top of the larger center canopy which I'm trying to clean-up. I'm hoping the polishing will reduce the seams and imperfections along with dipping in future. 

I saw where they make an after-market canopy (HPM) but it would cost between $40-$50 just to get those three clear canopy parts to me. That's a lot of money for three clear parts (no seams), so I hope my clean-up on the kit parts will suffuce. 

As for the challenge of fitting the panels as in flight, now I see why most every builder decided to open the panels; (a) the detail is nice, and (b) the fit of the panels and cowlling in the closed positions is much harder to accomplish. 

I think if I ever get the twin pontoon version I will model it fully folded and open panels. It would definately make the assembly easier.

G'day fellas. I've halted all work at the moment to concentrate on my SSGB Tiger. Will keep checking in, but I need to finish that pussycat before it bites me!

Dodgy

So Dodgy, are you telling us that you can only work on one kit at a time? Thats exactly like me (smile). Keep checking in when you can and you can bet we will be following your Tiger build too. 

I guess I did start sounding like a Rivet Geek. I just don't want to go through the effort and have it look like crap. If I'm going to do something I prefer to invest properly and take the necessary time and effort for it to be right the first time (without destroying a kit). 

And for that reason I did it..... Jarrod and I bucked up and purchased the after market canopy set for the AR196. The kit's multi part canopy assembly makes it impossible to assemble it without showing the key-block seams. We are not going to put this level of effort into a kit of this price and top it off with some crappy kit canopy parts.   

KIT PARTS:







While waiting for the canopy to arrive Jarrod and I took some time to order additional items for the build including a three prop center cone cover and a set of foreign service decals. When we are done this will be like no other pervious build of an AR196; in a good way I hope. More on that surprise when the stuff arrives. 

Till then we began work on another Group Build...a new figure, or in this case figures. Some of you may remember the 90mm Greek Hoplite figure I created a couple years ago, well this time we are creating a three figure Spartan build. I got the figures on AliExpress.com. They are made of resin and while detailed are presenting some challenges. Here is a sample of what we hope they will look like when done (on-line photo):



More on that in its new build string. Can you believe it!?, we're working on more than one model at a time! 

That's a big step for me (us), so wish me luck.  

Ben and Jarrod (DRUMS01)

This is one thing that often turns me off about Revell. Not that the kits are bad, some are and some aren't. It's the fact that they take short cuts in obvious areas just to save some money on the kit build cost but charge a premium price to the buyer. Large kits are costly and should have details to match, not short cuts. I think your solutions have been fantastic and the canopy will be a great correction. The Spartan looks amazing, should be fun.

BK

Well Ben and Jarrod, if I was a woman, a mother and a wife, I could undoubtedly work on more than one kit at a time! But unfortunately I'm just a mere male, so one at time it is

PS. The new clear parts are going to look great and I'm hangin to see what you do with the figure. At least he doesn't have many rivets!!

Dodgy

I completed my 1/48 Monogram PBY-5 (Patrol Bomber - Consolidated) Catalina Flying Boat with RAAF Serial No. A24-17 in RAF Tempered Sea Scheme camouflage. This model is a replica of an aircraft that saw combat in RAAF service from 1942 to 1943. It was assigned long-range reconnaissance duty in No. 20 Squadron based at Port Moresby and saw action in New Guinea and the Western Area Campaigns.

On December 29, 2021, I contacted a friend and fellow model builder Jack Geratic in Ontario, Canada regarding my desire to build a Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina. From experience on previous projects, I knew that Jack was very good at research and knew his way around scale modeling better than I did. At the time we found there were only a few Monogram #5609 and Revell #04520 kits in 1/48 scale on eBay. 

The kits were introduced in 1995 and had been out of production for some time. Then Revell reintroduced the PBY kit in 2014 but as a PBY-5A which is the amphibious version (with landing gear), otherwise the aircraft was the same as a PBY-5. My thinking at the time was if we use an amphibious version which was readily available it would require major body work to cover the retractable landing gear on the side of the hull.

What we found out later in reviews is that both Monogram and Revell kits had a design issue called 'tail bloat', the tail section was not to scale. It was 9.5mm (3/8-inch) too wide at the root of the vertical stabilizer which negatively affected its overall appearance. Jack located a detailed cross-section drawing of the actual aircraft and we found that Monogram had a flatter cross-section which we believe is what caused the tail bloat issue. However, there was a good solution, Belcher Bits in Canada offered a resin tail conversion kit that required removing the entire tail of the model.

When you see the finished tail conversion below, I think you will agree it looks right. In my opinion the Belcher Bits solution was a lot of work, but Mike Belcher captured in resin the graceful elegance of the Catalina tail. And by the way the name Catalina was given to the Consolidated PBY by RAF, RCAF and RAAF crews because the early versions were manufactured in California. The name was adopted by Consolidated and used for the remaining production years.

Referance Photographs:

Modification Phase:

Completed Model:

Sergeant

I completed my 1/48 Monogram PBY-5 (Patrol Bomber - Consolidated) Catalina Flying Boat with RAAF Serial No. A24-17 in RAF Tempered Sea Scheme camouflage. This model is a replica of an aircraft that saw combat in RAAF service from 1942 to 1943. It was assigned long-range reconnaissance duty in No. 20 Squadron based at Port Moresby and saw action in New Guinea and the Western Area Campaigns.

