Grumman S-2 Tracker

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

I will be building a tracker for this GB

 

 

Although the packaging is by Italeri, this kit is actually a re-boxed Kinetic kit, so I will be referring to it as a Kinetic kit in all future references. I am presently waiting for some PE bits to arrive so I have been cleaning up some parts and building whatever sub-assemblies I can in the interim. So far I have assembled the main wing sections and the tail planes.

 

 

Kinetic's cockpit is a very spartan affair and I had no hesitation in sanding off what little extant detail was provided in preparation for the application of PE,

 

 

I am not sure how much will be visible once the canopy is on but the windows are reasonably large so I expect the details will be visible. This was one of Kinetic's early releases and apart from the sparse cockpit, there are some other well known shortcomings, one of which is concerns the searchlight mounted on starboard wing leading edge. Whilst a clear searchlight lens is provided which fits well, there is no searchlight lens  detail provided, just a solid rear wall. I have decided to add a few more details here and have begun by removing the solid rear wall after gluing the two pod halves together.

 

 

 

The fuselage nose section has also been cleaned up. There are four sprue attachment points and requires a little care to clean up to avoid ruining the thin edges. The landing light provided in the form of a clear styrene insert which has a mold line running through it requiring some polishing to restore its clarity. This is a small part that was quite fiddly to handle and I managed to lose wrestle it back from the carpet monster twice before I could attach is to the nose section.

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

So  little more progress today.

 

I have added some interior framing to the searchlight housing

 

 

Also the engine nacelles received some attention.

 

Another of the flaws with the Kinetic kit is that the kit instructions would have you locate the side air scoops  on the opposite side of each nacelle. In fact, the correct location for these scoops is on the starboard side of both nacelles, which will require the location on the left nacelle to be filled in and a new location made of the opposite side.

 

 

 

I also deviated form the kit instructions by attaching the sonobuoy launcher parts to the forward sections of each engine nacelle half before the two nacelles halves were joined. This will allow a much better join and hopefully preserve some of surface details by elimination the requirement to sand this seam.

 

 

The end caps that incorporate the sonobuoy launcher tube details were added and a bead of liquid filler applied to verify there were no gaps. The only areas that needed attention were the top and bottom seams of the sonobuoy launcher parts that only required a smear of filler and light sanding and the restoration of a seam on the upper aft section of each nacelle.

 

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Pappy

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice start and some lovely extra detail there Pappy.

 

Will you be doing it in the kit markings or do you have an aftermarket sheet up your sleeve?

[Pappy]

G'day Ray!

 

It will be a foreign (i.e. non-RAN) operator, and there are a  few foreign operator schemes provided. If you want to know more you will just have to follow along

 

Pappy

Edited May 14, 2018 by Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

Still no presents from the postie but I have been doing some bits and pieces in the meantime. I have dressed up the cockpit sidewalls with some ribbing and random details. None of this is especially accurate, it is just there to look 'busy'

 

 

 

The searchlight housing was also treated to some random details,

 

 

Whilst the two halves of the housing fit very well, I cannot say the same for the fit when offered up to the wing

 

 

Some work to do there.

 

Still on the wing, Kinetic have moulded the trailing edges integral to the upper wing halves so that a crisp trailing edge can be depicted. Unfortunately, the lower halves of each wing section will result in a slight but noticeable step when assembled unless the inner aft section is not thinned down first. I am not sure if the underside join is along a natural panel line, but the seam is far too noticeable to go untreated. The upper flap surface dos not have a panel line so  I opted to fill the underside flap seams.  I used some sprue glue and it did take too long to eliminate.

 

 

Finally, the two donks were painted up. These are straight OOB and really only need the addition of  spark plug ignition leads to look convincing

 

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

More tidy up work today. The prop units look nice enough and are simple one piece affairs so not need to spend time getting blades angles identical

 

 

I did have to attend to some small sink marks on the rear blade faces, but nothing too serious

 

 

The S-2 family have a tail bump wheel which prevents damage to the underside of the fuselage during take-offs if the aircraft is over-rotated. This is a simple affair and the Kinetic's depiction is nice enough however the opening through which the oleo passes is depicted as an elongated slot rather than a simple circular hole. It was a simple matter to roughly shape some styrene and sand flush. A hole was then shaped at the forward end

 

 

Whilst dealing with the back end I decided that the arrestor hook is rather clumsily portrayed and could stand improvement. I have started by sanding off the hook area and squaring up the end,

 

 

I need to scratch up the actual hook bit next,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Pappy

[CliffB]

A nice start Pappy and I'm looking forward to seeing your decal choice!

