Big and Bright Trainers Project in 1/72 - SF-260 for Italy, Chipmunk for Canada, Twogar and Buckeye for the US Navy!

[Dennis_C]

Hi Everyone,

 

This dull November time needs some colour on the table. And what could be better then a nice trainer airplane on bench? Couple trainers? Three trainers? I thought I'd go for four!!!

 

 

Assortment of freshly released kits and some issued several years back. Three of four are české krabice and the last is Wolfpack from Korea. Two are going to be white-orange USN (USMC?) fast and beautiful jets, two are propeller driven yellow and orange little cuties.

 

So some work to be done!!!!

 

More to come!

Dennis

Edited December 24, 2021 by Dennis_C

[billn53]

I’m looking forward to this, especially the Marchetti SF-260. I have a few hours in my logbook flying that plane with Air Combat USA. 

 

[Dennis_C]

I thought I'd be starting with two jets

A nice reference book on US trainers is also here

These two seem to be a bit more complex especially the Sword product - always full of surprises on the way. So let Cougar be the first!

[Dennis_C]

Okay, what's inside?

I already removed major parts off the sprues as well as anything going inside.

At first glance, parts are molded with quite good level of details. Main parts look to fit each other okay.

 

Inserts for gear bays are not too bad. The front bay was a three part assembly which I hastily put together. Some details are provided there. The main gear bays would be only partially opened so part of the insert is blank. I will look up for references to figure out what pipes or cable could be added there.

 

Intakes are quite deep so although no compressor face is provided I think the look would be fairly realistic. Exhaust is a simple pipe with rear engine face nicely done.

 

Cockpit. There are no decals or anything for the instrument panels, but I think these should look fine after careful painting. Side panels are also pretty detailed. Ejection seats are the only resin parts supplied in the kit. Unfortunately no molded harness, no p/e or decals. Still these MB mk.5 chairs are so widespread that the aftermarket solution was found: 

 

 

Good pe frets that might be reused for other projects someday.

 

Also on the above picture there is another aftermarket set that I purchased. The caracal decal set!

 

 

The first sheet is the Sword's decal, the two below are for Caracal. Several nice options for multiple Navy squadrons are available. And these are more interesting than the kit's options.  

 

Transparencies.

Good. Little distortion, some polishing needed. Small parts are provided for landing and navigation lights but I suspect that easier would be doing these from clear sprue.

 

Lastly some bits still stay on the sprues:

Wheels, undercarriage, stabilizers, etc.

Look decent for Sword's shortruns. I saw worse cases. 

 

So overall that's where I am. Some dryfitting needed for cockpit and gear bays plus maybe some scratched details before I turn this to paint interior. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis 

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Fly Navy, Dennis!  Fast-mover pilots from both the Navy and USMC flew these trainers before graduating (in many cases) to the TA-4.  The T-2 was for many years the only Navy jet trainer certified for spin-recovery training.  Red and white paint will test your skills!  Looking forward to this.

[Dennis_C]

Hi All,

 

Some update with the Twogar. 

Firstly an array of parts is off the sprues, sanded and partially subassembled. 

 

 

All of this is going to be painted soon.

I guess interiors are neutral interior grey, instrument panels are black, intakes look to be white inside. White for undercarriage struts too.

Not sure what is the right colour for the gear bays. Instruction says "light grey", photoes seem to be white (dirty white in the shade that can be described as light grey). Usually Navy birds had white gear bays so I'm including towards white.

 

Some dry fit shots:

Seems generally good job from Sword. All jumps in so far.

 

There are openings in the lower wing side which were blocked with excessive plastic. So I cut these through. 

 

That's it. Buckeye is coming soon. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis.

[Dennis_C]

Okay, folks

 

 

Yesterday night I unpacked this. What I have - the kit itself, pe set with interior and exterior elements and resin wheels. 

 

 

Box contents. Two sprues of plastic parts, one sprue with transparencies, a decal sheet. Molds quality seems to be very okay. Some parts have a little flash or some softy areas but overall impression is very convincing. 

Transparencies are transparent  and no distortion.  Good!

Guide and decal sheet. Instructions are very well printed. Glossy paper, very large and clear drawings. And additionally some reference photoes as a nice touch. Excellent!

