Recently my good friend David Thomas made me an offer that was hard to turn down. He gave me several unbuilt 1/48 scale airplane models from his collection. One of these kits was this PBY Catalina you see here.

Part of the agreement was that I build this PBY-5A for him as he originally intended. David sent me the various accessories that he wanted to incorporate with the build. A set of canopy masks,

a replacement resin tail assembly made by Belcher Bits,


two replacement resin engines (that have a lot more detail than the kit parts),

and the necessary decals for the actual PBY that found and reported the Bismarck to the Royal Navy.

The resin tail is supposed to correct a problem with how the tail tapers down on the kit. Apparently the real plane is more narrow than the kit has been molded. There's a PBY undergoing a restoration to a static display level nearby, so I'll make a few trips and try to get some pictures of the real thing as we go...

This is the plane I'll be building. It's a PBY-5 to the best of my knowledge so far.

This means I'll have to convert it over from an amphibian to being strictly a water based plane that has optional trolley wheels that were attached as needed and used for beaching. Luckily I have another seaplane style PBY-5 in the stash. This is the older Monogram kit that I have had for about 20 years now. Who knows, maybe it will get tossed into the build as things play out.

Here are the main differences that I will have to fix on the amphibian plane. I'll end up adding some plastic sheeting to cover the wheel openings in this area.

Once done it should look like this and be a solid panel with no retractable landing gear.

The nose wheel area will have to be fixed as well. I hope this will be an easy modification.

The decals that David provided are very nice.

It will look great in the display case for several reasons. You don't see many PBY's built to begin with, and of the few you do see completed, hardly any at all are painted in these colors. There are several other planes shown on the instructions.

This is an upper plan view of the camouflage pattern on the upper wing surfaces.

Aero Master has even included a short history behind the plane. This is a nice touch.

Should I decide to build the PBY I have had in the stash for years, I have this decal sheet to use. I originally wanted to build mine as a plane from NAS Jacksonville. The "Black Cat" scheme is starting to grow on me too, but so is the Atlantic scheme, so now I'm really undecided...



These are also a nice set of Aero Master decals.

Now I hope that I can do this build some justice, and that I don't let David down with his expectations. I have never attempted a complete resin tail replacement before, so this will be a learning experience for me.

Since this seaplane version had a separate tail wheel dolly as part of the beaching gear, I don't have to worry about it being a "Tail Sitter". The tail wheel assembly will take care of that.

As always,
Comments are encouraged.

Pedro, @holzhamer
I wasn't aware of the problem with the tail section either. The resin parts taper down in one section by about 3/8 inch or approximately 10 MM towards the rear fuselage. Maybe there's a minor shape problem with the outline of the rudder ?

These are only guesses on my part, so please don't accept this as a fact. I will do a side by side comparison between the two rear fuselage sections once I get to that point. I'm hopeful it will be more obvious when I can see both parts sitting next to each other side by side.

The outside surface of the Belcher Bits is actually quite nice. There's a little bit of resin cleanup that needs to be taken care of at the ends of the parts. The interior section of the resin looks a bit rough, but it's not visible once assembled and installed to the kit fuselage section. There's enough material there that if I was building an amphibian, and expected it to sit properly on the nose wheel without having to add too much weight inside the nose, (or simply rely upon the clear plastic stand), I would consider grinding out the interior portion of the resin to make it thinner and lighter.

Overall they look like very decent parts.

Thanks for stopping by.

James my dear friend, @jamesb

Today I stopped by and visited with some of my friends at the airport. They are quite busy and have little room left inside the hangar. What is so cool is at this very moment they have not one, but TWO Catalina's there now.

Naturally I had to grab a few pictures to show how the tail looks on a real life 1 to 1 scale plane.

And as I expected, you were right ! Spot on the money.

Here's a few pictures to show everyone what we are talking about...

This plane is getting painted and not a full on restoration. It will be for a static display and is eventually headed to Eastern Europe.

Here's a nice side view of the rear fuselage. Notice how it tapers. The vertical fin, rudder and stabilizer assembly have been removed.

Here's the picture that shows what a thousand words can not. Notice the taper here. It's very visible and this is what the kit parts are faulted. If I didn't see this in person, I wouldn't have known.

Good eye James ! @jamesb

This is the same angle, but it shows more of the plane.

This next photo was taken from the Port lower side. Here you can clearly see the step in the fuselage hull. It also shows the graceful lines of the old girl. Yes I just said that ! The Catalina has some nice lines to it in some places.

This last photo shows the tail section... The rudder is getting recovered with fabric at the moment. I'm certain the elevators will be recovered too.

James,
I followed the link you provided, and it mirrored your comments above. Thank you very much for sharing this information. I wouldn't have known otherwise.

I mentioned there were two PBY's here. This next photo shows you the other one. It's in much better condition and is flyable.

You just don't realize how HUGE the PBY is, until you stand next to one. Here's "yours truly" standing beside one... It's been a great day.

As always,
Comments are encouraged.

Thanks !

Hello David ! @davidathomas
I just noticed your response... Now it's my turn to apologize. Things have been a little hectic at home for me too. In spite of this, I have also been busy with the Yamamoto build and I even did some work on the ICM Heinkel 111 and my Monogram B-24.

That's a cool bit of trivia... Funny how life comes around full circle occasionally isn't it ?

I'll definitely grind the interior resin tail section to save some weight in the tail section and make it a little easier for the support structure / beaching gear, and like you I think it's a lovely plane... but I also like the Stuka for the same reason... It's so ugly it's pretty, (if that makes any sense).

Thanks for sharing the link showing how another Imodeler built their PBY Bismarck hunter... That will definitely come in handy a bit later.

Take care my dear friend... and many thanks for everything you have done.

Please stay tuned for another update. It just might be around the next corner. I plan on making another trip to see my friends and the Catalina's they are working on very soon.

Hey, no sweat my friend. I'm honored that you'd tackle this in my name. You're going to kill this build, and as the old saying go, "...it needed killing'..."--the Catalina is a great pane, deserves to be in 1:48, and deserves to be done right, by a master. On top of that, the Bismarck Hunter deserves to be built right as well. Your history lesson helped--a chill went through me to hear she was later lost, cause unknown.

Great story! Will be following this build with interest!

That is a great looking camo, Jaime. Is this also in 1/48, or is it in 1/72? Looking forward to seeing Louis' model with paint. Louis, which kind of paint will you be using? I need to buy stock in the paint company, because this is a really large model when done. :o)

Jaime, @jetmex

Forgive me for being a bit tardy with my reply. It's only been a little over a month ... Things have been a little hectic around here at the home lately... you know what I mean. That is a really neat looking Catalina and the camouflage paint is spectacular. The one you posted was painted similarly to how some B-17's were done at the Hawaiian Air Depot similarly right after the Pearl Harbor attack. Very cool... if I had another extra 1/48 Revell PBY kit like this, I would seriously consider building up another one using your provided scheme and back dating it to an earlier version of the PBY. The one I have in the stash is slated for another NAS Jacksonville scheme... Thanks again buddy, and Merry Christmas.