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Showing results for tags 'F I N I S H E D ! ! ! (well... almost!)'.
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If you have been following my builds recently, you will know that I have been building a series of Wisconsin-related aircraft in recognition of my new state of residence. I have focused on modeling planes from Wisconsin Central Airlines and the Wisconsin Air National Guard (ANG). Of the latter, I've thus far completed three aircraft: The Wisconsin ANG’s 115th Fighter Wing was federally recognized on Oct. 6, 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin. The Truax Field-based unit has principally flown eight different aircraft — the F-51 Mustang fighter aircraft, F-89 Scorpion jet fighter, F-86A Sabre jet fighter, F-102 Delta Dagger fighter interceptor, O-2A Skymaster observation aircraft, OA-37 Dragonfly, A-10 Thunderbird II (Warthog) and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. In early-2023, 115th Fighter Wing will begin receiving the F-35A Lightning II. For this project, I will attempt to pull off a "hat trick" by building three Wisconsin ANG fighters from the 1950s: I'll begin with Hobby Craft's 1/72 kit of the F-89C Scorpion. Two squadrons of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, the 126th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at General Mitchell Field, Milwaukee and the 176th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Truax Field, Madison were the first ANG units to be equipped with a mixture of F-89B/Cs in September 1954. The 176th FIS had the second longest time in F-89s and flew every variant of the Scorpion, from F-89Bs (1954) to F-89Js (1966). Here is a short video of F-89s at Truax Field in 1955: and a few pics of the Wisconsin ANG's Scorpions: Enough background... Let's get started! The first thing I noticed on opening the Hobby Craft box is the mix of engraved and raised (ugghh!) raised panel lines: Assembly begins with the cockpit: Interior pieces are well detailed: and look very nice painted up: The kit's ejection seats are acceptable, but I elected to borrow a pair from a Pavla resin cockpit set (which I plan to use with a Revell Scorpion in my stash). Here's a photo of a F-89 ejection seat: and the Pavla seats after painting: I assembled the cockpit per instructions and did a test fit. That's where I ran into my first snag! The upper-left corner of the rear instrument panel interferes with the canopy, causing the canopy to sit too high and to the left. I first considered moving the panel down and to the right, but then I did a check against the F-89C panel from the Pavla cockpit set, and found it is narrower than the kit part: and provides plenty of clearance for the canopy: (Pavla also has the RF loop dome antenna at the top-right of the radar operator's panel, which is missing from the HobbyCraft part.) The Pavla seats presented another fit issue, as they were designed for the Revell kit. After a lot of fettling, I was able to get the seats in their proper positions while ensuring the canopy would fit correctly: The canopy, by the way, is rather thick and creates a lot of distortion. I'll try polishing it, but that won't fix the distortions and I'm doubtful that much of the cockpit detail will be visible with the canopy closed. Thus, I may build this Scorpion with its canopy open... that's still to be decided. I'm waiting for the post to deliver some aftermarket items for my Mustang and F-86 portions of this triad, so until they arrive, I'll be focusing the F-89. Stay tuned, there's lots more building to be done!
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As the proverb says, "Idle hands are the devil's workshop", and after finishing my Northrop YB-35 flying wing just in time for our local show, I felt a need to do something smaller, quicker, and definitely NOT with a natural metal finish. Looking through my stash, I heard this kit singing to me: Like some dogs, there are some airplanes are so ugly that they're beautiful, and you just gotta take them home! Searching through the BM forums, I discovered TheBaron has posted a 58-page WIP on this very kit, and I was at first hesitant to do a WIP of my own. But, what the heck, here we go! I began by completely ignoring the recommended construction sequence, and assembled the wheel wells so I could get them painted along with all of the interior parts: Special Hobby has done a fine job with the interior details. Here's an example: After painting the gray-green base coat, I gave the interior a wash of "streaking grime" to give a well-used appearance: I put only a minimum of effort into the instrument panel, as it will be barely visible once the fuselage is closed up: My first impressions on this kit are that the detailing and fit are very good, but the instructions (although beautifully done from a graphics standpoint) are often vague about where things go, and sometimes completely wrong. For example, if you follow the instructions you'll be gluing the control stick (C45) onto the floor-mounted compass: instead of between the compass and the pilot's seat. Otherwise, the interior went together without any issues: Before closing the fuselage, I found it essential to do much test fitting and trimming. For example, the instrument panel is slightly wider than it should be, and I had to snip off a corner to make it fit: Likewise this panel on the belly needed some sanding, plus some added reinforcement at the join: The test fitting paid off when it came time to glue the fuselage halves together. Fit was, for the most part, very good! The belly has some minor gaps that needed filling, especially around the piece for the arresting hook mount: Once again, I'm putting my trust in sprue gloop to fill these seams! Test fitting and trimming also ensured the wings went together ok: Special Hobby's design for mounting the wings to the fuselage at first gave me pause, but more test fitting convinced me the fit is very precise and should give a good, strong join: (The fit is actually much better than the above picture might suggest) Not bad progress for three day's work!