1/72 Rareplanes AJ-2P Detachment Queen

[UberDaveToo]

I've made an entry into a Korean War group build on the sister site Hyperscale 1/72 scale forum, typical for me, going with the much too obvious is out of the picture.

 

My plan for this one is to go with the family connection to the AJ Savage. My dad wound up in a Heavy Attack unit by first becoming an ordnance tech on ADs off the Korean coast during the war, in a convoluted way, he was sent to avionics school to end up in the Heavy Attack community.

 

 

Dad's the guy without the hat holding the sextant. They're on the compass rose at NAS Sanford Florida, circa 1955-6. Dad's squadron, VAH-9 Hoot Owls got reworked AJ-1's, brought up to -2 standards and identified by the single piece nose gear door. North American approximately 138 AJ's, 55 -1s, 30 -2Ps and 53 -2s. As noted, the 55 -1s made for a total of 107 -2s, and 31 -2Ps. (Speaking of rare planes)

 

 

I have the Steve Ginter reference book.

 

 

Page 64 notes Detachment Queen, a pair of specially equipped AJ-2Ps with a single photo of one of the planes. Obviously, flying relatively slow AJ Savages into MiG infested North Korean or Chinese airspace was a daunting task.

I had a plan to make all the different AJs and found a few of the Rareplanes -2/-2P kits on eBay and snagged them for the project.

 

 

The Roden kit is nice, I've bought a couple. but there's a lot of slicing and dicing that would be required for a dash 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have two complete kits like this, personally I think it wouldn't be too tough for Roden to upgrade their dash 1 to a dash 2, but I've grown cobwebs waiting for that. With only a single photo to go by, there's likely to be a bit of conjecture and educated guess work, if anyone knows of other reference that might have surfaced on Det Queen AJ-2P, I'd like to know.

 

So here's my dual entry... 

[JOCKNEY]

Delighted to see a Rareplanes kit joining the GB especially with the family connection.

 

Best of luck with this one 

 

Cheers Pat

[UberDaveToo]

 

 

 

Well, I've taken Sharpie to plastic, and scored with a sharp blade, the easy part of vacuform kits.

 

 

I pieced the upper wing together with the fuselage halves for a look-see.
 

 

There's a few more parts to pop loose, after that, a lot of judicious grinding of excess plastic. There's a spare canopy too, a nice touch. I toyed with white metal  parts, lots of flash on them, but the white metal is very soft and easy to clean up. One of the prop blades was a bent a little and I tweaked it back easily, I'd cut them loose from the sealed bag they were in and put them in Ziplocs for safe keeping.

Flying the not so friendly skies of North Korea (an maybe a bit beyond the Yalu as well!)

 

 

This is the goal, I think it'll be an interesting look for this rare plane...

 

Dave

Edited July 4 by UberDaveToo

[AdrianMF]

Super choice Dave, love the family connection too. 
 

Regards,

Adrian

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im a sucker for an oddball aircraft with a family connection. So I will be following along. 

[Mjwomack]

3 hours ago, UberDaveToo said:

This is the goal, I think it'll be an interesting look for this rare plane...

 

beat me to it! A Rarelanes, rare plane. And like many others love it for the family connection alone; I identify with that because the only Spitfires I build are Mk22 for 73 squadron because my dad worked on them.

 

Quite a pace to start this model off at- first to the gallery maybe?

[2996 Victor]

Excellent choice, Dave, and the family connection adds an extra dimension as well. Very much looking forward to watching this one come together.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[UberDaveToo]

I got a few questions on Hyperscale that I answered. Since the part I'm going through now is the joy of breaking the parts loose and mundane scrubbing of various parts, I thought I'd post them here to entertain while I delve into the joy of vacuform.

 

One thing about the AJ, my dad told me the Navy still allowed enlisted pilots and he applied for flight school, but he couldn't pass the eye exam. A friend of his became an enlisted B/N and began flying regularly. One day his plane failed to return, after looking about a week, bits and pieces of it were found at the bottom of a lake about 100 miles north of Sanford, where AJ crews practiced low level flying. It turned out that the J33 engine had developed a fuel leak. Rather than put in a separate tank for jet fuel, N/A just tuned the jet to burn 115/145 high octane Avgas, when the Navy finally got a grip on the problem, they'd lost a few AJs to it.

 

I've been waiting impatiently for Roden to follow up their AJ-1, and growing cobwebs in the process. The dash one's rather squirrely landing characteristics and poor inflight stability was the reason they added strakes and a dihedral to the empennage, but it still wasn't enough. Every AJ kit I've ever seen has goofs. Years ago I built the Collect Aire kit for my dad, it came with dash two parts, but both vertical stabs were short tails. I had to cut and rebuild it much like North American did or the rudder would have been trapped by the elevators. 

