Pavla-Octopus

1/72 Grumman J2F-5 & J2F-6 Duck

Kit Number: 72056

Reviewed by  Brian R. Baker, IPMS# 43146

MSRP: $50.98 (www.pavlamodels.cz) History The Duck's origins date back to the Loening amphibians of the early 1920's, which were relatively large biplanes with the main float mounted integrally below the fuselage, and wheels retracting into the side of the fuselage. While the Loening amphibians served the Army and Navy faithfully during the twenties, and also were used commercially as the "Air Yacht", they were approaching replacement by 1929. At that time, Loening was acquired by the Curtiss Wright Corporation, and the facilities were moved to Pennsylvania. A group of employees, including Leroy Grumman, remained in New York, and financed by Grover Loening, founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Loening kept the rights to his float and retractable landing gear designs, which were produced by Grumman for use on Navy Vought O3U catapult float biplanes. When development of the original Loening amphibian replacement, the XO2L-1, failed to secure a Navy contract, Grumman redesigned the aircraft as the XJF-1, with lines that would remain constant throughout the development of the JF/J2F series. The XJF-1 was tested by the Navy in 1933, and after some modifications, was produced as the JF-1, of which 27 were built. Later, 14 JF-2's were built for the U.S. Coast Guard along with 4 for the Navy. In addition, 5 JF-3's were built for the Naval Reserve. In 1936, a new model appeared, designated J2F-1. This aircraft, with a slightly changed rear fuselage, was powered by a short chord cowling Wright R-1820 of 750 hp., and 29 were built during 1936-1937. In 1938, 30 J2F-2's were built for the Marine Corps, and later, in 1939, 20 unarmed J2F-3's were ordered for Naval Attaches throughout the world. In the same year, 32 J2F-4's were ordered for the Navy. The major production model, however, the J2F-5, was ordered in 1941. These had the long chord cowling enclosing a 950 hp. Wright R-1820-50, and bomb racks underneath the lower wings. With the outbreak of war in 1941, the Navy decided that Grumman should concentrate on production of the superb F6F Hellcat fighter, relegating production of other types to different manufacturers. The F4F Wildcat and TBF Avenger were to be built by General Motors' Eastern Division, who produced these aircraft in large numbers as FM-1, FM-2, and TBM-3. The J2F was manufactured by Columbia Aircraft Corporation under the designation J2F-6, and 330 were eventually built. It should be noted that a new manufacturer for a Navy aircraft during this time period usually resulted in a new designation, such as the F4U Corsairs produced by Goodyear and Brewster being designated FG and F3A respectively. The J2F, however, remained the J2F, even though it was produced by a different firm. The letter "L" was later assigned to Columbia (and also Bell Aircraft Corporation), and the Columbia replacement monoplane amphibian was produced in prototype form as the XJL-1. So much for bureaucratic inconsistency. Grumman and Columbia J2F's were used throughout the war by the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard for a variety of uses, including patrol operations, air-sea rescue, and communications. One J2F-5 was used to evacuate Carlos Romulo, the future president, from the Philippines just ahead of the Japanese. Some were used in the utility role from carriers, and a few were operated from Coast Guard cutters, although they had to be lowered into the water by cranes for takeoff, since these ships did not have catapults. One J2F-5, redesignated OA-12-GR, was acquired by the Army Air Forces during 1942, and it was used in the North Atlantic flying from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. It was later returned to the Navy, and declared surplus after the war. (No photos exist of this aircraft.) After the war, in 1947, 5 J2F-6's, now OA-12A's, were transferred to the USAF for operations in Alaska, and these were used into the 1950's, when they were replaced by helicopters. One crashed, and was recently recovered by enthusiasts, and it is now being restored. After the war, nearly all surplus J2F's were scrapped or sold surplus to civilians. I recall seeing and photographing several of them in the Miami area in the 1950's, and one was used as a forest fire tanker in Arizona in the late fifties. Most survivors are now in museums. I do recall seeing a fiberglass replica of a J2F at Dillingham Field on Oahu a number of years ago. I don't know what they would have used it for, but I suspect that it was a movie prop, possibly from the Tora Tora Tora production. The Kit Until recently, the only 1/72 scale kit of the J2F was the old Airfix offering from the late sixties or early seventies. It was basically accurate in outline, but suffered from the "boilerplate rivet syndrome" common to that era. Surface detail was exaggerated, the cockpit interior was minimal, and the prop was not quite realistic. However, the kit was pretty well engineered, and went together easily. With some effort and detailing, a reasonable facsimile of a J2F could be built. When I started the Pavla kit, I also began an old Airfix kit, since I have several in my "stash", and I thought that I could compare the two kits to see if the new kit was really better. Although I have several Airfix J2F's in my "stash", I don't know how available the Airfix kit is today, although I suspect that they can be found at swap meets. The kit consists of 35 light grey plastic parts, two vacuformed clear plastic sheets with two different canopies each, so that if you mess one up, a replacement is available. In addition, 39 resin parts are included on several sprues. These are of very high quality. Resin parts include two different cowlings, and engine, prop hubs (but not blades), interior details, wheel wells and cabane struts. Instructions A sixteen page instruction booklet accompanies the kit. The first page gives the history