1/72 RAN S-2G Grumman Tracker

[abat]

In a moment of modelling madness I've decided to embark on a project to build a 1/72 scale Royal Australian Navy S-2G Grumman Tracker from the Revell boxing of the old Hasegawa S-2A kit. I've built several of the Hasegawa kits around 20 years ago with RAN markings but I never took account of the required modifications and so this build aims to set things right so I can have a "proper" S-2G in my collection. I was unable to locate a Hawkeye S-2G resin conversion kit so I've decided to scratch build the lot. As my display space is quite limited, and because it looks neat, I'll also be building the model with folded wings. I do wonder whether I've bitten off a bit too much this time!

 

The things to be done include extending the fuselage by around 5mm behind the cabin, re-positioning the fuselage windows, extending the wing-tips to accomodate antennas, increasing size of the tailplanes and modifying the nacelles. There's some good reference material available including a few previous Britmodeller builds so I won't be flying totally blind.

 

Here's the kit and the aftermarket bits and pieces. I've got some Eduard etch and a canopy mask, decals from Hawkeye Models and some resin engines I've forgotten to photograph.

 

 

 

And here's the current state of play. I've separated the cockpit from the fuselage, built the interior and then added the 5mm extension at the rear. The extension piece was cut from an older kit that I had been using as a paint mule. It's a fair match but will require a good amount of putty and sanding to blend it in between the cockpit and main fuselage. I haven't spent much time on the cockpit apart from adding the etch as it will barely be visible once the canopy is on.

 

 

 

And here's the separated fuselage halves. The cabin windows needed re-positioning a few millimetres forward.

 

 

And lastly the wings which have been separated at the folding lines, the wingtips removed and a stack of 3mm of plastic card added which will be sanded to give the correct shape.

 

 

More to come, Andrew

[Chemguy3000]

Cool! Front row seat! 

 

David

[Andwil]

Going to watch how you tackle this conversion, I have a Hasegawa Tracker earmarked for a RAN S-2G and will have to make the same mods.

 

AW

[Terry1954]

I'm in for this one. Always loved the Tracker. I saw an Australian Tracker close up at a Greehham Common show back in the 70's. I might have some pictures somewhere.

 

Great start!

 

Terry

[abat]

5 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

I'm in for this one. Always loved the Tracker. I saw an Australian Tracker close up at a Greehham Common show back in the 70's. I might have some pictures somewhere.

 

Great start!

 

Terry

 

3 hours ago, Chemguy3000 said:

Cool! Front row seat! 

 

David

 

22 minutes ago, Andwil said:

Going to watch how you tackle this conversion, I have a Hasegawa Tracker earmarked for a RAN S-2G and will have to make the same mods.

 

AW

 

Thanks everyone, I hope I can do it justice.

 

Last progress for the day. I rough sanded the new wing tip antennas with 120 grit sandpaper. This had just the right amount of cut. I'll take off the tape and use a finer grit tomorrow to clean them up and get the proper shape. 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Now this has caught my eye. I love the Tracker and remember many from my youth, particularly seeing Australian examples on the HMAS Melbourne in Portsmouth in 1977. My first encouter was "1540" of the Royal Canadian Navy that was sat nestled within the passenger fingers at Gatwick in the late 1960s.  Good luck with the build, mate!

 

Martin

 

 

 

[TheFlogger]

I appreciate your effort to tame oldie Hasegawa kit! I bet it will worth after all. Cant wait to see how it ends! Best wishes!

[abat]

On 22/12/2020 at 20:34, RidgeRunner said:

Now this has caught my eye. I love the Tracker and remember many from my youth, particularly seeing Australian examples on the HMAS Melbourne in Portsmouth in 1977. My first encouter was "1540" of the Royal Canadian Navy that was sat nestled within the passenger fingers at Gatwick in the late 1960s.  Good luck with the build, mate!

 

Martin

 

 

 

 

Thanks Martin, it's great seeing HMAS Melbourne back in 1977.

 

18 hours ago, TheFlogger said:

I appreciate your effort to tame oldie Hasegawa kit! I bet it will worth after all. Cant wait to see how it ends! Best wishes!

 

Thanks for that. Let's see how we go.

 

Not much progress today. First I fitted the fuselage windows. They both needed sanding flat on both sides before being re-polishing and secured with araldite. I also opened up the two inlets on the side of the rear fuselage. 

 

 

Next was drilling out the cabin and heater air inlets and taxiing light on the nose.

 

 

I'm working on closing up the fuselage so that I can fit and fettle in the cabin.

[heloman1]

Looking good, I like the Tracker but never actually completed one! I like the older variants, they somehow looked more purposeful.

 

I'll follow your build with interest.

 

Colin

[Billy54]

A little late to the show but I shall be following your build from now on. Excellent work so far and am looking forward to your updates especially the wing fold. May I ask which plans are you using for this project? The S-2 is a kit I have wanted to build for a long time now. Am I correct in saying that the RAN operated their Trackers from their carriers? (HMAS Melbourne?)   

[abat]

4 hours ago, Billy54 said:

A little late to the show but I shall be following your build from now on. Excellent work so far and am looking forward to your updates especially the wing fold. May I ask which plans are you using for this project? The S-2 is a kit I have wanted to build for a long time now. Am I correct in saying that the RAN operated their Trackers from their carriers? (HMAS Melbourne?)   

Hi Billy, Thanks for the comments. The plans shown above are from the Italeri 1/48 S2 E/F/G kit which I have in my stash. One day I'll progress to building the bigger kits but at present I'm solely working in 1/72. I resized and printed the diagram to 1/72 to help with the modification of some parts.

