Hi all
Well, finished at last, I have never gone this close to a deadline before, I think its the knock on effect of the overlapping group builds not that I'm complaining its just that the first three were those that I suggested/subscribed to and each has had a knock on effect on the next.
So despite being so close to finishing this kit still threw me some curved balls, starting with the transparencies. The replacement canopies I purchased were intended for the Academy kit which I can only surmise is a more accurate kit than the old Airfix one I have here as the only piece that would fit was the front turret, the two rear gun pods needed some serious surgery to fit and the man canopy was so far out that I had to use the original kit canopy.
And then I had the good news/bad news situation.
Good news :- the kit undercarriage took the weight of all the steel and lead I had stuffed in the nose.
Bad News:- It wasn't Enough ! The model flopped gracefully back on its tail aaaaargh!
A quick rebalancing showed I needed to add another 15 grams, But Where ?
Biting the bullet I stuffed 10 grams into the front wheel well, its plainly viable if you look but I've disguised it a bit with some grey paint. To get the remaining weights into the aircraft I removed the front turret and packed the remaining 5 grams in around the front viewing seat then chucked in another 2 grams for safety.
Et Viola it sits prettily on all three wheels.
And onto the photos, it was a nice day here so I decided to photograph the Catalina outside, however I think it my have caused a bit to much dazzle from the white surfaces. If time permits I will try some Studio shots as well.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
Most of the Simons Cat graphics were found on the interwebs except the surfing Simons Cat. This one I had to search for in some Simons Cat Cartoon books I had to find one with the right pose, this was then scanned and loaded into Serif DrawPlus. From here I could trace around the original to convert it to vector format which would allow me to edit the object to create a better pose and make life easier when creating the surfboard. I'm quite pleased with the results.
I have deliberately put him low on the hull so that while the aircraft is taxiing it looks like he is surfing the waves.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
I included Simons Cat in a Hat as it had a holiday feel to it, you can also see why I got a bit paranoid about internal detail, those canopies are
Very clear......
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
A very tentative nod to the Flying Tigers on the tail...…..
by
Robomog, on Flickr
and I really couldn't resist the cats paw walkway markings.....
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
and lastly an underneath shot, you can clearly see the weights jemmied into the front wheel bay.
All the serial numbers are bogus.
In retrospect I should have faired over the nose turret so that I could stuff all the nose weights right at the front, ah the beauties of 20:20 hindsight
A big shout out to Mrs Lady Mog on this one who gave me as much time as I needed to finish on time, and to Simon Tofield for inventing Simons Cat, I hope he doesn't mind me high jacking some of his artwork.
And to everyone else all Comments and criticisms gratefully accepted
Thanks for looking
Mog
>^-.-^<