This is the Monogram Pro-Modeler 1/48 PBY-5A. I did it pretty much OOB, except for Eduard canopy masks and SAC’s metal landing gear. I used MRP early blue-grey (133) for upper surfaces, light grey (134) for lower surfaces, and I mixed my own zinc chromate green for interior and cockpit (Tamiya XF-5 + XF-4). Tamiya X-18 semigloss for de-icing boots. All Tamiya acrylics for misc. trim. Exhaust staining was MRP-180 exhaust soot. I also used an oil panel wash. I decided to limit the weathering to panel lines and some stain wiping. I still don’t think I’m ready yet to do chipping and some of the higher-level weathering some you are so good at. One of these days, right?
So the fit was generally very good, with the exception of the cockpit canopy and a couple small areas along the fuselage/hull seams. The only real problem I encountered was with the SAC metal landing gear I used to counter the extra 7 ounces of nose weight I had to install to keep her from tail-sitting. I hate to trash products, but holy crap, that metal gear is just trash. The metal is so soft, that the gear was deforming just from resting on it. I honestly think the kit plastic would hold up better and is definitely more detailed. If it falls apart, I may redo it in plastic. I took a lot of pictures in case nothing works. lol.
I was more than pleased at the level of detail this kit has. Very nice recessed panel lines, some riveting, and sharply detailed control surfaces. I mean, for a kit pushing 30 years old, I can’t complain. Even the old decals performed very nicely after a light coat of Microscale liquid decal film. If you have room (this bird is quite large), I can recommend it. I did manage to knock a few things off my bench, and knocked over yet another bottle of Micro Set, just handling the main wing (26+ inches wide). You may notice that I knocked off all but 1 of the wingtip float mooring rings.
Great work on your Catalina. The colors look spot on.
I can attest that it is a big airplane, as I built this same kit probably 20 years ago. I remember that build as one of my first efforts at adding scratch built interior details - none of which were visible after completing the build. It hangs from the ceiling of my work room.
Beautiful job on the Cat Chris! I have to agree with the others as well, good choice of colors!
I have this same exact kit and I’m debating on using the SAC landing gear.
I have a few sets for other aircraft and the level of detail is mixed and two out of the five landing gear sets are warped..
I’m definitely looking forward to my build!
Happy Modeling,
Mike
Thanks everyone. As always, your kind comments are greatly appreciated.
To Karl187 and Aggieman: me being the dummy I am, did not take any interior pics. The cockpit turned out nicely, and I thought with all that glass you’d be able to see it, but the view is distorted enough where that isn’t possible. Also, I dipped the clear parts in Future, which helped keep them shiny, but I think also contributed to the chipping of paint when I peeled off the masks. Does anyone have any suggestions for avoiding this in the future?
To Butz: to say I was disappointed in that SAC gear would be a gross understatement. Not only did it poorly support the weight of the model, I had to spend quite a bit of time trimming flash and mold lines off of each part. The other PITA was gluing. I tried 5 minute epoxy on the unpainted parts, but those joints failed. I ended up using BSI’s wonderful ic-2000 rubberized ca glue, which did give a very strong joint. But those gripes and the lack of detail over the kit parts…grrr.
Thank you. No, I’ve never been one to include the figures. I like to think of the planes I build as already serviced and just waiting for crew. Translation: I suck at painting figures. I do save them though. One of these days I’m going to build a hanger diorama with all these ground crew and pilots partying on and around a bomber or something.
Beautiful job!! I have the Revell version of that kit in my stash, and, also, the SAC gear, as I, too am concerned about too much weight on the plastic gear.
Thank you. Well, when you prepare the SAC gear, you will notice how soft and pliable the metal is. That’s when I started to worry. I had to add 7oz. of ballast behind the aft cockpit bulkhead to keep her on her nose gear. That is quite a bit, but doesn’t seem like it would be prohibitively heavy for the kit gear (unlike, say, the 1/48 B-29 or B-36). I’ve decided that if my metal gear fails, I’m going to redo it with the kit gear. I did save all the parts In anticipation of this. Good luck on your build!
Wow, very nice! I had also built this kit, man, back in 2001. Did mine in a south Pacific black cat version. Real nice model to put together. I miss those pro-modeler kits.
