Profile Photo
Hongseob CHOI
22 articles

PBY-5A Catalina, 1/72, Academy

November 22, 2017 · in Aviation · · 25 · 9.7K

Here's one of my favorite build. !
I love all seaplanes and I think Catalina has the most standard shape of beauty in her kind.
I made this a years ago and this was my very first made water base. Wonhee Lee(now you all may know him for 'master of the sea..') commented a lot for helping me.

Kit is one of the finest model I've ever built of Academy. no correction needed and nice rivet details all over the plane. I had only the Black cat kit and I just changed color scheme. so some details may different. Main color is Tamiya AS-19 but I did a filtering with oil colors for brighter color. and panel lines were washed with same ivory oil color. I'm satisfied with this highlighted panel lines that make a model brighter look.

And for the weathering, I didn't wanted to make too dirty this tidy bird but she still needed some hard weathering because of her use on the wild ocean. so I put the hard weathering of salt and rust but just in the some water submerged area.

Water base is made in normal way with Gel Medium and varnished for shiny finish.
for wave texture, I used this time my own hand with rubber globe tapping in slightly horizontal way on still wet Gel Medium surface. Easy way but result's very satisfying for me.
For dried salt on surface, I used mix of Tamiya's 'Flat base' and 'clear' enamels. normally it comes liked flat clear when you mix flat base in clear in right ratio. but if you use over quantity of flat base, it remains like white powder on surface after it dries. it really looks like salt. and just brush the border with thinner for better look.

This was the one of three seaplane that I've dreamed for my early building experience.
next time I'll put my second seaplane, and same my only diorama. I think you'll like it.

Reader reactions:
25ย  Awesome

21 additional images. Click to enlarge.


25 responses

  1. A most excellent job, my friend - a very nice build indeed...and you definitely have a talent for that water representation.

  2. Very fine Job. Like picture 15 - if you had held her at the wing-tip your hand wouldn't have been on the photo ๐Ÿ˜‰

  3. Another unbelievable sea scape! Also not easy to capture-as you have- a seaplane "on the step", when it unsticks from the water. Beautifully done, in all aspects. Love the workworn look to the Catalina!

  4. Good choice with 1/72 scale- the 1/48 version is HUGE!

  5. Wow, fantastic work in 1/72. Wonderful work on how the sea looks and the Catalina is just great!

  6. A fine build and sea scape!

  7. Outstanding, Hongseob CHOI. You have a special talent with water.

  8. Very life like. This looks fantastic !

  9. I think we have two masters of her sea here, one Posseidon and one Neptun. Really, sometimes I canโ€™t believe what I see when you guys, Won-hui (@won-huilee) and Hongseob, present your work. My special thanks for the tip with the Flat Base. I will try this one at the next opportunity.

  10. Hello Choi,
    Fantastic model in a fantastic setting. very realistic.
    Regards, Dirk / The Netherlands.

  11. That is a beautiful Cat. I love the weathering and detail work. Just excellent!

  12. Very nice! The water is very convincing, and the model is, of course, beautiful.

  13. Great water! How did You build stand?

Leave a Reply