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Tom Bebout
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1/52 Grumman J2F Duck

November 13, 2016 · in Aviation · · 8 · 2.2K

Not a water wing group build but my first attempt at building a bi-plane that just happened to be amphibian as well. First flown in 1933 this reliable old bird was sturdy and remained operational for over two decades. Argentina even used them during their 1955 revolution.

The kit is of an odd scale with not a lot of parts and a landing gear that's inaccurate. The kit gear was designed to move up and down which is a kind of toy feature. Not much in the way of a cockpit either but since the canopy is as thick as a Coke bottle you can't make out any cockpit detail. The decals went down well and any mistakes were of my doing.

I finished her in Model Master light sea grey from a rattle can, the yellow from I don't remember and the cowl hand painted in insignia red. Tried my hand at rigging using wire made for bead jewelry. Not sure the scale is correct but it looks ok. Quick build, had some fun doing it and it represents an important but awkward looking A/C used by the Navy as well as the Marines during WWII. One thing is for sure that the pilots rescued by the Duck sure didn't mind it's looks

Reader reactions:
1  Awesome

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8 responses

  1. Great job on an ancient kit. I believe that the molds go back to a company called ITC from the early sixties. nice to see one built.

  2. Turned out nicely, Tom...great results. Good work, sir.

  3. Bob, you got it. ITC (Ideal Toy Corp) turned out a bunch of different stuff in the late 50s, this being one of them. RINGO later rer-released some, and then Glencoe. The Glencoes have much better decals, as here. The AAF, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, and the Argentinian Navy all operated various versions of these, and it hung on after WW II. I get the idea that they didn't go over all that well, and they vanished. Some of the originals are worth some $$$. Joe Renner, Marine aviator, was famous for using one pulling folks out of the drink around Guadalcanal, when he wasn't using a PBY to torpedo the Tokyo Express, at night. (!)

  4. What the Sgt. Really meant to say was that ITCs kits evidently weren't popular, and faded away. Believe it or not, they had a B-29 with motor(s)(?) and cams that could taxi around the living room. To this day, I have never seen one, except in an ad.

  5. Its a really great build. For first attempt building a biplane make it especially great!

  6. Nice job Tom. Think I may have one or perhaps I used to have one I will need to have a look.

  7. Great-looking Duck! I had the Glencoe version of this in a box, until I decided to stick with 1/72 and got rid of it. Built the Airfix 1/72 in a vary similar color scheme - couldn't resist all that color!

  8. I have this same model, yours looks better than mine! Great shots of this airplane in the Peter O'Toole movie, "Murphy's War".

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