Hi everyone ;
Things seemed to have settled down on the home front , so this past week I resumed work on my Korean War builds .
Firstly I must say the level of workmanship going on is absolutly awesome , the armor builds are terrific .
Despite having quite a few incomplete builds sitting under the bench , I decided to make a fresh start on something new to get me motivated again .
So I pulled out the 1/72 scale Mach 2 AJ-2/2P Savage ;
I'm using Steve Ginters AJ Savage book as my main reference and there is a small section in the book for scale modelers describing the different kits available .
According to the book , Mach 2's kit has some small error's as to the version depicted on the box .
The AJ-2/2P version has a two piece nose gear door , the kit has a single one piece door and the cockpit framing is more suited to the AJ-1 version . So I decided to back date my kit to a AJ-1 of VC-6 deployed at the K-3 airstrip , South Korea 1953
With the AJ-2 cockpit all three crew members sat together in the front , the AJ-1 had a seperate section for the third crew member , so I found a consol panel in the spares box and modified the cockpit as to the reference pic's in the AJ Savage book .
I cut the cockpit flooring and added some internal steps as well as cutting open the crew entry door and I also cut open the bomb bay doors .
Mach 2 give you the option of cutting the wings and tail fin to display the aircraft with folding wings , I decided to go with that option .
Here's the cockpit all painted and the fuselage halves are ready to glue together
The AJ Savage use's the R-2800 type engine which is similar to the F4U -4 Corsair , I had two spare corsair engines and I decided to use those on my AJ-1 Savage build .
There was quite a bit of filing to get the engine nacelles to fit nicely under the wings .
There was a lot of work getting the fuselage , wings , and engines glued together , nothing really fits that well at all but after a several nights of puttying and sanding , she was starting to look good .
I then decided to display my build undergoing maintenance , so I set about scratch-building a lifting crane , scaffold work platform and prop trolley .
I used 1.2mm evergreen plastic rod to construct the crane , all the measurements were a bit of a guess , I found a couple of pic's on the internet of a lifting crane , so I used those and there was lot's and lot's of trial and error getting things to look accurate and in scale .
For the wheels on the lifting crane I used two sprare wheels from a Hasegawa AV-8A Harrier and a rear wheel from a seaking helicopter for the main wheel under the hoist cable .
Next I modified a trailer that came with the Airfix M3A1 Half Track .
I cut the sides of the trailer shorter in length and made two end pieces from some plastic sheet and extended the sides in height as well .
I then made a scaffold section to position next to the port engine , which I had previously cut away a section of the engine nacelle to expose the R-2800 engine .
So she's almost ready for masking , the wings and tail fin are only sitting in position , so they can be removed and painted seperatly .
Hopfully by the end of the week I'll have some of the painting started , I'm quite happy how everything has worked out so far .
Everyone else's work is really top notch , I hope my latest project is equal to the high standard that's been set .
It's great to be back and thank's for looking .
John