Now that the Accurate Miniatures TBF Avenger is completed, I took a little break from building aircraft stuff.

So yesterday I finished the working individual link tracks for my "Patriotic War" Soviet KV-1 1/35 scale Tamiya tank.

Then I got cracking on the Catalina build...

I wanted to ensure a good bond between the glue and parts, so I opted to glue almost everything together prior to painting. I didn't add the control yoke wheels and left the control bar loose. Friction is holding it in place and is now moveable since I didn't glue it down tight.

Here are a few pictures of the cockpit:

and the rear gunners section:

Finally I glued the rearmost bulkhead in place, along with the front nose door that hinged inward and allowed access to the front turret.

If things go as planned tomorrow I may start painting the fuselage interior parts. But I also have been thinking about adding some detail to the fuselage sidewalls by adding some evergreen strips to represent longerons. So far though I haven't decided as to whether or not I will go this extra step. My original plan was to build it pretty much out of the box except for the wheels, which I already had.

I'll decide soon...

My friend Tom Bebout recently sent me some outstanding photos of the Air Force Museum's OA-10, which coincidentally have the same markings as provided in this kit.

I have already been using these pictures as a reference.

Thanks again Tom...

I'm calling it a night. Did I say how I really like to build these older Monogram / Revell kits ? It's pretty much what I grew up with when building models as a kid... and some of them are still available.

So far it has been a very pleasurable build. Now having said that... I hope I haven't jinxed myself or the build.

Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Tom for the encouraging words, and again for the PBY photos. Over the last few days the pictures you sent me have really helped. They were very handy when I was trying to figure out the main landing gear...

Tonight I started out by spraying the waist gun armor plates and nose wheel gear doors interior green.

Then I sprayed the cockpit assembly ...

and the rear gunners waist position area...

Since I had glued in the tiny side windows, I wanted to see how much would be visible looking through them, once the fuselage halves were glued together. So I mocked everything in position and held it together with tape. The parts fit rather well so far.

The view of the interior was not too good. So I decided not to go crazy with any additional details in these areas. However it looks like the rear gunner positions will be fairly easy to look into. So if someone was going to be scratch building details on their kit, this is one of the places I would concentrate on.

This one however is going to be a pretty much out of the box build...

I then taped off the side windows and sprayed these interior areas of the fuselage with interior green as well...

Starboard side:

Port side:

and both side by side on the work bench... This one takes up some room ! (I can only imagine how big it will be once everything is glued together...).

Remember the pictures of the landing gear that I mentioned earlier ?

This is the result of last nights work. I spend a good amount of time cleaning up minor mold seam lines on all of the landing gear struts. I also drilled out the areas where the retraction strut connects to the under carriage. The kit parts do not fit exactly as they should here, so I had to trim the length of the retraction strut by about 1/16 of an inch. Then once I was happy with how it fit in the correct location as shown in the pictures provided by Tom Bebout, I glued the strut back together.

To ensure a good coverage of paint, I sprayed the landing gear bays with "Blue Gray" (just as it is on the OV-10 at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson...) before I glued the landing gear in place.

These oleo scissors are just lightly held in place for painting purposes. They will come back off when I wrap the oleo strut with Bare Metal Foil.

The nose gear strut was also assembled, mold seams cleaned up, and it was sprayed to match the main gear.

Here's everything painted as it looks now. These interior parts are now ready for some detail painting.

Calling it a night. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Greg.

Tonight I managed to get some more done... I finished the detail painting on the interior parts. Once this was done, I glued the fuselage halves together.

Here's how the cockpit looks once it was in place. Sadly, most of this will get covered up once the main canopy goes on...

Here's a few photos of the waist gunner side blister positions:

Port side

Both from the top...

Starboard side

Calling it a night... Take care.

as usual, comments are encouraged.

Looking good,and gosh that's a big bird.

