1/72 RAN S-2G Grumman Tracker

[SteveMc]

Nice progress Andrew and taking shape.

[abat]

I've started work on the Tracker after a few diversions building a Bristol Sycamore and finishing off a Sea Fury. When I last posted I was working out how to mount the folded wings and I've now got that sorted with the wing supports drilled and dry-fitted and the hinges manufactured. Here's some photos illustrating some slow progress over the past week.

 

I do have a few questions about paint colours though before I proceed. What colour should I paint the interior of the engine covers? Would that be gull grey as per the fuselage or a darker grey? And also the interior of the wing at the fold - it appears to be suitably grimy white in the photos I have of an RAN airframe. Does that sound correct?

 

Cheers, Andrew

 

 

 

 

And the engines complete and ready for mounting.

 

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice to see some more progress Andrew, wing fold inners were white. Can't say about the insides of the cowls, what do the kit instructions suggest?

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Andrew, As a reservist I did a short stint on HMAS Melbourne in 1981. She had Trackers on board then. If I knew you were going to do this build I'd have taken some photos for you.  Actually I did take a photo of a Tracker but the inside of the cowl is not visible. It was a cheap instamatic camera.

     Your model is coming along very well. Regards, Jeff.

[CJP]

Hi Abat - here are a couple of photos I took of 844 when she had an engine problem & spent a few weeks parked outside Cooma FSU until they replaced the engine - I think it was mid eighties - the RAN Historic Flight had come over for an airshow at Cooma airport - the inside of the cowl looks to be light colour like white or light grey.

CJP

[abat]

Thanks for your ideas and suggestions  @Romeo Alpha Yankee, @ArnoldAmbrose and @CJP. I’m going to go with gull grey inside the cowls and some grimy white for the wing fold. They’re some nice photos you posted CJP. Pity about the instamatic Jeff, if my Tardis was working we could go back and get some fancy digital shots!

Cheers, Andrew

 

[abat]

There's been a fair bit of work done since my last post. I decided that I wanted to restore some of the raised panel lines lost during the lengthening of the fuselage behind the cabin. A few suggestions had already been put forward - e.g. Archer resin panel line decals and very fine stretched sprue - but I decided to use a different technique that I read about browsing the web. I honestly can't remember where I read this, and it might well have been Britmodeller, but it involved masking very fine lines with Tamiya tape and filling the gap with Mr Surfacer 500. It really worked a treat and thank you so much to the anonymous modeller whose footsteps I have followed. You can see some of the added detail extending forward of the wings, around the nose and behind the cabin. It's a slow process so I only added a few panel lines - enough to remove the look of a blank canvas. 

 

Following that I applied an undercoat of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer to the undersurfaces and followed this with a few coats of Tamiya LP35 Insignia White. This went on very smoothly. I'll leave it for a few days before masking for the top coat of Light Gull Grey. This will a mix of Tamiya acrylics based around XF80. The black tab of tape on the radome allows me to pop it out of the fuselage for painting!

 

Thanks for dropping by. Comments and suggestions - particularly about masking the wavy line for the gull grey are appreciated. 

 

[Bell209]

I took a few pictures of the wing-fold mechanism at HARS a few weeks ago. I'm there fairly regularly, so if there's anything in particular you need for photos, let me know. We have the only flying one in Aus there now.

[abat]

8 hours ago, Bell209 said:

I took a few pictures of the wing-fold mechanism at HARS a few weeks ago. I'm there fairly regularly, so if there's anything in particular you need for photos, let me know. We have the only flying one in Aus there now.

Thank you so much for your offer. I do have some wing fold pics myself but would love to see the HARS Tracker flying. I’m  hoping it will fly during Wings Over Illawarra later this year. Are there other dates it will fly before then?

[Terry1954]

Just picked up on this thread again. The Tracker is coming along beautifully.

 

I especially liked reading the history article. I checked on google earth and I think there are still some remains of all those derelict trackers that can just be seen a few hundred meters south west of the 03 threshold at Nowra. Amazing!

 

Terry

[SteveMc]

Nice progress Andrew. Looking forward to seeing paint going on. 
As for the wavy line. When I’m painting soft lines or camo I usually cut masking tape to suit or go freehand. I’ve never had much luck with white tack worms.

Cheers

 

[Clashcityrocker]

For wavy lines you could try Spotlight or similar stores for scissors that have wavy blades  

 

Nigel

[abat]

On 19/06/2021 at 11:21, SteveMc said:

Nice progress Andrew. Looking forward to seeing paint going on. 
As for the wavy line. When I’m painting soft lines or camo I usually cut masking tape to suit or go freehand. I’ve never had much luck with white tack worms.