 

The Australian Trackers arrived in 1967 and were flown from HMAS Melbourne and RANAS Nowra when shore-based and for training. I think they were also stationed in Northern Australia for a time in the late 70s or early 80s for coastal patrol. Here's a short article from the FAAAA on the history of Australian Trackers.

 

https://www.faaaa.asn.au/heritage-grumman-tracker/

 

[Billy54]

Hello Abat, thank you for response and the link which I found to be an enjoyable and informative read.

[CJP]

This  will be an interesting build to watch as you progress it along - I did one a looong time ago with folded wings 

 

CJP

[abat]

On 25/12/2020 at 09:36, CJP said:

This  will be an interesting build to watch as you progress it along - I did one a looong time ago with folded wings 

 

CJP

 

Excellent CJP. I'm thinking out how to fit the detail in the wing folds at the moment. One way is to fettle an insert to fit inside the wings - the other (which I used on a Gannet many years ago) is to seal off the end with plastic card and add a thin lip to represent the edge of the wing. This adds about 1mm or so to the end where each wing is separated which first needs to be sanded off.

 

I've painted the retractable radome, closed the fuselage and mounted the top of the wing inboard of the wing folds. The fit was quite good, better than the excess putty in the picture suggests. I've lost some of the raised detail which I may attempt to replace, either through scribing or using very thin plastic card.Once that's done it's back to thinking about the wing fold internals.

 

[CJP]

14 minutes ago, abat said:

 

Excellent CJP. I'm thinking out how to fit the detail in the wing folds at the moment. One way is to fettle an insert to fit inside the wings - the other (which I used on a Gannet many years ago) is to seal off the end with plastic card and add a thin lip to represent the edge of the wing. This adds about 1mm or so to the end where each wing is separated which first needs to be sanded off.

 

 

Thanks mate - whichever way you decide to do the wingfold break it is a complex looking job but I'm sure you will do it justice!

CJP

[abat]

2 minutes ago, CJP said:

Thanks mate - whichever way you decide to do the wingfold break it is a complex looking job but I'm sure you will do it justice!

CJP

Thanks CJP, scratch building is certainly the fun part!

[EDCS87]

I can't wait to see how this build unfolds! 

[abat]

Howzat! One S-2G Grumman Tracker fuselage. After a fair bit of sanding and filling and re-sanding I've got it to the stage where an undercoat will be needed to reveal any spots to touch up.

 

 

 

 

The shape seems OK but all detail is lost between the nose and the wing. I'll think about ways to restore some of the lost details. Scribing seems the obvious choice but the filler I used (Tamiya putty) does not take to that. I see that Archer Fine Decals has a sheet of raised panel lines so maybe that is a good route to take. I've certainly used their rivets before.

 

http://www.archertransfers.com/AR88013.html

 

Does anyone have experience with the lines or other ideas?

[SteveMc]

Nice progress and I will follow along. I built the 1/48 Italeri S2G a few years ago which takes up a fair chunk of space even with the wings folded.

I lived in Nowra in the 70’s and early 80’s and saw a lot of the Trackers. My dad was based at Albatross so I got to see a lot of FAA stuff up close.

Good luck with the rest of the build and conversion.

 

[abat]

2 hours ago, SteveMc said:

Nice progress and I will follow along. I built the 1/48 Italeri S2G a few years ago which takes up a fair chunk of space even with the wings folded.

I lived in Nowra in the 70’s and early 80’s and saw a lot of the Trackers. My dad was based at Albatross so I got to see a lot of FAA stuff up close.

Good luck with the rest of the build and conversion.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes the Italeri kit is a big bird in 1/48. I lived on base at Nowra as well, but in the early 60’s and then also 1968. I still remember the Sea Fury and Firefly guarding the main gate and walking past the hangers full of aircraft on the way to Saturday afternoon cinema on base. 

[stevehnz]

'Zat looks really promising, keen to see the rest, I wouldn't mind one with Kangaroo roundels myself.

Steve.

[ForestFan]

Looking good, always liked the S-2, sadly neglected in 1/72. Looking on Scalemates this kit can trace its' lineage back to 1975!

Good luck with the build

[Chemguy3000]

Abat, try stretched sprue attached with liquid cement to replace the lost panel lines. Sometimes it helps to scribe a guide line for the filament to settle into.

 

Great (and quick) progress so far!

 

David

[abat]

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

'Zat looks really promising, keen to see the rest, I wouldn't mind one with Kangaroo roundels myself.

Steve.

Thanks Steve, I hope you get to building one. 

 

6 hours ago, ForestFan said:

Looking good, always liked the S-2, sadly neglected in 1/72. Looking on Scalemates this kit can trace its' lineage back to 1975!

Good luck with the build

Wow, 1975, that’s 45 years ago when I was first modelling as a school boy. Thanks for checking the lineage. 
 

2 hours ago, Chemguy3000 said:

Abat, try stretched sprue attached with liquid cement to replace the lost panel lines. Sometimes it helps to scribe a guide line for the filament to settle into.

 

Great (and quick) progress so far!

 

David

Thanks David, that’s a great suggestion that I would not have thought of. I’ll put a few down  on my painting practice kit and see how things look. I’ve also found some more riveting decals in my spares box from HGW which may have a border line that could work too. Now I know the true vintage of the kit I’m keen to replicate the original raised panel detail as best I can. 

[abat]

This is where I've got to so far with the wing fold. These are the outboard wing sections with a plastic card insert which I've drilled and fettled to fit in the cavity. The locking tabs are 1mm sections of plastic strip. It should look better with a coat of paint. Next step will be the inboard sections.

 

 

As an aside, and to take a break from the concentration of figuring the wing fold out, I also cut the rear off the engine housing to accept the revised sonar buoy shutes. I've also tidied up the searchlight mount on the starboard wing. The clear cover now fits very snugly on top.