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Here is my Trumpeter 1/72 Convair F-106B Delta Dart Combat Capable Trainer. The F-106B was an advanced/transition trainer for pilots new to the delta winged F-106 but, it was also combat capable. I have no complaints with the Trumpeter kit. Fit was very good, the cockpit was reasonably detailed with decals for the various instrument panels. The build was mostly out of the box except for the Reskit F-106 exhaust. The kit exhaust was well detailed so the only advantage of the Reskit parts was that the tube was printed as one piece so there was no seam to fix. The decals worked very well with the film disappearing once applied and minimal silvering. The kit came with marking for the New Jersey Air National Guard and since I grew up in New Jersey I used those. I also have to say that the long pitot tube resisted all of my efforts to break it off, and for once there was no dust in in the cockpit. Total build time was 13 days. Next up will be a TH-1G using the Special Hobby and AZ kits. Enjoy.

imgbox might have ben down but they seem to be working now

Here it is:

This is the Hasegawa 1/72 Grumman F11F-1 Tiger. The Tiger had a varied career spending 5 years as a front line carrier fighter, 6 years as an advanced trainer and 12 years with the Blue Angles flight demonstration squadron. Here it is in its advanced trainer livery. The Hasegawa kit dates back to 1981 and aside from the raised panel lines and the sparse interior I have nothing bad to say about it. The fit was excellent. There was a boxing that had trainer markings and was distributed in the UK but I didn't have it so, I printed all the VT-23 squadron markings. Total build time was 11 days Next up is the Trumpeter Convair F-106B Enjoy

I built the display cases too Thanks

I was tempted to do it in natural metal but I chickened out🐔 I am glad I didn't since it would have been very difficult to get metal to come out right. Thanks

I wasn't aware of the KC-97L with the underwing jet engines. It is tempting but if I built one the completist in me would require me to build all tanker and I don't have the room. The F11F-1 is pretty minimalist. It should ne a quick build Thanks

Wow! https://theairplanerestaurant.com/ If I ever get to Colorado Springs...

I'll have to watch that.

It is. Most of my display selves are 12" (30cm) but for this I needed a 16" (40cm) one Thanks

This is the Academy 1/72 Boeing C-97A Strato-Freighter build as an HC-97G Strato-Rescuer. In the early '60 the US Air Force search and rescue strategy was to have a high powered long range helicopter and a long range fixed wing aircraft. At the time the Sikorsky H-3 filled the helicopter role and the Douglas SC-54D* as the fixed wing aircraft with the plan to have the HC-130** replace the SC-54. But the SC-54's where reaching their end-of-life and the HC-130's were not available. So the Air Force turned to surplus Boeing KC-97G's as an interim solution and 22 were converted. These had the refueling gear removed and the origin rear cargo reinstalled along with additional radars. This gave them the capability to drop supplies, rafts and para rescuers. The Academy kit was derived from their B-50 kit with a new sprue for the fuselage and cockpit interior. Unfortunately what Academy did not realize was that the C-97's had different R4360 engines that had a redesigned exhaust. Not a big deal but Cobra Models, now Lone Star Models, makes a correction set with new engine cowling and exhaust so I ordered one. Unfortunately I found the quality of the cowling castings to be so poor with pin holes and bubbles as to be unusable. With some work I was able to salvage the exhaust and use them with the kit cowlings. The kit comes with a very descent cockpit interior. Interestingly the pilot's seats have shoulder harnesses but no seatbelts, the flight engineer has seatbelts but no shoulder harnesses and the navigator has neither. With all the windows you can get a pretty good look at the interior so if you can find one the Eduard C-97 interior sets it might be a good investment. Unlike the cockpit there was absolutely no fuselage interior, not even a cabin floor. This leaves you with a large thin walled plastic tube that flexes enough when handled to open any non reinforced seams. I made the The additional antennas on top and bottom of the fuselage from styrene strips. If you use the KC-97L kit it includes the upper AN/APX-29A IFF interrogator antenna. The now defunct Airway Graphics, AKA Liveries Unlimited, made a set of HC-97 decals and I was able to track down a partial set. I have found Academy decals to be problematic in the past with excessive silvering so I mostly used the Airway Graphics set and parts from the Wolfpak 72-077 sheet. As it happened the Academy decals I did use worked out fine. I used the Mr. Color interpretation of FS16473 ADC gray. Total build time was 16 days Next up I will be returning to my trainer series with an F11F-1 Tiger which served longer as a trainer then it did as a front line fighter. Enjoy * **

Stunning!

Yes, perfectly. Thanks

Here is an obscure question for all of you. Both the HC-97G Stratorescuer and the KC-97L Stratotanker have an antenna on top of the fuselage for the AN/APX-29A IFF Interrogator. Does anyone know the dimensions of this. I am working on and HC-97G using the Academy C-97A kit and it does not have that antenna so I will need to fabricate one. Their KC-97L kit does so if anyone has one of those and can measure it that would be fine too. Thanks