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Mach2 AJ-2 Savage - Fire Bomber


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I really like the shape of this aircraft! Looks nice and clean like this mate. Would be a waste not put a cockpit in though right!

It will be, have sprayed over it so it's all smooth. Will mask off the bottom line of the cockpit now then fill up to it. Once that's sorted the cockpit will be lightly sanded and polished. :)

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Nice work Rad, to take a dog of a kit and get it to that stage! I've been beaten by far better kits in the past.

Thank you Breaker. Did quite a bit last night but also moved a lot of modelling stuff into the garage so no photos yet.

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But..... have you ever been ........... SAVAGED :whistle:

Great progress Radleigh........ :worthy:

Ken

Thank you Ken! :)

Little bit more progress.

I cut a thin bit of tape and masked what I think is best for the lower section of the canopy. Once happy, I filled & smoothed the area around the Milliput join (and a few other blemishes). Removing the tape I was quite happy with the result and can now pay attention to the canopy and polishing it, ready for masking the frame work. 3 photos of how it's sitting at the moment & a photo from Wiki to show what I am trying to achieve.

Once I have the clear part back again, I will do another comparison too.... as It may need altering again.

(Thanks to Wiki for this photo.. never knew you could share their stuff!)

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AJ-2P Savage in flight colour [Public domain], by U.S. Navy, from Wikimedia Commons

and mine..

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and now we have a polished canopy... it's finished by hand using some smooth sanding sticks (wet) and Micromesh 8000g (dry).

Changed my lighting to reflect on the front to show it up a bit better. I would love to carry on but bed is calling....

Thanks for checking in. :)

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Coming along nicely. But, just to make sure I have got this straight, you stuck the canopy on, undercoated ALL of it, then rubbed it all back, removing the panels lines in the process, to leave a completely clear and nicely shiney canopy?

cheers

Grant

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Thanks guys! :)

Grant - That is correct, I wouldn't normally do this but as this is just a bubble shape canopy that's quick thick, I knew I had room to rub it back down (ie: taking the primer off). So, with it being held in place by the Milliput, I thought it would be a lot easier to blend in and then give it a final polish. Which worked quite well. Any reason for asking? :)

Edited by Radleigh
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Grant - Any reason for asking? :)

As chance would have it, I have just (for the first time) had to rub a seam off a set of canopies. Definitely one of those deep breath and dive in moments! As I read through this WIP, it dawned on me that you had, effectively, completely re-surfaced the canopy - which is a pretty gutsy thing to do. And it has turned out very well indeed. Kudos!

Plus having seen it done (and now done a little bit myself) it is another string to the modelling bow, so to speak.

I was impressed with your list of water bombers on your SIG website. So many different, and colourful, options - who'd have thought?

cheers

Grant

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Worked a treat too.....That's possibly the clearest Mach 2 canopy I've seen. :thumbsup:

Thanks SGT!

As chance would have it, I have just (for the first time) had to rub a seam off a set of canopies. Definitely one of those deep breath and dive in moments! As I read through this WIP, it dawned on me that you had, effectively, completely re-surfaced the canopy - which is a pretty gutsy thing to do. And it has turned out very well indeed. Kudos!

Plus having seen it done (and now done a little bit myself) it is another string to the modelling bow, so to speak.

I was impressed with your list of water bombers on your SIG website. So many different, and colourful, options - who'd have thought?

cheers

Grant

Thanks Grant, it really does help with the plastic being thick and having that 8000 grit micromesh, if I still had my 12,000 grit I'd go over with that too just to finish it off, but I think 4-5 coats of Klear now and a buff in between should finish it off nicely.

Glad it's help in some way though. My site isn't finished yet, loads more in the galleries to go on thanks to some very kind people! But apart from Russian, Water Bombers are my next favourite thing.... Some real beauties out there.

Many thanks,

Radleigh.

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Re the Mi-26 - I took this photo at MAKS 2005...... now that's what I call a Bambi bucket.....

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.... and the Mi-26T that goes with it.....

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I've also got some nice pics of the Kamov Ka-32 firefighter - shout if you need them.

Ken

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Radleigh blimey mate

Not entirely sure why I kept thinking "I'll go back and look at that in a minute" for ages

:(

But have a wow for the canopy

On top of the "flipping heck!" for the Savage

I can at least say I knew what the Savage was, I always rated it as a kind of Skywarrior with straight wings

I didn't know about them being flying watering cans though

The canopy draws me back in awe, absolutely wonderful work, you must be proud of your achievement with it

W O W

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Ken, fire away mate. :) Thanks for them too.

Bill, thanks for the kind comments. It's now looking a tad better but not finished. It's late and bed time now. Will do Part #2 tomorrow....

A few hours, some tape, a airbrush, a new 10A blade and some patience results in this -

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Thanks for checking in...

Radders

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And it's done.. for some reason the photos on Britmodeller (for me anyway) make the edges of the paint soft. That isn't the case, it's quite smooth and bleed free. I'm not going to leave it like this either, I will play around with it now to give it some depth so it doesn't just look like painted strips on a clear canopy.

Thanks for looking..

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When you say you've got another 3 to do, do you intend to do another 3 FBs & if so what schemes you got in mind. Nice work.

As far as I know, the two Fire Bombers that were converted, Tanker #77 & #88, had two schemes each so I will build 4 to replicate them (I've only ever seen photos showing two schemes each). I can't remember off the top of my head which one, but at some point one flew with no tip tanks and was bare metal so it'll be good to see how they looked at different times.

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Just catching up with this one - wow, what else can be said? Superb work on this kit, and I love your process for making a Mach 2 canopy actually clear!

The Savage is another one of those aircraft that has not been served well by the industry. I almost had my hands on the Anigrand resin kit once, but it was in the days when I was resin-leery. Now that that psychosis has gone away, I should probably work on being vacuform-leery! :)

Great job, eagerly awaiting the finish!

Cheers,

Bill

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Just caught up with this as well - a stunner! Having build the Mach 2 Do-26 (it only took 18 months in rehab to get over it ...) and having a couple of Mach 2 DC-4s on the go (which may be permanently shelved now that Mr Revell has come to my aid) I know what pain you've been through!

And you were VERY lucky with that canopy - my experience has been that Mach 2 canopies are actually made from cloudy plastic, so there's no way they'll polish clear. With the Dornier I ended up cutting the panels that are supposed to be transparent from the kit canopy and replacing them with clear cut from a CD case (a painful process, and not recommended); for the DC-4s I got a couple of Red Roo resin replacements. I may eventually finish them, but it will be a long way down the track.

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