NAA SNJ-6: USMC VMT-2

Artist's impression of what the SNJ should look like.  

Preserved SNJ at MCAS Miramar museum. 

Flying example from airshow circuit. 

Another flying example.  

Monogram 1/48 Miller Lite SNJ transformed into SNJ-5 of H&MS-? at MCAS Cherry Point, NC. We used generic Microscale numbers & letters after the original MS sheet shattered when it hit the water.  

This is a father-daughter with my younger daughter. We started about 2000-2001. She wanted a "shiny" plane, so after reading a FSM article, we purchased Nestle Crunch bars, ate the chocolate and carefully saved the foil wrappers, cleaned, straightend and pressed them before applying foil glue and rolling them onto wax paper covered paper towel tubes for storage. 

The Microscale #48-74 directions said to paint the cowling red. That was the easiest part of the build. Photos of restored aircraft show green, black or gray. In fact the whole airframe is gray. So not sure which is correct. We went with the foil. After sitting in the closet for almost 20 years, the propeller shaft went missing, so I substituted a toothpick.  

As this is my daughter's plane, so we were really disappointed that the old MS decals shattered upon coming in contact with the water. She still wanted Marine markings, so I foulnd some generic letters/numbers and she made the same WD-41 as the original shattered MS sheet. However I did not have the correct size MARINES, so I subsituted the largest size from a 1/72 sheet along with the tiny CHEERY POINT station name on the tail. 

Cockpit close up. While my now adult daughter did most of the final assembly, she asked me to do the canopy framing. I used E-Z Masks for the cockpit glazing and Molotow chrome pen for the framing. Worked beautifully! Matches the chrome foil nicely, don't you think?