MyAlbum

Kit and aftermarket. The JRS-1 was the military version of the Sikorsky S-43 "Baby Clipper" that was in civilian service. 

Kit contents 

Very nice color instruction manual and pamphlet on the JRS-1 

This picture is of BuNo 1063 - the subject I will be modeling. Very famous plane - was one of the ten JRS-1s that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack, the plane took off unarmed - with the exception of the crew armed with M1903 Springfield rifles - looking for the Japanese fleet. A nice 5 minute video of the JRS-1 can be watched here:

Youtube Video

Is the only JRS-1 that has survived, and is at the Smithsonian museum (see pictures below). 

 

BuNo 0504, US Navy's first JRS-1. Was replaced by BuNo 1063 as the CO's aircraft, and BuNo 1063 carried the 1-J-1 nose numbers. 

 

 

BuNo 0505 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resin parts ready for a bath - Eduard in gray, CMK in yellow. A blade came off each of my props so those need to be reattached. 

Cockpit bulkhead using CMK bulkhead (a little more detail than the kit part) and the seats from the Eduard standalone PE set. 

 

Cockpit floor panel 

For the plane I'm doing, you need to modify the starboard side fuselage half by (1) filling the two forward most large windows, (2) opening a small window just ahead of those two windows that were filled, and (3) opening a new large window in the open panel between the two rear-most large windows. The small window was approximately 3.5mm and the large approximately 5.5mm. 

Eduard external PE set gives a lot of nice details like for the wheel wells. The kit part gives you a fairly inaccessible injection pin as a detail. 

The bulkheads are a touch too small. To better support the fuselage parts, I added material so that the fuselage parts were well supported. 

Lots of test fitting to make sure everything fits and the fuselage can be buttoned up. I'm using a combination of the kit parts and the CMK set. The CMK set has better details relative to the comparable kit part, but there were some issues like a warped bulkhead and the sliding doors windows were drilled off center. Of course, almost none of this will be seen once the fuselage is closed. 

Hey, look at that! Fuselage is fitting together nicely! 

Half of the resin seats that come with the Eduard boxing had broken armrests. I ended up cutting them all off and replacing them with brass wire. Doubt they will be noticeable, but for some reason, I feel better knowing they are there. 

Interior parts painted and ready to be buttoned up. 

Interior completed. Almost none of this will be visible, so I didn't try to make it pristine.  

Fuselage all buttoned up. Surprisingly, not too much filler needed. Will need plenty to properly seat the canopy. 

 

The rear top rectangular piece was a real pain to fit between the fuselage halves. You can cut them in half and model the plane with the hatch in an open position. It's really hard to close the fuselage halves, and then try to seat the piece in without it sticking up or sinking in. Eventually I got it in a decent position. 

Wing tips come in halves without connection points, so I added brass rod to help have a more secure fit. 

Engine cowlings are too small. Rather than try to file down the engine, I added plastic strip between the cowling halves and a bit of Tamiya 2-part epoxy, and waiting for it to dry before sanding and re-scribing the panel lines. 

CMK tail is a bit off - the fixed part of the tail should be a bit taller so I added plastic strip to the bottom of it. 

Wing is finally almost done. The CMK set has really nice replacement parts for the control surfaces, but this takes a lot of time, and the wing halves themselves aren't exactly a perfect fit. I have a few more pieces of PE to add, as well as the exhausts. 

Fuselage is mostly done. Need to add the canopy, and some bits of PE. Some other detail stuff will probably be left off until later in the build as I will most likely inevitably break them off one or more times. 

Wing finally finished.  

Modified the nose to better match what I think is how the plane actually looked. 

The kit has you assemble the landing gear using five or so very thin plastic pieces. I was worried that the kit parts wouldn't support the model, especially after adding the heavier CMK resin parts, so I scratched the landing gear using a combination of kit parts, brass and plastic tubing, music wire, cut down steel pins, brass rod, and copper wire. Took a ton of time, but everything is pretty stable now. 

 

The kit tail wheel is very oversimplified. After seeing pictures of the actual landing gear, I decided to scratch build the tail wheel assembly. 

Primed the upper wing with Mr. Surfacer gray, followed by a light uneven coating of white primer to get some tonal variation. 

I sprayed the yellow using decanted Tamiya rattle can "Camel Yellow." Sprayed it lightly to keep some tonal variation to avoid the wing looking too plastic. 

Upper wing finally completed 

Primer coats on - Mr. Surfacer 1200 grey, followed by Mr. Surfacer 1500 white for the red band near the tail. 

 

Fuselage completed 

Cool details on this plane 

Engines, props, struts, wheels and floats painted 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally done!