I’m working on a secret project for an upcoming club competition that involves making some special structural modifications. Modifications that require thinking outside of what is included in the kit box. In this particular case I needed a very ridged structure that will be strong and will retain its “square” as I make the necessary modifications.

Looking through the materials I have on hand on my bench, I found just the thing, some square brass tubing. This offered the smallest profile with the greatest strength to handle any torsion my modification might generate. I simply cut it to length, removed any obstructions so it could lay flat, checked to ensure it functioned as desired before I super gluing it into place. To ensure the rigidity I wanted I double up by installing two of them.

This same process also allows you to improve rigidity of a structure that is otherwise too weak. But one that is difficult to set the correct dihedral during construction. You can bend the tubing to the correct angle, before placing it into the inside of the wing to set the angle desired. It can even help provide you with a wall mounting display option as well.

I wanted to display a Monogram 1:48 PBY Catalina along a wall without hanging it from the ceiling. To achieve this I mounted two brass tubes in one wing. They started at the end of the wing and ran across three quarters of the total wing span.

This allow me to form a hanger from heavy gauge wire or rod into a hanger which loops over a wall hanger (in this case a screw) and insert the two ends of the hanger into the tubing mounted inside the wing. The tubing spreads the weight of the model across 90% of the inside of the whole wing.  This keeps stress on the end of the wing low to avoid any cracking at the wing tip.

One of these days I might get around to painting a mural on the wall of this PBY flying over the ocean in search of a downed airman. I will replace the hanger with two metal studs sticking out of the wall so they won’t be visible. You could also do this with a wall mounted plaque too.

Looks like it is time again to give the Catalina a good dusting too!