PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[peter]

Those hatches look great, excellent job guys! Interesting to see the cheap and cheerful way they are attached to the aircraft. I am surprised they were not installed with a hinge or something instead. Nice to see the camera mount still fitted. Taigh, have you found a camera for her yet?

[Taigh Ramey]

The Lockheed camera mount was long gone when we picked up the Harpoon. I found one a while ago in the parts stash we picked up and Bernie put it back in when he was here.

I do have a Fairchild F-56 camera in the collection to go back in but I do not have the NR-1 or M1A-1 camera mount that goes in between the Lockheed mount and the camera. Here is what we need so if anyone has or knows where I can find one please let me know. I will buy or trade cool stuff for one.

[Chappie]

Taigh,

Great work. I love the attenetion to detail and authenticity. As for this camera equipment, one thing I always thought would be neat if I owned a recon warbird, (yeah still looking for that D-Day veteran F-5 Lightning ) I would install a period correct camera body with modern digital camera inside giving me an actual recon capable warbird.


Chappie

[Taigh Ramey]

I also thought about making some kind of film magazine adapter to set up a digital camera to focus on the ground glass inside the aerial camera for photos. I think it can be done with a very wide angle lens and I hope someday to have the time to play with that idea.

I have a hand held WWII K-20 camera that I picked up at a garage sale that someone put a Poloroid back on it and it makes great period photos.

Camera stuff is fun and we have a great collection of it but I need to find that darn mount so we can install the F-56. Its a brute of a camera and will be great to help our nose heavy CG issue!

[Augsburgeagle]

Just wanted to chip in and thank Taigh and everyone else for this thread, I love the level of authenticity you guys are working to its really inspiring to see!

[the330thbg]

Just awesome.

Wonder if I have the audacity to propose to my wife and kids that our next family vacation should be in Stockton?!

[Redtracer]

Come on out!

[Taigh Ramey]

Wonder if I have the audacity to propose to my wife and kids that our next family vacation should be in Stockton?!

After your family checks out the finer parts of our beloved city of Stockton, send them off to San Fransisco, Sacramento, Yosemite, the wine country or anywhere else so we can put you to work!

[cco23i]

MAN! I miss you guys and the Harpoon! BUT soon, soon!

Scott

[Travisd80elcam]

Is there any news on the Harpoon Front?


Travis

[Redtracer]

Stay tuned! Good stuff coming soon!

[Taigh Ramey]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. No excuses except the usual like I've been out of town, going crazy in general, the dog ate the update, etc...

I forgot to mention that the Colorado brothers donated paint for the Harpoon before they left, Thanks guys!




Maybe we need a little more to finish the job so a great sponsor came through and we now have the paint we need to get the harpoon back into her fighting colors:



Now we need to finish the prep process so we can acid etch, alodine, prime and paint the old gal. We also need a good place to paint her so we are working on just that.

While the paint is in the works progress continues on several other fronts. Here are Terry and Scott who are working on the right wing.


Some of the wiring in the right wing was damaged by the ground squirrels so they are repairing the damaged wiring by cutting out the bad and splicing in the new.



The wing in this area was pretty trashed by the pesky rodents but amazingly enough it cleaned up beautifully. Rick secured the wiring with waxed cord and prepared the area so the aux oil tank can go back in.




Looks nice Ricky

Good progress is also being made on the aft fuselage. The original glass was removed and we are reproducing it. In this shot you can see the red colored borate/phoschek that needs to be cleaned from the airframe. The rest of the crusty paint will also be stripped, acid etched, alodined and primed before the new glass goes in.



Here is the other Scott hitting the tunnel gunners structure with Roloc wheels and Scotchbrite. It's easier to work in the tunnel area if you lift the tail with the fork lift





The aft fuselage with the evil red color in places



Here is Ken, Larry and Brad cleaning up the aft fuselage. Lots of scrubbing to get all red traces out right Red Tracer?



Another major score was finding the rare camera mount and not quite as rare camera. Now we have a complete F-56 aerial camera system that will go back in sometime soon.

[peter]

Thanks for the update Taigh and great job on the camera mount and Paint aquisition!

[CAPFlyer]

Looks like you guys are making more and more progress! Can't wait to see the results of the paint. It sucks I can't make it out there anytime soon. Hazards of my job.

[Taigh Ramey]

Thanks for the donation Scott!