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Well, Primer is on!

I added the elevators and used white out again for the small seams. I painted the canopy and gun blisters green chromate, then layed a first coat of primer. I use Tamiya grey primer in a rattle can - fantastic stuff! After the first coat I sanded some imperfections and layed another coat. Next up will be preshading and the first color scheme glue/grey - which will eventually be covered with black tones. This is about to get interesting. Praying to the modeling God's this paint is going to turn out OK.

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The Tamiya Gray Primer is my favorite primer by far. For small quick jobs I use the rattle can. For everything else I air brush it on.

Your paint scheme certainly will be interesting to say the least. I've never seen a "Black Cat" either model or real life ( in pictures) with much blue/gray showing. Done with a delicate touch, it should prove to look very realistic as a well worn work horse that they were.

Joel

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Not too much to show - but with the fuselage closed up - I've been able to install the canopy and mask it. As you can see I've used white-out to fill in the small gap. This will get "sanded" down with a qtip and paint thinner.

What a good idea. Thanks

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Tremendous work so far Matt. It appears to be coming together very nicely for you. The White Out application is a new one on me also. Pretty slick. I'm also a big fan of Tamiya primer in a rattle can. Wonderful stuff. Yet, I've recently been using Mr. Surfacer 1200 out of a rattle can and that is some right excellent stuff also. It just seems more difficult to get a hold of sometimes. Looking forward to further activity from you.

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Dude your knocking this one out of the park. The Catalina is one of my favorite planes. This is definitely one I have to pick up. Float planes have been in my heart for decades and until your build thread I never knew a model existed of one. Great work I'm looking forward to seeing more of your build. Maybe it will be the next on my list.

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Devilleader501

Dude your knocking this one out of the park. The Catalina is one of my favorite planes. This is definitely one I have to pick up. Float planes have been in my heart for decades and until your build thread I never knew a model existed of one. Great work I'm looking forward to seeing more of your build. Maybe it will be the next on my list.

Devilleadeer501,

It's been on my must have/build list for ages. It's just a hard kit to find. Revell/Promodeller is supposed to be releasing another run. If the 1/48 scale Cat is too big (it kinda is for me), Academy makes an excellent PBY-5A in 1/72 scale.

Joel

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Devilleadeer501,

It's been on my must have/build list for ages. It's just a hard kit to find. Revell/Promodeller is supposed to be releasing another run. If the 1/48 scale Cat is too big (it kinda is for me), Academy makes an excellent PBY-5A in 1/72 scale.

Joel

Joel,

Last time I was in there, the Model Cave in Ypsilanti had one for sale. Its been a little while but they might still have it. Prices are real good there and they'll even try and find it for you if its been sold. The Cats looking great btw, sorry to steal the thread.

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falcon20driver

Joel,

Last time I was in there, the Model Cave in Ypsilanti had one for sale. Its been a little while but they might still have it. Prices are real good there and they'll even try and find it for you if its been sold. The Cats looking great btw, sorry to steal the thread.

Falcon20driver,

Thanks for the heads up, but I'm trying to realistic and think that a 1/72 build is more to my space limitations. The wing span of the 1/48 Cat is even bigger then the 1/48 HB A-6E I'm currently building with the wings extended.

Joel

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base layer of black on - I'll be adding lighter coats on the top as well as the top of the wing...even the base layer is not very dark. I'll probably go a shade darker for the bottom of the hull, wings, and elevator (crappy cell phone pic)

and yes - the blue grey scheme is underneath! - hopefully we'll see that soon again :-)

IMG_20140719_160918491_zps2vframvo.jpg

Edited by mynameismatt
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Well, it was time to go big or go home - so I went big and started "scrubbing" the black away revealing the blue/gray camoflauge underneath. I figured I shouldn't wait for the paint to get overly cured. so off I went!

Anways, this was all done rubbing a Mr.Clean magic eraser over the areas I wanted to be faded and rubbed away - this was most heavily done around the cockpit and top of the wings. After one "pass" I went back and touched up a few areas I overdid with the airbrush.

