The genesis of this kit is pretty interesting. It all started with an Airfix model issued in 1984, that allowed construction of an U-2A or D (boxs says B/D) with small inlets. The same model was issued in the USA by MPC with a few extra parts (long 'canoe' spine, larger bulged intakes, extra cooling inlet and an extra bulged Q-bay hatch), allowing a C version too. Airfix reissued the model in May 2005, now listed as a U-2A/C/D, including the MPC parts. Reviews and build reports of the Airfix/MPC kit can be found on the Modeling Madness, SMAKR (Derrick Winters), SMAKR (Mark Braithy), SMAKR (Kevin Ronayne), IPMS London and Datguy on ARC Forums sites.
Academy copied the Airfix/MPC kit in 1987, rearranged the sprue lay-out, and gave it engraved panel lines. There are minor differences between the kits however. For example, the Airfix/MPC kit has a solid fin attached to the left fuselage half, whereas the Academy kit has fin halves attached to each fuselage half, Academy's pogo wheels are more detailed, and Academy's inlets are narrower than the Airfix equivalents. A built-up example by Mark Davies can be seen on Hyperscale and IPMS Auckland. A very nice Academy all-black USAF U-2C can be found on Keith Goodman's website. Reportedly there is an Ace rip-off of the Academy kit, but I never saw solid evidence. Finally the Academy mould was sold to Seminar, who did little more than remove the Academy logo from the sprues. The earliest report of this kit that I found is from 1999. I don't think Seminar models are distributed in Europe or America. My example came via Australia. Noteworthy is that the box sides show a U-2R photo, and the box art also resembles a U-2R somewhat, especially the nose, which the artist made too long.
Apart from the above four more or less identical models, there are two more early U-2's in 1/72 scale. Rareplanes issued a vacform model of the U-2 in August 1979, and thus predated the Airfix model by five years. The kit is largely identical in layout, details and options to the injection moulded kits, and although it is a nice vac, it is not worth the extra work. Airmodel also made a vacformed U-2, reportedly a D, but I am not sure. It's catalog number was 152 (no longer listed on the Airmodel site), and it consisted of one sheet with fuselage halves, wing halves, and two horizontal stabilizer pieces, plus a clear vacformed canopy. No decals or small parts like the landing gear are included. Wilfried Eck of the "1. Plastikmodellbauclub Nürnberg e.V." built the Airmodel U-2.
The quality of the Academy/Seminar kit is reasonably good I think. It's a fairly simple kit, with only a few main components and not too many smaller parts. I have never read any negative comments on the shape, so it seems there are no big problems there, except the flat canopy. The panel line scribing is done nicely, and so far I haven't found obvious errors. The kit has two sets of intakes (small U-2A and bulged U-2C), two different optional spines, and optional small slipper tanks. This allows about any early U-2 version to be built. The wings show some warpage. The fuselage has a large number of sink marks. The rear half of the vertical tail is much too thick, ending in a very overscale trailing edge. I guess the original Airfix single-piece tail is better in that respect. A contrail-checking mirror is not included. Two Q-bay hatches are included: one that strangely lacks any camera openings, and a bulged one without windows as used in the UK for tests of the Advanced Location Strike System. The canopy has a strange pimple in the middle of the canopy. More serious is that the canopy is too flat. Some parts and the sprues have some flash, but nothing too serious. The decals look pretty bad. During construction I found some small errors; refer to the build report below for these.
I performed some measurements of the kit's dimensions. Fuselage length between the tip of the nose and the exhaust edge should be 203.4 mm according to the fuselage station plan in the Aerofax book, and I measured around 201.5 mm. A 1% error is quite acceptable I think. The fuselage width between the flaps scaled out within 0.5 mm, pretty good too. To be continued.
Aftermarket accessories for the U-2 in 1/72 scale are very limited, I only found two Micro/Superscale U-2 sheets, 72-461 (U-2A, NASA, 4080 SRW, 100 SRW) and 72-462 (U-2A/C/D AFFTC, 4080 SRW, 9 SRW), and Wolfpak Decals 72-023 (U-2C in the Sabre scheme). A big contrast to 1/48 scale, where Cutting Edge had an extensive line for the U-2 with eleven resin sets (seven were discontinued in July 2006) and three decal sheets. See for example this Modeling Madness decal review.
I found two U-2 modeling articles in magazines: Fine Scale Modeler had a two-page article by Paul Boyer about building the 'Ram's Horn' U-2 from the Airfix/MPC kit in its May 1990 issue, and Scale Aircraft Modelling, August 2001 issue, had a six-page article by Frank Cuden, building an Edwards U-2 with satellite dropping test equipment and a 'howdah' sunshield.
