Cold War Warrior – Grumman S2F Tracker
It's been a while since I've posted anything. I had a serious loss of modeling mojo over a bad (for here) winter, just really didn't feel like doing much of anything. That situation was remedied when one of my best friends sent me this from back home. It's the Atlantis repop of the old Aurora S2F Tracker in 1/54 scale. This was one of the few of those kits I didn't build when I was a kid, so I was pretty excited to see it arrive in the mail a few months ago.
That said, yes, it's an awful kit. Atlantis didn't change the molds at all, so this kit ended up being about 50% flash, 30% putty and 20% plastic. The locations for the markings are all molded on, so they got filled and sanded. The wing is in six pieces for the center section and two outer wing panels, and the outer panels are both thicker than the center. There is no cockpit. Probably much to the delight of Those Modelers That Are More Serious Than I Am, however, there are engraved panel lines!
But, it is a pretty accurate representation of an early Stoof, complete with upper and lower radomes and the MAD boom. I wasn't looking for anything spectacular, so this fit the bill just fine. And I had a blast building it! Oddly enough, the cockpit windows were the best fitting part of the model, and they're thick enough that with the cockpit interior painted black, you can't see anything inside anyway. The only parts replaced were the underwing rockets. Those came from the spares box as the kit ones were terrible. No landing gear is included, so gear up is the only option. She was supposed to be grey and white, but I had a major paint malfunction, and rather than try to fix it all, I just cleaned it all up and shot it blue. It looks much better that way, and the dark color hides a lot of the kit (and my) flaws. Decals are from the kit and were very good. Because who else makes 1/54 scale decals (or anything else) for a Stoof? If I can find a really small scale Russian submarine (any suggestions?) , this model will eventually go into a diorama.
The best part is that my modeling funk is over! Thanks, Cliff!
Jaime, great to see you back at the bench. I had that funk during the pandemic so I know of where you speak. Very cool and rare build. Thanks for sharing.
Nice work! Welcome back.
I wondered what this kit was like, surprised Atlantis did not clean it up a little. Nice results Jaime!
Excellent job, Jaime! A great way to restore your mojo!
Nice build and save.
Those old box scale kits seem to be great at restoring the motivation.
Glad to see you found your mojo, Jaime @jetmex
A wonderful result of this Tracker in an unusual scale.
A nice way of getting back into the hobby, Jaime, and a cool result.
Those Atlantis (ex-Revell) kits are just more fun. I built their F-89 and it was basically the same thing. Lots of flash, not much clean up.
As for a Russian sub, you can find a 1/350 scale Soviet sub via MikroMir.
Fun is what this hobby is all about Jaime, and it appears you got a boat load of it with this model. Well done.
The Tracker in that blue scheme is one of the builds I still remember fondly from my grade-school modeling days! I have one in the stash - need to get to it - brings back fond memories! That "old" kit looks great all built up (flash, putty and all!).