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As I love the gracious lines of this typical postwar carrier based aircraft, I spent weeks in dry fitting, filling, sanding this kit, which I recommend to all who like challenging tasks, or to those who like the taste of plastic! The Mach 2 kit, only injected Savage in town, actually features an AJ-1 with retrofitted tail group, but became AJ-2 with an Xtrapart vacformed canopy (the one in the Rareplane kit), some minor surgery, and an Xtradecal sheet (the one in the Rareplane kit as well).
I used Naval
Fighters n°22 by Steve Ginter as main reference material, but I have to
thank Roy Leverich and Chuck Huber for their great help in providing me
web references and color photos, after hours surfing the web to almost
no avail on that subject (even the main US Navy dedicated sites) which I
have to say is a pity, considering that the AJ-1/AJ-2 is the first
carrier aircraft with nuclear strike capability, in US Navy service for
10 years from 1949 to 1959 in many roles (including recce and tanker)
before its replacement by Skywarriors. Fotios Rouch’s article on his
Collectaire 1/48 Savage in Hyperscale is of great interest as well.
My model represents a VAH-7 AJ-2, DET45 on USS Essex during the Formosa crisis in 1958, of which two photos are featured in the Ginter Book p.104. I painted it with Tamiya spray TS-27 for white and AS-16 (light grey – USAF) which actually matches perfectly a slightly weathered US NAVY Gull grey. Satin varnish Humbrol spray seals the decals without reaction from either paint or decals.
Photos and text © 2005 by Alexander Bigey December 22, 2005 |
