The Atom Furnace: A Rehab/Diorama, or the Double Rehab -1/72 OS2U Kingfisher

This photo appeared in this Blog once before in a somewhat obscure post about Planes, a collection of different models I had worked on at one time or another. This old kit, that I freshened up, nagged at me. It needed to be displayed somehow and not just sit cockeyed on its pontoon. I have a piece of packing foam, and I thought about creating an ocean base as I did with The Enemy Below diorama I did about a year ago (see the list of Project pages just to your right).

I did some research about the Kingfisher and found something curious......

......Some may recognize this photo of F6F and Avenger aircrews clinging to a Kingfisher. Battle at the Truk Atoll in April 1944 had BB-55, USS North Carolina protecting the flat tops carrying out the attacks. North Carolina's OS2Us were launched on April 30 for rescue duty. JG Lt. John Burns landed his Kingfisher in the Truk lagoon to pick up a downed airman that had been languishing under Japanese guns for 22 hours. His companion Kingfisher flipped on is back in a gust of wind when it landed so Burns had to pick them up too! He taxied them almost 6 miles to the waiting submarine USS Tang that was on rescue duty. Burns then took off and was radioed about other downed crews. He landed again in 5 foot seas and over the next four hours Burns picked up seven more crew and spread them over the wings and fuselage of the Kingfisher. The plane was taking a beating and the main pontoon had commenced leaking, so Lt. Burns ferried the crews out to sea and again found USS Tang, that had recently re-appeared on station. They were all picked up, including Burns and his radio man. It was fortunate for Burns that he was below deck and did not witness the orders of the Tang Captain to use the deck gun to put the battered, but valiant Kingfisher out of her misery. Burn's received the Navy Cross.

This is a Kingfisher on the deck of the Museum Ship North Carolina (BB55). My intent is to emulate the paint scheme, find aircrew and recreate the daring rescue scene.

This artists portrait done in 1943 confirms some of the paint scheme as best I can tell.

So the search for 1/72 aircrews is on. In the meantime the rehab of my rehab will begin.

The first thing to do is pull off the canopies. This is a rescue so the canopies would not be closed. It is not real clear, but I have cut into the foam for the pontoon(s) and you may be able to tell that the plane is sitting back in (what will be) the water as seen in the actual rescue photo above. My plan is to have the timing of the rescue in between that of the photo and the artists concept. I have ordered a raft from Shapeways so the diorama will have a few crew on the wing(s) and in a raft. I am looking for more visual interest - fingers crossed🙏

The Wasp junior (R-985-4) was never detailed so I tried to add a bit, insitu. Getting to the cylinders was tricky at this scale. Also made the crank case gray (not happy with that piece, as it is flat and not rounded as it is supposed to be - oh well). Touched up the propeller hub and tips.

I had pulled out the crew and turned the Radio man/gunner around to face forward and then trimmed up and replaced the rear canopies in open position. Note the gray strip behind the cockpit. I had to add lengths of styrene rod to build up the canopy track so that the canopy could properly sit in the open position (for which it was NOT designed).

I brushed on some ghost gray as a primer to the formerly blue underside. Note the only panel lines on this plane are control surface lines - it is a simple kit devoid of panel line detail.

Much has taken place - masking and spraying Navy Blue and the inadvertent deconstruction of the pontoons. I will not explain my fax pas but only say that it coincidentally resulted in a painting advantage. I am still wavering on the final look of this Kingfisher. There are way too many examples from which to chose. I don't think I will know how it will turn until it's done😜

I layered on the Ghost Gray instead of spraying. My rationalization was that it is the underside that will not be as noticeable in the final diorama - ok, ok, I did not feel like re-masking everything. I succumbed to a bout of laziness. It happens! Also notice the two tone of the pontoon supports and pylons. I guess my decision on paint scheme has been made.

With the pontoons reattached the final painting is completed. Actually I did mask and add the Tamiya medium blue (used on the Midway SBD 2-3) before attaching the pontoons.

A bit of Tamiya Weathering Master (soot) and it is time for decals. I have to quit with the morning photos - too much backlight. Anyway, I have asked brother Bob if he has any decals. I will look in my stash as I recall I did not use the Stars and Bars from the Lindberg B-17 kit. Although 1/64 scale, the B-17 fuselage may work out on the 1/72 Kingfisher wing. Stay tuned.

