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1/72 Airfix F-80 Shooting Star


sunray

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This kit brings back memories. I got it on ebay for a few pounds.

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I have ordered new decals from Hannants as the kit ones are showing their age. The one thing I haven't decided on yet is to have wheels down or do it in flight the same way I did the Vampires I recently posted. Anyway the kit itself isn't that bad and it has raised panel lines as you would expect for a kit this old but they are very fine, so they should sand off quiet easily. Cockpit detail it a bit thin on the ground hence the photo etch. The canopy is a bit thick so I think I will be getting a vacuform one from somewhere. All in all I am looking forward to building this kit so watch this space.


The first job I tackled was a bit of re-scribing. As I have said before the raised panel lines were very fine so sanding them off didn't take much effort and the good thing about the plastic was it left a slight shadow where the lines were.
This are the tools I used to re-scribe.

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I will probably make this into a flying display it being 1/72, so this is how I make the internal fitting or mount for a jet to take the 5mm acrylic rod. I decided to do it this way as I find it light so it does put too much stress on the rod.

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I cut the kit jet pipe and slightly enlarged the nozzle by using a 5mm drill bit to take the rod. The internal mount is a piece of about 2mm plastcard just loosely cut and sanded to fit in the fuselage. Once I decided where it was going to go I covered the tip of a scrap piece rod with a red marker pen to mark where I was going to drill the hole to take the rod on the plasticard. With hole drilled I just glued in place and I added more bits of plasticard in strips to add strength.

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When I have glued the fuselage halves together, I will add more plastic strips on the other fuselage half to add more strength.

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Next on the Shooting Star I assembled the drop tanks. You get 2 option of tanks with the kit and I decided on the small tanks. The only reason for this was they were the ones I remember using when I first built the kit when I was a kid.

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As with most earlier kits released by Airfix the cockpit detail is a bit sparse and this isn't any different so I got to work with the photo etch by Airwaves.

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With the seat built I test fitted the resin pilot and apart from the position the legs were in it fitted like a glove.

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I then tidied up the pilot and adjusted the leg position and test fitted the cockpit tub, seat and pilot in the main fuselage.

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I added a piece of plasticard to the seat so that the pilot would stay at the right height and then I got the paint out.

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Today I received the vacuform canopies by Falcon and the Xtradecal set, both ordered from Hannants.

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Next I glued the fuselage halves and the wings together. I left out the pilot and the seat as I didn't want to damage them when sanding down the fuselage. On the wings I also glued the undercarriage covers in the closed position.

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I also added a bit more support to the internal mount for the acrylic rod. Just to be on the safe side.

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Once the glue had cured I sanded down all of the joints on the fuselage and wings.

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Now for the canopy. The reason I am using the vacuform canopy instead of the kit one is because not of the age of the kit (1973) but the vacuform is more to scale and it is a lot more clearer, allowing you to see more detail in the cockpit. First I cut the canopy form the main sheet.

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Then using fine scissors I cut a bit closer but just leaving a small lip. I have borrowed my wife's nail polisher as for the next job I think its ideal, but if you are doing for the first time I would use skinny sanding sticks as they will do the job. To get read of the lip and keep the shape of the canopy sand from the bottom not the sides. You can tell when you are at the correct depth is when the plastic is as thin as sellotape. Now use a fine skinny stick to finish off. Continue to sand until small holes appear in the plastic and it should just peel away.

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I find it easier to do bit by bit if you know what I mean.

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All done and here is the vacuform and the kit canopy.

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To finish off I attached the undercarriage covers to the front wheel well. It being an old kit I decided these need a bit of support so the won't sag in the middle and all I did was use scrap plastic.

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That done I thought I had better do a bit of test fitting before I glued anything else.

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Seeing an old kit like this get "the treatment" is pretty inspiring! Great work, and thank you for the tip on vacform canopies! I'm about to use my first one ever soon and I was terrified. Now I'm a little less terrified. :thanks:

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Thanks for the comments guys. Here is a quick update. The wings and tailplane are attached as well as the air intakes. There was a small gap on one of the intakes but that was cured by a piece of plasticard.

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For a kit from 1973 the fit is excellent. All I did next was to rub down the wing roots, etc. As the pilot is looking to the right I thought it would look good if the aircraft was banking to the right. So I have opened up and adjusted the ailerons to reflect this. Its isn't that hard to do in fact it was easy.

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I used a razor saw to cut the aileron edges from the wing edge to the recess line along the back of the aileron. Then I just ran the Trumpeter scribe along the recess line of the aileron on the upper and lower wing surfaces until you can move it slightly with your fingers. Now just hold in position and glue. On the left aileron the gap looked a bit thick so I reduced it with a strip of plasticard.

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Here are the tools used.

