Here
is an aircraft that I have admired for some time. I have always wanted to have a
Catalina in my collection, and with the Academy kit being such an attractive
looking kit I just couldn't resist.
The
Academy kitset was a real pleasure to put together, everything fitted
perfectly, so minimal filling was required. The only let down of the whole
build was inside the cockpit. The problem I found was the seats were so
far from the instrument panel they looked completely unrealistic. A little
shuffling around in the cockpit quickly fixed this problem. I guess the
good thing about the Catalina is, once the canopy is on you can't see much
in there. I did however make some seatbelts for the seats. I was surprised
at how easily the wing was to attach, and get on straight. The wing struts
were perfect length and fitted well. Rubber tires for the beaching gear
were provided with the kitset which fit well.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
markings I have chosen to use were selected from the Squadron book 'walkaround
Catalina'. This book has some very good reference material which helped me
throughout the build. In this book there is both a colour profile
view and a very nice colour photograph of the aircraft I modeled parked on
the hardstand along with a lot of other Catalinas. I did not use custom
decals on the model, but instead made
my own masks and painted on the markings which came up to good effect. The
American stars and bars were from my spare decals box and went on quite
well.
Weathering
the Catalina was quite fun. After decaling the model I lightly sprayed the
leading edges and all forward facing surfaces with a light grey colour. Some
rust was applied to the model in suitable areas, and I sprayed the exhaust
stains with enamels. A light grey wash was applied to the model, and to
finish off I added a waterline using pastels. Finally a clear varnish was
applied to seal it all in.
This
model was very enjoyable to build, and
I have bought another to build which I will do in RNZAF markings. I can
recommend this kit as suitable for any skill level.
Hope
you enjoy it.
Alan
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