This is my build of
a Royal Canadian Navy AEW "Guppy" Avenger. I have wanted to add the
Guppy to my RCN collection after seeing a few pictures. A quick search on the net
and I found that Mach 2 made the Guppy, so after a couple of weeks I had one
from the UK. I knew that the Mach 2 kit was a limited run kit, so I was not
expecting much, but I was still a little disappointed when I opened the box. The
main parts had a rough texture and all the detail parts were buried in a ton of
flash. After looking at the kit I realized the parts were very similar to the
Academy kit sitting in my stash. I compared the 2 kits and realized that Mach 2
used the Academy kit as a basis for their version of the Guppy. I know that
the Academy kit is not the best, but boy did it look like a Tamiyagawa compared
to the Mach 2. I ended up using only the fuselage from the Mach 2
kit. I cleaned
up the fuselage and replaced the grab handles and steps with wire.
All the
parts fit together pretty good, despite they were from different kits. I
scratchbuilt the wheelwells as they were open and added a spare resin
seat and other details to the cockpit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
After the making the
cockpit look a little descent, I wanted to at least see a little of
it. I
thought about opening up the canopy, but decided not too and clean it up
instead. The canopy was very thick and not very clear. I dipped it Future and
glued it to the fuselage. I filled the gaps and proceeded to sand all the
frames off and polish it up so at least you can see through it. After a quick
coat of primer, it was ready for the Light Sea Grey/Dark Sea Grey used by the
RCN in the 50's. I used Eduard Express Mask for the canopy framing.
The markings
were a combination of some Arrow Graphics RCN Roundels and all lettering/
numbers were done using my computer. I finally had a Guppy and now sits
beside my Dark Sea Blue as delivered to the RCN Avenger. If and
when(please soon) Belcher Bits puts out a 72nd version of his wonderful
1/48 RCN
conversion, I can complete my Avenger group.
Thanks for
looking...Cheers
Ryan
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