Chiefs 1/48 Kinetic S-2 Tracker

[chief5437]

hi fellas

thought id get my thread started while ive got access to tinterweb!

ill be building Kinetics Grumman S-2 Tracker. im a big fan of USN/USMC aircraft, so ive always wanted to build one of these. im a bit wary of kinetic, having only built one of their f-16 in the past. it turned out ok in the end, but some of the parts design was a bit dubious. but ill give it a shot!

just a couple of pics for now, boxart...

Untitled by rich applegarth, on Flickr

and bursting at the seams with plastic!

Untitled by rich applegarth, on Flickr

thats all for now, ill get more pics when we get started. have fun guys!!

[bfrd]

Can't wait to see this. I have that exact same kit about 1/3 built. My father-in-law flew those while he was in the Navy. It isn't the best, but not to bad.

[gaz45]

Nice mate

[kilgore456]

Sweet!

[pourquoi61]

Looks like a fun kit.

[NorthernModeller]

Interesting choice I look forward to seeing this come together. Especially as its a kit I am interested in

[chief5437]

hi fellas
its been a long time coming, but heres my all-in-one update!!

as with most kits, i started with the cockpit. i modded the seats a bit to look a little more like the real thing. kit seat on the right, my effort on the left.



also added some details to the cockpit, canopy and rear bulkhead. mostly fictional but adds interest.





you can see in this pic, how warped the fuselage is,



i did have a pic of it all clamped up with about ten clamps, but its disappeared? it looked a bit like this pic of the engine nacelles, lol!



but we got there in the end!



speaking of engines, Ultimate primer and vallejo metal color paints used here. followed by Ultimate dark dirt wash.



then more Ultimate primer all over, followed by tamiya x-2 for the undersides and control surfaces.



then masked off the white with a mix of tamiya tape, cheap decorators tape, and humbrol maskol where required.



then the upper surfaces were painted with mig ammo medium gunship grey, but no pic of that either!
after a quick coat of alclad aqua gloss, it was onto decals. these were the fragile type, lol!



but they did go on well, if youre careful. i use daco decal solution as my go to, but it was obviously too strong in this case, so i used microsol for the remaining decals.



had a little play with the wheels and a hot frying pan to get a weighted look. good idea, poorly executed! i think it will work better next time, with more patience.




once the u/c was painted and installed, i added some antennas with ezline. then fitted the wings and finally the props.



and thats it done!!

not a bad kit, but certainly not a brilliant one either. the wing folds arent very sturdy, so you need to be careful moving it about one the wings are on. plenty of space for nose weight, if you remember to put it in... i forgot, hence the dropped arrestor hook!

i get some final pics up in the reveal section later.

thanks for looking in fellas!

[Bender10101]

Nice! Like how you did the seats. Also nice see someone else has a PS3 remote sitting on there bench randomly