of the airplane in Czech and English, while page 2 provides an excellent sprue diagram. Page 3 shows the decal sheet and the color guide, which identified the colors in Czech, U.S. FS standards (sometimes), and Hu codes, whatever they are. In addition, symbols explaining various operations shown on the assembly drawings are shown. Page 4 gives drawings of the detailed assembly steps, such as the cockpit interior, wheel well assemblies, and engine and propeller. These are reasonably clear, and very well drawn, but don't always show the exact location of parts. Page 5 shows the fuselage assembly, the landing gear, and the lower wing and tailwheel attachment positions. A few parts are not clearly shown, such as the tailhook and some of the tiny resin parts that are supposed to be attached to the fuselage. Page 6 shows the wingtip float assemblies, and also the attachment of the upper wing and struts. There is also a rigging and antenna diagram. The tailhook location is somewhat unclear, and there is no indication of the wire bracing on the wingtip floats, although photos show that the insides of the strut assemblies had bracing, and this is shown on the three view drawing. The remainder of the booklet, pages 7 through 16, provides very good color scheme drawings for no less than five different aircraft. Included are a J2F-5, airplane No. 3 of the Fleet Air Photographic Unit Atlantic, stationed at NAS Norfolk during 1941; an Argentine Navy J2F-5 coded 2-0-8, operated in 1950; A J2F-6 operated with a Naval Reserve unit, probably NAS Jacksonville, about 1950 (stars without the red stripe in the side rectangles indicate that this is much too late, or that there was a marking error on the aircraft; an AAF OA-12A assigned to the 10th rescue squadron, Alaska Air Command, based at Ladd AFB, Fairbanks, Alaska, during 1947; and a Coast Guard operated J2F-6 based on a USCG Cutter of the Hamilton class during the war, operating in the standard 3 tone color scheme. Decals are provided for all of these aircraft. Assembly The interior is very detailed, and is made up of a number of resin components, including the cockpit sides, floor, seats, bulkheads, control stick, DF loop antenna, instrument panel, various radios, and a machine gun. By the way, one of the seats was too thin on the bottom, and required adding enough thickness to keep it from looking like a toilet seat, which the airplane was definitely not equipped with, although from the looks of the airplane, it might have been required when being flown under adverse weather and sea conditions. The whole thing is supposed to be engineered to fit inside the cockpit, but when I tried to fit the unit between the fuselage halves, it was too wide. I ended up gluing the side panels to the fuselage inside, and mounting the floor on pedestals I created from scrap plastic. It worked, but it was a harbinger of things to come. The side windows are vacuformed, and with careful trimming, fit nicely inside the holes in the side of the fuselage. However, you can't see very much through them, as they have a kind of "milk bottle bottom" effect. The interior is impressive to look at in the box, but the fit was poor. The wheel wells, also resin, exhibited some of the same problems, as there was nothing to attach them to, and they did not fit snugly on one side. It would have been better to make those components of plastic rather than resin. Once the fuselage halves were suitably repaired, they were joined. They fitted together rather well, almost lining up everywhere, with some filler required, mainly on the upper fuselage decking ahead of and behind the canopy. Whatever detail was supposed to be on the top of the float was lost in the sanding process. The vertical stabilizer was very thick compared with the horizontals, odd since on most airplanes, they are of approximately the same thickness. The horizontals also attach in a strange way that is not really mentioned in the instructions. You are supposed to file down a bevel at the butt end of the part, on the underside, and then glue it onto the rear fuselage in exactly the right place at exactly the right angle. Not easy, but I managed. The lower wings butt fit onto the wing fairings on the sides of the fuselage, and dihedral angle has to be estimated. A good three view drawings is required, and there is no direct front view of the airplane anywhere in the instructions. Considering the detail in the instruction sheet, I found this very unusual. The wings fit OK, although a little filling was required in the joint. At this point, with the lower wings and tail unit attached, the canopy should be attached. There were two different canopies supplied with the kit, and two examples of each. They were vacuformed, but useable. I got mine on during the first try, although some filler was required. I then masked them in preparation for painting. There is some kind of a lip on the rear of both canopy units, one that does not appear either on the actual airplane nor the side view drawings included in the kit. It would have been difficult to fit the canopy without it, and I left it on, as showed in the assembly instructions. It is wrong, but since I was building the kit for review, I for once followed instructions. A bit of malicious compliance, I suppose. Painting the airplane at this stage made things a lot easier. I decided not to follow one of the paint schemes in the instructions, as I wanted to do an early 1942 version with the blue and white star only. I found a couple of photos showing those markings, and did an intermediate blue over neutral grey scheme with six stars in position. It is relatively colorful, and complements the two J2F's I already have in my display cases. I thought I'd have problems attaching the upper wing, but it was easier than I had estimated. At first, I superglued the struts to the lower wings, being careful to align them properly. One "N" strut was molded improperly, and did not line up with the strut locations on the