 

Cliff

[Pappy]

22 hours ago, CliffB said:

A nice start Pappy and I'm looking forward to seeing your decal choice!

 

Cliff

G'day Cliff,

 

Thank you very much for both your interest and comment.

 

G'day people,

 

Well, the postal gods have smiled upon me and a treasure trove of goodies have now arrived, which means I can now start moving forward at pace!

 

Several bits of PE goodness were used to dress up Kinetics's somewhat spartan cockpit starting with the cockpit bulkhead and floor

 

 

 

Some additional cockpit 'furniture was also assembled including the missing centre console and some boxes

 

 

The small pouches were then installed on the cockpit sidewalls and bulkead

 

 

 

 

 

and finally some seat embellishments that help the kit seats resemble something aircrew would use to fly an aeroplane instead of watching TV!

 

 

 

I previously cut off the molded on seat headrests as they looked a little undersized and also cut away some of the 'inboard' seat sides that face the centre console. The real seats have delicate tubular support frames rather than the slab sides provided. With the PE side overlays attached, I hope it looks like the seats have this thin support structure present. I cheated and I kept the outboard sides intact as the effect cannot be seen and it will help maintain rigidity of the seats during installation. Finally the instrument panel had the rudder pedals attached and then it was off to the paint shop for a quick splash of colour.

 

 

That was yesterday. Today I was mostly working on the cockpit floor and instrument panels

 

 

 

cheers and thanks for looking,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2018 by Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

More painting today.
 

I have painted the nose gear bay which is basically the underside of the cockpit floor.

 

 

The grey wash looks a little stark but it is still wet. It will dry to a lighter and bluer shade.

 

The seats are finally done and have been installed

 

 

 

I repainted the seat belts as the pre-painted colours were too bright and just plain wrong, I am happy with the results but I still need to make a few touch ups to the cockpit,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

[zebra]

That cockpit looks superb

[CJP]

The seats and instrument panel look great - are they Eduard etches?

CJP

[exdraken]

Good start!

[trickyrich]

wow that does look awesome! The cockpit is beautiful, well done!

[Jabba]

That cockpit is very impressive, along with all the details that you added.

[MarkSH]

Agree with other comments the cockpit is particularly nice.

[Pappy]

Thank you all very much, your comments are very kind and greatly appreciated.

 

Having dealt with the cockpit, I have turned my attention to the weapons bay.

 

 

 

The kit weapons bay item is little more that a featureless tub OOB. If you add the kit torpedoes, much of the bay will be obscured however, there will still be featureless sections evident so I have incorporated the weapons bay PE set. What you see  is comprised of about 70pieces of PE, some of which required folding. I spent about four nights assembling and preparing the various bits and pieces. It was meticulous and at times fiddly,  several items severely tested my patience - I had a ball!

 

A quick test fit did not reveal any potential fit issues

 

 

 

 

It almost seems a shame to paint it (almost!)

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Edited January 11, 2020 by Pappy

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Weapons bay details look great Pappy, I am sure you will make the detail pop when you paint it in your usual manner.

[trickyrich]

Pappy you're a very sad man for enjoying all that PE work!    I consider PE the handy work of the devil! But you've done anamzing job in taming it though, looks amazing!

 

The attention to detail on this build is just perfect, am dying to see her done...even if she's not in RAN colours. 

[Pappy]

-

On 5/25/2018 at 10:23 AM, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

Weapons bay details look great Pappy, I am sure you will make the detail pop when you paint it in your usual manner.

 

Cheers Ray

On 5/25/2018 at 11:01 AM, trickyrich said:

Pappy you're a very sad man for enjoying all that PE work!    I consider PE the handy work of the devil! But you've done anamzing job in taming it though, looks amazing!

 

The attention to detail on this build is just perfect, am dying to see her done...even if she's not in RAN colours. 

 

Thanks Rich, there is plenty more that could be corrected, but working to a deadline means that I will only be correcting what I think is achievable and worthwhile. You could really get into the weeds and develop AMS, but I want to push through and get to the finish before the GB ends. PE is definitely an acquired taste and I think that sometimes the replacement PE parts are only a marginal improvement over the kit items, especially in light of the effort that may be required to integrate the item onto the kit

 

G'day people,

 

I managed to get some prep work in on the undercarriage today. The upper section of the nosegear unit is supplied in two halves. This makes for an awkward seam and the crossbeam halves bridging the upper yoke section did not line up nicely. My solution was to cut away the central section and replace with plastic rod, simple and effective, plus no seam to tidy up.

