Rareplane NA AJ2 Savage Vac Form.

[TonyW]

Rareplane NA AJ2 Savage Vac Form.

 

I have a real liking for Rareplanes. I haven't built many but that's down to me rather than the quality or buildability of the things. I've got a few but treat them as collector kits ( well, someone has too) as they were so refined and unusual in their day. The quality still stands up to just about any other vac form kit I've seen. I'll dig out a few unbuilt ones and tie them into the thread as it progresses.

 

This one has been sat here in a storage box since I bought it years ago at the Telford Kitswap. Time for its moment of glory!

 

 

The parts have already been trimmed so that's a big job out the way. That's also why I'm happy building a rare kit. Had it been in perfect condition, it wouldn't have been me who built it. It's only mint once, then it's gone.

Collectors are weird, no doubt about it.

 

 

 

Instructions are basic but adequate. White metal parts are included, which is nice. Decals look fine and with luck will work fine as well. This is a late Rareplane kit, and although I'm not fully up to speed with the brand, I understand that Hannants added the decals and their name to the box. It would be good to find out more.

 

The grey version is probably going to be my chosen scheme, but that will sort itself out once the build gets underway.

 

More as it happens.

 

Tony.

 

 

  

 

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

It is in fact an excellent kit. With respect to the propellers, the good news is that they will reduce the nose weight required; the bad news is that they are a bit too broad in chord, more like turboprop engine blades than the Savage’s. Also see https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/07/aj-savage-notes.html

[theplasticsurgeon]

Following with great interest, as this kit has resided in my stash since 2000.

 

[PeterB]

Hi Tony,

 

Very interesting and should be a great build. The Rareplanes kits were in a class of their own at the time and I still have their Vulcan which came out very well. I guess that Hannants took over the range towards the end as I had one of their Gotha kits reboxed by Hannants. The plastic showed a few signs that the mould was going downhill, but it did include a compete set of Aeroclub white metal engines, props, exhausts, wheels, guns and a gun ring - no decs though! It is just possible we will see it in this GB as I passed it on to Ray, though I suspect he may not have time as his Felixtowe looks hard work. I also had one of their FJ-4 Fury kits which may be the one shown on the box art.

 

I have the Naval Fighters book on it if you want any info, and Tommy @Tailspin Turtle who authored several of the books in that series and may well have done the review on this kit runs a very useful website on USN planes - I see he is interested and already sent you a link!

 

Best of luck.

 

Pete

Edited March 23, 2021 by PeterB

[TonyW]

 

I've taken a closer look at what I have here, and I'm suitably impressed. The parts still need a bit of thinning down but trial fitting see's things fitting very well. The plastic is decently thick and the detailing is pretty good as well. Two clear canopies are provided and the white metal parts look good. The props do look a bit chunky but that's what files were invented for. The spinners fit perfectly.

 

If you have a couple of cockpit shots Pete, they would come in handy. It's a big office and the canopy is very clear. A basic interior is provided and might be enough but a bit more never hurts.

 

 

I've picked up a few Rareplanes over the years, here's sample lot:

 

 

I remember the B17 getting released. A dream kit if ever there was one. The price at the time was eye watering to a pre teen me and it remained a dream for years. I finally got one a few years back. I assumed it wasn't going to be up to much, but the detailing is excellent, even after all these years.

 

Gordon Stevens was a first class craftsman. His output was incredible. I would be proud to have done just the B17, it was one of many for him.

 

 

 

[PeterB]

Hi Tony,

 

Sent you a PM. I remember going in to a curious little shop in Cardiff some time back in the 1980's I think - he specialised in "rare kits" at "rare" prices as I recall, and he had the Rareplanes eary B-17, This was a time when bagged Airfix Harts were being touted for well over £10 and I think he was asking what for me at the time was far too much for the Fort so I left it - never seen one since!

 

Pete 

[Tailspin Turtle]

5 hours ago, TonyW said:

 

.

