Warwolf Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Hi all, With the Airfix Me-410 on hold whilst I wait for a delivery, I thought I'd crack open a quick, small project of an aircraft I love. Living very close to RAF Fairford, I've seen plenty of the current U-2S airframes fly in and out and so finally I'm building one - albeit, the earliest version. HobbyBoss released their 1:72 U-2A in 2021 with the U-2C following in 2022. The cockpit is straight forward with a fairly detailed multi-part ejection seat, however, I did add some left over Eduard SuperFabric seatbelts. They may not be 100% accurate but I plan on closing the cockpit and so very little will be seen from the inside. For this reason, I also wasn't too bothered by the lack of cockpit side wall decals. You get a main instrument panel decal, albeit basic, but nothing for the sides. Again, it will be closed up and not seen. All sub assemblies I could possibly do were carried out on the fuselage halves. This included the very good fitting engine intakes, closing the speed brakes and inserting the wheel wells. None were painted at this time apart from primer to help future processes. That's all for now, I'll do another update soon. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejay53 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I built this a few months ago. It was a fairly quick build for me. I removed the sensor pod from the wing, since I couldn’t verify that it was used on this version. I also found the pogo wheels to be too long, so I had to sand a bit l fit, sand some more, etc. All in all, an interesting build. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kekelekou Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 On 1/24/2024 at 2:04 AM, Bejay53 said: I removed the sensor pod from the wing, since I couldn’t verify that it was used on this version. You did well! No fuel dump pipes nor System 20 housing on the trailing edges for U-2A. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Looking good, I have the old Airfix kit on the Shelf of Doom, awaiting my making my mind up as to which scheme! Maybe, you just spurred me on... Colin the Wessex nut. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 Another U-2A update! The wings were made up of 4 parts. One top piece, one bottom insert and two other filler pieces. These "filler" pieces are about a third of the way along the wing from the fuselage and fill a gap where the later U-2C boxing would have it's smaller wing tanks fitted. Small amounts of filler were needed just to make the gaps between the main wing joins slightly smaller but nothing major as the fit was very good. The same goes for the vertical stabiliser regarding the fit and filler as per the wing. Once the cockpit assembly was glued to one fuselage side, both halves were then buttoned up for good. The fit here was also very good but I did find it needed some gentle sanding just to smooth out the seams completely - no one likes a seam line! Once sorted, the elevators were fitted with the tail placed above. This was all a very sturdy fit with no issues at all! The final photo here, taken before the fuselage halves were joined, shows a quick mock up of the build once fully together. Regarding the sensor pod on the wing, sadly, by the time I'd see the responses, I had already put the silver down and was not about to go back! It won't be the most accurate U-2A because of this, but I have the 48th AFV Club kit to build one day which I'll pay more attention to. This is just a quick mojo lifting build. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejay53 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) I did mine for the same reason…a build block. I just couldn’t get myself to get into a complicated build. So…out of box (sort of ;)) it was. In order to not hijack this thread, I posted some images of my build over in “Ready for inspection “. Same S/N, just in the high vis orange (because why not?). Edited January 27 by Bejay53 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 2 hours ago, Bejay53 said: I did mine for the same reason…a build block. I just couldn’t get myself to get into a complicated build. So…out of box (sort of ;)) it was. In order to not hijack this thread, I posted some images of my build over in “Ready for inspection “. Same S/N, just in the high vis orange (because why not?). Just seen - nice one! That will be the scheme I do the 48th AFV Club kit in as I plan to have that plus the HobbyBoss U-2S (when it is released, I have the R but the S is the most up to date version) so that I can have them side by side... first and last(?)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Hi all, A Sunday evening update on the U-2A. The main construction is complete. The fit was mostly good but it did need a small amount of filler in the wing root joint to the fuselage. The canopy was primed and was a tight enough fit to be able to be used as its own cockpit mask. Mr.Surfacer 1500 black was used as the primer which surfaced some problem areas. These areas only needed a small amount of sanding and the odd bit of super glue to fill in some small blemishes. Once sorted, it was re-primed. Looking at a the few reference pictures available of 66701, it shows that the rudder, air intakes and fuselage just behind the canopy were a slightly lighter tone of silver. To do this, I just used some Tamiya light grey on these areas so when the silver goes down, these areas will be slightly lighter in tone. More to follow soon. