Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina Operation Etna

[Chris A]

Been working almost exclusively on the Waist gun compartment.  I'm really happy with the result.  Though, I admit, I got cold feet and chickened out trying to fit the 0.3mm square pieces on the sidewalls of the keel and the compartment.

 

First 2 pics in this post show as intended by Airfix, used a bit of tak to keep the figure in position, I'd already ground his mounting point off.

 

I dubbed the first figure I printed 'Timotheus De Arquebusier'. He is now seated in his office. I applied a bit off weathering on the walkways, for sand and mud transfer from the marines boots. Comments and tips welcome.

I plan to add the Browning .50 cal after the bubble canopy is fitted, figure I'm going to break the browning if I fit it earlier.

 

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

What a great job on the figure, absolutely superb. 

[81-er]

There's just no contest, Chris, your detailed gunners position is light year's ahead of the kit offering. Really nice work there

 

James

[Chris A]

The fuselage put up a bit of a protest going together. Glued it in stages, starting from the front.

 

 

[modelling minion]

You're doing a good job on closing the fuselage halves.

[Chris A]

Time for another update.

 

I new I needed to add weight in the nose, planned to do it when I closed the fuselage.

 

But the memory got trumped by anticipation.  Realized when I was fitting the nose gear doors, the nose was in the air all the time. Oops.

 

Resorted to pounding a piece of lead sinker into submission and sliding it in through the half open nose wheel bay.  Hope the CA holds, I let it run in to where it could reach. 

 

 

This is where I'm at now. Next the exterior items.  The seams cleaned up nicely. The root of the horizontal stabilizer needs some filling and finishing. Will leave joining wing and fuselage to last.

 

[Chris A]

Progress has been a bit slow. Working on the canopies. Very disappointed at the fit of the pilot canopy. It's a bit small. Split the difference and glued it along the the centerline.

 

Appealing for tips, tricks, advice to blend the fuselage lines to the cabin?

 

My first reaction, considering the fuselage moldings are very thick, is to work the outside shape down to align with the clear piece, but I wonder if there are better options?

 

 

[parip]

56 minutes ago, Chris A said:

My first reaction, considering the fuselage moldings are very thick, is to work the outside shape down to align with the clear piece,

Hi Chris I would try the same - align the center, and work from there.

The other option is to vacuum form your own canopy or check if there are some aftermarket options available.

Cheers 🍻 

Rade

[modelling minion]

I agree with Rade, check for aftermarket replacements and failing that work from the outside in, as you planned to do. 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Falcon has two options: one is a Navy set that gives you multiple clear parts for a variety of aircraft, including the PBY.  The other is a smaller set for the PBY, A-26, and B-29: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SQS9162?result-token=1MKIb

[Chris A]

@parip @modelling minion @TheyJammedKenny! Thanks for the tips. 

 

I checked out the aftermarket options. Hannants has a £20 minimum for foreign shipments, plus the £16 for the shipping, so landed £36.  Can get a Falcon canopy out of the USA without ordering extras, the landed cost would be £15. Not actually cheaper, only less without other bits.  Falcon list the canopy for Academy/Minicraft kit.  The Airfix kit I'm using is from a different tool set, not sure it will fit. 

 

I'm now considering getting clear resin and 3d printing. I can take the shape from the exiting canopy and reprint as many times as I need until I get it right.  Think I'll start trial runs with grey polymer tomorrow. 

Getting 1/2kg clear resin will feed into other projects I want to print anyway. I would get clear resin in the next couple of months anyway, even if I didn't use it for the Catalina canopy (I have this crazy idea of a SA315 Lama cabin at 1/32 scale with acrylics printed as individual panels to fit into the frame).

 

If the printing flops, I'll reconsider the Falcon canopy from the USA. Last resort, trim the fuselage back to match the canopy.

[parip]

Great idea for the printing. Do you plan to print upside down, in order to avoid additional supports, or this is not a problem with clear resin?

Cheers 🍻 

Rade

[modelling minion]

I like the sound of printing a replacement and am keen to see how you get on with that.

[81-er]

That almost looks like they've give you the vac-from buck rather than the actual canopy with that fit. Good luck with the 3d printing experiments. I've seen others have issues with the prints going cloudy during curing, but fixing that with a layer of resin brushed on and then cured with a UV torch

 

James

[Chris A]

22 hours ago, parip said:

Do you plan to print upside down, in order to avoid additional supports, or this is not a problem with clear resin?