I knew I wanted to do a civilian-registered CIA example: I really like the contrast between the aircraft's mission and the "it's only a civilian aircraft" registration. Photos of nearly every number between N800X and N809X exist. After a long study I selected N803X as the aircraft that I wanted to do. Assuming that the registration was assigned to a single airframe (which I doubt somewhat), there are some six photos of this single aircraft. The photos appear to show one and the same aircraft, with the exception of some small underfuselage items.
According to the 1983 Aerograph book, N803X was 56-6683, possibly 'Article 350', the 9th production U-2A (not counting the proto), assigned to the Agency. According to this quite detailed Pinetree Line page, Article 350 / 56-6683 / N803X was not used for East Block overflights by 'Detachment A' (Wiesbaden & Giebelstadt), but possibly it was by 'Detachment B' (Incirlik & Lahore). However, during the Cuba crisis two CIA U-2C's were loaned to the USAF, which until then had never updated its U-2's to C standard. One of them was 56-6683, and on return from a flight over Cuba on 20 November 1963, it crashed north-west of Key West, FL. USAF Pilot Joe G. Hyde was killed. Note: the N803X registration was later used on U-2R 68-10329, during its first flight on 28 August 1967.
It took me a long time to determine what version N803X was, but now I'm pretty sure N803X was an early U-2C. I have most major books on the subject of the U-2, but they all have different interpretations of the model designations. This online CIA document on the U-2 activities adds to the confusion, claiming that the J57-P31 powered U-2A was designated U-2B. The latest sources seem to converge however, agreeing on the following two basic versions:
U-2B: now described as a proposed bomber version
I found a few photos that illustrate the inlet issue fairly clearly. Jay Miller's Aerofax 'Lockheed U-2', page 56, has a photo of a U-2 approaching a tanker, Jay Miller's 'Skunk works', page 77, shows a U-2 on the tanker's boom. The former clearly shows the original small inlets, which cause a kink in the fuselage sides just ahead of the wing leading edges; the latter clearly has the enlarged but non-bulged intakes, and a continuous curve of the fuselage sides. 'Lockheed Blackbirds' by Thornborough and Devies, page 32, has photos of two U-2C's, the upper with bulged inlets, the lower with straight inlets. N803X as seen in the photos below has the interim large inlets, best seen in the first photo below, and also in the one-but-last photo.
N803X photos
Lockheed staged a photo session with Kelly Johnson and Frank Powers, using U-2 N803X, and an F-104 in the background. I found five different photos of the shoot. The only color reproduction was found in 'A-12 Declassified'. It clearly shows that N803X was painted dark blue instead of black. Johnson's suit is not a bad match for the color! :-) The photo clearly shows the large U-2C inlet of the non-bulged type.
The second photo comes from the Aerofax book (page 19), showing Johnson posing with his creation. Note the F-104 in the background as in the first photo. Outlets just left of Johnson's face are probably airco related.
The elevated view shown below probably shows N803X after the Johnson/Powers photo shoot, moved forward a few meters. The walkway lines appear to be white or perhaps gray, with red 'NO STEP' markings (hardly visible, but they are there). A Cutting Edge 1/48 decal sheet also appear to have white walkway lines with red 'NO STEP' markings. N803X had no red turbine warning stripe.
A nearly identical photo in black and white was found in Osprey's 'American spyplanes' (page 9). The main difference is the crew man missing (or erased?). According to the caption, the photo was made at Palmdale. Note how much clearer the 'NO STEP' markings are. A possible explanation is the use of different film, panchromatic instead of orthochromatic black and white film. Ortho film shows red as black, pan film shows a realistic grey value. Another interesting observation is the lack of a RWR antenna and fuel dump pipe between the flap and aileron. The shadow probably shows it most clearly :-)
'U-2 in action', page 20, has this photo of Johnson and Powers posing a conversation. Since Powers was held prisoner some 18 months after his 1 May 1960 shoot down and released in Febraury 1962, and the aircraft crashed in November 1963, the photos were probably taken in this time slot.
William Wagner's 'Lightning Bugs' (page 1) has a photo with a slightly different angle. Pogo gear has a 'remove before flight' tag attached.
Another shot of N803X, showing its right side. Antenna wire just visible. I think I see several 'Remove before flight' tags attached to the aircraft's landing gears.
And yet another one, after landing on the taxiway. The large inlets can be seen again in this view.
