Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Discussion and the builds for the SMW 2011 CBK display.

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Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

This is one of those "I wanna build it 'cos it looks cool" kits. Also the CBK display is a great excuse to build something a little out of your usual area of expertise/interest. The kit has come out with at least two painted box covers and I believe has/is being re-release with new artwork. This fantastic picture of the ASR variant sweeping low across a choppy sea is the one that caught my eye though. I've read that this variant, converted from the J2F-6, was actually given the designation OA-12.

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A quick internet search will come up trumps with loads of useful pics and references so despite being a seemingly obscure second-line a/c there is stuff available. It's obviously a popular modelling subject with at least 3 other kits 1/72 and 1/48 available.

This is a very nice kit. Lots of surfaced detail and rivets (which I've toned down) and some delicately moulded parts that fit together well. In the cockpit area Airfix got the position for the nav/gunner wrong. Though it make sense for him to be facing backwards he actually sat facing forwards at the rear of the space. The seat would fold up to allow him to operate the gun. The seating position is correctly depicted in the box art :grin: It also seems he may have had an additional stick, possibly to give the pilot a break on long flights.

As the two figures will be squeezed into the plane there wasn't a lot to do to the cockpit. The edges were thinned, I then drew some ribs on with pencil and painted on a few leavers. I also opened up the oil cooler intake below the engine as the moulded vanes here were never going to match up. The raised lip is also spurious and was sanded off. A drinking straw was used to extend the intake.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by Saxon »

I have one of these that I have wanted to build for a while, it's a unique looking plane, looks good in the red too.
MerlinJones

Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by MerlinJones »

This is another of the Airfix gems. Note, however, that the boxart differs from the actual painting instructions. ;-)

http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic. ... 26&start=0;

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

Cheers Bruce, build read and duly noted.

Just a quick progress update. Fuselage was closed up after the addition of an aluminium mounting tube through the float, just where the stand slot is. The fit is pretty good though the fuselage needed plenty of clampling. All the filler is more cautionary so I don't have to go back and add more. The lower wings should have a definite dihedral. I mount the kit squarely on a blob of blue tack and then measure the tip of the wings to make sure they were equal.

The cabane struts have big heads that key them nicely into the top wing. However gapage is apparent and due to the from below view point of the box art require these need to be taken care of.

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I also made a start on the nav/obs who is waving to the downed sailor. He gave his right arm for this job and so far has got a bit of copper wire for his troubles. Decapitation though was only a temporary set back as he is now looking over his shoulder.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by Jagewa »

Oh great fun, a nice soft plastic crew to mod, that makes the slicing and dicing easier. What are you going to sculpt the arm with?, or did he have a pirate history, peg arm Pete he was known oh aar. Or the one arm bandit ca ching..

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

Jagewa wrote:Oh great fun, a nice soft plastic crew to mod, that makes the slicing and dicing easier. What are you going to sculpt the arm with?, or did he have a pirate history, peg arm Pete he was known oh aar. Or the one arm bandit ca ching..
I was using some Mr Whiteputty filler for something else and started using that. As it goes off it forms a skin but is still malleable. I found out by accident that this meant that it forms very nice realistic cloth creases. I still need to do a lot more on it and add a hand. The chap in the life raft will need similar work and I've got a slightly smaller figure that I can use for him.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

Sanding this aircraft is a bit of bugger what with all the lovely surface detail :grin: The base of the struts attached to the upper wing are a particular pain. It was almost impossible to sand effective around them so I got out a curved blade and gently scraped away the excess filler. I'd used Revell Plasto which has the right consistency for this.

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New intake vanes were added. Cutting these accurately is nigh on impossible so slight larger but tapered pieces of card were cut. I glued these in correctly spaced and left to harden for 24 hours. The excess was then sanded away.

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The tailplane support struts I found were ever so slightly too long - maybe I didn't get the tailplane level but it looks bang on to me. Any way I trimmed ~0.5mm off the end of each at the correct angle. The hole in the tail was plugged with a bit of rod dipped in superglue and trimmed flat. This hole was right on the rudder hinge which seemed wring so I glued my struts just forward of this line.