Cheers

 

Thanks Steve, I think I’ll experiment with Tamiya tape although it will be hard, not soft edges. 
 

On 19/06/2021 at 14:12, Clashcityrocker said:

For wavy lines you could try Spotlight or similar stores for scissors that have wavy blades  

 

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, that’s a good idea. 

[Bell209]

On 6/18/2021 at 8:53 PM, abat said:

I’m  hoping it will fly during Wings Over Illawarra later this year. Are there other dates it will fly before then?

Barring any unserviceabilities it should fly at WoI. It sometimes flies on tarmac days, too. Each team runs their own programme, so ask me about the AP-3C and I can help - not so the other aircraft!

[abat]

On 23/06/2021 at 08:34, Bell209 said:

Barring any unserviceabilities it should fly at WoI. It sometimes flies on tarmac days, too. Each team runs their own programme, so ask me about the AP-3C and I can help - not so the other aircraft!

Thanks Rob. I look forward to dropping down for a Tarmac Day once we get through the current lockdown.

Andrew

[Dermo245]

Just catching up with this one…what a cracking build Andrew.

[abat]

2 hours ago, Dermo245 said:

Just catching up with this one…what a cracking build Andrew.

Thanks @Dermo245! I’m in the process of masking for the Gull Grey but the weather hasn’t been conducive to airbrushing - either too cold or too windy - but I’m hoping to get moving again soon. Just finishing off a smaller build of a Jindivik at present. 

[abat]

A brief update on the current state of play. I finished masking off the white undersides this afternoon and once I've tidied that up a little I'll look at committing some gull grey paint to the fuselage later this week. Still a fair way to go I think but getting a lot closer. Thanks for looking in.

Andrew

 

[abat]

In a burst of activity, and with some trepidation, I've finished airbrushing and unmasked the paint scheme. Close up, its not as smooth as I'd wish but decent airbrushing is a skill that eludes me. Looks like I now need a gloss coast and some decals before final assembly.

 

[SteveMc]

That looks good Andrew. Nice job on the wavy line.

The decals will make it pop.

[abat]

1 hour ago, SteveMc said:

That looks good Andrew. Nice job on the wavy line.

The decals will make it pop.

Yes, thanks. I enjoy the decal stage. You're lucky to be in Goulburn.

Andrew

[Maginot]

What a good looking project, @abat. It's satisfying modelling subjects that have special meaning for us. Particularly taken with the wing-fold detail and sonobouy wracks.

 

The pic of 3 S-2 (E?) in formation over the cliffs reminds me of my visit to NAS Nowra... good grief it's 30 years ago already. Afterwards, I had an unforgettable close encounter with a C-141 which flew low over me waggling its wings as I was warming up on the rocks while snorkelling at Bowen Island (south head Jervis Bay). Perhaps I'll model it one day.

 

Thoughts to all out there in lock-down. What a great fillip scale modelling is to get us through. Cheers

[FAAMAN]

Nice work so far Abat.

I have a "few" 1/72 Trackers to do, last count was 9(?) I think.

The interior of all our Tracker's cowlings was gloss white.

They were still gloss white under a very dark protective coating when all were parked (wingless in a very sorry state of repair) for sale at Albatross in the late 80's.

During my time at Albatross from Jan.1982, a few years after our Skyhawks were given away to those 'other' people I worked on and off on a few Trackers, including a survivor of the H hangar fire, S-2E 845/N12-153600.

At Taskbook Training Flight S-2G 859/N12-153582 was fully reassembled by our trainees and eventually ground run with full functional testing. 

[Neil Lambess]

Fantastic work .  Learning a lot about the aussie version ......minor issue and I hate to be that guy but I noticed  it looks like you based the width of the tailplanes directly from the plans which appear to be orthographic  : IE  the view looking down on the tailplanes includes their dihedral , so on the plans the width is actually a few millimetres shorter than they should be . The frontal view  however would also include the dihedral but would show the actual width more accuratley than the other view (if they are drawn correctly )  you may have cottoned onto that and it's the photos giving me the wrong impression (besides which it's not noticeable with the tracker  , but if I had a dollar for every review I've read saying a Spitfire's wingtips are too long compared to plans and need to be sanded back (because the plan includes the dihedral ) I'lld be quite wealthy ! ...same goes for reviews of Phantom and Sea harrier tailplanes ...which are just misreading the plans...and ignoring the severe anahedral of the actual aircraft