On December 29, 2021, I contacted a friend and fellow model builder Jack Geratic in Ontario, Canada regarding my desire to build a Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina. From experience on previous projects, I knew that Jack was very good at research and knew his way around scale modeling better than I did. At the time we found there were only a few Monogram #5609 and Revell #04520 kits in 1/48 scale on eBay. 

The kits were introduced in 1995 and had been out of production for some time. Then Revell reintroduced the PBY kit in 2014 but as a PBY-5A which is the amphibious version (with landing gear), otherwise the aircraft was the same as a PBY-5. My thinking at the time was if we use an amphibious version which was readily available it would require major body work to cover the retractable landing gear on the side of the hull.

What we found out later in reviews is that both Monogram and Revell kits had a design issue called 'tail bloat', the tail section was not to scale. It was 9.5mm (3/8-inch) too wide at the root of the vertical stabilizer which negatively affected its overall appearance. Jack located a detailed cross-section drawing of the actual aircraft and we found that Monogram had a flatter cross-section which we believe is what caused the tail bloat issue. However, there was a good solution, Belcher Bits in Canada offered a resin tail conversion kit that required removing the entire tail of the model.

When you see the finished tail conversion below, I think you will agree it looks right. In my opinion the Belcher Bits solution was a lot of work, but Mike Belcher captured in resin the graceful elegance of the Catalina tail. And by the way the name Catalina was given to the Consolidated PBY by RAF, RCAF and RAAF crews because the early versions were manufactured in California. The name was adopted by Consolidated and used for the remaining production years.

Referance Photographs:

Modification Phase:

Completed Model:

 

 

BK

BrandonK

In my opinion, for what it's worth, this is the finest model I have ever seen completed in these forums. I am simply awe-struck with the quality and level of detail to the paint and surface here. Simply amazing my friend. This one deserves to be in a show and it would win big. STUNNING, simply STUNNING!!! Which one would you like to have posted on the completed builds page? BK

Got things updated, well done. Thanks for bringing such a wonderful build here for us to see.

BK

WOW Sergeant, your build is simply stunning. I still have the Monogram ProModeler version of the kit. I was thinking of building something exactly like what you have accomplished. Your build has both inspired and motivated me to bump my PBY up in my build schedule. 

Everything about your build is first rate, corrections, assembly, paint work, etc. 

What's next on your modeling agenda?....

Ben

DRUMS01

WOW Sergeant, your build is simply stunning. I still have the Monogram ProModeler version of the kit. I was thinking of building something exactly like what you have accomplished. Your build has both inspired and motivated me to bump my PBY up in my build schedule. 

Everything about your build is first rate, corrections, assembly, paint work, etc. 

What's next on your modeling agenda?....

Ben

 

The Ruhr Valley was Germany's major industrial area and mining region that became the focus of RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War. Scale modeling has become a passion, but history is my purpose.

Harold

Sergeant

 

I'll be completely honest - this build is so good, adjectives are failing me right now. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Sergeant

 

 

DRUMS01

WOW Sergeant, your build is simply stunning. I still have the Monogram ProModeler version of the kit. I was thinking of building something exactly like what you have accomplished. Your build has both inspired and motivated me to bump my PBY up in my build schedule. 

Everything about your build is first rate, corrections, assembly, paint work, etc. 

What's next on your modeling agenda?....

Ben

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Ben. I truly appreciate your positive comments. I do have a new project that will take several months of work. This will be a 1/48 scale replica of the first Lancaster built in Canada. Avro Lancaster Mk. X (serial No. KB700) aka The Ruhr Express completed August 1, 1943.

 

The Ruhr Valley was Germany's major industrial area and mining region that became the focus of RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War. Scale modeling has become a passion, but history is my purpose.

Harold

 

BK

Oh WOW!!! I'm seeing some incredible work going on in this thread!!! That PBY looks fantastic!!!!!!

mustang1989

Oh WOW!!! I'm seeing some incredible work going on in this thread!!! That PBY looks fantastic!!!!!!

 

Maybe adding a Kingfisher to the GB would be a good idea 

keavdog

 

 

mustang1989

Oh WOW!!! I'm seeing some incredible work going on in this thread!!! That PBY looks fantastic!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Maybe adding a Kingfisher to the GB would be a good idea 

 

BK

Just poking Joe because he's just starting one with the Flightline Engineering full detail set.

My busy season is offically at an end. I have jumped back to the bench and made to good progress on the Cessna for Goldhammer. I should have paint on it this weekend. It is nearly ready. I will update with pics tomorrow. Then back on the Kingfisher.

BK

Sergeant I just saw your completed Catalina for the first time and have to say it is stunning! You put a lot of effort into it and it really shows. Proud to be building with you.

Really nice work you did sir.

I also agree thank you to Brandon for hosting I am sure everyone is busy with life and other things and its hard to add yet another item to have to maintain. We appreciate you being a great host once again. I always look forward to the F&B group builds. Keep up the excellent work everyone!

Alrighty then. The assembly is complete and I am off to the booth.

BK

That looks great.  

BrandonK

Alrighty then. The assembly is complete and I am off to the booth.

BK

 

Paint is done and decals are nearly done. I haven't had time to work this week as my disabled son has been in the hospital since Tuesday. Hoping we bring him home Saturday. I'll update this very soon, promise.

BK

Most of the work is now done. Decals are on, painting tidbits and doing light pen wash on the control surfaces. Then a gloss clear and unmask the windows. Should have this one done tomorrow.

BK