San Francisco Coast Guard PBY "Frisco-F"
Crew comes from SMA and Monograms B-17
Belcher Bits Tail is less detailed and with different panel layout
testfitting the Copilot seat
almost ready - without Eduards photoetch parts
Testfitting
gun base removed and stands separated
Copilot primed, support for walkway on bulkhead 6 must be lower
Cockpit finished - Copilot needs some paint. The red "thing" is part 45.
Add 5mm brass tube to avoid sagging of the wing
I also do not require the Yagi antennas - the slits need to be closed
I want to open the cockpit side windows
the kit is in this area not 100% correct - I removed ...
.. and added a more correct version
difference between changed and original cockpit side
Kit engine: with and without Eduards PE
(unfinished) Wing compared to B-17
Testfitting the interiod before paint job
interior painted - without final touch up
this weekends progress - almost ready for glueing together
rear half is finished - including strengthening of rear part in case I add Belcher Bit tail. The front shows the support for the radioman
and here the radiomate - I checked: there is no use to add any detailing to the radio compartment - you would see nothing!
I have not found a suitable Pilot - so I try to make my own
before cutting out the side window
it's a tight fit
before cutting
after cutting - a tailless Catalina is a sickening sight
ready for fotoshooting
the round bucket is the toilet - no privacy ...
weapons are gone
some filling and sanding required - but it is my fault, did not pay attention when cutting from trees
engine mounts are not properly fitting - easily cured with small plastic strips
fuel vents - mix of kit parts and Eduard photo etch
what a tailsitter!
Comparison of (left to right) Hataka, Vallejo, Gunze and Italeri. Hataka clear winner in shade and Gunze in usability.
Floats - enhanced with Eduards PE
preparing for a big moment
picture based alignment - not yet!
perfect alignment -glued in place with Zap CA
not finished - I reworked the fabric covered parts as I was not satisfied with the result
insignia is done from Montex B-17 masks
adding the small details as preparation for the orange yellow paint
masks are home made
the wing takes up all the space on the workbench
never been watched so closely when masking
wheel painted - now the insignia (pilot complains - can not see a damn thing)
Captain is happy - but starts asking for the hull orange yellow rectancle ...
about to add the wing access doors - found a good document on the internet
I think Tamiyas adhesive division sponsored the Catalina ....
the dark V's are wing access doors for maintenance purposes. This thing is taking up all the space on the bench
wing access doors painted on .. but a tad too small
Antenna wires and how they attach
the foto of the original suggest the prop domes to be differently painted
Sunset in San Francisco Bay
the Eduard PE set for the floats is 100% worth the price
100% size of the Display
Comments
4 28 January 2016, 08:12
Thomas BischoffThis is a beautiful kit which, I am sure, would look great just OOB.
I however decided to build an (in my opinion) unarmed Coast Guard aircraft. To save me the work of assembling the landing gear I intend to display this in the water, fully manned and preparing for another mission.
13 February 2016, 14:27
Thomas MayerBeautiful aircraft and nice kit. I think I am following this one, looks interesting! Where are the figures you are using from?
13 February 2016, 14:46
Thomas BischoffThank you Thomas. The crew is mixed from Scale Model Accessoires and from Monograms B-17.
13 February 2016, 14:51
Stefan FraundorferGood work so far. I like the Catalina, so I'm in. Have much fun!
13 February 2016, 17:29
Thomas BischoffThank you Stefan - this is really a pleasure build.
After removing the gun supports I decided to beef up a little bit the blister compartment. I guess it is very visible through the large openings.
The radioman has now his opening cut out and a quick check confirmed that you can see absolutely nothing of the interior - this saves me the detailing work.
I have never added a support to a wing before but this thing is huge - and the plastic is soft. Strengthening is in my opinion a must, so I added a 5mm brass tube.
21 February 2016, 21:10
Thomas BischoffYou are welcome Soeren! Do you have the 1:72 kit on your wishlist or this one?
21 February 2016, 21:15
Thomas Bischoffslowly progressing - I have to finish Pilot and Copilot first before closing the fuselage.
Wanted to do the Pilot looking aft out of the Window. Tamiya did a Fighter Pilot for their "F4U with Moto Tug" kit which is matching the Copilot position! But for the Pilot I have nothing found so I piece together my own.
9 March 2016, 19:16
Thomas Bischoffyes Eric, the mooring line is much overdone. I also erased it as I want to show the Cat at anchor.
Fitting the Belcher Bit tail is more work than anticipated - I especially dislike the rudder where the fabric "sagging" between the ribs is much overdone and the gap between tail and rudder is too pronounced for me. I spend my time (the few minutes saved from work and family) currently on filling and sanding.