 

 

 

The PE oleo scissor links and tie down rings were added and this part is ready for paint.

 

The main gear units were next and these are assembled form two parts, a central leg and a crossbeam/bracing unit that incorporates a delicate tube assembly.  The kit's heavy sprue attachment points meant that I manged to damage one of the units during clean up requiring a repair and substitution with more plastic rod. The addition of some PE scissor links and other items was next. The PE included replacements for both sides of the scissor links, but I thought the PE items lacked bulk, instead looking too flimsy so I elected to only partially replace the scissor links

 

 

These units still require the addition of hydraulic brake lines lines

 

Finally, I have finished the arrestor hook assembly. The unmodified kit item has a very chunky 'hook' if left unmolested

 

 

 

I added some scrap sprue details suitable sanded to shape to improve this area

 

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

Edited May 26, 2018 by Pappy

[trickyrich]

nice job on the nose gear and the hook.

[Pappy]

6 hours ago, trickyrich said:

nice job on the nose gear and the hook.

Thanks Rich, I am surprised you could make out the improvements, my pictures are terrible!

 

G'day people

 

So, some plumbing wok today. I have added a little bit more detail to the main gear bays to increase the busyness. I dam not shooting for complete accuracy, just a sense of the real thing and something to apply a wash around,

 

 

 

The weapons bay doors had their hinges removed and replaced with PE 'piano hinge' parts

 

 

the searchlight housing has been faired into the starboard wing

 

 

 

Although not the best fitting part, it was not difficult to accomplish, just requiring filler and patience.

 

I have also started to add the exhaust stubs to the exhaust openings

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Pappy

[trickyrich]

4 hours ago, Pappy said:

Thanks Rich, I am surprised you could make out the improvements, my pictures are terrible!

I can be vague at times but I have a very good eye for detail and I must say it wonders over your photos with a great deal of jealousy. You're doing some really lovely detailing work, you should be very proud of your skills, top notch! 

 

I've completely forgiven you for not building a RAN aircraft now! 

[Pappy]

18 hours ago, trickyrich said:

I can be vague at times but I have a very good eye for detail and I must say it wonders over your photos with a great deal of jealousy. You're doing some really lovely detailing work, you should be very proud of your skills, top notch! 

 

I've completely forgiven you for not building a RAN aircraft now! 

cheers Rich,

 

G'day people,

 

 I managed to get a little painting done today.  First up, the arrestor hook has received a base white coat in preparation for (yet more) masking and the application of black stripes

 

 

 

Next up the rocket launchers

 

 

 

The main gear bays where also given a coat of white followed by the application of a subtle wash. From my pictures, it seems that these bays did not get overly dirty so I will keep the weathering effects light.

 

 

 

Finally, the weapons bay was given several light coats of white to build up the colour density .

 

 

The details re very subtle and it is very easy to obscure them with a heavy application of colour. I also glued in the sensor dome so that I wouldn't forget when it was time to close up the fuselage. My problem during test fitting is that I am not an octopus and did not have enough hands to hold the various sub-assemblies in place whilst closing the fuselage, which mean things can slip out of their correct spot. I have already fixed the cockpit bulkhead and arrestor hook bays in place by attaching these to one side only and holding the two fuselage halves together with laccy bands until the glue had set. I was going to do something similar with the sensor dome but the attaching point is small and allows some play, My solution was to attach one end of a strip of plastic stock to the top of the weapons bay  and have the other end resting (i.e. not glued) on top of the sensor dome part

 

 

This now acts as a sort of spring, preventing the part from falling into the fuselage but with enough downwards pressure to hold the part straight assist with alignment when the  fuselage halves are being joined. I thought about re-engineering the part to allow me to insert it once the fuselage is together but this is a simpler solution, even if it dues look a bit 'Blue Peter-ish'

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

Edited May 28, 2018 by Pappy

[CliffB]

Superb work Pappy.  Your weapons bay shows PE at its best.

 

Cliff

[trickyrich]

gee that weapons bay looks amazing, very subtle use of the wash, perfect.

 

I like your clever engineering solution.

 

What you can do if you find you're running out of hands to hold things while drying is to spot glue them or tack them in place first with tiny spots of CA cement. I do it all the time, it pretty much guarantees it'll stay in the right spot while gluing, plus it allows you to close things up in the test fitting stage without having to be an octopus.