Some 1/72 Mach 2 builds .

[Helo 53]

Hi everyone ;

I've been catalouging some of my Mach 2 builds , both finished and WIP builds and I thought i might share a few pic's .

Here's a AJ-1 SSavage for the U.S. Navy during the Korean War . I backdated the kit from a AJ-2 to a AJ-1 version by adding a lower crew compartment and I cut open the side crew door as well .

I scratch built a lifting crane and scaffold from plastic rod and added an engine from a Airfix Skyraider kit as well as modifying a Airfix M3 halftrack trailer to make a prop trolley .

Next is a PBM-5 Mariner built OOB

Here's a RB-45C Tornado for the Korean War .

Here's a pic of the SA-321 Super Frelon and Sea Bee finished in the camouflage scheme for the Israeli IDF

Next are some WIP pic's of my current Mach 2 kit builds .

A couple of years ago I started two C-123 Provider builds and here's a pic of the fuselage interiors just before I glued the fuselage's together ;

This weekend I finally got started on the painting ,

The one on the left will be a USCG HC-123B Provider finished in yellow and silver , the other is a C-123B for the Air America fleet .

Here's some WIP on a couple of C-54 Skmaster aircraft and a WB-57F Canberra along with two Sikorsky S-51 , a kaman HH-43 and some preliminary work on a SE.313 Alouette II for the Israeli IDF . The Alouette kit comes with the option of floats , skids and wheels ;

I wasn't happy with the paint finish on a E-1B Tracer as there were lots of hollows along the rear stabilizers and wings which showed up under the white/gray finish , so I sanded and puttied again and now she's ready for masking again .

I have 6 more C-123 Provider kits in the stash and I recently started cleaning up the parts on two more builds ;

One will be a Thunderbirds Support Aircraft and the other a Vietnam War bird .

I'm looking forward to getting the first two C-123 builds finished during this coming week and continueing on with the other WIP builds as well .

Thank's for Looking .

Kind regards ;

John .

[Hajo L.]

Any details about the Super Frelon? I´m currently working on that model and any additional advice will be surely appreciated.

HAJO

[Helo 53]

Hi HAJO ;

Here's some WIP pic's of my Super Frelon build .

I cut open the side cabin door and added some plastic strip to the opening to make up for the saw cut and filing ;

I do remember those square boxing pieces that fit above the interior roof that cover the exhaust holes on both fuselage halves , there's two of them on the left fuselage and one on the right side . The two oposite each other stick out a little too much and you need to file the back of each one so the fuselage halves will close up .

I added some control levers to the overhead cockpit consol panel ;

After glueing the rotor blades to the hub I sat my rotors upside down on a dinner plate with a weight in the center to obtain a slight blade droop ;

Some putty was needed all the way around the fuselage join but that is always expected with Mach 2 builds , however the little sponson support pieces that fit against the lower fuselage weren't a very good fit and required quite a bit of filler ;

These were the main issue's I remember with the build , all in all it was a fun and not too difficult build .

John .

Edited April 7, 2012 by Helo 53

[HOLMES]

Helo 53,

WOW !! Those finished builds are just Awesome...

They look excellent and your work is NEAT,and STUNNING.

The new project looks inviting too..Will be back to see more..

Great start on that too..

HOLMES

[Hajo L.]

Thanks for the input! I already glued in one of the exhaust covers, will propably need to cut down the otehr one to get them fit, as you described it. Won´t do much on the interior as I plan to keep the model closed - way too much work to make anything useful out of that. But you did a wonderful job!

Have you done anything to the clear parts for the front? I saw at least one german modeller who changed the window-layout. He says the windows need to reach higher...

HAJO

[Moggy]

Magnificent job on difficult kits - and very original subjects!!

Could we have some more WIP pictures??? Please please PLEEZE!!! I'm planning the same Mach 2 kits...

Cheers, Moggy

[Helo 53]

HAJO , I didn't change anything with the Super Frelon canopy ; I just masked and painted it as is .

I have two more Super Frelon's in the stash for the IDF and I was thinking of trying to scratch build some "out-rigger" styled landing gear struts and delete the sponsons .

Holmes and Moggy thanks for the kind words on my Mach 2 builds , I did try and upload some WIP pic's with the finished builds when I started the post but I must of gone over the limit for uploading pic's at the one time here on ARC Forums .

Anyway here's a WIP pic of the AJ-1 Savage fuselage interior ;

I made some steps for the interior that go from the main cockpit deck down to the side door and I also cut open the bomb bay doors and added some bombs from a Airfix skyraider kit . The fit of the engine nacelles under the wings requires a lot of sanding and then putty ; So there is quite a bit of work there .