This photo, published on the cover of 'The U-2 Spyplane - Toward the Unknown', was made with an unidentified U-2 fitted with slipper tanks. Again it shows a nice dark blue camouflage color. Note the orange-red pogo.
The last photo strongly appears to have been made on the same occasion (note for example the position of the sun), and identifies the aircraft as N800X for what it's worth. The camouflage color is undeniably dark blue.
U-2 modifications
Chris Pococks' "50 years of the U-2" is the first reference that puts dates/years on airframe modifications. I'm adding them here as I find them while reading.
- page 226: shield under exhaust increased from 90 to 150 degrees
- page 226: ECM equipment (System 13A) moved from slipper tanks to bubble fairing behind tail wheel
- page 236: August 1965 decision to re-engine SAC U-2As with J75, making them U-2Cs
- page 236: improved version of J75-P13 developed as P13B, increasing thrust from 15,800 to 17,000 pounds, during 1965-1966. Inlets with widened opening were needed for best performance. 'Coke bottle' inlets with widened opening introduced on U-2C/F/G during 1966-1967
- page 240: System 20: a rearward facing small pod on the right wing's trailing edge. It contained an infra-red detector, to detect exhaust plume of intercepting fighters. Tested during 1967 for U-2R, but also retrofitted to all remaining U-2s
- page 246/247: provision for drop tanks added to CIA U-2C/F/Gs during 1965-1966, since slipper tanks were now used for ECM. Tanks were modified Sargent-Fletcher fire bombs. However, ECM was moved to fuselage by the time the drop tanks were cleared for use. Photos on pages 246 and 248
Construction
Fuselage
I worked a little on the fuselage so far. It has sink marks near all the position pins, which require filling. The spine fairing behind the canopy has a continious slope, which is not correct. I made a kink in the middle, so the rear half runs horizontal. This gives the whole cockpit area a slightly bulged look, which appears more realistic to me.
Inlets
I built two sets of inlets, because I initially thought N803X had U-2A inlets, and then changed my mind to the interim U-2C inlets. For reference I will report my adventures with both sets.
In build reviews I had read about fit problems with the inlets. But no-one remarked that the Academy inlets are way too narrow, even for the small-intake U-2A version (the Airfix parts appear to be wider). And the boundary layer slot is much too wide! I solved the latter problem by roughly halving the thickness of the wedge on the fuselage that creates the boundary layer slot. The inlet parts still fitted reasonably after that. To increase the width of the inlets, I glued strips of plastic card to the outboard parts. They formed a wedge that was about 1 mm at the front. The inboard parts were also slightly modified, removing the step in the interior, about 3 millimeters behind the forward edge. Although I expected lots of problems giving the wider intake a nice curvature around the widened areas, this was quite easy. The two panel lines were rescribed and the inlets were declared ready. The photo shows the inlets after being painted satin black, so you can't see the wedges. I drew in fake white wedges in the right inlet, to make clear what I did. The improved (enlarged) inlet openings can be seen. I write 'improved' because they are not perfect. The cross section is not completely accurate, the corners should be sharper. I don't mean the radius, but the angle at which the outboard and inboard faces meet.
The clearest photos of the interim U-2C inlets that I found are those of Powers U-2 wreckage on display in Moscow, and I used these as my guide. The kit's U-2C inlets have the same problem as the U-2A inlets: they are too narrow, and the bleed slot is too wide. I assembled the parts with a tapered strip of plastic between them, just like the U-2A inlets. Looking back, the amount of widening is still not enough! Next I scraped and sanded the bulges off, creating the 'interim' U-2C inlets. I used Milliput and Tamiya putty to make smooth inlet interiors. When I installed the inlets on the fuselage I noted that adding a wedge-shaped filler wasn't the right answer, since the fit against the bleed slot wasn't very good. I should have added a strip between the inlet parts. Instead I added inversely tapered strips of plastic card to the upper and lower edges of the inlets. I painted the interiors yellow in preparation for a chromate yellow interior, but I'm doubting that color choice now.
Something I haven't tried yet is whether the inlets of the Special Hobby or Highplanes U-2R / TR-1 models would be a good starting point. Since the engine wasn't changed in this redesign, the inlets could be identical.
Exhaust
The kit has an engine exhaust part, but I believe its diameter is way too small. The interior of the rear fuselage has a cone-shaped exhaust that is equally unrealistic. I removed the cone-shaped area with knives and sandpaper. I still don't know whether the exhaust exhaust pipe runs up to the edge of the tail pipe, or whether it ends about 20-30 centimeters inside the fuselage. On the U-2R it ends inside the rear fuselage, but I still haven't found a good photo of the first generation U-2 (Aerofax pages 83 and 120 show something). Judging from the frame internal diameter, the engine exhaust has exactly the diameter of the rear fuselage opening.
