ij001
Well-known member
Backstory:
I’ve mentioned previously that my first model was a FROG 1:72 DH Comet racer, it was a present from a friend on my 7th birthday. My dad built and painted the kit for me, having never built a plastic kit before in his life and I thought it was magnificent.
Strangely Dad was never really enthusiastic about my new hobby following that build, but now and again he would get a wee bit more excited, like when I bought my first (Airfix) P-38 – I’ve posted photos here before of my grandfather’s truck towing P-38’s through Liverpool in 1943 so I won’t bore you by repeating that tale. The only other aeroplane Dad got excited about was the Catalina.
Following the loss of HMS Hood in spring ’41 (and the subsequent sinking of the ‘culprit’ Bismarck), Catalina’s and Fairey Swordfish the types that had hunted-down and damaged Bismarck, were sent out on (what we would now call) PR visits to towns were the loss of the Hood was particularly felt. Hood had been berthed in Liverpool in May 1940 for rest & refit and many of her crew were billeted locally including in my Dads' street. My grandfather took my dad to see the Catalina that was moored somewhere in the Mersey and he was lucky enough to be taken aboard… He never forgot his experience.
Often when we went to local toy-shops he would try to get me to buy the Airfix or Revell Catalina kits, I always maintained that I’d build one for him ‘one day’. Dad died in January 1988 and I never did build him a Catalina.
It’s one of those things that crept across my mind occasionally when I was deciding what model to build next… “Hmmm, I really must do a Catalina one day, for dad…”. I was having that very thought last week as I was browsing eBay, and then…
…BAM !! – a trader in the UK that I’ve bought a lot of decals from, had Aeromaster 72-039 for sale, a Catalina sheet that included WQ*Z (AH545), the machine that first spotted the Bismarck on the 26th May.
I bought the sheet.
Next I need to find some good references (Squadron/Signal and or Detail & Scale books are my usual ‘go-to’ sources), then buy the appropriate Academy kit (pretty certain it was a PBY-5 not a 5A). After that all I need to do is build it; when I do it will be the only model on the bench and I’ll try to make my Dad proud…
Thanks folks, for taking the time to read this, I know it is long-winded but it’s a form of catharsis that I needed to go through and I appreciate your patience.
AFN
Ian