 

 

The XAJ-1 was designed with a clear, sliding bubble canopy. The seating arrangement was different than the dash two and it had a fighter type control stick. The AJ-2P changed all that, The dash one got reinforcing framing on the canopy but it was still sliding, the dash two got real structural framing with sliding side and upper windows, and navigator's sextant window in the upper right of the canopy. The seating arrangement was changed to move the third crew member's directly behind the pilot seat  facing aft.

The Rareplanes kit has dash one seating, and includes only one part of the two piece nose gear doors. I've decided to swipe parts of the hated Mach 2 kit, for all it's faults, and there are many, they got the dash two seating arrangement right...

[UberDaveToo]

A little more:

 

 

 

My dad may well be one of the guys in yellow sticking his head out of the canopy hatch...

[UberDaveToo]

 

 

Cuttin' Up

 

 

I finally got the major vacuform parts cut away and trimmed to fit.

 

 

Here they all are taped together (mostly) to check the fit.

 

 

The canopy came out very nice after dunking.

 

 

Bottoms up.

 

 

All the parts separated. The fins on the tip tanks were molded on, but they were easily broken when removed from the sheet, and they were pretty thick. It's best to replace them with something thinner. Next up, cleaning up the white metal parts...

Dave

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, UberDaveToo said:

 

 

Cuttin' Up

 

 

I finally got the major vacuform parts cut away and trimmed to fit.

 

 

Here they all are taped together (mostly) to check the fit.

 

 

The canopy came out very nice after dunking.

 

 

Bottoms up.

 

 

All the parts separated. The fins on the tip tanks were molded on, but they were easily broken when removed from the sheet, and they were pretty thick. It's best to replace them with something thinner. Next up, cleaning up the white metal parts...

Dave

Great looking work do far. Are you planning on doing a cockpit for this, or will it be a black hole affair ? 

[UberDaveToo]

9 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Great looking work do far. Are you planning on doing a cockpit for this, or will it be a black hole affair ? 

I plan on building up the cockpit using the parts from the Mach 2 kit, for all its warts (and there are plenty) they got the dash two seats and seating arrangement right...

[UberDaveToo]

A Minor Conundrum.

 

 

While doing a bit of research on the AJ I found this at Tommy Thomason's Tailhook Topics blog page, downloaded and printed it.

 

 

I checked the Roden fuselage against it, it fits nearly perfectly, at least where it ought to.

 

 

But so does the Mach 2 fuselage, which is supposed to be a dash two.

 

 

And not to mention the kit I'm working on, also billed as a dash two. It's a touch of dé·jà vu, I've been though this before some other place, somewhere, some other time. I'll have to put on my engineer's hat and fix it like the North American guys did roughly 70 years ago...

Dave

[Mjwomack]

12 hours ago, UberDaveToo said:

A Minor Conundrum.

 

You've got better manners than me- I'd have used another phrase (maybe you did in your head).

[UberDaveToo]

26 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

You've got better manners than me- I'd have used another phrase (maybe you did in your head).

My dad insisted on teaching my brothers and me southern manners, in our brief stay in Duluth MN, my brother Mike came home and told my dad he didn't have to say ma'am or sir to adults anymore, when asked where he got this idea, he said his teachers had told him. Dad made a visit to the school and informed them that their job was to teach Mike the three 'Rs," not to undo his home training. Dad had a unique talent for dressing down a person and making them feel about one foot tall without using a single off color word.

 

On the other hand, I was a USAF crew chief, we invented variations of the F-bomb, just for emphasis...

[UberDaveToo]

 

 

Pressing on regardless. A Touch More Progress: Found out the prop blades were much too wide. The one on the left has been corrected, one to go.

 

 

Made and attempt at better exhaust pipes.

 

 

I've begun cutting camera ports. Gotta few left to go.

 

 

I grafted on on the Mach 2 engine section, it has more refined ducting and vents/scoops.

 

 

I swiped the bomb bay parts from a Roden kit, it'll need a few more refinements and a center bulkhead.

 

 

My Monogram RB-36 kit donated a couple of racks of photo-flash bombs.

 

 

The grafting of the jet section is a bit rough...

 

 

...Especially this side. What's the old saying? "Measure once, cuss twice?" Oh well, that's what putty is for.

 

 

The interior is also lifted from the Mach 2 kit, the canopy is a kind of mishmash of dash one framing and early dash two. It'll pass for a Korean War AJ-2P!

Hopefully more soon

Dave

[UberDaveToo]

Sneak Peek of Coming Attractions

 

 

I've been working on stuff like the AJ-2P's half a bomb bay...

 

 

...I figured since it's open in the photo, I'd try it on the model.

 

 

 

 

Note that I've completed most of the structure work on the starboard side, the port is left to go. The tricky part will be make them match, "sweet symmetry." I've been working the camera ports as well, along with the cockpit. I'm focusing on what must be done in order to close the fuselage.

More to come...

