PBY Catalina WIP

[newmagrathea]

I started a new project a couple weeks ago building a PBY Catalina. My grandfather was a radio man for a crew for one of these lovely planes in WWII. I've always been fascinated with the plane and how useful they are. Many are still in use today, in fact my grandfather has tracked down his original plane and it's still being flown in Australia.

For this build I'm not going to do a bunch of mods, just a couple because I want to display it in a water take-off/landing formation. So the landing gear has to be up, but the wing floats down. The kit does not have a spacer for behind the wheels if you want them retracted, so I made one out of some styrene tubing I had laying around. Hopefully this build will go much quicker than my last kit and it'll be mostly painting and weathering.

Primer

It's kind of hard to tell but I glued in the landing gear doors.

 

[samster27]

I have always loved the Catalina, especially when painted blue and white with lots of weathering. Will be watching this build. Great too to hear this plane has a family link too.

 

[Wes R]

It's a true testament to the designs that this and the DC3/C47 are still in use. The military and designers could learn a thing or two.

 

[astroboy]

Good lord that's a beautiful plane.

It's the millennium falcon of airplanes

 

[division 6]

I have that one and the 5 I converted into a 5A.
Did full interiors.
Need to finish them up since they just need final assembly and painting.

Then it's on to the 1/48 I have in my stash.

 

[astroboy]

 

[rbeach84]

Need some more reference? Google up 'PBY cutaway Naval Aviation Museum' and follow that rabbit hole...

Regards, Robert

 

[newmagrathea]

I have always loved the Catalina, especially when painted blue and white with lots of weathering. Will be watching this build. Great too to hear this plane has a family link too.

I'm going to be painting it the blue and white because that is what my grandfathers plane was painted.

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Good lord that's a beautiful plane.

It's the millennium falcon of airplanes

Yeah, apparently it was the stealth bomber of WWII as well. Heavily used in the Pacific, there is a really great documentary that I watched on Youtube recently about it. I'll have to see if I can find it again.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2nSRHbaEH0

Isn't that from a movie, I could almost swear I remember that scene from somewhere. Something to do with forest fires maybe.

- - - Updated - - -

Need some more reference? Google up 'PBY cutaway Naval Aviation Museum' and follow that rabbit hole...

Regards, Robert

I'm going to check that out. I've having a hard time finding good paint references for the different paint schemes. Specifically stuff like what the interior was painted and inside of the wheel wells.

 

[newmagrathea]

This is what I'm hoping to paint it like. I'm also hoping to figure out how to print my own decal, or find someone that can. I'm going to get the numbers for my grandfathers plane and put them on the side.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Isn't that from a movie, I could almost swear I remember that scene from somewhere. Something to do with forest fires maybe...

Yes, it's from the movie Always (1989) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Brad Johnson, and John Goodman. It's a loose remake of A Guy Named Joe (1943), which starred Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, and Van Johnson.

Back to the main topic, I've always liked the PBY so I'll be very interested in watching your progress on this. thumbsup

 

[Jeebee25]

I just saw one of these up close for the first time in Oak Harbor near Seattle. Just a gorgeous airplane! Bookmarking your build.

 

[Victor3]

Definitely going to watch and learn from your build!
I've always loved the Cat, and have this on my 1/72 wish list.

It's always been a fantasy of mine to get a real one, spruce it up & travel the world, with the kids hanging out by the safely sealed turret bubbles. Land in the ocean by some of those funky islands of the asian Pacific & do some fishing. Not gonna EVER happen, but a nice dream...

 

[Wes R]

Wasn't the interior spaces of most WW2 planes green zinc chromate (yellow on some), the wheel wells probably would have been that or the exterior color to match. Oddly I found a nail polish to use on small models that was almost the same green as the zinc.

 

[division 6]

You can actually find construction pictures from WWII, some in color.
Zinc Green seems to be what was usually used inside.

I have a large archive on my PC from scouring the net for several months looking for pictures.
Your outside wheel wells will be the same as the side of the fuselage for camo reasons.

There is a really nice restored museum bird in Australia, a flying one in New Zealand, several others around still doing air shows in Europe.
Snafu Snatchers is in San Diego IIRC.

A few years ago I saw someone had 2 planes for sale for $300,000.
One flying and the other for parts.

 

[newmagrathea]

There are three possibilities for the numbers, I'll have to figure out which is the right one. My grandfathers plane was actually a PBY-6a. I've never seen a 6a kit, and the differences are mostly internal besides a slight difference in the tail.

Here is a list of all the remaining PBY's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Consolidated_PBY_Catalinas

 

[Betamin]

I used to have a model of a PBY when I was a kid. It's one of my favorite planes.

 

[newmagrathea]

Definitely going to watch and learn from your build!
I've always loved the Cat, and have this on my 1/72 wish list.

It's always been a fantasy of mine to get a real one, spruce it up & travel the world, with the kids hanging out by the safely sealed turret bubbles. Land in the ocean by some of those funky islands of the asian Pacific & do some fishing. Not gonna EVER happen, but a nice dream...

A few people tried to do exactly that.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/04/24/all-aboard-the-flying-yacht-circa-1950/

 

[division 6]

There used to be a 6A conversion kit. (don't know of it's still available)

Probably to late but here is the PE set by Eduard.

Sites I have bookmarked.
Airliners picture site (good source for still flying birds)
PBY.com
Seawings.co.uk
History of war
VP Navy
Catalina Society
PBY Rescue ( the cutaway plane)
A few Photobucket pix
Public Source on Flickr (you will have to skim through a lot ov vintage aircraft photos)
Kiwi Aircraft
Prime Portal
Flying Yacht (Civilian owned PBY)

Link to my photo bucket pix of the interiors I did on mine.
Several reference pix I posted

 

[Victor3]

A few people tried to do exactly that.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/04/24/all-aboard-the-flying-yacht-circa-1950/

Whoa! I'd seen some of the Life photos before, but never the full thing. That's the dream!
The crashing bit would be my main aversion - I don't know that I'd trust myself flying the family around...
Nor would I fly them to Saudi Arabia, anyway...

 

[newmagrathea]

I've been doing some digging for references and found that a Catalina was being used in a new Nic Cage film about the USS Indianapolis, but had to do an emergency landing. The plane was stuck on the beach and when they tried to salvage it, it was accidentally destroyed.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/salvage-attempt-on-catalina-seaplane-used-in-nic-cage-f-1715722705