Whats on the bench at the moment. Revell PBY-5 Catalina 1/72 scale(17 1/4 inch wing), having fun with this oldie, built one back in the 70s.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215PBYWEB4-med.JPGhttp://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215PBYWEB5-med.JPG

Plenty of rivets back then!

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215PBYWEB3-med.JPG

This is the Coast Guard version, black trim on leading edges of wings yellow top wings with some black areas by engines on top.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pbybox-med.JPG

Wow...that paint job is a real eye-catcher on a big plane. It looks fantastic. What did you use for the silver finish.

I have the 1/48 scale PBY-5A sitting in a box (unfortunately, "sitting in the box" is the current home location for most of the kits I've bought in the last year).

I'm old enough to have actually worked on a 5A. I worked for a company that owned one (CF-JCV) back in '76 when I was fresh out of high school. I was just looking at a picture I took back then and it had a pretty rough surface. The rivets were prominent and the individual metal panels were even more prominent. Looks like all the panels were lapped on top of each other at the edges rather than flush fitted. That old Canso (as we called them in Canada) still exists today. It's owned by a New Zealand group. It was a bit of rarity in that it still had the waist blisters installed.

One thing I remember is the 55 gallon oil reservoir for EACH engine.

Oh, strangley enough, our local aviation museum has a nose turret from one of these planes. I stuck my head in it...it's smaller than you'd think.

Dad's favorite plane - well, it was at the time it plucked him out of the Pacific after 8 days in a 1-man life raft.

The paint Model Master aluminum, sprays and brushes great.
I remember awhile back in one of your posts you mentioned servicing PBYS/Canso, boy theres a lot of info on the net on them. As you say many still flying.

Here's a pic I found on the web of Revells PBY V189
You can see the black trim better, in the old Revell instructions they dont point this out(1971 printing). I also got a pic of a guy standing up on the wing fueling one.
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pby43.jpg

Dad's favorite plane - well, it was at the time it plucked him out of the Pacific after 8 days in a 1-man life raft.
I bet ya he loved that raft too. 8 days is no joke in a raft in the ocean.

Some more info on PBY V189 http://www.check-six.com/Coast_Guard/Adak_PBY_crash.htm

Very cool! :thumbsup:

I'm gonna have to get that 1/48th PBY some day. I hear its a great kit and that there are some really nifty aftermarket goodies for it?

Most of that black on the topside seems to define the walkways used to service the plane.

To get to the engines, we'd crawl out of the aft portion of the waist blisters and do some fancy footwork to get onto the spine of the aircraft (that dark strip that runs from the wing support pylon to the base of the vertical fin). In fact, I remember that walkway on the spine being painted in a textured, non-slip coating.

On the topside of the wing, just over the pylon near the trailing edge, there were a pair of hinged handles that folded flat into recesses when not in use. We grabbed onto those and hauled ourselves onto the top of the wing. From the wing, we could check systems behind the engine including the oil reservoirs.

And that dark stripe along the forward topside of the wing is on the front spar which is a walkway.

The black walkways make perfect sense, how about this pic, notice the fire exstinquisher.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215us_interior_colours_09.jpg

Modeling Madness review of the old Revell kit http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/allies/us/pby5apreview.htm

The other versions of Revells PBY http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/us/jorgensenpbypreview.htm

I bet ya he loved that raft too. 8 days is no joke in a raft in the ocean.

Nah. He told me, as the PBY crewman was helping him up into the waist blister he asked Dad "Sir, do want the raft as a souvenir?" Dad said "HELL no, I never want to see another raft!" and emptied his .45 into it. :lol:

I'm not usually found commenting on airplanes, but I always thought the PBY was a way cool aircraft. The Canso version of them were were used here as forest fire waterbombers for many years and were only retired within the last five or so years.

By the way, were the water bomber versions purpose built for that or were they converted military PBYs?

Huzz

The waterbombers were all conversions. Production in Canada ended in the Spring of 1945 and I would guess that pretty much ended world-wide production (give or take). BTW, a huge number of PBY-5's and 5A's were built in Canada (several hundred depending on how you count...but in the vicinity of 400 PBY-5A's and a few hundred plain 5's). In fact, the decals in the Revell 1/48 scale PBY-5A kit are for Canadian Vickers produced OA-10A's that were delivered to the Americans.