Thanks Jeffrey. I'll bet your Dad had some amazing stories if he opened up about it. We have a relative from Pennsylvania who has a B-25 Mitchell on his tombstone. He was a pilot in the Army Air Force flying with the 42nd Bomb Group 100th Bomb Squadron, and was lost in the Sulu Sea near the Philippines. They never recovered anything from the wreckage. 7 other pilots were killed in the same training mission. They were all taking turns practicing flying the Mitchell doing low level Split S maneuvers. The plane didn't manage to pull up in time and hit the water. The unit specialized in skip bombing against Japanese surface vessels.

So I totally understand the plane on the grave marker. It's a fitting tribute and a nice touch for your Dad.

Yes Tom this one is a really Big Bird ! These pictures show the model with a one foot ruler next to it as a comparison.

Thanks for the compliments Greg. I'm still amazed by the work you've done on your SBD. I agree with you. At least we know that it is there. I have been having a great time working on this one so far.

Today I was working with the gaps in the wing joints.

Here's a closer look at the gap on the under side that I filled with plastic strips.

Here's how I filled the holes in with round stock for the bomb racks.

And how I filled in the gap for the Yagi antenna system. This is the Starboard side.

Followed by the Port Side:

This is a picture of the top side of the wing after I glued in some more plastic to fill up most of the gaps and to help restore some structural integrity.

The next step is to apply some putty over the plastic strips.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again for following along.

To be continued...

Comments are encouraged.

Today while I was sanding on the wings of my Wildcats, I decided it would be a great time to finish up these spots that were filled in a few days ago.

Once all of the sanding work was done on all 3 planes, I sprayed on some Light Gray. In the right hand side of this picture, you can see the F4F Wildcats. They are the same scale (1/48) as the PBY. It kind of gives you an idea as to just how big the Catalina is. In real life it's almost as big as a B-17 !

Also you can see the light places on the PBY wings. That is where I sprayed the "Light Gray" on to see how the finish sanding work turned out.

Overall I'm pleased with how things look now. I'll have to re-scribe some rivet and panel lines. Once that is done I think the wings will be ready for paint...

Here's a close up of the upper surfaces of the wing. This is where the huge gap was... These areas were sprayed with a sand able primer. Here too I need to re-scribe some panel line details and the rivets will need some work.

This last picture shows the center section. Just behind where it mounts on the fuselage pylon there was another gap. The gap here has been sprayed "Light Gray" as has the leading edge of the wing, where there was another problem that was caused by the misalignment of the wing panels. I think I almost have this sorted out now...

Later on tonight I may do some more work on this one.

Comments are encouraged.

Very nice Louis, one kit I have been meaning to get is a Catalina maybe one each in 72nd and of course the Monogram/Revell Cat in 48th. How did you like the Tamiya putty? Glad you were able to get some and give it a shot. I like it myself. Dries quickly, fills and sands nicely as well. The detail is amazing but then it's what Monogram has always been pretty decent in was detail. Looking forward to more from this project.

Over the last few days I haven't had too much time for model building... Other things have been getting in the way.

However I did make some progress on the PBY...

I have been working on restoring the rivet details and panel lines that were lost when I filled in the holes for the Yagi Antennae's and bomb racks. This is very hard on the old eyes... I have a little over half of the wing done now.

I also installed the out rigger pontoons. I decided to mount them in the "UP" / retracted position. Most photos I found so far with a PBY parked on the ground have them raised.

Here's the Starboard Side:

and the Port Side:

I also have been working on the fuselage assembly. I took care of all of the glue seams,

then mounted the Stabilizer / Elevator assemblies...

and glued the canopy in place.

Lastly, I glued the engines into the cowlings and now the nacelles are ready to be glued on the wing,

once I finish the rivet details...

One more thing: Did I ever mention how BIG this thing is ?
Check out the tail assembly with a same sized 1/48 scale F4F Wildcat parked next to it... It kind of gives you an idea as to just how big these Catalina Flying Boats were.

I would not be surprised if the tail feathers on the Catalina were almost the same square footage as the Wildcat's main wings were... well maybe a little smaller than a Wildcat, but not by too much.

Calling it a day.

Comments are encouraged... Take care and thanks for looking.