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_alfisti_ Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Nice work on your Dragon Lady👍. I built the U-2c a few month ago and had fun with this little kit. I´m looking forward to the silver finish, suits this beautiful aircraft as good as the black livery. Daniel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 9 hours ago, _alfisti_ said: Nice work on your Dragon Lady👍. I built the U-2c a few month ago and had fun with this little kit. I´m looking forward to the silver finish, suits this beautiful aircraft as good as the black livery. Daniel It's a good little kit and a real mojo booster. I'm tempted to get the C as well to have side by side. She is now complete but I'll update in stages so all the steps are covered! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Looking good... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 Hi all, The last update before the final reveal! Having found my Alclad High Speed Silver was running low as I went to paint this, I thought I'd give The Scale Modellers Supply (SMS) Metallic Super Silver a go as I had a bottle in the box. First impressions are very good. This is a very robust paint and went through the airbrush with no issues. I was able to layer the silver up to make sure the grey showed through to lighten those areas up just aft of the cockpit, air intakes and rudder. It took about 4 or 5 light passes to build up a nicely even layer of paint that I was happy with. What was also very satisfying was that after about 24 hours of drying, I was able to safely use masking tape over the top of the paint job without fear of it lifting the paint. This is probably more down to the primer job, but it does show that the SMS Metals seem to be sturdy enough to withstand masking tape over the top, which I know other brands struggle with. The black areas on the nose were also masked off and sprayed with Tamiya XF-85 and the canopy was removed and sprayed separately with Tamiya XF-2. Decals next and that'll be that - keep an eye out for the final reveal photos very soon! Side note - Photographing NMF aircraft is difficult to get right! https://www.facebook.com/jamesbuildsandmore 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GStreet Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Great job so far. Excited to see where this is going. One of my favorite planes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Just caught up with this build..... just as you finish! I am also building one of these early 'articles' as they were known. I decided to remove the trailing edge sensor as it wasn't on the early versions, the problem with it's removal is to keep the trailing edge straight, ask me how I know. The trouble with looking at photos of these secret aircraft was they were always being updated so It's difficult to get an accurate reference point. I'm tempted to do the matt black finish, though looking at photos of the Gary Powers wreckage it clearly shows that aircraft was finished in very dark blue. And thanks go to @kekelekoufor the information about also removing the fuel dump pipes while I have the sanding sticks out. Bob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejay53 Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Beautiful finish! Looks wonderful. This kit is a nice change of pace. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 Hi all, The HobbyBoss 1:72 U-2A is complete! This was a nice quick, mojo boosting build that has come out a treat. The build itself was simple with little issues. I liked the build so much, I went and purchased the U-2C at a recent model show to put alongside it one day. The kit was finished in The Scale Modellers Supply 'Metallic Super Silver' and clear coated with Alclad Aqua Gloss to keep the shine. The decals went down beautifully with no issues, including the massive wing walk way decals, conforming to all details perfectly. I fully recommend this kit to any skill of modeller of this very unique aircraft. Like the Me-410, if you'd like to see more images, let me know and I can post more in the future. See you all again soon! Long live the U-2! 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Gorgeous!!! I’m tempted now to pull mine out of the stash . . . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 On 17/02/2024 at 00:36, billn53 said: Gorgeous!!! I’m tempted now to pull mine out of the stash . . . Do it! It's a brilliant little kit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Brilliant results! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwolf Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 13 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Brilliant results! Thank you! It's a lovely kit to build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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