1/72 AP-2H TRIM Neptune

[JED]

Nice work

[Robbo]

Very nice building

[Beekster]

So, it's been a month since the last update. For the first two and a half weeks of September we were on the road to Grand Teton & Yellowstone; fabulous trip. Since then I've been fighting with this project. It would normally have a propensity to be really, really tail-heavy, so I've stuffed lead fishing weights in the nose area wherever they will fit.


That done, I got the small window glazing installed, inserted the cockpit, and closed up the fuselage. That's where the battle began. The weight in the nose reduced the flexibility of the parts, and the ancient plastic is quite brittle. The fuselage is together, but you can see strips of white where material has been added to fill gaps (and there's more of that to do).





The top seam aft of the wing presented serious alignment problems despite my previous work. You can see here where a piece of the left half broke off and disappeared. I'll fill it with scrap stock and epoxy putty. Also visible is a crack in the right fuselage half at the circular opening. That was the spot for the original defensive turret long since removed on these aircraft. The cover plate is supplied as a clear part, but these AP-2H variants had no glazing there and so all will get painted over eventually.


At the tail you can see further misalignment. The vertical fin fit together nicely, but the rest of the fuselage join below refused to cooperate.



Serious grinding and sanding is needed here, even before I fit the tail stinger position. On the positive side, the plug for the missing belly radome actually fits pretty darn well. I won't glue it in until I've cleaned up all the seam problems with the fuselage, but it looks good mocked up.

[JCON]

Oh my!!!

[DuckyShot]

That looks like work, not hobby. Good luck getting everything to fit. It looks great so far and will be worth it in the end.

[Robbo]

Very nice progress

[Beekster]

Oct 2, 2023 13:18:50 GMT -6 DuckyShot said:

That looks like work, not hobby. Good luck getting everything to fit. It looks great so far and will be worth it in the end.

Certainly some of both, Ducky.  Only way to model something that is obscure enough to not have a dedicated kit for it, and old enough that once-available conversion kits are long gone.

[JED]

Great work but just too much for me, would have been in the bin long ago!!

[Robbo]

This build has certainly got some issues, you're doing a great job with the extra work

[Beekster]

Still slow going; having a cold last week didn't help...feeling crummy saps the motivation. But I reached a milestone yesterday with the attachment of the tail gun position. Looks pretty rough, doesn't it?








But it really isn't that bad, considering the quality (lack thereof...) of the original resin. It took more grinding of the end of the fuselage and adding material to the resin part and sanding that back down to get this far. Adhesion of the styrene to the resin was poor; just not enough mating surface for the superglue to hold well. But I got there in the end. You can also see that the resin part is too wide at the crew station, so the horizontal tail surfaces don't fit. Already this morning I have carefully ground that down with a small sanding drum in the Dremel and coarse needle files and sanding sticks. Test-fitting the rudder revealed that I have to add material back to the base of the tail underneath the rudder, which was ground off to level the surface after putting the fuselage together. A little bit of .020" stock will take care of that, and of course more epoxy putty work to fill the remaining gaps on the sides and smooth the contour on the underside. Examining my old reference photos shows that I also have to add strip stock to the back of the tail cone where the gunner sits. It's a few thousandths short when the tailplanes are fitted. Not really looking forward to that, since there's less mating surface now than there was before. I need to stare at it a while; might have to add a shim inside the opening for support.

[JCON]

You have this!!!

[Robbo]

Bet it doesn't look rough when you've finished it

[JED]

WOW so much work, I have 100% faith

[Beekster]

Wow...another month gone. Work on this one has been sporadic. I've spent time on a major pre-winter detail on the car, and my five ornamental maples are gradually & sequentially dropping their leaves requiring multiple rounds of raking and a first gutter cleaning. And the Neptune has spent a lot of time doing nothing except letting epoxy putty cure. Fairing in the tail cone has been a slow, grinding process but I think that I am just about there as these images show. I'm going to do a wee bit more putty work inside the sort-of rectangular opening beneath the rudder to ensure that the little clear dome has no gaps behind it. But the more substantial work of shaping the whole area is done:








The tailplanes and clear bubble are mocked up here, but the rudder has been glued in place. I'm happy with the shape of things and will mask off the side windows forward of the tail as well as the mounting points for the tailplanes, then shoot some rattlecan Tamiya primer to see if more blending of the main joint to the fuselage is required. Oh, and the skylight panel on top of the fuselage is in now, too:



And so is the chin fairing, which still needs some fettling to ensure that the nose transparent nose cone will fit properly. I can return to this area once the tail work is wrapped up.

[JCON]

Lots of cool touches!!!

[Dukemaddog]

I am overwhelmed at the immense work and adjustments you are making; as well as how you are adapting to the challenges presented here.

[JED]

Great work

[Beekster]

Work continues on this project. I've got the wings together and the engines on now. The fit of the exhaust stubs and cowl flaps isn't great on this old kit, but I've made a first pass with sanding sticks to smooth things out. I need to do some work with sheet stock and putty to finesse the joints, and now it's time to get started on making the six flame arresters that will fit atop the exhaust ports. The underside shot shows the support struts for the main landing gear in place; they just rotate in their locating holes for now. They can't be installed after the nacelles go together, but the main gear legs themselves can be. So that's what I'll do once the rest of the seam work and flame arrester stuff is done.




The fit of the radar pod under the belly is probably close enough for government work, and can be finessed with epoxy putty when it goes on for good. The belly fairing itself has been sanded for matching contours, but the seams require some putty yet.


I have one concern with this area, and that is the height of the radar pod. It sits very close to the ground on the real airplane. Once the wings are done with landing gear installed, I will have to tack the radar pod on with Elmer's glue and mock up the wings and nose gear to be sure that the pod doesn't hit the ground. And adjust it as needed.

The shape of the chin fairing has been finessed some more, especially at the back, to create clearance for the shock strut on the nose gear. It faces forward, so I had to file the back of the fairing to make room for it. Should be good now.






Next up for the nose is a good coat of Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill the file scratches and lighter sanding to smooth things out.

Slowly but surely this one is coming together. But once the wings go on for good, photographing it will be a pain. It's too big for my little light box, so I'll have to drag out the bigger one and set it up on a card table. That fills up the room, and makes lighting the subject harder since the light sources are further away.

[JCON]

The amount of work you are putting into this kit is amazing! You are getting it there Beekster, keep it moving my friend and you'll have a great rendition when done!

[mustang1989]

Good LORD man!! You're really giving this old kit the works along with that old update and whipping it into some pretty dang good shape at that. Your corrections and repairs along the way are master class stuff and you're really bringing this puppy to life. Fantastic work with the detailing, fabrication and blending all of these parts together. WOW!!!