Catalina PBY-5A - Airfix 1/72

[The Spadgent]

Tidy job that Ced. 👍🙌

[bertielissie]

I've just gone through the last 5 pages of posts and am totally exhausted. I need a nice cider now (and I'm not even modelling). A great bit of work on an old vintage Airfix. Mr Airfix should give you a bar of chocolate minimum!!🍺

[CedB]

Thanks Mark, Giorgio, hendie, Johnny and Bertie  

 

 

Fiddly bits this morning, tidying up. The turret has been masked and touched up (fnaar!):

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

Engines painted with iron (my favourite) and prop tips painted:

 

 

The Mr Metal Colour iron was stirred with my Tamiya stirrer and there were lumps. Aha! I thought, time to try my new shaker. I'll do a proper post later but safe to say it worked!

 

White areas around the de-icers have been touched up and the blisters, pitot, loop aerial and float struts painted:

 

 

Off to look for some supports for the guns.

[AdrianMF]

Those blisters are looking promising...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Markh-75]

Yes I like Revells iron for engines so I can highlight the bright silver parts on them. I sometimes use it on undercarriage legs and then highlight the piston part in bright silver; I always highlight pistons but I know that some models have undercarriage in a different colour.

looking great👍😁

[perdu]

Support for guns?

 

I can see cocktail sticks, want to borrow a knife?

[CedB]

50 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Those blisters are looking promising...

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian  

49 minutes ago, Markh-75 said:

Yes I like Revells iron for engines so I can highlight the bright silver parts on them. I sometimes use it on undercarriage legs and then highlight the piston part in bright silver; I always highlight pistons but I know that some models have undercarriage in a different colour.

looking great👍😁

Yep, same for me Mark, I like burnishing the stuff  

24 minutes ago, perdu said:

Support for guns?

 

I can see cocktail sticks, want to borrow a knife?

Thanks Bill, but I found something…  

 

 

The ladder from the kit:

 

 

Sanded a bit and chopped up, it gives me the 'U' shaped support I was after:

 

 

The wheels don't look good when just placed in:

 

 

…but a check of reference shots show that they do stick out quite a bit so I put some tube glue in the top of the bay and a blob of Humbrol filler on the bottom and stuck 'em in. Turret has been de-masked and cleaned up so here we are now:

 

 

I need to touch up the de-icers with black, paint the supports, glue on the blisters and paint the camo.

Getting there.

[keefr22]

That's looking really good Ced, neat work! Good lateral thinking on the gun supports!

 

Keith

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 5/29/2020 at 9:36 PM, Beard said:

Get one, tune it open E.

Get one, tune it in open G.  Instant Keef

[CedB]

Thanks Keith and Crisp  

 

 

The blister hinges were getting in the way so they're off:

 

 

…and the blisters are on:

 

 

Busy watching Dragon Endeavour docking now so going offline!

[AdrianMF]

21 minutes ago, CedB said:

Busy watching Dragon Endeavour docking now

You've earned it! Blisteringly brilliant...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[CedB]

Thanks Adrian  

 

 

Actually things are going really sloooowwly on the docking so I thought I'd start the camo.

The Hu102 that I (probably) bought for this has been lying around for a while:

 

 

Time to deploy my new toy tool!

 

Well that worked:

 

 

Two metal balls (AK ones) in the pot as suggested on the 'net.

Of course I could have used a Tamiya stirrer or my Badger electric one but I wanted one of these for the VMA and other bottles. And 'cos I'm lazy.

 

First coat done:

 

 

Thinned of course. In fact I just dropped flow improver on top of the paint and stuck the brush through that, topping it up when the paint seemed a bit thick.

 

[AdrianMF]

*cough!* flat brush?

[CedB]

Of course! Just for you Adrian another shot with the brush at the right angle!  

 

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

[giemme]

That shaking thing is going to turn out handy also for resin molding, Ced. Or have you done it already?

 

Nice camo painting, BTW

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Thanks Giorgio  

Hadn't thought of that - good idea!

 

First coat of Hu32:

 

 

Dragon is docked (woohoo!) so that's probably me done for the day while things dry  

[Cookenbacher]

You've taken things to another level here Ced, that fuselage is gorgeous.

[CedB]

Thanks Cookie  

 

 

Worried that I might not get the camo lined up and for want of a reason not to, glued the wings together:

 

 

It's big.

I knew there was a reason…

[jean]

Hi Ced,

 

I have been following your build from the last line of chairs, the one close to the emergency exit, in the shadows...

Incredible build of a really tricky Airfix oldie!!!

This is going to look stunning. Hat off to you, Sir.

 

JR

[rob85]

I was always surprised by the size of the Cat, it’s wings especially!
 

may I recommend something? As I know you like tools, you may want to bin that brush and get a nice new Golden taklon brush, maybe a bit wider than the one you have. Also water works really nicely as a thinner and dries rather smooth.... just my thoughts, take them or leave them completely up to your good self.