Decal sheet is crisp and shiny. Cartograf product so no doubts quality wise

P/E set has two frets. The first is painted (mostly) and goes to the cockpit. Second is simpler and primarily contains parts for undercarriage. 

 

I did start cutting larger parts and dryfitting yesterday. So far so good. Very good fit, but some efforts would be needed to manage pe into gear bays and cockpit prior to painting everything.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis.

.  

[Dennis_C]

All right!

There has been some good progress with Buckeye this week. 

Some work done on cockpit:

Removed raised details for side instrument panels to add p/e later. Added photoetched pedals and some boxes in the corners behind the pilot seats. Also I assembled LS-1 ejection seats. These will receive a lot of painted photoetched parts later. I must say these LS-1 bang seats are unusually wide. And it looks like these were like that in reality too. Anyway it's always fun to do a non Martin-Baker ejection seat. Feels like a new micro project in itself. 

 

Okay. More work done in the undercarriage bays:

Here I was extensively using what Eduard provides in its photoetch set. 

No troubles glueing these to the gear bay sides. I would not say these too greatly improve the look of the gear bays, but still would make for a more lively appearance there.

 

There is some more job on undercarriage to be done and I should be ready with interiors for priming and painting. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited December 17, 2021 by Dennis_C

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Nice job on the plumbing in the landing gear bay.  Does that come with the Eduard set, or did you use thin brass wire?

[Dennis_C]

18 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Nice job on the plumbing in the landing gear bay.  Does that come with the Eduard set, or did you use thin brass wire?

Hi, that's in Eduard set. They give some plumbing for both gear bay and for undercarriage struts too. Some delicate work there!

Edited December 18, 2021 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

I still have couple elements to work on with Buckeye, but decided to unpack Chipmunk yesterday. 

 

 

Typical Czech kit box. Not enough glue to keep it together Inside you get one normal sprue and separately moulded wing. You also get a transparent canopy packaged separately, instruction sheet and a decal. 

 

Some close ups here:

 

 

There was a clear attempt to produce some elaborated details however the quality is not superior. Canopy is overly thick and distorting. Nothing unusual for AZ short run. 

 

Instruction and decal. 

 

 

Quite unusually AZ created same instruction for all Chipmunk kits. Mine does not contain resin nose or RAF type canopy. 

 

Decal has quite a few stencils. Not super legible though. Again stencil placement guide provides for all 4 boxings however decal sheet is only suitable for Canadian type Chipmunks.

 

The most notable error so far is the word "ARMESS". It should be spelled as ARMÉES. And that is repeated everywhere. On a decal, on the instruction, on the box pictures... Well. There is another CAF option so not a super big deal although yellow-orange scheme is more interesting. 

 

I did start to pull parts together yesterday. Fit is horrible. No short run challenge lovers will be disappointed! A lot of sanding, dry fitting, sanding, putty, sanding again is expected. That is okay for such a small airplane though. Ha ha. 

 

Okay, more pictures to come later. 

 

Cheers

Dennis

[TheyJammedKenny!]

11 hours ago, Dennis_C said:

ARMESS

What a bummer.  That sounds like someone's idea of a joke, which is a little juvenile, if so.  Good luck with this project!  It looks like a challenge!

[Dennis_C]

Okay. Last weekend I started priming assorted interior and some exterior parts for both Cougar and Buckeye. 

 

 

Quite a huge number of bits isn't it?

I'm not yet fully ready with all of the Buckeye parts as I'm still working on undercarriage legs adding photoetches there. 

 

Some more close ups:

 

More to come as I plan to add another white primer layer on those parts that would be painted white.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited December 30, 2021 by Dennis_C

[ianwau]

Re your Chipmunk - I have a recent release KP 1/72 Piper PA25 Pawnee for which your Chippie description also applies. It has a slightly less annoying typo on the decals - "Grop Culture"  (vs Crop Culture).  Suspect something simply gets lost in translation.  But at least we have kits of these unusual subjects!

[Dennis_C]

Ciao ragazzi!

The last of the four trainers unpacked yesterday. 