N803X clearly has an extended rear lower fuselage part ('sugar scoop'), shielding the engine exhaust. This shouldn't be too difficult to add. The Aerofax book has the fuselage station numbers of the extension.
Q-bay hatch
The part that forms the lower hatch of the Q-bay has no camera windows at all, which is kinda disappointing for a recce aircraft! Interestingly, all my references up to say 2000 appear to be censored: not a single photo or drawing shows a Q-bay with camera openings, with the exception of two NASA Q-hatches in the Aerograph book. Only in Chris Pocock's latest book clear photos of for example the B-camera hatch are shown. In 1/48 scale, Cutting Edge sells a B-camera Q-bay hatch in resin (catalog 48-289). It is the type with seven camera openings, of which four are round and three are square with rounded corners. According to the CIA, a jettisonable cover for the camera windows was developed to prevent the windows from getting dirty on wet runways. It was released at the same time as the pogos so that it could be recovered and reused. Since the Q-bay hatches are matched to different camera systems, it is interesting to note that the A2 camera was used in overflight of the Soviet Union.
Canopy
As reported above, the canopy has a strange pimple in the middle of the canopy. This could be sanded out and polished again, but I don't think I will do that. The white sun cover will hide it most likely. In reality, the sun cover is fitted inside the canopy, but painting the kit's canopy on the inside will not give the desired effect: it will emphasize the non-scale thickness of the part. Therefore I will paint it on the outside, and give it a gloss coat. Or at least that was the initial plan.
| The kit-supplied canopy appears to be too flat, with the windshield set at a too low angle. I decided to try to replace it with a Starfighter canopy, since the U-2 fuselage was developed from the 104 fuselage. I tried both the Esci and Hasegawa 104 canopies, and they fitted pretty nicely. Of the two canopies, I liked the Hasegawa canopy best by far. The Esci canopy is some 5-10% larger than the Hasegawa canopy and indeed oversized when compared with a 1:1 Starfighter canopy & windshield.
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| The Hasegawa canopy almost drops in place, if I hadn't modified the model to accept the Esci canopy. I had to restore the canopy sill with white plastic card. The sheet metal behind the canopy has to be made a little taller too, with a kink in the contour. Possibly one could also use the rear transparent part of the 104 canopy. The new canopy really transforms the appearance of the model: it gives the model a face instead of a non-discript flat bump. Plus it is moulded much thinner and clearer than the original canopy. A very good upgrade of the model!
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A contrail checking mirror needs to added to the new canopy.
Lower fuselage shape
This U-2 page has a unique lower fuselage photo. It seems there is no 'fold' leading from the boundary layer slot down to the trailing edge of the wing, like the model has. It looks like some Milliput is required here.
Airco outlets
Absent on the model
Wings
Not surprisingly, the long and thin wings present some problems. Cut from the sprues they have a slight S shape in front view, due to warpage. However, they weren't too difficult to assemble correctly. First I glued the small insert in position, that closes the slipper tank opening. The inserts fit pretty well, although others reported quite some problems. I filled the gaps with superglue. Next, I test fitted the large lower wing insert. These required some shaving to sit perfectly flush. Then I taped the upper wing upside-down to a stiff panel, and pulled the mounting tab down with more tape to make the wing's upper surface completely straight. With the part taped down like this, I glued the insert with super glue. The result: one perfectly straight wing. The wing does not return to its earlier S-shape, since the combination of upper and lower wing now makes a rigid 'beam'.
The thus assembled wing does have a few problems. Firstly, the leading edge is fairly rough, and it required several applications of super glue and sanding. Secondly, the wing parts have some sink marks. Just outboard of the lower wing insert, the wing has sink marks on both upper and lower sides. More difficult to solve are the (rather shallow) sink marks all along the forward part of the flaps. These sink marks give the wing a rather unnatural profile, and I think it is essential to remove them. Thirdly, the trailing edge is rather thick. I measured almost a millimeter there! Some serious sanding was required there, but now I have a nice looking wing I think. I filled the holes for the wing supports, but left the hole for the pogo gear open.
