This is the Glenco 1/48 scale J2F Duck. This is an older kit and does not have the level of details that newer kits have. The Duck is a Grumman built amphibious aircraft that was primarily used for search and rescue. It is unique from other single engine float planes in that the main float and fuselage are designed together. This allows room for more crew members. The scheme that I will be doing is the Marine version that was stationed in the Virgin Islands.
All of the interior details will be scratch built using styrene stock and remnants of many photo etch extras I have. I located some build photos from Grumman use as a guide for the interior. I started with getting the cockpit area roughed in. The cockpit floor and the rear bulkhead will serve as my reference point. Working on the Radio/Gunner position at the rear of the cockpit now.
The basic interior has been laid out with the lower crew area and painted the base coat. Starting to add details. I had to modify the landing gear to position the wheels in the correct spot. Originally the landing gear is made to be moveable. However fully extended the wheels are too close to the float and raised they sit too high up in the cut out. The kit does not provide landing gear doors so these will need to be scratch built as well. The exhaust for the engine needed to be drilled in order to look like an actual exhaust pipe.
Detailing the interior still continues. Also made the rear gun mount and detailed the gun. Added seat belts and other details. Working on the dash for the pilot. Still have the landing gear to detail and some fuselage modifications that need to be done.
I spent the evening making a new dash. The kit dash was just a piece of plastic with no details and way too large. I made my own dash. You can see the a brief tutorial how I made it at Making a cockpit dash from scratch. Below are the photos.
The fuselage is now together and the rear gun mount installed. I replaced the kit side windows using clear acetate sheet since the kit clear side windows were very thick and the details of the interior could not be seen. Originally this kit had a wheel with a rubber band that allowed the model to roll across the floor. Many areas required putty to fill in minor gaps. There is a gap in the main float to allow this so it had to be filled and shaped. Also in the reference photos was a duct just under the nose. I used a .25″ diameter aluminum tube and built up the cowl for it using putty. The engine was then painted and detailed. After the engine cowl was painted the engine was mounted into it. Working on assembling and cleaning up the main wings now.
The fuselage and wings now have their base coat paint on and the rigging of the wings is done. Still have decals, detail painting, and weathering. The landing gear doors were scratch built and I used EZ-Line for the rigging. The yellow is Tamiya yellow and the fuselage is Model Master light gray. I also bought the Squadron Vacu-Form canopy as the kit canopy is very thick and it appears the mold was not clean. Looks like some dirt got into the plastic.
The decals were added, gun and antenna line installed, and final details completed. Here are the final photos.
It looks like you have a couple of versions of the Duck here. One with the intake below the engine, one without. Also the landing gear are different. Kind of confusing that way.
The build photos show from kit to finish. The photos without the intake are before I added it. I changed landing gear as the kit version were too close to fuselage and used resin tires.