Been trying to keep busy there, too.

This is the Nitro Planes PBY Catalina.  It's a wreck rebuild.  If it weren't for Wally's amazing piloting skills, I wouldn't have very many projects to play with!  This one was a full power takeoff from water with the dual rates on high.  The airplane box stock with the included brushless motors is way overpowered, and she tends to like to climb when power is added.  When the airplane got off the pond, she went damn near straight up.  Wally added down elevator, but forgot she was on high rates, so she came damn near straight down, too.  Broke the wing in half, and the fuselage into about ten big pieces.  Wally was going to throw her away, but I'm a sucker for stuff like this, so I brought her home and here's what happened:




The wing got glued back together with new wooden lower spars and a carbon rod upper spar, and is in the process of getting new wing struts.  Got the fuselage all joined back together and patched.  Had to use some depron to plug up the holes that were left, hope I don't get dissimilar foam corrosion!  I'm planning to paint her in a USN Black Cat scheme with the obligatory nekkid woman on the nose....

And here's the 6mmflyrc Phantom.  Servo leads need to be extended to reach the receiver in the nose, but the motor and speed control are wired up and ready to install.  Not much left on this one.



Does anybody have any idea what I can use for exhaust nozzles?

from the looks of the two cars you may be in the auto business as well as wrecked plane business

You might browse spray can caps, like maybe WD 40 type cans for the nozzles. Though it will be hard to find anything thats tapered anymore.

Frazz, the cars are actually mine, but when the whole mob is over, my place looks like a used car lot....

Honcho, I have a bunch of plastic cups that are the right size on the small end, but always end up being too big on the large end.  If I cut them down enough to fit, they're too short.  And I always throw away the WD-40 caps after I get the little schnozzle put on.

Maybe Wally will total his F-5 and I can steal the nozzles from it.....

what size are they???....or would they be if you had them??

Nony, they'd be just a shade under two inches in diameter where they would glue to the airplane.  The cups I have are that size on the bottom, then they get larger.  I have a couple of spray paint can caps that are about the right size, but they're really heavy.  The WD40 caps might be the right size, if I had some....

Any ideas?

Actually, they are about 1 1/4" is all.  I would think so of those clearish plastic beer cups would probably work,  light and fairly narrow at the bottom.

epoxy mixing cups ?

Found my nozzles!!  By accident no less.  I finished off a bottle of mouthwash and was throwing it away when the cap caught my eye.  It turned out to be the right size and shape once I cut it down a bit.  Now all I have to do is come up with another one...a midnight raid to Wally World, perhaps??   

Now a modeling oops.  I was looking for something to paint the PBY with, and someone recommended Krylon H2O spray paint, which is water based and won't eat the foam.  After looking all over the place, I finally found a can.  Sanded the wing, wiped it down, sprayed two light coats and then hung it to dry.  Came back a few minutes later and found droplets of paint beading up on the trailing edge and dripping onto the floor.  The paint had run out from every place there was a panel line, and apart from the bare foam on the bottom of the cowlings, the paint didn't stick to anything!  The good part was that most of it wiped clean with a wet rag.  Now I have to find something else to paint with....

...there has to be a joke here somewhere.....

Jaime, you can use reg'lar spray paint on foam IF you hold the spray can way way back and mist on very light coats...this gives the solvents ,thinners, etc time to evaporate, and the paint is just about dry by time it hits the foam...results in a flat finish which is not a bad thing for a warbird. I did an Eflite Jenny this way last year.... 
Best to practice on some scrap before committing to the real thing....though it is pretty easy...

Nony, I did just that.  Had a couple of cans of Model Master flat black left over from another project, and that worked just fine.  It's odd how sinister a PBY looks painted black, but I don't know why.  It's not like if you saw one coming you'd be scared half to death....   I'll try to post some pictures later.

Have any of you had any luck reshaping foam with a little heat?  After I get the wing back on the PBY, I found that the wing is not quite square - left wingtip is a little bit forward of the right one.  Might have been the way all the peices went back together during the repair.  Anyway, I wanted to gently heat the pylon to twist the wing back into place.  Any thoughts?

there were black ones in the Pacific - the Black Cats, but you probably knew that...

I never had to twist (or untwist) a foam wing, so can't help you there....I guess just be careful, and let us know how it turns out......

You know, the wing is held on with four screws, I could probably just elongate the mounting holes a bit and get the same result.....The wing struts are functional and could be used to hold the wing in place after the tweak.

Damn, I'm a genius.

I was going to do a a "Real men of genius" song, but this was easier. 

"it's Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSHOPkcVv8