Hi all!

I finally started the Medics campaign and will post some in-progress pics of my Grumman JRF Goose in French Indochina EVASAN markings. The kit is from Signifer (French brand) and in 1/48 scale. Below is the picture that inspired me for this campaign.



So far I only cleaned the numerous resin parts of the kit. It took me a few yours!



For those who aren't used to resin (there are still some recalcitrant), here's a "before/after" example of the cleaning process. On tiny parts you often have to take away more resin than left on the part itself!



See you for the next episode! Stay tuned!

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

After a (to long) break of two weeks, I'm working again on my Goose!

I sanded the various resin parts and test fitted them in the fuselage. Looks pretty busy no? :-)



It would have been a shame if all that detail would have been hidden behind the little windows!!! So I decided to cut the right fuselage door. I first added depth to the door sides, then used my dremel to thin the door from the inside until I could see light through it. It was long but did preserve the door with it's details...



Tomorrow I will do some paint work on the inside parts. I think this will not be an easy task!

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-luc

Looks good so far. A small question wouldn't an air ambulance have some of seats removed to fit a stretcher in

I have the naval Fighters book on the Goose let me know if you want any pictures from it.

David

Ahh the Grumman Goose, brings me fond memories of my very old Airfix days. Of course the Airfix one was no way near to the detail on your model. Well looking at the pile of "garbage" I'd have to say the company definitely didn't shortchange you on resin, Jean-Luc.


Its a great idea to expose the interior. The work you've done so far looks really good. Looking forward to the finished model, insides and all.

Jean-Luc,

I have to agree with David. The chairs should go, no?!?

I'm also building a flying ambulance - the Junkers W34. The interior is extremely sparce in order to make room for the lower and upper stretcher. There's a chair for the medic, hinges for the stretchers, a first aid box, a communication tube to the cockpit, a red cross sign... and that's pretty much it!! Unfortunaltely I don't have any digital images that I can send you.

Love that Goose, though. Gonna build myself a Goose one day (Yes, the SwAF did fly one!). I have to find a decent kit in 1/72, though. Any suggestions?!?



The Swedish version was painted in bright orange and was initially used as an ambulance plane in the snowy north! There are no red crosses on the plane on the picture, which indicates that it must have been taken in the late 50's or early 60's, when the ambulance service had been taken over by private enterprises.

Looking forward to your finished work!!! I just know that it is going to be good!!

Cheers!

Hi David... and Polarbear!

David, I wanted to answer you about the interior in my next update but since Polarbear mentionned it too...

First, your remarks are relevant! I asked myself exactely the same question: wouldn't be the seats removed for such missions? It seems to be logical. However, I decided to build the model with the seats and here are my reasons:

- First is the time factor. The campaign ends in one month and I want to get the model finished until then. At least I can try! So I don't want to make too much scratchbuilding and it would have been a pity not to use the detailed seats of the kit
- Second, I have unfortunately no pictures of the interior of an EVASAN Goose and I can't wait to get some for the above reason. So, no refs!
- Third reason, for conscience's sake, is to think that some planes, maybe not all, could have kept their seat for the transport of less wounded persons or refugees. I believe more could have been transported in the seated position rather than laying on stretchers. I don't think the Goose was big enough to make upper and lower stretchers... but I could be wrong!

But thank you for pointing that out! It's an interesting remark and maybe someone (hopefully after the kit is finished :-) ), could give us some infos about that...

David, I thank you again for the great pics you have send me! Now I have two refs of French EVASAN Goose and one more Dilemma about the red crosses Thanks! :-)

Keep the remarks coming guys. I welcome them!

Jean-Luc

Jean-Luc!

Touché! No less than 3 good reasons! :-) :-) :-)

As long you are not in breach of the Geneva convention (which I believe would prohibit the use of vehicles marked with the red cross for other missions than transporting at least somewhat wounded people...), I'm happy!!!

