REEL Planes (An Occasional Series): "Always" PBY in 1/48By Terry Moore |
 |
One of my favorite modeling subjects are "reel" planes - those flying machines that appear on the silver screen. Steven Spielberg opens most of his movies in a very interesting way and "Always" is no exception. The movie opens with a long shot of 2 fishermen in a boat on a lake. Off in the distance you see a PBY alighting on the lake, heading straight for the fishing boat. One of the fisherman sees the approaching aircraft (the other is dozing) and frantically tries to start the motor. The camera follows the PBY as it has filled its belly with water. The next shot is back to the fishing boat. It's empty. It certainly hooked me on the desire to build the PBY!
"Always"
is a remake of the 1943 Spencer Tracy film "A Guy Named Joe",
but instead of a setting at a WW II bomber station, the film takes place
in the present day at a firebomber base in the northwestern United States.
The basic plot is about a daredevil pilot that is killed while saving
his friend and returns as a ghost to help an up and coming pilot find
his way. "Always" starred Richard Dreyfuss as Pete Sandich,
John Goodman as Al Yackey, Holly Hunter as Dorinda Durston and Brad Johnson
as Ted Baker. The "reel" stars of the move are A-26 Invaders,
the PBY, plus an assortment of other aircraft make an appearance including
a C-119, Citabria (or Decathalon - I can never tell them apart), and a
Cessna Skymaster. A few of the flying scenes were recreated by models,
including the scenes where Pete saves Al by dropping his load of retardant
on the flaming PBY (and his own subsequent demise), and Dorinda's attack
on the fire near the end of the movie.
...
With such a grand entrance, I just had to build the PBY, and N9505C, tanker 53, was destined to be the first of the aircraft I built from the movie. Another reason for building the model is that I have crossed paths with this aircraft twice before, once when I attended an auction of N9505C and other PBY's in 1997, when it was being sold (unsuccessfully) at auction. Then, 2 years ago, when I was at a job site at the Ephrata, WA airport, what should I see but the "Always" PBY next to the hangar I was working at. I shot numerous photos of the aircraft, enough to finally build the model.
The model is the Monogram PBY-5a, and I used the Belcher Bits corrected
tail section. I cut the rudder off the Belcher Bits tail and scratch
built a new, larger rudder designed for the "Super" PBY aircraft
that flew with the larger R-2600 engines. The engines are directly from
the Monogram B-25 and the nacelles are built up from epoxy putty. The
exhausts were slightly modified from the kit exhausts. The nose section
is also built up from epoxy putty.
I also had to add a window on each side under the trailing edge of the wing. The port window is part of a larger hatch which I rescribed existing panel lines to achieve. The window on the starboard side is a smaller, oval shape. Both windows were cut from clear sheet stock. I added a considerably amount of weight to the nose and I fully suspect that I'll have to replace the main gear some day, due to the amount of weight that I added, probably much more than necessary. The only other major thing I did to the model was to add brass spars to the wings to make them straighter. If you don't do this, the wings will appear to sag.
...
I used Tamiya gloss white, Floquil Amtrak Red, and a generic black for painting. Norm Filer did the decals for me on his ALPS printer from information I had on the markings and his own photography of the aircraft. Thanks Norm! I added some very minor exhaust streaking and since the big radials are notorious oil leakers, I added oil drips to the top and side of the fuselage. In the movie, there are 2 bullhorns on the spray deflectors on the bow. At press time, I have not as yet added them to the model.
...