 

I hate over painting white, you have got good coverage as white always shines through! That EDSG has covered very nicely!

 

that fuselage and framing is some of your best work! 
 

Rob

[giemme]

She sure is big! Why are you brush painting it rather than airbrushing, if I may ask? Too big for the spraying booth?

 

Ciao

[CedB]

58 minutes ago, jean said:

Hi Ced,

 

I have been following your build from the last line of chairs, the one close to the emergency exit, in the shadows...

Incredible build of a really tricky Airfix oldie!!!

This is going to look stunning. Hat off to you, Sir.

 

JR

Thanks Jean, kind of you  

 

48 minutes ago, rob85 said:

I was always surprised by the size of the Cat, it’s wings especially!
 

may I recommend something? As I know you like tools, you may want to bin that brush and get a nice new Golden taklon brush, maybe a bit wider than the one you have. Also water works really nicely as a thinner and dries rather smooth.... just my thoughts, take them or leave them completely up to your good self.

 

I hate over painting white, you have got good coverage as white always shines through! That EDSG has covered very nicely!

 

that fuselage and framing is some of your best work! 
 

Rob

Thanks Rob  The white is Stynylrez so great coverage. Bin the brush? It's a Tamiya! But the Golden Taklons look good - like these?

 

2 minutes ago, giemme said:

She sure is big! Why are you brush painting it rather than airbrushing, if I may ask? Too big for the spraying booth?

 

Ciao

Thanks Giorgio  

Brush painting because of the size and because I'd bought the Humbrol ages ago…

 

 

Realised I'd missed a frame on the blister so I thought I'd try hendie's Aizu idea:

 

 

[rob85]

Yeah, or check a well known auction site for royal & langnickel brush sets, they are more consistent from what I’ve found, as in the hairs are all the same length, flat and stay in the brush and rather affordable.

Rob

 

[CedB]

Thanks Rob  'Well known auction site' checked and a suitable set found - thanks matey. I don't intend to do that much hand brushing (as opposed to washing!) in the future but I would like a wider brush so I just got a small set. Worth a try for £4.

 

I note that I ordered that at about 23:30.

There had been wine.

Not a lot, but some.

Enough to blur my thought process when I was also 'thinking' about the tape for the frames.

I like doing this framing; not the actual process, but the results.

Cutting the tape to a consistent width is a problem though and, of course, using two pieces of unequal width really shows up.

Now hendie's idea of using Aizu tape is a good one (see below) but Aizu tape is expensive; about £4 (or much more if you're not careful) for an 8m roll.

'Filmoplast P' is thinner and, although it's harder to handle, is a lot cheaper at about £12 for 50m! 

But it's 2cm wide so needs to be cut. I can't use the Silhouette 'cos the tape needs to be painted before cutting but after removing from the backing (or it twists) and I don't think I'd get it off a surface twice.

I remember seeing a post somewhere about cutting accurate strips using a digital calliper vernier gauge but for the life of me I can't find it.

I did find those Infini 'Easycutting' boards that Stew and Jamie were keenly praising a while ago.

Sadly Jamie is out of stock but Duncan had some.

So I ordered the 'Type A' for cutting framing strips from 0.4 to 1mm in 0.1mm steps - nice!

But what about other types - what do they do?

Type B looks cool - it allows 'the easy cutting of masking tape into curves, circles and complex shapes' - great!

I ordered one for quick cuts that don't need the Silhouette.

Type C is for circles and curves and D is like B with different angles so I don't need those.

While I was there I ordered a Dora Wings Percival Proctor Mk.III, just to support our friendly suppliers.

They're my best mates they are, hic 🍷

 

 

Anyway, the Aizu tape did take the paint (two coats) well and I now have the extra frame:

 

 

Much better.

 

Giorgio asked about the wings fitting in the booth:

 

 

Well, they fit, but not so that you can actually spray anything with ease.

 

What's that?

White strips?

What these?

 

 

That's what happens when you join the wings after the first coat of paint and see that, despite your best dry fitting and sanding efforts, there are gaps.

Rats.

At least it's only after the first coat

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, CedB said:

I can't use the Silhouette 'cos the tape needs to be painted before cutting but after removing from the backing (or it twists) and I don't think I'd get it off a surface twice

What about cutting the tape, then painting it before separating it from the backing or whatever? 
 

Just throwing that out there. It may not be feasible. I note more tools are in train anyway. 
 

Big Cat looking splendid. Those post-paint repairs are one of the reasons I find brush painting so much simpler than squirts things. I still don’t get on with my airbrush, and I really can’t get the knack of dual action finger twiddling. I’m seriously considering reverting to a single action model.