I've tried to find more info on the web regarding the transport capacity of the ambulance version of the Goose, and maybe find some pictures of the interior. So far, I have found very little in this regard. Stubborn as I am, I even went down to the local bookstore for militaria (there is a book covering all ambulance aircraft used by the Swedish Airforce). Unfortunately, the store was closed...

If I find more info, I'll contact you!!

Cheers!

Hi all!

Thanks for your help Polarbear but I don't know if I should be happy about that! :-) David e-mailed me some interior pictures and now I'm in the process of scratchbuilding the floor, the sides and the emergency exit of the passenger's cabine! I WANTED TO BUILD THIS THING OUT OF THE BOX! Damn! You got me... And I said in the review of the kit if someone wanted to add more to this kit, he should go to the doctor for a visit!

In fact, as I opened the fuselage's door it was like opening Pandoras Box! I noticed there was a gap visible were the wings meet the fuselage (see red area on first picture), so I HAD to do something about that...



I also noticed the floor was too short, so I had to scratchbuild a new one! You can compare the picture from my previous post with the one below...



As you can see, I also added the emergency exit that will be visible right in front of the door's opening.

You could now think this is a poorly designed kit, but it is not! If you build it with the door closed, all this wouldn't be necessary! So if the kit is fighting with me, it's only my fault...

Well, I better return to my workbench, the goose is waiting...

Jean-Luc

Hi CK!

Sorry for the late reply!

In fact, the molding garbage wasn't that important... the resin pieces are really well molded. There was a lot of resin garbage because there was a lot of resin pieces in the kit!

You can find a review of the kit here

Thanks for your comments!

Jean-Luc

Gee, Jean-Luc! I'm totally impressed!!!

Now I feel obligated to scratch-build the interior of my Junkers W34 (which I had hoped to leave without any detail, given that it's 1/72...) :-) :-)

If possible, please share the interior pics. I'm going to build a bright orange goose in the future!

Hi Jean_luc

Found this 1/72 decal sheet on the web that might help you.
http://www.flightdecs.ca/ART72042.htm

PolarBear Sword do a 1/72 Grumman Goose the following links have more information.
http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=SWO7211
http://www.seawings.co.uk/IM-reviewpage-goose.htm

David

Hi David!

According to the decal sheet, there are only four red crosses in total: two on the fuselage sides and two on the underside of the wings... Hmm... annoying... What about the red crosses on the upper surface of the wings? I still think I'll add them too until someone comes with a 100% sure reference I believe the model will look better with them.

About the red crosses, I found, by looking at the refs I have, that they have various designs... seems more than one painter did the job!

Anyway, here's the actual stage of the model. Not a lot more than two days ago but I can at least begin with the painting of the parts...



Jean-Luc

Thanks for the tip, David! I ordered the Sword Goose and the Swedish decals today.

Boy, is it ever going to be orange!!! :-) :-) :-)

Hi Polarbear!

It seems the JRF is capable of reproduction! I'm happy to welcome a little orange Goose!

Concerning mine, I managed to make the final adjustments and test fittings and get the parts ready to paint.



I decided to follow the pictures on the kit's box and opted for a "chamois" color rather than interior green. I don't know if it is historicaly accurate, but it will give a nice contrast to the darker French Navy color of the plane. I think the interior will be even more visible with the lighter color. So I sprayed the interior with Tamiya's dark Yellow as base color and will add some white in it for a second spraying...



Next time I'll post pictures of the cockpit area as well...

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

The Goose is close... to be closed!

I've done almost all the interior painting and now I can show you pics of the cockpit area...



I sprayed the parts first with Tamiya Dark Yellow acrylics (see previous post) and then highlighted it with the same color + White. After that I dry brushed with enamels (beige) and sprayed with a mix of future and Dark Yellow.



Once dry, I added the additional colors: Dark Grey for the instruments panels and the radio console, Olive Drab for the seat's tissus, Blue Grey for the anchor, Yellow + White for the rope etc... A wash was added by mixing Klear (Klir in France) with Black and Red Tamiya gloss acrylics (X not XF) and I finished with the details...