I was correct and the smaller of the Stars and Bars from the Lindberg B-17 are 3cm long and fit the wings nicely. The underside was a bit tricky since the Bars are both under the pontoon struts and under the bomb hard point. The problem is that the molded hard point is solid so I had to cut off a portion of the Bar, slice off a section the width of the hard point, and piece it in, It turned out just fine.

Now to search for fuselage Stars and Bars about 1.75cm in length - UHG! In the meantime I will work on the radio wire and antenna. Oh, did I forget to mention that two air crew and my 3D print Raft arrived in the mail........

........The Diorama in ON! Now back to the decals.

As I scratched my head about how to solve the Stars and Bars on the fuselage problem I took a look in my stash and found these! I now recalled that these were from the 1/72 scale P 26 I ordered (to get big red dot stars for the wooden Sparrowhawk rehab). Half the problem seemed solved but I would have to resort to algebra and paint for Bars to go with the Stars. I had known dimensions of large B & Ss and known dimensions of the small Bs. I calculated that my small Bars needed to be 3mm x 2mm. Let the masking begin.

Add paint.

Unmask.

Slide in the decal Stars! The paint is a bit "whiter" but will have to do.

I stretched and trimmed some sprue, pulled off a length of my ever useful monofilament and the mast and radio wire were in place to finish off the Kingfisher. Now to the raft and crew. The Avenger was a large aircraft and carried a raft with paddles and provisions.

The raft color was painted black then yellow, the brown straps were added with a yellow brush coat over the top. There are two paddles using black yellow and then brown. The two containers are not identified, so I painted one black and one yellow and brown with a blue lid to signify water, but I am rethinking that they should be a military gray or green?? I have started in on the two flyers and am following the picture on the package for colors of shoes flight suit etc, I have the faces yet to paint as well as finishing the head gear.

I have put the crew together and completed basic painting. Touch up and weathering needed, but staging has begun.

I have ordered an additional pair of fliers for distribution on the wing(s) and I glued chip board to the foam base. I can begin the ocean surface now, so stand by!

The ocean is beginning. I have my watered down Elmer's glue in my tray and am laying on pieces of the "Charmin" and patting it down with a sponge applicator.

It does not take long to get a layer down and now it has to dry to see if it will adhere properly to the packing foam. The surface looks pretty rough - which is what I want. I enhanced this by placing some pieces of the foam (I had shaved off of the edges and dug out for the Kingfisher pontoons) under the tissue paper. Three layers of the Charmin should provide a stiff surface for painting.

My other crew has arrived. Now I can paint them while the third layer of tissue dries. I will not be using green but I like that the detail on these includes the O2 masks. They have a different look and are slightly larger that the other crew, both positives!

Without belaboring the paint mixing, I came up with colors that I wanted. The flight jackets are a glossy brown, so I hope they look wet. They need touch up and weathering. The airman on the right came with a choice for the right arm (all others were molded to the torso), so I chose the upright one to simulate a salute.

A "Staging" example - I do like the position of the crewman giving Lt. Burns the much deserved Salute, but I think it makes more sense to have them all on the starboard side - the direction of the planes list (outrigger in the water).

Yep - better, so I glued them into position. Neither the Kingfisher nor the raft will be fixed into position until I get paint on the ocean. Of course now I have to wait for paint to arrive - UGH! I thought I had enough but my black and dark blue acrylic were gone and dried up. I should have checked earlier.

The Blue acrylic I ordered finally arrived. I thought I had ordered black as well but it was not included. Just as well since I had a dark blue/green already. The color worked out well as Pacific lagoon water. I generally brush on blue first and then daub in the green. Sometimes I added a bit more blue, but your eye has to guide you. I worked in small section so the paint would stay moist adding white to the ridges that I created while applying the tissue paper. Some were like waves breaking as well as mixing in for the wake of the pontoons.

Now the paint needs to dry completely. Then I will add the Vallejio Water Texture with additional bits of tissue for breaking waves on the pontoon and around the raft. As I mentioned previously this is a snapshot of the Truk rescue. There is another 3 airman out there that Lt. Burns will pick up before heading out to sea to locate the USS Tang.

After squirting the Vallejio on the surface and daubing it down in a couple of layers the surface is taking on the shiny wet look. Now I put the Water Texture in the tray and throw in bits of tissue.