Tom Bebout sent me some very cool photos of the original "Snafu Snatchers" which is on display at Wright Patterson. Thanks again Tom. I have already put these pictures to good use.
While paint and some glue were drying on my TBD Devastator, and since I had to detail paint the engine for it, I thought it would be a great time to paint the engines for the Catalina.
So I painted the crankcases "Gunship Gray" FS 36118. It's a fairly close match to the color that was used on these engines. Then I decided to try something
"different" out and pulled out the silver pencil. Then I used the silver pencil to bring out the cylinder cooling fin details, ignition harness details and pushrods.
Here's a few pictures:
Followed by a picture of how the engines look inside the cowlings. These parts were just temporarily placed there and have not been glued in position.
I think that the details are good enough for me.
I really like building these older Monogram/ Revell kits, and like you Freddie, I'm having a great time with the Midway Group build.
Yes Tom B., the kit has the Snafu Snatchers decals included. Very cool. As far as the tail assembly dimensions I don't have a clue as to what happened. I am just going to leave my kit as it came from the factory and not worry about the tail problems.
Bernard as far as a wing spar is concerned, my original plan was to get a piece of square metal tubing and epoxy it into place along the entire length of the wing. I even thought about installing two spars. The idea is nothing new, and not too hard to do, but I decided against it. The reason behind this decision was that I am not sure of how the outrigger pontoons will fit in the outer wingtips. I plan on installing mine in the raised position, (since most Cats have them this way when parked on land), but if the fit is terrible I will lower them. If I end up with the floats lowered I may end up building some sort of roll cart to place under the floats similar to the type used by the Japanese Rufe. It may not be 100 percent correct, but it's a plan B. I only plan on building the carts for the outer floats if I notice the wings starting to droop.
Here's a picture of one wing spar of the wing that will eventually go into my 1/6 scale Curtiss Jenny RC plane. This thing has a wingspan close to 88 inches !
You could use a hardwood spar like this if you wanted to. I would notch out the molded in wing ribs and make the spars fit tight before I epoxied anything in position. The only drawback to installing a spar is that if your plastic is warped badly like mine was, you could actually introduce a permanent warp into the structure if the wing panels were not absolutely straight as the epoxy dried.
After I glued mine together and it dried overnight it seemed really strong. This is something that only time will tell.
Bernard, I hope this helps to answer your question about the wing spar.
Thanks again for sending me the photos of the Cat at Wright Patterson Tom B. !