Dave

[Mjwomack]

SO very glad to see that this has rejoined the formation- I was worried that the Detachment Queen had become a Hanger Queen

[UberDaveToo]

44 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

SO very glad to see that this has rejoined the formation- I was worried that the Detachment Queen had become a Hanger Queen

 

I suspected that was the case I've been working out various issues with the kit and last month was my brother's birth month and I lost about a week celebrating with a couple of bottles of Scotch and a few pints of Chimay Belgian Ale, I've learned not to try modeling under the influence. Anyway, I'm getting close to being able to assemble the fuselage, which will be a huge step toward the finish line...

[UberDaveToo]

Creative Gizmology:

 

That's a phrase I learned from a model club member who taught it to me late last century.

 

 

It's meant to describe adding just enough detail to make people say "wow" when they look at your finished project...

 

 

.But not so much that you'd never complete it.

 

 

Maybe I came kinda close.

 

 

I've managed to box in one out of seven camera ports and fashion a camera lens. Only six more to go.

 

 

It looks the part.

 

 

I've pieced a few parts together to upsize the tail. It'll take a bit of putty and sanding will be required.

 

 

 

 

I've rediscovered a PE set I bought for some vents I used on my Vigilante project the set was for a Super-Étendard kit that has three seat harness sets. They'll work fine here under glass.

 

 

Once I get the picky details done, assembly should go quickly.

 

 

I glued a 5 thousandth sheet plastic stiffener between the two tip-tank halves, and trimmed it match a seam on the real thing, leaving a slot that allowed me to trace and cut fins that are the proper shape and size. Then I just slip the fins into the slot. 
 
Now I will go back into hiding until more work worthy of note...

Dave

[Mjwomack]

4 minutes ago, UberDaveToo said:

Creative Gizmology:

 

That's a phrase I learned from a model club member who taught it to me late last century.

 

 

1995? Now we have a classic phrase for a classics GB🏆

 

5 minutes ago, UberDaveToo said:

I've managed to box in one out of seven camera ports and fashion a camera lens. Only six more to go.

 

But picture perfect 

 

6 minutes ago, UberDaveToo said:

Now I will go back into hiding until more work worthy of note...

In about an hour then given your level of work

[UberDaveToo]

Closing Closer to Closure

 

 

A minor update, I've begun painting the bomb bay and cockpit. The area forward of the bomb bay, it's a bit hard to tell, but according to US Navy paint regulations it was painted in WWII era interior green. The access door was painted gloss white though. Due to trying to scratch build the bomb bay, I had to backtrack by repainting it with the hairy stick method, using Testors enamel to avoid goofing up the freshly sprayed white, and I could clean up errors with a cotton swab soaked in enamel thinner. If you squint and look close, you can see a hint of green and the ghost of the white door. I got one rack of photo-flash bombs cemented in place too, it'll hide what shadows don't anyway.
 

 

 

I tried a different angle, it's dark as a cave.

 

 

I did get two more camera ports boxed in though.

 

 

They'll need a touch of filler.

 

 

 

I went with neutral grey for the overall standard dark grey. Hopefully I can start sealing it up next weekend...


Dave

[2996 Victor]

Superb, Dave, your attention to detail is really paying off with those interior areas! 

 

Looking forward to seeing your next update. 

 

Cheers, 

Mark

[UberDaveToo]

 

Mini Update

 

I've painted and weathered the seats and and added some masking tape seat belts to one of the seats. I've cemented the pilot's control yoke, the dash two replaced the dash one's fighter pilot joy stick with the more conventional wheel. The yoke is another Mach 2 part, that kit provides two of them, but the Savage had no co-pilot, the right seat was for the Bombardier/Navigator, or in this case, Photo/Navigator. Just a few more goodies to add. I can slide in the instrument panels after I've closed the fuselage...

More to come...

Dave

[UberDaveToo]

Get'n it Together

 

 

Did you know that today is national fit check day?

 

 

Fit check good! I filled the Mach 2 nose with lead shot and white glue, and hacked the Rareplanes nose off to fit it in place. It had a major sink hole in the tip of the nose that I'd already done some surgery to with Milliput and a bit of sandpaper sculpting. It looks better and it was much easier to fill that way. Plus I won't have to deal with a centerline seam.

 

 

I finished the tedious job of applying masking tape seat belts to the seats and they will seen fairly well through the canopy.

 

 

The chin scoop for oil cooling was a might easier to refine than the Rareplane parts would have been, there's a center post there that Mach 2 molded about 5 times too thick that I've trimmed down to  size. There's a small pitot tube thing to mount on it, I'm guessing it's a temperature sensor for an anti-icing system.

 

 

I've done a good job recreating the unique sugar scoop exhaust pipes on the starboard side nacelle, It took about six tries to get it right, I used plastic tubing and a butane pencil torch to soften the tubing in order to create curves and hacked away for a correct shape. Now just once more, as the character Monk from the hit show of the same name proclaimed "symmetry, sweet symmetry." 

 

 

I still have to scratch build some more cameras but everything else is ready to go. Then fun with assembly!

More to come...

Dave