We were invited to draw a Catalina flying boat in one of the hangars at the New Plymouth airport. It was a pretty crazy old plane. It had quite a few things that looked weird but then became normal when you remembered that this is also a boat! Those little T-shaped bits near the nose where you would throw a rope around... Boat! Landing Gear folds up on the side... Boat! Door opens on the top of the plane and then you climb down into it... Boat!
The inside was really cool too. When you climbed in, you found yourself in between 2 sets of 2 facing seats. Across a mini hallway in the middle of the plane was another cabin with 4 facing seats. In this hallway you could either climb a few stairs and be in the cockpit or go into another room where the landing gear indentations were. You could climb up to the wing area and there was a window up there. Lots of hydraulic pipes here too. Past that was two more cabins of 4 seats. After that was one last room near the tail. It had 2 sideways bench seats that allowed you to look out these bubble shaped canopies. We all agreed that this must be the first-class lounge.
The older guy sweeping in my sketch joked that when he was an apprentice, he started out by sweeping, and look where he is now!
Below: A progress pic from about half-way done... The large wingspan wouldn't fit entirely in the hangar.
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Good job Brian. Especially drawing standing up looking through the gauze on a creaky platform of parts. Wasn't it great to see it lumbering through the air so slowing a couple of minutes ago over our houses. Especially when it has been in all those pieces for four years. Glad they didn't have anything left over.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're right. It was pretty cool to see it flying so soon after we sketched it. I was on the walkway, wondering who was looking down on me from the bubble in the back.
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