With the RB-45C Tornado , the front fuselage section is a little askew but I didn't worry too much about it as it is covered in ;

Another issue with the Tornado is the fit of the engine front intakes and exhaust pieces . They are undersize slightly and require lots of putty to blend in . I suggest fitting these pieces to the engine pods first before glueing anything to the wing . It was a bit difficult to get the correct amount of weight in the nose section , so I just added a small stand under the fuselage tail when finished .

The C-123 Provider is the most difficult build of all so far , I'll upload some WIP pic's to photobucket and post some of those next .

[Hajo L.]

The C-123 is of much interest for me also. I plan to build a "Black Spot" (AC-123K) someday to add to my Gunship-fleet (already have: AP-2E, AC-130E, AC-130H, AC-130U, AC-47).

If you are interested in the layout of the Frelon front windows, check this model review. It´s in german, but the pictures will do the talking:

http://www.modellversium.de/kit/artikel.php?id=8112

HAJO

[Shawn M]

it pleases me to no end to see a Mariner built!

Great job on all the builds.

Any tips or tweaks to the Mariner you could pass along?

[Helo 53]

Thank's for the link to the Super Frelon front windows .

When I look at the canopy the German modeler has and compare it to mine , perhaps Mach 2 may have fixed it slightly as I think the frame lines on my canopy look a little better ;

The two newer kit canopy's are about the same as the first build ;

The center window on my canopy's seems to narrow at the top a lot more than the German modelers ?

Anyway here's some WIP pic's of the C-123 Provider .

There is a huge amount of filing and sanding with the build and the first area of attention is the main wheel well opening and boxing ;

When I dry fitted the boxing to the fuselage inside and pushed the main gear strut into the locating holes , you can see that the opening isn't wide enough for the wheel to fit . So I filed the opening about 3mm wider ;

This also means that you will have to add some plastic strip to the sides and top of the main gear boxing to cover the wider opening

I'm thinking on the next two C-123 builds , it might be easier to cut off the sides of the main gear boxing and make some slightly larger ones from plastic sheet and glue those on instead of trying to bend plastic strip around the edges of the boxing .

The two fuselage halves are not a very good fit together and I needed a course steel file to file the center section of the fuselage halves to try and get the nose and tail boom closer together

The bottom center section of each fuselage half needs to be pulled up by hand as they tend to bow inwards creating a concave effect , especially between the two main landing gear openings . I didn't pull them up enough on my builds and tried to rely on multiple applications of putty but this was a lot of work , I'll do better on the next two builds .

Another issue is the cockpit floor and bulkhead . When I dry fitted the floor in place it seemed to sit too high and cover part of the nose windows and the instrument panel wouldn't fit either

So I cut the tabs from the cockpit floor and filled the slots in the bulkhead wall and lowered the floor slightly so the instrument panel would fit and the windows weren't covered

The wing and horizontal stabilizer slots on the fuselage halves are heavly flashed over and required drilling and filing to open them up as does some of the fuselage window openings . So there is a huge amount of drilling , grinding and filing on those area's .

Another thing I will do differntly is cut new rear loading doors from sheet plastic . On my first two builds I joined the pieces I cut from the rear lower fuselage and added some plastic strip to the edges but the kit plastic varies in thickness and requires lots of putty and sanding along the center join on both pieces . It will be much easier just cutting two new pieces from plastic sheet .

I mentioned that my next two builds will be Thunderbirds Support Aircraft and a Vietnam War Aircraft . With several options for the war in South East Asia , I think I'll have a go at the NC/AC-123K "Creep" as well .

I hope some of this helps and doesn't scare anyone off from building a Mach 2 C-123 .

John .

[Helo 53]

Hi shawn ;

The PBM-5 Mariner went together okay with just a few minor issue's

I needed to clamp the wing top and bottom halves while the glue set and a little putty was needed along the join all the way around the wings

I also cut the cowl flaps open for a better look

I also cut a piece of sheet plastic to shape where the nose turret sits

Without the little shelf the turret kept falling inside the hull .

I remeber that the right side wing wanted to angle up slightly more than the left wing , so some filing was needed on the right wing bottom join where it meets the upper fuselage

I drilled a couple of holes through the engine/wing spacer and bent a piece of coat hanger to shape to use as a paint stand with a small weight holding the stand in place

I hope this helps a little with your build .

John .

[Helo 53]

Parcel Post just dropped off two new Mach 2 Kits at the front door

1/72 Beech 200/C-12 Kingair U.S.Navy

1/72 Beech RC-12K U.S.Navy

I have a nice collection of Mach 2 future builds

I better get busy and finish off the on-going projects .

John .

[Trojan Thunder]

Its nice to see someone having a go at these Mach 2 kits. You do a great job on them! Is this all you build? Do you have time for the shake and bake kits? :D

[Hajo L.]

