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1/72 RAN S-2G Grumman Tracker


abat

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This is looking great! :clap2:

 

Looking forward to following along. :popcorn:   I need to figure out some manner of Grumman aircraft notification bot so I don't miss builds I need to follow!

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12 hours ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

Excellent work, particularly on the wing fold joint. I suggest that you add the struts that were used to secure the wings when they were folded. Scroll down here: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/08/stoof.html


Thanks for that. I’ll certainly use the struts. I still haven’t decided on the method to connect each wing. It will need some strength but the struts will help take a lot of the weight.
 

57 minutes ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

NIce work Andrew, I have a conversion set for mine. Your scratch building work looks great

 

Thank you, I wish I’d had a conversion set but then again it’s been fun scratch-building so far. Extending the tail planes as shown in the link Tailspin Turtle posted will be an interesting challenge and certainly drilling out the new sonobuoy shutes has taken a few unsuccessful trials so far. It will be good to see your conversion when the time comes. 
 

38 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

This is looking great! :clap2:

 

Looking forward to following along. :popcorn:   I need to figure out some manner of Grumman aircraft notification bot so I don't miss builds I need to follow!


Ha ha! That would be a useful tool to have. I hope you enjoy the rest of the build. 

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Just a little bit of progress today. I couldn't use the existing sonobuoy part as there are too few slots and I could see no way to fill the larger slots in the kit piece, re-drill the others and make everything all match up. I first cut a new insert and tried several times (unsuccessfully) to drill out new slots. What finally worked was to print out a scale template taken from the excellent tailspintopics site (https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/08/stoof.html), glue it to the back of a newly cut insert piece, mark the centres with a sharp pin and then drill them out. The latches are made from stretched sprue cut to about 1.5mm length. I've managed to do one tonight but need to rest my eyes before attempting the other tomorrow.

 

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Oh, and I forgot to post earlier that I'd sanded the wing tip electronic modules flush with the existing wing. They just need a little bit of touch up and a few distinctive panel lines added.

 

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On 1/1/2021 at 11:12 PM, abat said:


Thanks for that. I’ll certainly use the struts. I still haven’t decided on the method to connect each wing. It will need some strength but the struts will help take a lot of the weight.

The design of the wing structure emphasized the use of the skin to carry loads at the joint, which is why you see all those tabs on the inner surface of the wing along the fold joint. The hinge line was also above the wing surface at multiple points because of the extreme angle of the inboard and outboard wings when they were folded and they were necessarily in a straight line. I suggest that you glue corresponding "nubs" above the wing surface on the outboard wing surface extending slightly past the wing joint, beveled at an angle so they set flush on the upper surface of the inboard wing. Combined with the strut and that triangular bit positioned by the wing fold actuators to fold and spread the wings (click on the fold-joint pictures in the blog post to enlarge them), that should be adequate to secure the outboard wings in the folded position.

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
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2 hours ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

The design of the wing structure emphasized the use of the skin to carry loads at the joint, which is why you see all those tabs on the inner surface of the wing along the fold joint. The hinge line was also above the wing surface at multiple points because of the extreme angle of the inboard and outboard wings when they were folded and they were necessarily in a straight line. I suggest that you glue corresponding "nubs" above the wing surface on the outboard wing surface extending slightly past the wing joint, beveled at an angle so they set flush on the upper surface of the inboard wing. Combined with the strut and that triangular bit positioned by the wing fold actuators to fold and spread the wings (click on the fold-joint pictures in the blog post to enlarge them), that should be adequate to secure the outboard wings in the folded position.


Thank you kindly. That is excellent advice. Yesterday I worked on the inboard section of the starboard wing, so today I will look at integrating the mount as you have suggested.  
 

 

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Here’s a few photos illustrating the process I’m using to insert the wing detail. Hopefully it will look somewhat convincing when it is finally tidied up, painted and mounted. 
 

First step is to glue some support using plastic strip just inside the cut. I have some self-closing tweezers that help support each strip while I secure it with Tamiya extra thin.  
 

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Then I trace the opening onto some translucent paper before transferring the outline to plastic card and cutting it out with curved nail scissors. Then it’s just a matter of lots of sanding and checking. 
 

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And after some drilling, cutting, and fitting representations of the main features. 
 

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Thanks for looking. Hopefully this provides some ideas for others thinking of treading a similar path. 

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That is very nice work on the wing joints and the fuselage extension. All looking good.

 

This is the 1/48 Italeri Tracker I built a few years ago. Hand painted in the days before air brushing.

Even with kit parts for the wing fold they weren't easy to fit with the weight of the outer wing sections.

 

 

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The build is still progressing slowly and I'm currently working out the location of the jury struts. As part of my research I found another interesting article on the FAAAA website - "Grumman Tracker History in Photographs". Here's a link to the part 1 (there's a link to part 2 at the bottom of the first page).

 

https://www.faaaa.asn.au/grumman-tracker-history-photographs/

 

There's some brilliant photos on this site including this one from part 2!

 

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A very interesting read. 
My Dad was duty CPO the night of the fire and has described it as the worst night he had in 40 years service.  It was a remarkable effort to purchase replacement aircraft and have the squadrons back in business adjust a few months.

