sticking with 144 means you often cant get what you want, so kitbashing and departure from prototype must be contemplated.
I'd like to do have a US Navy C-2

there isnt a 144 box kit, but there is of the E-2

wing and engines are the same, tail is close enough, cockpit glass and roof look about the same,
just the fuselage needs to be fattened.

Anybody done a hand carved fuselage, or ...open to ideas...?

Jonathan,
Have you seen fellow contributor Peter Hawkins' hand-sculpted planes in 1/144th yet? See his website . Excellent stuff there, and just the ideas you were probably looking for!
-Sean H.

no I had not, thanks for the heads up . Thats some fine work !

Airalex does a conversion set for the Revell E-2.

cheers for that! I just bought one. My E-2 kit is a Heller , I imagine it is close enough, if not actually identical to the Revell kit.

The Airilex C-2 fuselage kit arrived today.
here it is with my Heller kit.

The Heller kit is quite lovely.
Gonna be a nice project.

I'll be watching this one with interest as it's a conversion I hope to do one of these days.

Good luck!

I broke ground on this project tonight, just started cleaning up the castings, glued together the Heller wing, and trimmed the cockpit insert.

The castings are not beautiful, it will take a good deal of work to make this thing pretty, but that's ok, it's better than what I could have whittled out of a hardwood dowel.

The instructions include a very amusing message from the Japanese kit maker, he says:
"Warning!
The modeler who made the archetype of this kit is dull sensitive and unskillful. So this kit can't reward who want accuracy, correctness. I recommend this kit to men who absolutely want C-2A in 1/144 scale. Though this kit will impose you hard exertion and patience. There is risk of waste precious Revell E-2c kit. Are you ready? I think any skill level modeller can enjoy and be distressed this kit.

For the Resin kit beginner: he will experience the hardship of building resin kit, setback and he will overcome difficulties!"

I am ready. To exert, to have my patience tried, to enjoy, to be distressed and to overcome difficulties!

This plane is my entry in the "what if" campaign. It will get a civilian airliner treatment for the island hopping carrier Air Marshall Islands.

[quote]I recommend this kit to men who absolutely want C-2A in 1/144 scale.[/qoute]

Se we women are excluded are we? Hmmmmmmm.

I thought of editing that bit for your sake, but the whole thing is such a mess it's impossible to improve. The author is dull sensitive.

That's awesome. I've enjoyed and been distressed many kits over the years.
Men, I'm ready! Wait, that doesn't sound right.
Anyway, I'm sure the translator, being dull sensitive and unskillful, meant to say people, as in humanity or mankind, but as Jonathan said, "the whole thing is such a mess".
I know I can't wait to go to Japan someday, and I'll be the guy conjugating everything badly and using the wrong connotations in Japanese.

On the other hand, Jonathan, this is an excellent thread. I recently built two 1/72 F4U's from Heller/Humbrol, and they weren't great fits and had raised panel lines. I'm glad your Heller 1/144 kit is a good one.
Thanks for posting!
-Sean H.

well, there certainly is alot of whittling involved in this thing, in fact the instructions say I must "dig" the cockpit and nose wheel well to fit the respective Revell parts and necessary lead weights in.

a use for a nice set of miniature burrs I bought years ago.

The Heller canopy is really nice, fitting it to the fuselage took alot of trimming and sanding to both, and will also need some fillers.

but, by golly it looks like a Greyhound !

Wow, I hope I didn't give you a bum lead.
The warning from the maker doesn't exactly inspire confidence!
But you seem to have matters well in hand.

no worries. I'm having a good time with this. remember my other option was a hardwood dowel and a rasp, which would have been frustrating. also, the included decal sheet is really nice, though I dont plan to use much of it.

As per the instructions, I bored out the rear section to create a cargo space, and drilled a 3/16" hole through the front to install lead nose weights.
Interesting that in this old fashioned kind of model making, you carefully take stuff off, whereas in modern kit building you stick parts on.

I bonded the halves together and its definately a Greyhound.

That is some amazing work you're doing at the moment, very old school modelling.

It should look great when it is finished.

The Greyhound has some challenges to overcome, so Ive been doing other things, but Ive actually gotten over a major hurdle today.

The rear end is done, after about five putty applications.

now I can get back to the cockpit and nose wheel well.

re-scribing panel lines today. Not very photogenic.
definately feeling optimistic.

Love the message from the manufacturer. It could apply to many models I have built over the years.. the ICM TB-3 comes to mind...
Looking really good Jonathan.
Hope it meets with a better fate than the TB-3..

a look at the cockpit detail before the canopy goes on


airframe is assembled at last.

Ive been filling and sanding on this thing for weeks. At some point one just has to say that's enough and move on.
Shot gray primer today. A good spray job anyway.

next, tomorrow I think, I will cover it in gloss white enamel.

I'm not shooting the white today after all. I did a test shoot yesterday using Testors gloss white enamel on the discarded Heller fuselage, and the paint is still tacky 24 hours later.
I wanted Tamiya paint but the LHS was out of it.

In the mean time I have composed the decals.

not that anyone will ever want to repeat this project, but if anyone does, feel free to use the decal design.

I got some Tamiya gloss white acylic and shot the finish coat on the Greyhound last night. very nice paint to work with, the best available, IMHO.

There are two lessons here - gloss white is about the most difficult color to get good coverage with, and, if you want to feel inadequate and highlight all the surface flaws in your model, gloss white is about the best for doing that! :o

I guess I will have to try to fill in those panel lines and bubble holes with paint.

Do you have any Mr Surfacer? That's the best stuff in the world for that. Alternatively, try Whiteout.

I think you may be right there Jonathan. Tamiya paint seems to take a wide level of paint/thinner combinations and still work great. And their flats always come out very flat.

Keep at it mate it is going to be interesting! As Jessie said, white-out seems to be a good way to go, but I still like Mr Surfacer.

I havent tried Mr. Surfacer yet, but I see it mentioned often and know where to get it, so that's on the short list.
There is, I thought, already alot of Liquid Paper on that model, just not nearly enough. I thought it would be sufficient, and I ran out of patience.
I need more magnification, and dedication, to go the last mile.