The Little World

Yes, it was.

But it was marked as a Consolidated PBY-5A on the Academy kit and Boeing is claiming credit for it. The plastic is black and the decal sheets refer to the US Navy and the RAAF but the Village Idiot is going to go against all advice and paint it white with RCAF markings.

The rational behind this is the fact that there is a surviving Canso in Canadian markings flying as part of a Toronto-based museum, and they have clear modern pictures of the plane in the air and on the ground.

The Canso was the Montreal Vickers-licensed version of the Boeing-licensed version of the Consolidated PBY. They followed on from purchases of Catalina I’s by the RCAF early in the war and were an amphibious version with the wheels on the sides of the hull. As I am trying to build as many Canadian aircraft as I can, the fact that this kit was intended for an equally-famous version flown from Perth during the 40’s will not deter me. It just needs careful selecion of parts during the build and some serious undercoating and spraying.

The kit parts seem good quality – I daresay we are looking at  remoulded Hasegawa again. It far surpasses the level of detail I remember from a Monogram PBY I built in the 1950’s – though that was a lovely model in itself.

The flying Canso at present has no front turret – they are getting one from a derelict Canso hull kept in Manitoba and one day it will be re-armed. I have a distinct advantage with this kit. As well as the clear internet pictures of the Ontario example, there is a US Navy PBY preserved in the Bull Creek RAAF Museum that is a kilometre away from my house. If I am stumped by any fitting or engineering I’ll just walk over and look at the real thing.