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Note one side of the fuselage tail was short shot and needed forming with some filler.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

Brilliant work so far
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

Been performing plastic surgery on some volunteers who were sick of staring ahead, grabbing their nuts.

I replace the kits observer who had no legs with an identical but bipedal chap. I then cut off his head and removed one of his arms. Luckily he got his head back but needed a new arm rebuilding in milliput over a wire armature. For the rescuee I found a slightly smaller fella and immediate cut off both arms once again rebuilt the arms, this time I made his hands by flattening the ends of the wire. He has also be given a little inflatable made from milliput and scrap card. From the box art I think he has an oar though I think this is fanciful. For now I've fashioned one from wire again with a flattened end.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by PaulBradley »

"You put your right arm in, and your right arm out.....RIGHT arm.....(Bloody pilots....)"
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by Jagewa »

James they are brill, you are inspiring me with this work. Malepo's diorama and now your work here, sweet.

I am definitley going to have try that milliput sculpting to pilots.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by SJPONeill »

What Jim said...you're making it too easy...surely...any chnace of some tips to fill the gap between fixing the wire and Wow! finished!?
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

:blush:

The only real skill is being able to faff about with very small bits of milliput.

Over long bits of wire were superglued into holes in the shoulders. You need to thing about whether the arm is lower or raised. If the arm goes up so does the shoulder so you need to drill a little higher up as well as at the correct angle. Once the joint has hardened the wire is bent to the final position and the elbow bend added it required. I then cut the wire done a little at a time till it looks right.

The best tools for manipulating milliput I find are cocktail stick that have been sanded to a variety of shapes from very pointy to a round blunt end. You can use then to pick up very small bits of putty and apply them accurately. When I was doing Warhammer figures I had my favourite cocktail stick for years.

The arms are just small flattened sausages that are wrapped around the wire, the seam being smoothed over using the tip of a damp stick. The shoulders are then built up - sometimes it's best to leave the arm to harden before working on the shoulder as the soft putty can get easily damaged.

I've not really tried to sculpt any detail into the arms. The variation you get from your tools is probably enough to suggest cloth. I found trying to scratch creases looks well just like scratches. Better results were got by using the thicker radius of the stick at a diagonal to the arm to suggest crumpling of the cloth. They will probably need a swipe with some fine wet'n'dry to remove little rough bits.
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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

At home today so apart from cleaning and doing the laundry I decided to crack on and get my backdrops painted up. The sky in this scene is quite indistinct and is just a vague purple/blue tint. Appropriate washes applied to a sheet of card approx 9x20 inches. I took off some of the paint using a damp tissue.

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Re: Airfix 1/72 Grumman J2F-6 Boxart Diorama

Post by JamesPerrin »

The plane itself had stalled while I sorted out the glazing but I realized that the figures wouldn't go in with the clear parts in place so I could move swiftly onto getting paint on. Primed the silver plastic in grey only to repaint it silver - what a crazy hobby this is. The primer was rubbed down with a scotch bright thing that I got from Relish Models a couple of years ago. This works better than sandpaper on areas with raised detail as it doesn't polish off the paint from said detail, however it does tend to catch and you must be careful not to yank any delicate details off.

I decided to experiment a bit with thinners and Citadel's Mithril Silver. I had used water and acrylic flow enhancer to good effect previous. I'd read that Tamiya thinners are basically IPA but not as hot which can 'curdle' some paints. I tried both with MS and found that they both worked though the IPA needed more energetic mixing. So I went with Tamiya mixed ~ 50/50 to get the usual milky consistency. This sprayed very well and was much less prone to run/pool than using water.

I coated the entire airframe as I intend to klear then mask and paint the red. I found when I did the red and silver UltraSabre that the red was a significantly brighter tone than over silver than the bare primer which meant I had variations. This way I get a consistent red and only have to mask once.

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