Signifer's 1/48 scale
Grumman Goose JRF-5

by Christian Bruer

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Grumman’s well known Goose is an aircraft with an ageless design. Developed in the 1930s, she was used  in commercial and military roles. Before the Second World War the plane was very popular with businessman for business trips. During the war the Goose was used by the USN,USNM, Coast Guard and the Royal Air Force for coastal and see control and also for reconnaissance missions. Today there are some Gooses still in flight, partly expensive restored with new engines etc.

A few years ago I thougt the Goose was one of the planes that never would be put out by any manufacturer, and than, one day there are two in my favourite scale 1/48! Sometimes wishes come true! After taking a look to the Czech Model and the Signifer kit in online reviews I decided to buy Signifers Goose. I found her a little bit more detailed and in some areas easier to build, but that’s only my opinion!

The multi media kit contains injection moulded parts for the main fuselage and wings and a lot of resin parts for the whole interior, engines, bow compartment, floats, rudders, gear etc. It is really worth stiffening the gear with some wire for carying the weight of the plane. The cockpit and cabin windows are well done and clear. The only thing I miss was the cabin door to open! 

Building the kit was very tricky and in some cases I need my whole experience to finish the model well. To set the interior resin parts into the fuselage halfs needs a lot of attention, correction and regulation. There are also some areas to fill and sand. After that it was necessary to rework some panellines and fine rivets on the surface.

But, so what, this is an short run kit and its modelmaking!

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After leaping some hurdles the main parts where finished and ready for painting. The whole interior was painted and weathered before and this was really fun because of the very fine and detailed parts.

The seats were nicly done also the cokpit and radio compartment. I decided to fix the wings after painting the model and so it was easy to handle the parts.

My USN Goose is painted in the typical tree color scheme in FS 35164 Intermediate Blue, FS 35042 Sea Blue und FS 37875 White.

I used Xtrcolors for painting the model. I spent a lot of time to make the weathering even along the waterline to get an realistic effect of color worn by salt water. The decals are out of the box and it was easy to work with. I used only a little bit Micro Sol and Micro Set.

There is a lot of work to do to get a good result but, for me, it is worth it when I see the finished model.

The main advantages of the kit are the beautifully done resin and injection mould parts. The wings and fuselage surface is covered with extremly fine engraved panel lines and rivets. Some parts  need some more attention to get a good fit. There are also some mistakes; the profile on the outline of the vertical fin is much to thick and the profile of the cockpit window is not compare with the original Goose. But, and that is what counts, I had a lot of fun to build this unique and highly detailed kit.  

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2008 by Christian Bruer
Page Created 21 January, 2008
Last Updated 21 January, 2008

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