 

If you have a couple of cockpit shots Pete, they would come in handy. It's a big office and the canopy is very clear. A basic interior is provided and might be enough but a bit more never hurts.

 

 

Gordon Stevens was a first class craftsman. His output was incredible. I would be proud to have done just the B17, it was one of many for him.

 

 

 

Not Pete but I doubt that he can do better than this: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2013/04/aj-2-savage-cockpit.html

[PeterB]

Very nice Tommy - as I have said before you run an  excellent site. I know that you are credited with the reciew of the Airmodel Vacform kit in the Naval Fighters book but I presume you did the Rareplanes as well or was that down to somebody else?

pete

Edited March 23, 2021 by PeterB

[TonyW]

Thank you very much Gents, that's exactly what I need.

 

I have a good feeling about this build.

[Tailspin Turtle]

2 hours ago, PeterB said:

Very nice Tommy - as I have said before you run an  excellent site. I know that you are credited with the reciew of the Airmodel Vacform kit in the Naval Fighters book but I presume you did the Rareplanes as well or was that down to somebody else?

pete

I built the Airmodel AJ "kit" but not the Rareplane. I do have it (and Mach II's and Anigrand's) and have fondled it from time to time. At this point, the Anigrand kit would be my choice for an AJ-2 but if I live long enough, I'll build the Rareplane kit as a -2P. I've also built some of Gordon's other kits and in fact provided him with the manufacturer's drawings for his F3H and A3D kits so I can vouch for the accuracy of those as well as the buildability of all his kits.

[JOCKNEY]

Have to agree regarding RarePlanes quality. The first vacform kit I built when returning to the hobby was their Supermarine 224 "the first Spitfire ", who else but Gordon would have produced a kit of a one off experimental aircraft. 

Best of luck with this one Tony

Cheers Pat 

[TonyW]

The build commences.

I've glued a strip of sandpaper to a bit of board and my foreseeable future involved plastic dust and sore fingertips.

 

 

More as it happens...

 

 

 

 

[TonyW]

I caved in after about five minutes of sanding down parts on the sandpaper strip. Life is far too short for that kind of tedium.

 

Out with the Big Guns...

 

 

Not much more than ten minutes later I was back at the bench for a bit of finish sanding. It didn't so much sand the surplus away as melt it. The belt is a bit old and knackered now but it still did the job at a fair rate of knots.

 

 

All the big bits are prepped now. Trial fitting brings nothing but good news. Everything so far lines up fine. The wings feel a bit wobbly taped together so I think I'll be reinforcing things prior to assembly. And there will be a bit of assembly taking place tomorrow. Hurrah!

 

 

[TonyW]

A couple of hours in the shed this morning got quite a bit done.

 

Everything got trial fitted and edges reinforced. Wing and tail parts are now glued and taped. The cockpit area has been removed, canopy trimmed and trial fitted. It fits as good as any injection kit I've done. The camera nose has been removed, bomber nose offered up, and it fits well.

 

Everything is now drying and I'll be back on its case tomorrow.

 

I'm very impressed indeed with the model so far.

 

 

 

Here's the white metal parts. They look like good to me.

 

[TonyW]

Nothing got done on the Savage today but the final hour or so in the shed yesterday was productive.

 

 

I opened up the crew access door as I like the idea of an open door and ladder in place. Various vents around the engines, along with the exhaust stubs have been drilled out and opened up and a bit of black added to the innards.

Wing tanks are on now. A touch of filler is needed here but nothing to moan about.

The jet tailpipe has been fitted to one side of the fuselage. There will be work needed to blend things in once the fuselage is closed up.

 

I've also printed up a ton of pictures from the web and links supplied by Pete and Tommy and I'll be referring to them constantly as work progresses.

 

The cockpit and crew areas are next in line for a bit of attention.

[dnl42]

Nice work on this! 