I recognise a few names of people I knocked around Nowra with many, many years ago. Thanks for sharing.

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34 minutes ago, SteveMc said:

A very interesting read. 
My Dad was duty CPO the night of the fire and has described it as the worst night he had in 40 years service.  It was a remarkable effort to purchase replacement aircraft and have the squadrons back in business adjust a few months.

I recognise a few names of people I knocked around Nowra with many, many years ago. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks Steve, I've only just finished reading through and watching the videos that are linked from the main Tracker page. Can’t see how your Dad would ever forget et that night. I also spotted my Brother-in-law in one of the photos. HARS at Albion Park Aerodrome has an airworthy Tracker which will hopefully be the star of the Wings Overt the Illawarra airshow this year. 

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28 minutes ago, abat said:

 

 

Thanks Steve, I've only just finished reading through and watching the videos that are linked from the main Tracker page. Can’t see how your Dad would ever forget et that night. I also spotted my Brother-in-law in one of the photos. HARS at Albion Park Aerodrome has an airworthy Tracker which will hopefully be the star of the Wings Overt the Illawarra airshow this year. 

Yes, I’m hoping Wings Over Illawarra goes ahead this year. It would be great to see the Tracker flying again. HARS do a good job  with their collection.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress has been slow this week. I thought therefore that it was high time to see a Tracker in person so I made a trip to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross, Nowra. It's a lovely drive down from Sydney through the Southern Highlands and Kangaroo Valley. Here's the real thing, S-2G N12-153582 / 859 in very nice condition, complete with the requisite folded wings.

 

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And a close up of the wing support struts and their location.

 

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Safely back home and suitably inspired I set to work once more. Here's where I'm now up to.

 

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You can see three small tabs rising a little above the wing surface. These will serve as the hinges and mate nicely with the tabs I've installed in the wing fold itself. You can also see the cockpit with some nice Eduard etch - more on that further down.

 

I've finally got the engine nacelles on after detailing the sonobuoy launchers. The minute I glued on the starboard nacelle I realised that I should have reduced the width at the front a little so that it matched the wing better. Now I'll be doing more sanding and filling! The kit has you install the undercarriage when you glue the nacelles together. Rather than doing that, I've cut out slots in the mounting points tat will allow me to install it later.

 

Here's the aft view showing the work I've done on the sonobuoy launchers. I'm quite happy how these turned out. The nacelles mate nicely with the wings, just a few sink marks to fill in with putty.

 

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And finally a few photos showing the etch in the cockpit.

 

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It's a real shame but I don't think much of the detail will be visible once the cockpit is closed up - even though the side windows are quite large, they are rounded and thick and won't give much of a view. 

 

Next I will be closing the cockpit and masking the windows. The fit of the clear canopy part is not the best, despite a bit of fettling, so I can see quite a bit more filling and sanding in order to blend it seamlessly into the fuselage. Let's see how it goes.

 

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I'm now working on the tailplanes. Those on the S2-G are longer than the S2-A versions in the Revell/Hasegawa kit. I made a rough template based on the tailplane from the 1/48 Italeri/Kinetic kit and re-scaled it to 1/72. 

 

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I cut an extension block from 1mm plastic (double layer to make 2mm thickness) and glued it to the end of each tailplane. After a bit of work with the razor saw it has come to this. I'll let the glue cure and harden overnight before attacking it with some coarse sandpaper to restore the shape.

 

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I’m still making slow but steady progress towards the paint shop.  This photo shows the current state of play with the tailplanes fitted (at hopefully the correct angle) and the cabin finally enclosed by the clear canopy. I have a rocket blower for my camera that I used to hopefully expel all dust and fragments before securing the canopy with 5 minute epoxy. There’s some slight filling and sanding to be down to blend this nicely with the fuselage. I might even use a thin shim of plastic card to help fill the join. 
 

The nacelles have been filled, sanded and blended with the wings and I’ve also scratch-built the additional sonobuoy launcher for the starboard nacelle. This was fashioned from three layers of 1mm plastic card. I found it easiest to drill the line of tubes in a seperate piece of this card and attach this once the rest was shaped nicely. A bit crude but it serves the purpose. 
 

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Here’s the next stage of the build - fitting the engines. I’ve replaced the kit parts with two  nice resin Wright Cyclone R-1820 engines from Quickboost and also have some Eduard etch to add on as well. There’s a bit more painting and assembling here but they’ll look quite a bit smarter. The resin parts do not drop straight in but require some additional shims within the cowl to allow them to sit correctly. 
 

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Thanks for looking in, Andrew

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  • 3 weeks later...

Iv'e finally got the blend between the canopy and fuselage more to my liking and have finished the primer. In hindsight, it might have been a better option to join the cockpit halves to the fuselage first, and then join the combined fuselage halves. 

 

So here were are with some primer:

 

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I may still add some panel line detail to the forward fuselage and wing tips but otherwise I think the paint and decals will provide enough interest. I somehow managed to knock off the protruding hinges for the wings so will re-affix these with some sturdier plastic. Not quite the home stretch yet but I'm feeling more comfortable about getting to the end. 

 

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