PBY Catalina Wolfpack (Academy)
Review and construction comments included.

* First use of Mission Models. First use of PE. First use of Resin (exhausts). First salt weathering.
* Hacks: Use of Micro Krystal Clear to fill in the smaller windows. Used a Sharpie for the de-icing boots.
* Blunders: Missed the blue/grey line on the hull, may not have used the perfect top color. Lost the 30 cal in the front turret. But since these were retracted when landed, "it's inside" Did too much freehand on the Sharpie on the de-icing boots.

* Paint: AS-6 Tamiya Blue on top, Mission Models on the bottom. Wheels were literally rubber. Rest of the plane is a mix of acrylics.

Some thoughts already shared with WolfPack:

I'm impressed with the quality of the molding and the fit. The decals were also of good quality. The masks were excellent. Best paint job to date! The color references are outstanding! I added some PE from Eduard (PBY5A but didn't use all of it) and some resin exhausts. The rubber tires were a nice touch; I'd rather have resin that showed weight on them but nothing that a hot knife can't fix. Pictures of my finished product below.

I do have some feedback and a suggestion for your 3rd or 4th release:

1. Your instruction sheets did state which clear parts weren't to be used, but not the solid parts. There are a lot of what I believe to be PBY-5A parts on the sprues. No biggie, but something in the manual would help newer modelers wondering, "what did I miss?"
2. The "what did I miss?" comes from your assembly instruction diagrams. You saved paper by putting too many parts into one diagram. Thus it is easy to miss how the smaller tube under the Starboard wing goes on, or just how you are supposed to glue the 30cal front turret machine gun in place.
3. The biggest frustrations I found were:
3a. Exactly the correct order to assemble the wing floats (and how they line up - found some WWII photos to show me that).
3b. A good process to attach the wing to the pylon AND the wing struts between the wing and the fuselage. Kudos (that means "good job?) on the precision molding - they fit perfectly, but how exactly do you line four of them up with the pylon connection?
4. The RFDF antenna, never did see where that went but found lots of photos of it living up on the top of the wing, so that's why I have pin vise drills 🙂