Those RC-12s look good, I will add them to my personal wish-list as well...

HAJO

[Glynn Jacobs]

Hi HAJO ;

Here's some WIP pic's of my Super Frelon build .

I cut open the side cabin door and added some plastic strip to the opening to make up for the saw cut and filing ;

I do remember those square boxing pieces that fit above the interior roof that cover the exhaust holes on both fuselage halves , there's two of them on the left fuselage and one on the right side . The two oposite each other stick out a little too much and you need to file the back of each one so the fuselage halves will close up .

I added some control levers to the overhead cockpit consol panel ;

After glueing the rotor blades to the hub I sat my rotors upside down on a dinner plate with a weight in the center to obtain a slight blade droop ;

Some putty was needed all the way around the fuselage join but that is always expected with Mach 2 builds , however the little sponson support pieces that fit against the lower fuselage weren't a very good fit and required quite a bit of filler ;

These were the main issue's I remember with the build , all in all it was a fun and not too difficult build .

John .

Hi John,

EXCELLENT work on some EXCELLENT and not too easy to build subjects! I'm especially interested in your Super Frelon.

How did you get the canopy soo clear? Mine looks like a shower window (pebbly inside, like a privacy window) and I'm not too crazy about trying to sand it down! I also want to do mine as a French Navy bird so its a struggle to get the colors right and to find some decent decals. Alas, I see what can be done with it now so I'll suck it up and proceed!

HAJO, what version are you doing? After seeing yours I know I will just want to take mine out and set it on fire! :-)

Cheers,

WARDOG

[Helo 53]

Hi WARDOG , thank's for the compliments on the builds .

With the Super Frelon canopy I remember using an old cotten T-Shirt and buffed both sides of the canopy with tooth paste .

Lot's of modellers talk about plastic compound polish but I couldn't find anything like that here in Sydney , So I just tried some good ol' fashion Colgate tooth paste . After rubbing for a while I then dipped it in some Future (pledge-one-go) and let it dry for a few days .

I masked the yellow paint on my HC-123B USCG Provider yesterday and sprayed some silver over the rest of the aicraft . I'm about to pull the masking tape off , so I hope everything will look okay . I'm also aiming to get some silver on one of the C-54 Skymaster builds and the WB-57F Canberra tomorrow , So I'm making steady progress on the other builds .

John .

[Hajo L.]

Wardog,

I will do a french navy Frelon in the modern camoflage, which is two different greys. Haven´t decided yet which paints I will use, but I will most likely see what colours are given in the new Revell NFR-90 for the french scheme and then do it may way anyway... ;)

I will update you of my choice as soon as I start painting, which is at least some days from now. I use the Revell acrylics and will chose out of their range.

As for polishing: I use a nail file which is usually used to polish nails. Then most likely the final finish will be done with tooth paste (as already mentionend by Helo 53). I heard if you use special "smoker tooth paste" you will have a more polishing effect, as these pastes are used to get rid of that typical smokers "coating" on their teeth.

HAJO

Edited April 12, 2012 by Hajo L.

[Moggy]

Thank you Helo53 for the extra WIP-pictures! Very inspirational!!!

Edited April 12, 2012 by Moggy

[Mike D]

good lord! another finished Mach2 kit?!?!?

To say those things are rough is like describing the Titanic as a 'minor boating accident'

Carving the subject from frozen dog turds would be less painful...

The X-24's were nearly the end of me and those are 'simple' kits!

Congratualtions, you are a modeler!

Me, I'm just a kit assenmbler.

Congratualtions

Edited April 12, 2012 by Mike D

[Hajo L.]

Helo 53, what did you do with the rotors of the Frelon? Did you just glued the main rotor to th ebase or did you add a mast?

HAJO

[Helo 53]

Your way too kind with your compliments on my builds Mike , I thank you kindly anyway .

HAJO , there is a very short mast on the rotor hub center piece ,

It was just long enough to sit inside the rotor housing

Perhaps on the next two Super Frelon builds I might think about super glueing a longer piece of plastic rod to the mast .

John.

[Claudio Moura]

Dear Helo53,

can you post some phots of King Air canopy?

Thanks,

Claudio Moura

[Helo 53]

Hi Claudio ;

I'm more than happy to post photo's of the King Air canopy

The frame lines don't show up all that well with the digital camera

Here's the single page instruction sheet

Let me know if you need any more info , I'm happy to help .

John .

Edited May 11, 2012 by Helo 53

[rpeck]

Wow,those look good.

You are a brave soul to build these kits.Make them look very good to boot.

[Hajo L.]

A little teaser, I finished my Frelon some days ago:

Overall a not too bad build, I´d say, of course there were a couple of things you won´t have to deal with when you´re building an "ordinary" model, but for a short-run kit: not too bad!

HAJO