After all this sanding, I added the tip skid. It's fit was not so hot, and lots of superglue was used to fair it into the wing. I sanded the skid to about half its thickness, which makes the skid look much more realistic. Between the flaps and ailerons, Seminar moulded a raised strip, which was removed during the sanding of the trailing edge. I think this strip is a bad attempt at simulating a fuel dump (I think) on the left wing and an ECM antenna fairing (I think) on the right wing, according to drawings and photos. But many photos, including my photos of N803X, show nothing installed there. I will therefore leave the wing's trailing edges clean, although I doubt whether I can leave off the fuel dump pipe (if it is one).
Since the model is fairly large for my standards, I built the wings as ready-to install subassemblies. This included base-coating and minor repairs, a job that I usually perform after completing the model. Overall painting will take place after complete assembly though. I've read dramatical stories of the fit of the wing against the wing root of the fuselage. Yet on my example the fit was near-perfect.
After working hard to achieve perfectly straight wing, I decided I wanted bent wings, as all U-2's have when at rest. Working slowly with a small hair dryer, I gave the wings about 4 millimeters of droop. I still have to check with a taped-together model whether this is sufficient.
Vertical tail
The trailing edge of the rudder is horribly thick. I scraped the rear half of the vertical tail much thinner, and made a sawcut below the rudder to be able to make the thinned edges meet. I guess I took out about one millimeter of thickness!
Speedbrakes
Since my U-2 will be pretty boring with regards to details, I decided to do some extra work on the speedbrakes. The detailing of the speedbrake wells is not bad, but I wanted a more three dimensional look. I decided to build completely new wells, starting with a 9 millimeter wide three wall box. In the middle I added a vertical frame using two pieces of strip. Splitting the area left and right of the frame are vertical stringers. Lastly I added a horizontal U-stringer made by folding 0.005" card around an X-acto blade. I painted the wells in Humbrol's RAF trainer yellow, searching for a better chromate yellow match in the mean time. What remains now is some hydraulic tubing and the speedbrake hydraulic jack. The speedbrakes will probably also need rebuilds.
Oil cooler inlets
The J57 powered U-2A had a single large oil cooler inlet on the right side of the fuselage. On the J75 powered U-2C, this inlet moved to the left side, and a small oil cooler inlet was used on the right side. Luckily Seminar provides both inlets, although the instructions are not completely correct, and the shapes could use some refinement. There's a third and smaller air inlet on the bottom of the fuselage, slightly offset to the left of the centerline, and this is not included.
Colors and markings
Colors
I had read numerous discussion on rec.models.scale about the colors of U-2's and SR-71's, and often a black with a weak blueish hue was mentioned. I was planning to paint my bird in a blueish black color, but I had to change the plans after consulting the relatively new sources. A downloadable PDF-version of The CIA and the U-2 program, 1954-1974 also reports that a dark blue color was chosen for CIA U-2's after tests (page 149). The instructions of Cutting Edge decal sheet 48-152 report the color was FS 35042. The Chris Pocock book 'Towards the unknown' has a definitely blue U-2 on the cover, and also mentions FS 35042. USAF U-2's never wore this color, they used a pure black. This photo on the Cold war black projects site shows definitive proof of the blue camouflage, showing both a black and a blue U-2.
I was afraid that 35042 would be too blue for modelers like me, too big of a shock. While building the model, I experimented to establish the best color to use. I first tried a 1:1 mix of 15042 and satin black (Humbrol 181 and 85 respectively), but this turned out to be almost purely black. Next was a 3:1 mix of Humbrol 181 and 85, which looked rather blue. Perhaps it looks better with a flat clear painted over? To be continued.
The speedbrake wells of N803X appear to be chromate yellow, a color also seen on other all-black U-2's. Most likely the inlet interiors are also in this color. These yellow parts will make quite a bold contrast I think!
Markings
I had the white serial numbers printed on an Alps printer. Rescue and walkway markings remain to be made or found. Rescue markings from an F-104 appear to be identical to those on the U-2, which is not surprising.
Links
- U-2 ejection seat
- Datguy shows his 1/72 MPC U-2A on the ARC forums
- John53 shows his 1/72 Seminar U-2C on the ARC forums
- Drooo shows his 1/72 Airfix U-2D on the ARC forums
- Norm Dubay shows his 1/48 U-2C build on Hyperscale's Plastic Pix: Wing, Inlets - 1, Inlets - 2, Inlets - 3, Inlets - 4, Inlets - 5, Scoops, Q-bay, Inlets and gear bays, Gear doors, Ready to close the fuselage
- Norm Dubay shows a different 1/48 U-2A build on Hyperscale's Plastic Pix: 34 years in the making, 34 Years in the making...U-2A Part 2 and 34 years in the making.....U-2A FINISHED!
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