Guillow's PBY-5A Catalina Model Kit, Small

The Guillows PBY-5A Catalina amphibian display model balsa kit is made for the advanced wooden model aircraft enthusiast. While I would not recommend this to an inexperienced beginner, it can be built by a novice with good basic mechanical skills, an ability to follow instructions, and willing to ask questions on a model-builders forum when difficulties are encountered. Although this kit is designed as a display model, it has been built as a radio-controlled flying model by R/C enthusiasts in recent years. It may be built either as the PBY-5A amphibian, or as the PBY-5 seaplane, with wing-tip/floats configured either up or down. It is a challenging model, and the result can be made to look as good as you desire. Guillows products are American made, and are highly recommended for the general quality of the kits, materials and instructions.

The balsa wood is softer than what I normally use, which makes it easier to accidentally break because of my thick fingers.

Fun to build

I enjoyed building this difficult model. After building wing struts from many pieces of balsa wood, I decided to make this an easier model in flight, with retracted wheels and without pontoons. The manufacturer might well have included preformed plastic struts and bent wires for the landing gear. Overall, however, this complex model was as advertised. There was a small mistake in the plans for the labeling of fuselage parts but it was obvious which part went where. It was easy to remove precut parts from the sheets of balsa wood and the 3/32" stringers worked well. It was easier to secure them in place compared with 1/16" stringers in many other Guillow kits.

Not a flyer

To start with, this is not a toy. It is a scale model airplane kit and while it is a very good kit and quite substantial construction, it is still fragile and not a toy to play with. I build them for the fun of building them and display etc. The Guillow models are very good and this particular series is quite large and very detailed. Not recommended for beginners. I am about half way through the basic construction stage at this point.

I bought this kit as a gift for my husband. The following are his comments: Do not buy this kit. I am an experienced modeler and have had good success with Guillow's kits in the past, but this kit was horrible. Many of the die-cut parts were not stamped sufficiently and had to be cut with a razor knife. The quality of the balsa was poor and many parts broke. The quality of the tissue covering supplied with the kit was extremely poor, was easily torn during application, and was prone to easy puncturing. The vacuum-formed plastic parts were molded in such a way that proper cut lines could not be ascertained. None of the clear plastic parts supplied with the kit fit properly to the fuselage. The various cardstock parts were exceptionally flimsy and some were wrinkled. The decals included in the kit were of the poorest quality I have ever seen, some disintegrating into multiple pieces during attempted application. The crowning touch was that the aft section of the fuselage torqued during assembly, with the result that the entire tail assembly was tilted to the right, marring the overall appearance of the completed model. There were many lesser issues that together added up to a great deal of frustration and disappointment. All-in-all, this was a monumental waste of time and money.

Take your time this model is hard definitely not for beginners

This was a challenge!

En tant que modèle statique le modèle est bien. La construction est aisée. En tant que modèle dynamique plusieurs modifications doivent être ajoutées

value for money

This was bought for my father an avid model maker and he is very pleased with it , arrived promtly for his birthday

Nice.one..