Honest feedback is appreciated. Overly done? Not enough? Convincingly real or not good at all? Let me know - I want the feedback!

Again - this is with my crappy cell phone - the colors are pretty washed out. I may try to get some DSLR photos tomorrow for better representation. But at least you get the idea.

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Matt,

Your idea and technique does achieve the well weathered and worn look you're after. But as you said, your cell phone camera isn't helping by any means. At least on my computer the overall flat black looks like a neutral gray. Looking forward to some better pictures.

Joel

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These were taken with a point and shoot. My wife has the DSLR and she wont be home until tonight. The black on the top and sides is definitely lighter than straight black - as it would have faded faster than under the wings and hull. In these photos there seems to be a blue hue - and that is a bit exaggerated. As the black is scrubbed away - the blue is revealed which adds to the effect. The first picture represents the color the best.

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Falcon20Driver,

I'm going to be trying that technique as well, rather then strictly doing it with various layers of lighter and darker shades applied with a airbrush. The combination of both should be a vastly improved weathered finish.

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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Matt, You sure are full of interesting new techniques. How did you come up with the idea to use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser? Regardless, you have achieved a rather nice effect there. It looks really good. When it comes to whether your weathering is to much or too little, well, that all depends how much your looking for. A PBY that has it's new coat of black put on, one that has been serving in the PTO for several months or any where in between. Thus, any amount of weathering is going to fit. It's really all about what you are trying to emulate. Excellent work my friend.

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Thanks for the replies, gentlemen.

I can't really take credit for the magic eraser trick - The yellowhammer decal sheet I'm using has instructions to achieve this effect. They recommend using a scotch-brite pad. I dug underneath the kitchen sink and found one - but it really didn't seem to do much. So I dug a little deeper and found the magic eraser. It works pretty good. It takes a decent amount of pressure and movement to start taking the first layer of paint off. The trick is to stop without reaching the bare plastic. It also seemed to help to get the magic eraser wet.

I did touch up a few areas on the wing with paint- as I thought I might have taken the effect too far.

Last night I also starting doing some paint chipping and installed the landing gear legs. Pics to come later today.

The next big weathering question is if I do a chalk dusting on it? I'm not sure how "dirty" a plane like this would get. (think:dirt) on a seaplane? maybe the tops of the wings and fuselage?

I'm hoping to achieve something like this with the brownish hue (Photo credit Luc Janssen @ LSP)

Edited by mynameismatt
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<p>

Matt, </p><p>  I think that paint fading would be the main issue, not dirt on a sea plane. For fading paint I use the base color with various amounts of gray and or white added, and thinned so that I can apply small, controlled, patches/areas.</p><p>Joel<br>

</p>

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The only thing I can think of to make it look better than it already is. Try the salt weathering technique. Chuck540Z has a great tutorial on here about it. I'm getting ready to try it with a 1/32 scale Hornet soon.

As far as fading and what not I personally think you have a great finish and shouldn't try to do any other weathering except the salt technique. It will make that Catalina come to life.

Great job on the paint by the way.

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Thanks for the help and tips everyone! I was tempted to try the salt weathering technique - but I've had sub par results doing it myself in the past, so I decided to keep the weathering simple. I did add a small amount of brown chalk on the top of the wings - not much, but enough to add a little variation.

I've managed to get alot of work done and I'm not doing some of the final stuff.

Some things I still need to finish:

1. rigging.

2. prop decals/weather props.

3. touch up in a couple of areas with a dull coat.

4, add the ordnance to the wings and antenna.

5. Add guns to the rear blisters.

When I'm all done I'll take the time and get some proper photos. For now - just some shoddy cell phone pics.

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Matt,

The Black Cat Looks great. I'm really impressed with how well the overall weathering on the top of the wing came out. The paint fading really looks realistic. . Getting down to final stages. So far it's rock solid A.

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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Matt, That is some seriously awesome modeling you have performed on the PBY. I am duly impressed. The weathering on the wings looks great as well as the chipping you added. You've done a sweet job on the exhaust pipes and stain. My question to you is what kind of and how much weight did you add to the nose to offset the tail sitting issue?

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