1/144 PBY-5A ASW scheme

[jayveedee]

I masked and painted the wing's underside white. I then added the details to the wing
top, antenna posts on the wing tips, antenna between the engine nacells and made a copper
loop antenna for the wing between the engines near the leading edge. Now to mask the
bottom and spray the top gull gray.---John

[jayveedee]

I just unmasked the wing, dark gull gray is done, quite a contrast. I thought the
dark gull gray was a bit dark, but after viewing the photo below I think not.---John

[RayS]

Paint looks good, from the photo I would have thought Navy Blue would have been closer, but the GUll grey looks fine>

[jayveedee]

NO navy blue for Atlantic ASW scheme. There were 2 schemes,
scheme 1 was dark gull gray over light gull gray over white and
scheme 2 was dark gull gray over white. Here's an FM-2 from the
carrier USS Card in 1944 in ASW scheme 2 on patrol in the Atlantic.
I guess the gray could be dark before it faded out.---John

[jayveedee]

The landing gear are on, a very trying, mind boggling step. The first thing I did was put a
new X-Acto blade in my knife, the parts are very thin and fragile. I then did a lot of dry
fitting and looking at pictures of landing gear on walk around sites on the web. Also the
parts aren't exactly the size they should be, the long retraction strut I had to cut about
1/2 mm off it's length to get it to fit. I also had to fiddle with the piece that has the axle
for the wheel, it wanted to "toe in" so I had to adjust it until it looked fairly square at
about 90 degrees with the center line of the fuselage. Now to mask and paint the white
then the dark gull gray, still debating whether or not to add the nose wheel now or wait.---John

[jayveedee]

I am putting the nose gear-wheel on then masking them to paint.---John

[jayveedee]

I finally ordered the paint to finish this. It should be in this
week. Then all I need is to hunt up 4 stars and bars for the
fuselage and wings.The kit stars and bars are of the modern
type with the red stripe in the middle, unacceptable for the
time frame of my plane. The only other decal is a small black
number 4 for the fuselage, it'll be a plane from VPB-45 in
Belem, Brazil in 1944.---John

[F-27pax]

This is starting to look very good. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished model.

[jayveedee]

Thanks, the fuselage is masked and painted white, now to mask and do the
dark gray.---John

[jayveedee]

The gray has been painted, wings and wing struts are on.
Now to paint the nose turret, main wheels then decal.---John