It's a time consuming job because you have a lot more interior parts in this kit than in average ones... so be prepared! A few hours are needed!
But the detail level of the parts is so amazing that you will be rewarded for your work!

Next time the Goose will be closed... forever! Doh...

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

It's done! The fuselage halves have been glued together...

One difficult area was the windshield. The injected clear part is quite thick and you have to test fit it carefully to have an acceptable result. Even with that, some putty will be needed to get rid of all the imperfections...



The resin parts inside where also a little bit too big so I added some plastic to fill the resulting gaps...

After the obligatory sanding, it will be time to concentrate on the wings and engines...

Jean-Luc

Your Goose is looking very nice so far Jean-luc. It does seem a shame to hide the interior, but a least you have got some photos of it.
Just a couple of things that have got me thinking
1- wouldn't they have a bigger door, as it looks a bit tight to fit injured people through
2- If there are no red crosses on the wing tops how would a attacking plane know its red cross (especially when its sitting in the water).
Anyway keep up the good work as i have been following this build with interest.
Thanks Andy

Hi Andy!

You just gave me another reason not to remove the seats in the cabin! On the pics I have, the doors are the same as the original plane... quite small. I just think they only flew less injured people in those planes, those that still could walk and seat. Maybe refugees (see previous posts).
I also believe markings on the wings are logical. But the planes in EVASAN markings flew after the cease-fire and they didn't had to fear ennemy fire... in principle! So crosses on the wings may have not been painted.
Anyway, I will paint the crosses on the wings as well. I guess there can be a part of "artistic freedom" in every model! I will build mine as some sort of "hommage" to all the French EVASAN Gooses and not one in particular...

Thanks for your interesting remarks! Keep them coming!

Jean-Luc

Just to prove that it was possible to get a stretcher on a Goose #:-)

The patient was evacuated from a ship at sea by US Coast Guard. If a stretcher can fit through the emergency exit, it should go through the main door.

About the upper wing crosses, I don't think that the Viet Minh had any aircraft. So the French probably wern't worried about air attack. But Indochina/Vietnam has mountainous areas so upper wing markings make sense to me. Your choices for markings and seating arrangements make sense to me Jean-Luc.

Looking forward to seeing more progress

David

Hi David!

Thanks for sharing this picture! I didn't though someone would come with a picture like that! Seems I underestimated the Armorama Power! :-)

Anyway, it's very instructive! Maybe I could scratchbuild some stretchers that would have been placed between the seat rows...

Thanks again!

Jean-Luc

Thanks Jean-luc and David, you learn something new everyday .

Never underestimate the Armorama Power! :-)

I don't know about you French, but us Swedes usually takes the door!!!




Your making very nice progress, and as long as your comfortable with keeping the seats - à la bonheur!!! :-)

Cheers!!!

Hi Björn!

I still haven't glued all the seats... I left two aside in case I change my mind and do some stretchers... it's just a question of time!
But in all case, I'll put some for the doctor and the nurse! :-)

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

My Goose has got wings... finally!



With carefull dry fitting and sanding, I managed to get the wings to the fuselage. I won't lie to you, some filler was needed here but the result is good and I will only have to rescribe some panel lines... but this will be no big deal.
I also painted the engines and I'm in the process of preparing the whole thing for airbrushing...



I think next time my Goose will be Dark Blue! :-)

Jean-Luc

Hi all!

It took some time, but I've sanded my model, rescribed the lost panel lines and got it ready for painting... at last!

I first glued all the detail parts as the plane will be overall French Navy Dark Blue... I began with the floats and already did the rigging...



Then I applied a coat of Humbrol Metal Cote for later weathering...



Finally I applied a mix of Tamiya's Navy Blue (XF17) and Flat blue (XF8). The colors appears lighter on the pictures than in reality...



Next episode will be applying the big red crosses... that's why I'm buiding this model after all

Jean-Luc