Neat!

I continue to be impressed with the fact that planes of that vintage were airworthy until quite recently and in fact many may still be so.

Huzz

Oh, there MUST be Catalinas still flying.

There are certainly DC-3/C-47s that were built in the 30s/40s still in the air. You just can't kill those things. I recall reading about one (had to be ten years ago) that was flying regular charter service in the Florida keys that had over 80,000 hours on the airframe.

There are many still flying. There are also many that belong to air museums that are in flying condition, and are flown to different airshow events.

Some more info on PBY V189 http://www.check-six.com/Coast_Guard/Adak_PBY_crash.htm

Great site. I'm impressed they listed the more recent stuff on there. I was the Operations Officer on the Coastal Patrol Boat that responded to this one:

Date of incident: 12 July 1994

Crash related deaths:
LT Laurence B. Williams (CG Aviator #2887)
LT Mark E. Koteek (CG Aviator #3113)
ASMCS Peter A. Leeman
AM1 Michael R. Gill

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
Air Station Humboldt Bay, CA

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number:
Aérospatiale HH-65A Dolphin, 6541

Location of the incident: Shelter Cove, CA

Description of the incident:
This crew was responding to a grounded sailing vessel. It was dark and the weather was poor as this crew attempted to descend through the fog to assist the vessel in distress. The helicopter impacted the side of a cliff and the entire crew was lost.

http://www.check-six.com/lib/Coast_Guard_Aviation_Casualties.htm

Wow, when you read the Casualty Reports you really realize how tuff of a job the Coast Guard is.
Nice to know there always there when we need them.
I have a cousin who was in the Coast Guard in Alaska, he's now out and living somewhere up there.

Oh, there MUST be Catalinas still flying.

There are certainly DC-3/C-47s that were built in the 30s/40s still in the air. You just can't kill those things. I recall reading about one (had to be ten years ago) that was flying regular charter service in the Florida keys that had over 80,000 hours on the airframe.

The PBY has the same engines as the DC-3/C-47. Hence they were under powered and over built also. I remember an attempt to resell them with turbo-props. Don't know how popular that was.

Reports definitely worth reading. Great site! rr

Got the plane looking pretty close to the original in the pics.
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pby_good.JPG
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pby2.JPG

A few more.
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pby3.JPG
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/542/7215pby4.JPG

Pretty close, looks right on the mark to me. Can't wait for the final version. :thumbsup: rr

Anyone know a humbrol paint scheme for afrika korps figures plz!?
Thats a bloody good model by the way nice silver finish

I actually built this bear of a kit a few years back. Had a horrible time getting the parts to fit right. It didn't make the cross-country move, I'm afraid. I may get the 1/48th kit and do it up in CG colors.

Nice job, btw!

Thanks guys.
Me too MANGOMAN, built one in the 70s. The fuselage parts went together nice and straight with just a bit of putty. The wing was like a kit in itself, with over 10 parts and the working pontoons were tricky. The paint was the most time consuming of all, taping out the black portions. And the wing didn't sit all the way down on fuselage, so a little grinding made it fit. And the wing spars were fun! But I did really get into it and have some fun. This was a vintage kit, so I was 12 again. :)
I would like to get the 1/48 kit too and make the Black Cat version.

Mango--

Years ago, there was a Cat painted in WWII markings that used to hang out at Lakefront Airport. Must've been back in the early 70s. There is still at least 1, maybe 2 Albtrosses that fly out of there. When I was a boy, I used to love to go past on the Seabrook Bridge, and watch all the Warbirds that called Lakefront home. Very few, now... :(

They had FiFi land there last year, but the were charging $5 just to see her, so I passed.

Hey, I'm cheap. And I used to climb all over Sentimental Journey (http://www.pimaair.org/Acftdatapics/boe_b29a.htm) when I worked at the Pima Air Museum in high school.

my granfather flew a pby.he was in the blackcats