The recent Special Hobby kit of a tiny SIAI-Marchetti trainer turboprop. Classical side opening česka krabice, glued better than AZ one Inside you get 4 (!) sprues and a separate sprue with canopy. Of the four sprues one is with armament for the Irish version and one more is with variety of antennae. Also you get a decal sheet. No aftermarcket goodies so a pure OOB project this time. 

 

Let's have a closer look:

The B sprue is very crisply molded with abundance of small details. Instrument panels will be decorated with a decal so would look very comprehensive. 

 

Small sprues are also very crisp. Canopy is reasonably thin and does not distort too noticeably. 

Sprue A is on contrary a bit different. Much softer plastic, not at all very good details. On the lower wing some panel lines are completely lost!

 As you can see I already chopped main parts off and started dryfitting. The result is good. Fuselage content is very tightly packed. Cockpit floor has recesses for gear bays - and that actually perfectly fit! I also tried forward and rear cockpit walls and looks like they squeeze at place sharply. 9 out of 10 here to Special Hobby (10 only goes to Tamiya). 

 

Decal sheet is nice too. Colours are spot on. Some stencils are provided too. Seat belt decals are about 1:48 but perhaps I'll still use it. 

 

That's it so far. 

 

Cheers,

Dennis

[billn53]

I’m paying close attention to how you do the Marchetti, as I have this kit and did three flights in one with Air Combat USA. I don’t know if you’re planning to do any weathering, but if you are then here’s a photo I took showing the underside:

 

and another photo, just because 

 

 

- Bill

 

[Dennis_C]

3 minutes ago, billn53 said:

I don’t know if you’re planning to do any weathering, but if you are then here’s a photo I took showing the underside

Hi Bill, thanks for the photo! That's very useful as I typically try to reproduce stains in right places. 

[Dennis_C]

One more great point about the SH kit is the instruction. 

Cutaway cockpit views, clear attachment guides for undercarriage, wiring instruction!!! That's all you do not see very often. In fact that is what I call 21st century approach. 

Another thing I liked is optional propeller attachment. You can just glue it in, or you may make it rotating. Smart approach and even more - rotating airscrew on such small short run kit is a rare choice. Very nice!

 

Best regards,

Dennis

[Dennis_C]

Hi All,

 

As festivities are over, I'm getting back to the workbench.

Firstly, I completed all the outstanding bits of jet trainers and gave an extra white primer cover to everything that is going to be white. 

Look at these marvels:

I actually cut the front wheel molded together with the strut to give way for the resin replacement. This required a new wheel axe. All this photoetch is supplied in the Eduard fret and worked finely. 

 

Second action - I cut, sanded and preassembled some of the propeller trainers' interiors and minor exterior bits.

And already primed all that too. 

 

So next step is painting everything.

 

Best regards,

Dennis

Edited January 20, 2022 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Painting continues. I spent about two hours today with black colour. I used mix of Vallejo black and grey primers in fact to paint black parts and prime exhausts for further painting into gun metal. 

I know it's a bit hard to see black parts on black painted masking tape

 

I think I'll make some dedicated posts on each airplane over this week. 

[Dennis_C]

Hi everyone,

 

All right. I thought that the Little Italian is the easiest one to pull together so it is going through assembly shop right now. 

 

 

First picture - all prepainted parts are here. Instruction says interior is fully black including seats. Walkaround pictures of Italian SF.260 are showing mostly grey interiors, however photos of the prototype M.M.54436 from the final flight ceremony on 19/9/2009 actually confirm all black cockpit except for the instrument panel. 

 

Second picture shows instrument panel and seats with decals added. Seat belts are probably oversized for 1/72 but worked fine at last. Instrument panel decal is spot on. No problems with decals application. Seats are generously covered with future to ensure better decals adhesion and create smooth italian leather look  and differentiate from flat cockpit finish. 

 

Third shot is preassembled cockpit (fit is fine) and with weight added. Space was enough to squeeze three pieces of lead there which seems sufficient to ensure proper position on three wheels.

 

The last one is from yesterday late evening - fuselage closed! Front part is just inserted to ensure proper alignment. 

 

More will be coming on other airplanes.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited February 11, 2022 by Dennis_C