Grumman AF-2 Guardian build thread
08-03-2016, 12:54 PM
#30
Hey Navy - terribly impressed with your work. Maybe you can fly cover for my Avenger next spring. Glad I found your build here on RCU. Don't look for any more work on my RCU build thread (Charles Kellogg TBM Avenger) until late fall. See you at the field soon. Chic
08-10-2016, 06:07 AM
#32
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I finally painted the majority of the airplane this past weekend. I made a mount to hold the airplane on it's nose so I could paint all sides of the fuselage at the same time and I made two mounts to hold the wings out so I could paint all of them at once also. I use a single stage auto paint..... Nason Ful-Thane 2K urethane. The canopy shown in the picture is a test sample only I used to get the shape correct. Now I am coating the canopy plug with a clear 2 part resin to make it very smooth.
I think the paint come out very nice except a very few spots that I am unhappy with. I'll correct them soon. It's a very glossy Sea Blue, just like it's supposed to be and I like the color a lot. I will now get the decals made for it. The major issue bugging me is the high gloss look. I think the glossy paint really looks cool, but in the real world, these planes may have been glossy when they were first painted but didn't stay glossy long. The couple of restored Guardians in Arizona and Pensacola, Fl are painted gloss but the real pictures of fleet aircraft don't look glossy to me. I'm seriously thinking of sanding the entire plane down and painting it with a dullcoat finish to make it look more like a fleet aircraft. I guess I can hold off making that decision until I finish painting everything including the white/yellow trim and put the decals on.
I think the paint come out very nice except a very few spots that I am unhappy with. I'll correct them soon. It's a very glossy Sea Blue, just like it's supposed to be and I like the color a lot. I will now get the decals made for it. The major issue bugging me is the high gloss look. I think the glossy paint really looks cool, but in the real world, these planes may have been glossy when they were first painted but didn't stay glossy long. The couple of restored Guardians in Arizona and Pensacola, Fl are painted gloss but the real pictures of fleet aircraft don't look glossy to me. I'm seriously thinking of sanding the entire plane down and painting it with a dullcoat finish to make it look more like a fleet aircraft. I guess I can hold off making that decision until I finish painting everything including the white/yellow trim and put the decals on.
08-10-2016, 10:03 AM
#34
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Thanks for the comment. This helps me make the decision. My wife votes for dull also. I think I'll just scuff it up and use testors dullcoat to make it all dull.
08-10-2016, 10:59 AM
#35
Before you do test the Testors on some overspray or something to determine compatibility. I know another builder who likes to use rattle cans then a Minwax poly over the Rustoleum to seal the decal edges and knock down the shine. If you can still find it Top Flite Lusterkote has a flat clear but I think its lacquer based.
08-10-2016, 11:49 AM
#36
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I'm a bit worried about lacquer over anything. I have a test panel I sprayed with the color and later sprayed with the testors lacquer and it looks fine, but that's only a small piece.
09-19-2016, 09:03 AM
#39
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I finally scuffed the urethane paint and top-coated with testors dullcoat. There were no compatibility issues. Guardian Pilots wore the hard Korean War style helmets with their goggles for eye protection, so I took the leather helmets off and purchased some jet pilot helmets that I could modify. I sanded them down, glued some styrene pieces to simulate the ridges, and covered them with some 2 part epoxy covering. Then I sanded them down and painted them gold. I have some pictures of VS-27 gold helmets so that's why I painted them gold.
09-19-2016, 09:12 AM
#41
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I attached the original goggles the pilots came with, installed the chin straps from the jet pilots helmets and soldered some small brass pieces together to make the microphones. I installed some LED lighting in the second compartment so you could see the knobs etc I installed.
09-28-2016, 11:52 AM
#42
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Here is a photo of the wing lights working and you can see both Pilot and Aircrew. I have also included a close-up of the pilot. I made the boom microphone out of small brass pieces soldered together, painted and then put a piece of heat-shrink on as a microphone.
09-28-2016, 12:05 PM
#43
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In the photo of the aircraft aft tunnel, you can see the two pullies and the sliding tube for my working MAD Boom. The boom extends and retracts about 9" or so using the rotating servo and cable with spring assembly I made. The MAD Boom slides in and out in the styrene tube. The 4 way air valve is mounted for the Century Jet retracts and you can see how the retracts fit into the bottom of the wing. I left room on the plywood base forward of the 4 way valve for installation of my GYRO. The electronics for the MPi strobe light are mounted under that plywood. All lights are controlled by the Electrodynamics light controller you see mounted next to the 4 way valve and a 3-way switch on my DX-18.
09-29-2016, 10:20 AM
#46
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Yes the perspective of that photo made the wing look long and narrow, but they are not. Thought about a handle bar mustache....... but it looks better trimmed 
Started putting the decals on this morning and they are very nice. I bought them from Badbradsgraphics and he was great to work with.
Started putting the decals on this morning and they are very nice. I bought them from Badbradsgraphics and he was great to work with.
11-29-2016, 02:51 PM
#48
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I finally made it to the point where I powered up the motor and picked a prop. I used my pull scale to figure out how much pull I was getting from the props as I tested them. So the Power 160 specs say 60 Amps max continuous with 2700 watts max. The aircraft comes in at 22 lbs on the scale. I first tried the Biela 17x10 3-bladed prop and had very high numbers with the 10S setup. I showed 2950 watts and 78 amps continuous with 19 lbs of pull. That was way too high on amps and watts so I needed to reduce prop size. Then I tried the Graupner 16x8 3-bladed prop. The numbers I saw then were 62 Amps continuous and 2460 watts with15.9 lbs of pull. I switched to the Biela 16x10 next and saw 70 Amps continuous with 2700 watts and 16.5 lbs of pull. I decided to start with the Graupner 3-Bladed prop. Also attached are two photos that show all of the decals I put on the aircraft. I am very happy with the way they look.
I picked the VS-27 scheme because I was the last CO of VS-27 and I disestablished the Navy Squadron in September of 1994. When we disestablished the squadron, we had one of each of the squadron's aircraft on display and one was an AF-2 Guardian that was painted in the VS-27 scheme. So that's why I used their decal scheme. Next to get the CG done.
I picked the VS-27 scheme because I was the last CO of VS-27 and I disestablished the Navy Squadron in September of 1994. When we disestablished the squadron, we had one of each of the squadron's aircraft on display and one was an AF-2 Guardian that was painted in the VS-27 scheme. So that's why I used their decal scheme. Next to get the CG done.