Don't actually know. It'll be a 10 days before the resin arrives. I'm doing test forms with the aircraft axis vertical to minimize support points on the canopy. Getting a nice crisp finish with .5mm thickness in the grey.

 

 

3 hours ago, 81-er said:

I've seen others have issues with the prints going cloudy during curing, but fixing that with a layer of resin brushed on and then cured with a UV torch

Thanks for the heads-up. I read several threads that had issues with cloudy curing, warping, and yellowing.  Hoping the research helps get to the end result in less iterations.

 

 

[Chris A]

So down the rabbit hole, for days on end. Until a light at the end of the tunnel. Must get out, must press on, other GB's await.

 

I used Anycubic water washable 2.0 clear resin.  Must say, I am impressed with it.  Hardly any odor to speak of and rinsed off easier in water than the standard water washable resin I have been using.

 

Layer thickness .03mm at 2.5 second exposure. Post cure under water on rotating table with UV lamp.

 

After working out an acceptable compromise on the shape, I started with a wall thickness of .6mm with the windows recessed 0.3mm. Over-cured the first example and got a bit of yellowing. Easily solved by reducing post cure time.

 

Biggest challenge was finding a way to polish the recessed clear windows. Eventually gave up on polishing.

Tried a coat of semi gloss PU varnish, without acceptable results.

Tried coating with the printer resin, and then post-curing, but not happy with the result.

Tried floor polish (not pledge/klear, can't get that here), not good enough.

 

Hit on the idea of inverting the windows, raising them by 0.2mm, painting, then sanding and polishing.

But polishing with water paper, the Vallejo air acrylic did not like being submerged in water, absorbed water and became soft.

Modified the process by sealing the paint under a rattle can rustoleum clear gloss. Discovered this really covers the surface imperfections and improves clarity.  Don't know why I didn't try this earlier.

 

Polished in 1000 grit steps to 10000 grit water paper, which gave me this (dry fit).

 

Hit it with a final coat of clear gloss, and called it a day.

 

And a couple of other pics from the process.

 

[modelling minion]

That canopy looks really good, so much better than the original Airfix one.

[81-er]

I'd be very happy with that result too, lovely work

 

James

[Chris A]

Progress has been a bit slow.  Time for an update.

 

Had a bit of a disaster on the 1 bubble for the waist guns.  I wanted to try improve the clarity.  Thought the gloss coat had worked really well on the cockpit canopy, I'd use it here also. Bad mistake. Fortunately I sprayed the inner moving piece first.  It turned milky matt but I saw it in time not to spray the other pieces. After substantial sanding and polishing, still milky, and a bunch of stress fractures. Eventually broke it trying to restore it. Glued it back together and gave up as a bad job. Will be in the open position anyway, and I figure I can put it on the far side of the display, so won't be that noticeable.

 

The fuselage is now so to say done, bar the black on the nose.  Ready to fit the wing. I also replaced the Browning's.

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

You are doing a great job on bringing this classic kit up to modern standards, very nice work.

[81-er]

A shame about the issues with the blister (which I can't spot in the photos), but she's really looking the part now

 

James

[Chris A]

Wing meets fuselage and gets twins.

 

Opaque inner portion of blister visible on starboard side. I'll put it to the far side when on display. 

 

I need to figure out how to add some light exhaust staining behind the engines. Another item to add to the expanding list of firsts on this build. Tips and tricks welcomed please.

I used a bit of brass tube to replace the straight up plastic exhaust stacks. Oh eh, yes, another first for me, now where is that list I haven't bothered to start making yet.

 

I've been following this Imgur fiasco, and I'm glad I decided to host my own pictures when I joined BM.

[modelling minion]

Oh yes, very nice work. She really does look very good indeed. 

[parip]

3 hours ago, Chris A said:

I need to figure out how to add some light exhaust staining behind the engines. Another item to add to the expanding list of firsts on this build. Tips and tricks welcomed please.

Make very thin mix of brown & black 1br:0.5bl:4th, low air pressure, go slowly and apply layers to your liking - practice on the paint mule. Key is low pressure because if you come very close to the model with high pressure you will end up with spider webs.

Cheers 🍻 

Rade

[81-er]

She's very much looking the part now! I do very similar to Rade, I use a 50/50 mix of brown & black that's then thinned so about 80% of the mix is thinner. I spray it with my smallest needle at about 10psi in very light coats, building up the opacity until I'm happy. I also go over that with a light grey to represent the lead staining

 

James