 

On 3/24/2021 at 12:17 PM, TonyW said:

Not much more than ten minutes later I was back at the bench for a bit of finish sanding. It didn't so much sand the surplus away as melt it. The belt is a bit old and knackered now but it still did the job at a fair rate of knots.

Yoiks! 😱 Perhaps it's a Good Thing(TM) the belt was old and knackered. 

Regardless, you have a deft hand with a belt sander.

[Tailspin Turtle]

On 3/25/2021 at 8:39 AM, TonyW said:

 

Here's the white metal parts. They look like good to me.

 

The props should taper continuously down from a tip that is not quite as broad. See

[TonyW]

Thanks Tommy, a perfect reference picture.

 

The plane certainly dominates that carrier deck!

[TonyW]

I've had a think about the assembly process on this one. Everything feels very lightweight and less than robust.

I've beefed up the wing structure by boxing a solid brass tube into the span with some strips of plastic card. Then I added the engine pods and inner underwing sections. I wanted the whole lot as rigid as I could get it as I intend cutting out the undercarriage doors and building slot in boxes for the UC legs. So far so good.

 

 

The fuselage to wing joint, along with all the underside joins, is a bit gappy but sortable. I've filled the nose with airgun pellets and with something of a balancing act, dangled the props in place and everything tips in the right direction.

 

Checking the fuselage against the kit plans see's a bit of top fin discrepancy. Kit or plan? The Wikipedia entry mentions the fin being extended on later versions so I think following the plan is my course of action here and a small fillet getting added to the fin tip.

 

 

More later.

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Tony, I hadn't appreciated the size until I saw the reference picture from @Tailspin Turtle a couple of internal bulkheads might stiffen things up, dont forget the nose weight  !

Cheers Pat 

[TonyW]

There's two kit provided bulkheads yet to be fitted Pat. I think those two, plus  a couple for luck should do. Then there's whatever I add to the cockpit area to further stiffen the fuselage.

[Tailspin Turtle]

1 hour ago, TonyW said:

I've had a think about the assembly process on this one. Everything feels very lightweight and less than robust.

I've beefed up the wing structure by boxing a solid brass tube into the span with some strips of plastic card. Then I added the engine pods and inner underwing sections. I wanted the whole lot as rigid as I could get it as I intend cutting out the undercarriage doors and building slot in boxes for the UC legs. So far so good.

 

 

The fuselage to wing joint, along with all the underside joins, is a bit gappy but sortable. I've filled the nose with airgun pellets and with something of a balancing act, dangled the props in place and everything tips in the right direction.

 

Checking the fuselage against the kit plans see's a bit of top fin discrepancy. Kit or plan? The Wikipedia entry mentions the fin being extended on later versions so I think following the plan is my course of action here and a small fillet getting added to the fin tip.

 

 

More later.

 

The AJ-2 vertical fin (empennage with no dihedral in the horizontal stabilizer, narrow chord rudder) was a foot taller than the AJ-1’s. However, I’ve never checked Gordon’s drawing against pretty good North American drawings. Those three-view in the kit is similar to those that were created for a couple of different British publications and while they look good, they are not without error.

[TonyW]

The provided plans don't match the actual plastic in quite a few instances Tommy. I'll add a few overlay pictures later. 

I suspect I'll be taping the airframe together and seeing how it looks against the pictures of the real thing. I'll attempt to rectify anything too glaring, but if it looks right, it is right.

 

The way this one is going together makes me want to have a go at another of Gordons efforts.

I have a builder KC 97 Stratocruiser that's been in the loft for far too long now. It might be time to do something about building the thing. Best I finish the Savage first though.

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

Tony: No pressure, but I've put a link to your build in my latest AJ Savage post: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2021/03/north-american-aj-savage-model-kits.html

[Mjwomack]

I rather like this, it looks like it has every intention of living up to it's name and being Savage! I think a carrier based plane has to have a good does of swagger and attitude about it.