1 May 2016, 12:11
Thomas MayerWonderful work and attention to detail, Thomas! The pilot is such a cool touch!
A pleasure to follow this build!
1 May 2016, 15:36
Thomas BischoffThank you Thomas - the Cat has now a new tail. I can't imagine that you can bring this kit to sit on the wheels with the Belcher Bit tail on.It's incredibly tail heavy. The CG is as you can see behind the wing support approximately just before the side blisters.
The next weeks will now be spent to match the new tail to the fuselage.
17 May 2016, 20:03
Thomas Bischoffafter a very long break due to heavy workload in the office (and long holidays abroad) I resumed work on this beauty:
- the paintwork on the underside of the wing is almost finished
- the tail is fitted, sanded and primed
- the horizontal stabilisers are fitted today
and most crucial: I have the artwork for the self cut markings ready and tested
12 November 2016, 21:15
Alexander GrivonevThis is a very nice project! Built this big bird myself waaay back in 1999, i was still a kid basically. I think it was the first time i used a crude airbrush on an airplane. The finished result was my pride and joy....thanks for the warm, nostalgic memories..
15 January 2017, 00:13
Spanjaardlooking really good, i always liked the PBY, and yours is looking fantastic. i really like what you are doing with the pilots.
15 January 2017, 01:12
wilkyAmazing work you are doing on this Catalina.
I really like the Catalina mainly because of Jacque Cousteau. He had one and it would be shown in his documentaries on occasion.
One day I hope to get to Lake Boga where the R.A.A.F. Catalinas were based
15 January 2017, 02:56
Thomas Bischoffthank you all for your kind comments.
In the meantime I progressed further with the paint job:
- initally used Gunze H56 intermediate blue on the fuselage turned out to be too dark - had to overspray with thinned white and then use Hataka A027
-Dark Seablue H54 is applied. This will be followed by a thin layer of Hataka A006
- orange yellow on the wing is a three layer job: White then Gunze H329 (which is too yellow) and 75% thinned 1:1 mix H329/H24
all sprayed with 0.2 nozzle - gives the whole thing quite a shabby look, hope it's not overdone.
18 January 2017, 11:50
Bart GoesaertSplendid work from the start till this point... the only thing I prefer not to do is taping off twice to mask both sides of the painted lines... the chance that a small part is covered twice, and you see the primer, is to big I think
18 January 2017, 12:23
Damian GüttnerVery nice work !!! I also have the Kit too . But I do not know what painting to make.
18 January 2017, 18:44
Thomas BischoffI know what you mean Bart but I didn't masked twice - I painted first black and masked the stripes. I have to say it worked quite well.
Damian: I have two pictures of FRISCO-F and it was clear for years (20 or so ...) what I would build but only now did I stop waiting for someone coming up with the decals.
20 January 2017, 19:47
Thomas MayerImpressive build! Would you rate the Belcher Bits tail necessary? And, how difficult was it to be added?
6 February 2017, 08:35
Thomas BischoffThank you Thomas! I personally consider the Belcher Bit tail to be an improvement. It definitley gives the Cat a better look. Fitting the tail was not a problem, it went on very smoothly. The issues are the surface quality which can simply not compare with the Revell kit (really deep trenches and a coarse finish) and the rudder which I heavily reworked to make it more look like the real thing.
I would however use the Belcher Bit tail again (but this time as a PBY-2 🙂 ).
If you give me the choice between vacformed clear parts (blisters the correct size as they are overdone) and the tail I would however choose the clear parts. Unfortunately there are none available for this kit.
and finally: my fuselage was heavily warped which helped me in the decision to go for cutting off the tail - would have been a challenge to glue it otherwise
6 February 2017, 17:48
Thomas MayerThomas, thank you for taking time to write your reply! It´s the first time I heard of the resin tail´s quality from someone who has used it. Good to know.
6 February 2017, 20:59
Thomas Bischoffthank you Clifford.
All your kind comments are very welcome and keep me going on. I have spent now some time on the wing again painting on the wing access doors (top and bottom) and doing some highlighting and shading. Now its back to the hull again.
11 February 2017, 22:46
Andrea MorrisMost excellent work 🙂 I have this In my stash but I'm going to do the Black Cat version. What thickness is the wing spar you added?
16 February 2017, 22:18
Thomas BischoffThank you all, I appreciate your comments.
@Dave: I added a brass tube from the local hobby shop with 5mm diameter running the full length of the wing and fixed it as shown in pictures 9 and 10. Definitely recommended!
