Cal Fire Grumman S-2T Turbo Tracker COMPLETE

Nice build.  I think it is a very attractive scheme.  I live not far from Sacramento and see them at McClellan, watched them fly over during the Santa Rosa fire.

Thanks!  Looking forward to your build.

Looks great!  Looking forward to getting my tanker CD and getting started on converting my partially built B-18 into a tanker.

May put a coat of future to protect the decals after everything dries - otherwise I think I'm done.  I haven't done a build with this much surgery in quite some time.  Very nice conversion kit, great decals and fun subject.  My fusulage stripes are too far apart, got lost in getting them to wrap around... oh well, it represents the livery overall.

Special thanks to RadMax8 - those stripes saved me!

Hey Tosh !

 What year is your Sedona ? Wanna Trade for my 2016 Soul ?

Thanks jeaton01 & scottrc.  It is a striking livery - kudos to Cal Fire for creating such a great looking scheme.  I get to see them fly (for good or bad) quite often out of Ramona airport near my house.

This Tracker is coming out super nice.  

Nice looking model.

Thanks Jay Jay.  Hope to wrap it up this weekend. 

Oh My Word, that's a gorgeous model ,well done Mate  

Slow going with the complex contours.  One more set of stripes on the fusulage to go.

Making progress.  Tomorrow I have to do the fuselage stripes which will be the most complex.  Then add the gear doors, spinners and props, touchup paint and a gloss coat.  Almost there.

Draw decals are incredible.  They take a bit of nuance as they are extremely thin, but very, very nice.

keavdog

There's an airborne shot here: http://www.goodall.com.au/warbirds-directory-v6/fire-bombers-1/usairtankersa1.html

 

 And this reference CD says it has the B-18 https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ref/arc/cd_arc_5001.shtml

 

 

Thanks for the info.  That shot is the same one in the magazine article.  Still need a shot from side to see the complete number, and the logo on fuselage side.  I have ordered the CD.

RadMax8 - I got the fundekals red stripes.  The are brittle but workable.  I'll have lots of touch up but so far it's looking okay - we'll have to see how things settle down after the decal sol.  I had to put the one Cal Fire decal on :)

Little more work - front of the nacelles on and a couple more decals.  Still waiting for some of the red decals to settle down.....

Redmax, TY for the decal referance. They had a set I've been looking for for quite a while and I have them coming in the mail

There's an airborne shot here: http://www.goodall.com.au/warbirds-directory-v6/fire-bombers-1/usairtankersa1.html

 And this reference CD says it has the B-18 https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ref/arc/cd_arc_5001.shtml

The new issue of Aviation History has quite an article on water bombers.

Of particular interest to me is a shot of a B-18 Bolo as a water bomber.  I have shelved a kit of that plane because the greenhouse nose was so poorly molded that I could not mask the frames.  The water bomber has the greehouse replaced with a new, non transparent nose, a way for me to finish that kit. It will take inkjet decals, but I am fairly experienced with those, so that is not an issue.  However, the single picture in the magazine is almost nose on, so I cannot see the markings well enough.

Does anyone know of more pictures of this plane, showing the livery better, so could make the decals?

Spray it with decal spray coat.  It works well for me.  Do two light passes.

Your friend, Toshi

Keavdog,

Don't know if you still need them, but you might try contacting Mike West at Lone Star Models and see if the Red Gecko Decals have what you need.  I think they come with stripes for the fuselage, but not the wings and tail.

That’s a bummer about the decals. You may want to give these guys a try, if you haven’t already started masking. 

http://www.fundekals.com/

I saw their stuff at a show recently and it seems pretty high quality. 

keavdog - maybe you'd like to try it the way I do it sometimes. You take a clear decal sheet and paint a portion of it red. THEN you cut the stripes of the width you need and then you apply the decal. For me that works very well and saves a lot of masking.

Hope it helps - good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Its coming along nice.  Your at the nail biting part where trying to get the paint on without any flaws and hope the masks hold.  I've never had any luck with red stripe decals. 

Spraying red on white requires perfect masking so I was hoping to use decals where possible.  I ordered a set of red stripes from CAM decals which I've had great success with in the past.  Not so tonight - they are breaking apart after soaking.  3 out of 4 sheets... bummer.  This will test my masking skills for sure!

Back on this build.  I shot the gloss white tonight - turned out nice, really liking Mr Color paints.  I'll let this cure for a couple of days before the heavy masking starts.  None of the red stripes are provided as decals

A couple years back Cal Fire lost a pilot and one of the S2-T birds.  Here's the story  - man, what a project.

 Here's the story: ( Link to the video - https://youtu.be/G5ZGzzwllBw )

Difficult two piece canopy from the hasagawa kit is on.  Shot primer and its coming along!

 Last bit of surgery - cut off the bulb under the tail and inserted a bit of brass tube to represent the retardant tank fill hookup.

First time trying Alclad chrome and its impressive.  I had painted these with testors chrome and I shot the Alclad over it just as an experiment - pretty impressive.  Next time I'll do the proper gloss black undercoat.  These need a bit of polishing when they dry

Very cool subject, Keavdog.  The resin parts do look very good.

I'll be following your thread.

Kensar