Monogram’s 1/48 PBY-5A Catalina

The Kit

Monogram’s big 1/48 PBY kit has been around for a few years (the date embossed on the stabilizer trim tab says 1995) and nothing has really changed in this latest release.  Inside the large box are five trees of gray plastic and one of clear, with a well-done instruction sheet and a large decal sheet rounding out the contents.  The kit features recessed panel lines and riveting, subtly textured fabric surfaces, and excellent interior detailing.  The parts are crisply molded with only a little flash showing up on the sprue corners (so far, nothing on the kit parts, although the next time Monogram releases the kit that might not be the case).

Starting with the innards, this kit comes with a very complete interior, with four-part seats, a four-piece cockpit tub (including the front turret floor), and a four-part control column assembly complete with yoke lock.  The cockpit floor also makes up the roof of the nose wheel well, and the kit includes an optional plug if you want to display the model with the landing gear up.  Speaking of wheel wells, the main gear wells are molded separately and there’s an optional insert with the doors & wheel molded together for displaying the gear up.  The main gear itself is quite complex with separate fore and aft scissors links, lower and upper A arms and the retraction arm, all mounting on the main gear leg which in turn fits into the gear well.  In comparison the nose gear strut is simple, consisting of just a right and left half sandwiching the two-piece wheel in between.

Further back in the fuselage comes the waist compartment, fully visible under those giant blisters.  The main floor piece has the two gun mounts molded in place, with separate front and rear bulkheads.  Once the fuselage is together, trapping all the innards in place, you can add the waist guns & shields and position the waist blisters in either open or closed position.  Speaking of clear parts, the main canopy integrates the cabin roof so you’ll want to fit that in place and mask off the clear sections before fairing it in.  You also get two styles of forward turrets to choose from.

The wing is molded in five pieces, with an upper center section, two lower sections and two outer upper sections.  This will result in a very sturdy assembly that won’t pop apart down the road.  The engines are decent, with a separate cowling trapping the one-piece engine against the nacelle.  This finished assembly then fits onto the wing.  Moving out to the tip, you have a choice of displaying the wingtip floats either up or down.  For the undersides you get a pair of depth charges and some antennae for each side, as well as fuel dumps.  The final bits include the radome over the canopy and landing lights for the wings.