wing. I had to cut it and make the correction. Their positions are faintly marked on the wing surfaces, but drilling a small hole helped to make the locations more visible. Probably a small piece of wire drilled into the ends of the struts would have helped strengthen the structure, but I butt glued them and they held until I was holding the model to attach rigging wires, and then the whole thing came apart. I eventually had to disassemble the whole upper wing structure, reattach the "N" struts with Tenax this time, repaint, and do the whole thing all over again. After a day of drying, I glued the top wing to the struts. After another day of drying, I then attached the cabane struts, which were resin, unlike the "N" struts. A little filing on the upper flat surfaces of the strut assemblies helped line them up. The problem is that the structure is EXTREMELY fragile, and since there is really nothing to hold the struts in position anywhere, either on the wings or fuselage, except for the glue, the model will be excessively fragile and must be handled like nitroglycerine. The least little jar or bump and the whole thing will come apart. Mounting holes and tabs or pins would be a definite improvement on this kit. I don't know why the designers didn't do this when they designed the kit. If I had it to do over again, I would attach the upper wings before painting to get as secure an attachment as possible. The landing gear also went on better than I expected, although they also are just glued in place with no definite attachment points. They were plastic, but attached to the resin wheel wells. I glued the main struts to the sidewall and then let them set at the proper angle. I then attached one of the "V" bracing struts to the lower part of the gear, and the structure was pretty secure. Later, I added the second struts. The tailwheel is nicely detailed, but the tailhook assembly is not explained adequately in the instructions, and I had to refer to other reference materials to get it right. The engine and cowling, made of resin, were well done, and went together easily. For the J2F-6, there is no carburetor air intake above the rear of the cowling, while the J2F-5, or at least some of them, had the scoop. My suspicion is that a number of J2F-5's received the J2F-6 engine during overhauls, thus appearing externally identical to the J2F-6. Two cowlings are provided, along with two nice exhaust stacks that should be installed after the engine and cowling are on the airplane, although the kit instructions state otherwise. The engine looks a little rough, but it is highly detailed. The main problem is the three bladed propeller, which had to be assembled using the resin hub and the plastic blades. I painted and prepared them, but was not satisfied, and ended up using a prop scavenged from an Airfix Douglas SBD. It looked better than the kit prop. Comparison with the Airfix Kit Having appeared at least thirty years later, the Octopus/Pavla kit should be a much better offering, and in a lot of ways it is. The interior detail is infinitely better, and you can actually see some of it through the vacuformed canopy. Nothing below the cockpit floor can be seen through the side windows. On the Airfix kit, not much interior detail can be seen through the injection molded clear canopy or side windows. Engine detail is comparable, while the prop is, I think, superior on the Airfix kit. As far as external detail, panel lines, rivets, etc., the plane is from an era where flush riveting was not an option, and while the Airfix kit has oversize rivets which can be sanded off, the Octopus kit has minimal external detail, such as access panels, retractable handholds, etc. . But realistically speaking, the newer kit looks good, and what external detail is there is very effective. Certainly the wing fabric representation on the new kit is better. The real weakness of this kit is the fact that there is nothing to hold it together, and that it is excessively fragile. I've built and rigged a lot of biplanes over the years, and this is the worst I've ever encountered in that respect. I used the Octopus kit decals on my Airfix kit, and was disappointed that some of the clear edges of the decals remained visible after the decals dried, and no amount of gloss coating reduced their visibility. Obviously, they need to be trimmed right to the edge of the color. Most quality decals these days do not need to be trimmed, but I guess this kit is an exception. They did adhere to the surface very well, however. All in all, the Octopus/Pavla J2F kit is a good one, and is recommended for an experienced modeler with a lot of time on his hands. It is much more labor intensive than the old Airfix kit, but will certainly build up into an excellent model if you can get it to stay together. It promises to be a challenge. However, don't throw away your old Airfix kits, as they can also be built into good models. My only question would be "Why spend almost $40.00 on a kit when the kit it replaces isn't so bad after all, and if you can pick up the Airfix kit for $5.00 at a swap meet, why buy the expensive model? It isn't really that much less work to detail the Airfix kit, which is a lot more fun to build. Reference Material There is not a lot of reference material available on the J2F series. Squadron-Signal did a mini-series on it about ten years ago, and the type is described in William Green's series of WAR PLANES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, Vol. 6, Floatplanes series. The Grumman Guidebook has some good photos. A good internet source would be aerofiles.com, which also has a lot of material on the Loening amphibians, which led to the development of the J2F. Even Googling the J2F will provide some information on the aircraft. So the information is out there; you just have to look for it. Thanks to IPMS/USA for the review model. Building this kit has certainly been a learning experience.

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