17 February 2017, 09:27
Martien LourensDue to circumstances I was a time not on scale mates. And missed many wonderful things
Again you are working on a masterpiece. Nice to see Progress.
5 March 2017, 09:06
Thomas BischoffThank you Martien and Roland - your comments will make me keep on because I am in the final stage and had bad luck with the last coat of satin varnish on the hull which added a terrible greyish shade. After a "cool down phase" I was able to almost fix it with an additional layer of satin gloss coat (different brand/new bottle).
The first test fit in my display shelf is also completed - see new picture.
The tail designation from the decal sheet is a bit too big - additionally it states a serial number 0f 09645 - which is according to my references the number of a SBD-5???? So I am now trying to create the letters with GIMP and invent a more appropriate BuNo.
5 March 2017, 11:16
Thomas Bischoffthank you Tim and Eric.
After my bad luck with the coat I finally managed to come (almost) to the end. Only two crew members are missing and the rigging.
19 March 2017, 12:25
Thomas BischoffThank you all I really appreciate your comments. It was a pleasure to build this kit. I hope I don't stumble across a cheap PBY-2/3 conversion set as I do not know whether I may resist the temptation!
23 March 2017, 19:32
Thomas BischoffFINISHED!
Thank you all! 3 weeks ago I thought I was finished but adding the antenna wires took it's time. After consullting all references I decided to use the layout as published in the "In Action" book.
9 April 2017, 18:25
Roland SachsenhoferWonderful model and beautiful pictures! I am deeply impressed! Perfect!
10 April 2017, 18:04
Christian WWow! First of all it looks really big - the plane. Then: very good built! I like all the painted words and/or signs. This is pretty cool and a lot of work. But to be honest: it still looks much better than decals 😄 Very good!
23 October 2017, 09:36
Thomas BischoffThank you Christian - it is a very big plane, I hit desklamp several times while handling the wings (fortunately without any damage).
23 October 2017, 09:57
Bernhard SchrockVery impressive Catalina! Clean build and very well done painting and decaling. Thomas: did you remove the carrier-film of the decals?
23 October 2017, 14:45
Hanno KleineckeBeautiful blue and yellow scheme, lovely little scenery ! From build over the paintwork to the photography, extraordinary work Thomas !
23 October 2017, 18:18
Thomas BischoffThank you all for your kind comments!
@Bernard: all markings except the (very few) small stencils are airbrushed.
@Choppa: the "Sunset" picture is also my favourite!
23 October 2017, 20:16
Jensabsolutely great work, I like absolutely, perhaps also because the Catalina belongs to my favorites. I have the PBY 2/3 in stock, but still fehlet something to accessories,
but I will hardly try to find such a beautiful and very successful diorama, but I absolutely lack experience
25 October 2017, 17:38
Thomas Bischoff@Bernard: I find it easier to airbrush the markings as I have a tendency to screw up the decals. This one was special as I cut the first time my own masks.
@Jens: du hast den PBY-2/3 Umbausatz? Genial! Ich kann die im Project inventory gelisteten Ätzteilsets vollumfänglich empfehlen, ebenso die Montex Masks.
Das war übrigens mein erster Versuch mit einer Wasseroberfläche (Silikon auf Styropor) - im Netzt finden sich viele nützliche Hinweise wie man so was herstellt.
25 October 2017, 18:22
Jensja den Umbau hab ich schon sehr lange liegen, den habe ich mal auf einer Ausstellung in Köln gekauft, wofür wusste ich an dem Tag nicht 😄 mit den Motex Masken werde ich mir überlegen, ich habe einen Decalbogen, auch nur gekauft weil Catalina drauf stand 😄 , mal schauen wann es wird, nur ein Dio, das wird nix werden, dafür hab ich wirklich kein Talent, in keinem Maßstab 😄
25 October 2017, 19:49
Tim HeimerNice work Thomas! I like the way you did it up, it was worth the effort mate!
13 February 2018, 21:21
Album info
Painting:
- Primer Vallejo 73.601 + 71.462 Flow improver
White:
- Gunze H58 50 thinned with Tamiya X-20A (Interior green - except fabric)
- Vallejo 71.001 (thinned)
- slight overspray with Hataka A043 Insignia White
Intermediate Blue:
Gunze H54 thinned, then oversprayed with heavily thinned White Vallejo
Final coat of Hataka A027 thinned with Tamiy X-20A - mixed outside airbrush!
Sea Blue
Gunze H56 oversprayed with Hataka A006
