Grumman XTB3F-1S Guardian, 90506 (completed)

Courtesy of Steve Ginter (Naval fighters no. 20). 

First result of my research & comparison of the kit with the original: the offset of the nacelle and prop to right direction are partially missed in the kit (Drawing: Grumman via Wikipedia) 

The holes for the switches from wire are well visible: fitting after airbrushing so I can leave out painting wit aluminium paint.  

At first this looks complicated but it was the easiest way for me to determine the attachment the engine to the cowling. 

Right: too small engine from the kit. Left for comparison: engine from AMT's Tigercat.  

Gearbox from the kit combined with the cylinder banks from Tamiyas Corsair.  

Ignition wires from 0,25 mm wire and as try partially from thin plastic.  

One of the latest versions of the Double Wasp (visible in the cylindrical gearbox and cylindrical magnetos). 

The asymmetrical shape of the cowling mounting ring is well visible (offset to the right side). 

It was worth working exactly: the engine sits in the correct position. 

It was worth working exactly: the engine sits in the correct position. Triangle shaped structure on the inner side of cowling coming soon.  

The first part of the cowling completed with all ribs.  

Left: ok. Right: I have forget to drill out the 6 triangle-shaped holes... 

Cockpit after the first airbrush session (interior green and grey). By the way: I was to lazy to get interior green from the "plane lab" under the roof and so I mixed a bit black into yellow. Voila: interior green.  

All is well again: now both wheels have the 3rd dimension🙂 

Unbelievable: I spent nearly half as much time for the harness as for painting of the entire cockpit!!!  

Seldom I seen such large prop on a single engined aircraft. 4,03 m in diameter, larger than the prop of the Skyraider and surpassed maybe by Skyshark. The Double Wasp has to do very hard work....  

It is not enough to separate the flaps and ailerons: you have to do a lot to get the wing's stability back. The longish gap roughly in the center is the location of the movable panel which folded down when the wing folded.  

Inner flap. First step is the filling of the gaps with plastic.  

It is very interesting in the original how the upper and lower surfaces are divided. The small slot on the left side of the flap is the attaching point of the inner hinge.  

Inner flap and fixed part of the wing after correction (compare with pictures 47&48). 

The slats have 5 support points. It was very tricky to fit the tiny plastic parts.  

Left wing & movable surfaces completed minus fabric surfaces on aileron and outer flap. The ailerons on prototypes and early productions machines were longer and has round tips. 

Source for hinges for flaps, elevators and ruder.  

The finnets on the stabilizers were added later (productions machines). For all prototypes you have to fill the cutouts in the kit parts. Tesa film on the outside and plastic&CA glue on the inside is in my opinion the best way for this job. 

Correct Position of the ribbs. 

I glued all three windows from outside with lots of CA glue. 

After dying I sanded them flush with 600 & 1000 sanding paper und 3200 & 6000 micro mesh. At last I polished the area with cotton cloth. 

I discovered that the best base for the red is a mix of light grey and red if one have materials with different colors. 

The blades were painted separate (before gluing to the hub). 

Unfortunately, the landing gear are a in the usual short run quality with a lot o flashes and out of register: the diameter varies from 2,6-3,1 mm.... So I decided to made all parts from scratch 

About 1/3 of each leg is cut off and mounted already in the correct place in the wheel bay (for better alignment). 

The Tamiya tape is for dust protection of the windows. I will remove them after completing the fuselage an this is the reason for threads. 

I'm going to pull the threads through the openings. By the way: so they don't get lost I glued the ends.  

The etched oleo-scissors from the kit are well designed but are too thin. Because of them I made new ones from plastic.  

Nothing fits: the long edges of the radome-part are about 1 mm too short on the front!!! 

The lower cooling flaps are practically non-existent 🙁 

Courtesy Luc Colin 

Now the Double Cyclone can breathe properly: the cooling channel's and flaps are in place. 

The prototypes have an another configuration of the exhaust pipes: through the (flat) panels. So it was necessary to make openings in both panels. The best way to produce of two mirror-symmetrically openings was a scribing-template from thin plastic. 

In this case too I used the old trick with auxiliary hole for applying CA glue from outside. The auxiliary hole are well visible: white quadratic plastic piece, in the middle of the picture. 

In this case too I used the old trick with auxiliary hole for applying CA glue from outside. The auxiliary holes are well visible: light grey/dark grey spot on the left side.  

2 rods (2mm diameter) as reinforcement of the fuselage. The wingspan of the Guardian is really huge 

The flaps and the front part of the cowling are I little bid darker than the rest of the fuselage. The lower panel behind the exhaust stacks is much darker but made of steel.  

Polishing along the panel lines & rivet lines produced a little more "shine" a'la stressed skin.  

Thin stripe of Cutting Edge Blackmagic foil as surrounding of the bulges (antennas?). 

By decaling I discovered that the second prototype has no lower window on the right side🙂 

The first step: surfaces are airbrushed with the mixture which produces a relatively matte and homogeneous finish. 

Second step: polishing with 6000 Micromesh shows scratches. With 3600 Micromesh it is very well possible to "over polish" the scratches.  

Second step (just like picture 135). 

Step 3 (right wing): second round with the airbrush. Step 4 (left wing): polished with 4000 Micromesh & "paneling ala stressed skin" with a cotton swab. 

3rd & 4th step (just like picture 137 but a another direction of light). 

The next obstacle is have been overcome: all 3 windshield windows are OK without dust and other blemishes.  

This morning I have noticed that the moveable part of the canopy is designed only for the closed version. The open version is not possible. It is necessary to add heigh.