Wings of Intent: Grumman J2F-6 Duck - Civil conversion of the old Airfix 1/72nd kit

(Photo from the SDASM Flickr photostream. But not the civil plane I will be doing)

(The completed model can be visited here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/02/civil-grumman-duck-172nd-airfix-ready.html

Airfix's Ugly Duckling

And now for a bit of light-hearted modeling fun.

If some Heller kits are a pleasure to build even after decades of being produced, the exact opposite can be said of some Airfix kits.

One of these is Airfix's Grumman Duck, a 1968 paradigm of over-riveting, plus a bit chunky, dubious fit, and a couple of incomprehensible detail molding solutions, plus the dreaded half-crew member that scared so many children into having eating their vegetables.

(Some of you may be thinking that I went off the rails with this choice, but rest assured, I will be converting it, as usual, into a peaceful civil plane).

This is a strangely beautiful plane, and Pavla/Octopus (that released the same type as Airfix) and Valom (that released the J2F-3) have taken notice and produced their own kits, needless to say much better than this old -but in no way venerable- rendition. So why choose this kit? Heaven knows! it was just there, and contrasted so much in quality with the recently-built Heller Caudron Simoun (from 1978), that I couldn't resist, as whatever you do, you are almost guaranteed to end up with a better model than the kit your started with could have provided, if left to its own devices.

But, dear fellow modeler and aviation enthusiast, it's not at all my intention to go berserk and correct everything that is not good with this kit, which would be a life-long endeavor, but just to improve things a bit and create a fair replica a bit above the baseline.

So here they are the Airfix molds in all their prickliness. The fuselage halves can be used as a file, sanding tool, exfoliating massage instrument, or simply to induce fear in rebellious children.

Washy-washy, cleany-cleany:

The locating holes for the boombas are plugged. Strangely, one is much larger than the other three:

One of the pilots has apparently suffered a terrible accident:

The famous curved strut, like the proverbial tree, it will bend but not brake. Well, it will surely brake when you try to set it right:

Cleaning the parts from flash and other molding excrescences:

Instead of providing a comfortable insert with the louvers molded in, Airfix kindly let you deal with the almost impossibility task of doing a neat job on those multiple seams. A genius was at the wheel!

The whole thing is drilled. A part will be later fabricated to insert there, made of metal tube and styrene sheet louvers:

This part bridges a void in the wheel bay. If you glue it as it naturally fits, it will not match the other half and won't allow for a good fit. Glue it and temporarily join the halves with tape to self-align that part as the glue sets:

There is not much regarding aftermarket products for this kit, there is an instrument panel, but I could not get one as it seems unavailable:

There is also a very old set from Falcon (Canopy Set #1, US Navy WW2) that includes a vac canopy for the Airfix kit. Not available.

The kit's inst. pan. is a poor rendition, so I think I will substitute it contriving something.

The replacement oil cooler air intake is being made. This should have been provided as an insert:

The cowl had a little beveling, but not nearly enough, so the trailing edge is further thinned down:

The complexity of the real interior is rendered by Airfix in a much simpler version. I added a thing or two, but not much, as the transparencies are quite poor. As this was converted to civil use, all bonga-bonga parts were discarded and a couple of things changed. Work on the instrument panel is being done separately:

A few more parts are painted, the exhaust "mustache" ends are hollowed. Most of the interior is in place. I made the "cabin" windows with clear styrene, better than the kit's transparencies:

The fit of the fuselage halves is poor, and had to be coerced in place by clamps. Even so, there are plenty of opportunities to use putty and exercise those muscles while vigorously sanding:

If you don't want to go through the hassle of making that replacement oil cooler part, here is something much easier. And who knows, you may find a use for the other 115 left over parts:

That you can buy here:

h ttps://newtype.us/p/z0FA8d4Zzxgre11Qp9e7/h/aw-075-photo-etch-thruster-nozzles

The plane I am representing didn't have a hook or its support:

Ready for some puttying and sanding:

I decided not to replace the engine (I have Aeroclub and Engines & Things potential replacements), as those, if a bit better, didn't merit the additional work, and especially because I believe it's better to keep things matched, as in what good would be a superb aftermarket engine if the kit surface is what it is, and the general detail is sparse? So the detail is kept leveled, in a way. As explained at the beginning, the intention is to improve things enough to produce a fair model, considering what we start with:

The holes for the rigging are drilled:

The hole for the hook is plugged. The horizontal tail is glued (so far the only parts with a good fit):

Once the little struts are glued in place on the floats (the fit is again poor), and with the glue still wet, they are positioned in place on the wing (but not yet glued to it) and are let them there in position until the glue on the floats sets. That will guarantee a good fit:

Airfix missed two little fairings that complete the closing of the wheel wells. They are fabricated as with these is easier to locate the two twin small frames that connect to the wheel:

Ready for the first coat of primer. You can see metal airfoiled material that will substitute the kit's tail struts, and an extra antenna this particular plane had. Some pips on the wing that represented short antenna masts were removed:

Two inst. panels from the spares bin were combined to provide a more credible result:

Primed:

Home-made decals:

And the little domes seen on the float (inspection lids) made of punched alu discs, domed, and pricked:

There were landing lights under the wings in this type, so space for them is carved, and home-made lenses will be added:

The cabane struts are glued in position. The are measured so they coincide with the locating holes in the fuselage. Their sort of prominent bases are actually visible on the real plane, so just a bit of putty is necessary:

Ready for the base color (white in this case):

Some details:

The general color of the plane is white, and so all parts air airbrushed with gloss enamel:

Friend and fellow modeler Michael Derderian kindly sent a vacuformed canopy, part of a Falcon set. Thanks Mike!:

Do not be misguided into thinking that those are thick frames, they are actually dividers that have to be removed, as you are provided with four separate sections in case you want to present the canopy retracted:

After masking the anti-glare area is painted:

Unfortunately the Falcon canopy was a very bad fit. Once the sections were cut, no matter what I did, the fit wouldn't be good. I clarify that I have used vac canopies dozens of times before, and many times even made my own. I will be using the kit's canopy, which at least is a good fit, combined with one or two sections of the Falcon item, if I can. What a bummer:

White color masked and blue applied:

Unmasked:

The tail struts, engine and canopy are installed, as well as the main leg of the landing gear. Airfix approached the complex landing gear in a way that leaves much to be desired, hence you will have to struggle a little to install it. It's uncomfortable, imprecise, and not very clever: