OK, I've just sent my mea culpa to Paul Barber for washing out of the RAF build. I underwent a job/career change and moved, a process I am still walking through. Paul was very gracious, and encouraged me in this GB initiated by my dear friend, David Leigh-Smith. Since David has set an end date of some 14 months out, I think I can commit.
This is my attempt at both redemption and participation, as well as scratching a lifelong itch. I intend to build the Coastal Command version of the PBY-5 Catalina, specifically the "WQ-Z" flying boat that re-established visual with the Bismarck in the search and destroy efforts by the Royal Navy that ultimately led to her demise in May, 1941. The Catalina scored a cameo in the WW2 classic Sink the Bismarck! (1960). (You can see the whole thing on YouTube, by the way.) In so doing, I will fulfill my lifelong dream of building a Catalina, I will give a nod to the RAF--a specimen of which I have not yet built since my return to modeling, and I will present a plane from a Hollywood flick. Furthermore, the history of this aircraft and its epic role in the death of Bismarck is fascinating to me and speaks to the trans-Atlantic alliances I have enjoyed so much on this site: Catalina WQ-Z was co-piloted by a combined British and American flight crew, even though America was not officially in the War yet.
A couple of items: I will be building the Revell PBY-5 1:48 edition of the plane. Oddly, I purchased this kit at a bargain price while in Ecuador last summer. I will have to hunt decals as the plane hunted her quarry, and if push comes to shove I will print my own. I intend on a "wheels up" presentation (again), as few birds are more ungainly wheels down that the Catalina, and few more inspiring while in flight.
Comments welcome.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