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You can use the same procedure on the elevators as well. Here is a 1/72 Airfix Chipmunk that I am also building which a have altered the elevators and I think it adds a bit more life to the model.

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Here are the tools used.

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What you have done with your ailerons looks quite effective. I did this with an Airfix Mustang after I realised the joy stick was off to one side. :) You'll have to remember to set yours to the right as well.

I'm intrigued by the bottom scriber in this photo. Whose is it? Thanks.

Steve.

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Great build of a cool vintage kit

Loving it.

The flight mode display will be brilliant with the acrylic rod but just for the record I'm not signing you up as my proctologist :shutup::winkgrin:

Chocks away!

Cheers

Bruce

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Great build of a cool vintage kit

Loving it.

The flight mode display will be brilliant with the acrylic rod but just for the record I'm not signing you up as my proctologist :shutup::winkgrin:

Chocks away!

Cheers

Bruce

Bruce all am I going to say is there are some jobs that the money to me is just not enough :lol:

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What you have done with your ailerons looks quite effective. I did this with an Airfix Mustang after I realised the joy stick was off to one side. :) You'll have to remember to set yours to the right as well.

I'm intrigued by the bottom scriber in this photo. Whose is it? Thanks.

Steve.

Hello Steve I have tried a few scriber's, p-cutters, etc and I think this one is the best I have so far come across. It feels just right in your hand and it is nicely weighted. The size and shape of the tip allows you to get in the places other scriber's can't reach (now where have I heard that before). The down side is its not as cheap as the others (14 euros + p&p) and is available from:

http://mrpaint.sk/eshop?product_id=99

Would I buy another, yes I would. Thanks for the tip on the joystick and I hope this helps?

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Tonight I have been painting the pilots for the Shooting Star and Chipmunk.

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Here are the Chipmunk pilots in residence as you might say.

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With the Shooting Star pilot finished I glued in the ejection seat using super glue and then the pilot using PVA. I used PVA instead of super glue just to give me more time to adjust the position of the pilot before it cured.

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Very, very nice work! But wouldn't brown be a more appropriate jacket color for a USAF pilot in the '50s? The RAF didn't fly a whole lot of P-80s, if any at all. And certainly none operationally. Just sayin'...

Looking forward to watching this build!

Byron

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Thanks lads.

Very, very nice work! But wouldn't brown be a more appropriate jacket color for a USAF pilot in the '50s? The RAF didn't fly a whole lot of P-80s, if any at all. And certainly none operationally. Just sayin'...

Looking forward to watching this build!

Byron

Byron I was going paint the jacket brown but after seeing the war film The Hunters set in the Korean War with Robert Wagner who was wearing a blue jacket in some of the flight scenes. I thought with the cockpit being black I will add a bit of colour.

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Here is the latest update. The canopy was masked and fitted to the fuselage using Gator PVA glue. This wasn't straight forward as you would think. To get the canopy to stay where I wanted it to stay I had to apply a bit of pressure as the glue cured, but because its a vacuform canopy, there is a bit of a spring because of the material used. If I released the pressure too early the canopy would move out of position but I got there in the end.

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As I am going for a metal finish I first sprayed the model with a three coats of Alclad Gloss Base. This dries pretty fast and as a micro filler sorts out minor scratches.

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When that was dry I gave it a light coat of Alclad 2 Airframe Alumium (ALC 119) and waited about 20 minutes before doing a thicker coat. I gave it a further two more coats and when it was dry I masked off small areas and sprayed them with Alclad 2 Duraluminium (ALC 102) and Stainless Steel (ALC 115). I have not attached the drop tanks yet but I had to give them a going over as well.

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The last job tonight was to seal the paint by spraying with Model Master Sealer for Metalizer.

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Hi Ian,

always appreciate seeing older kits tidy built with newer techniques and materials. Your P-80 will look great when finished and re-scribing is absolutely an improvement. Will do the same if I ever pull another one out of the stash! Panel shading looks very good, too. Also have some Alclad airframe aluminium bought and tested over Humbrol gloss black.

Have you ever tried the Testors sealer over Alclads before?

Cheers,

Mario

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Hi Ian,

always appreciate seeing older kits tidy built with newer techniques and materials. Your P-80 will look great when finished and re-scribing is absolutely an improvement. Will do the same if I ever pull another one out of the stash! Panel shading looks very good, too. Also have some Alclad airframe aluminium bought and tested over Humbrol gloss black.

Have you ever tried the Testors sealer over Alclads before?

Cheers,

Mario

Thanks Mario. I know Tamiya gloss black gives good results with Alclad but I have never tried Humbrol's. No I haven't tried Testors sealer I only have Model Masters. To be honest I was a bit nervous about using Alclad but the more I use it the more I like it. What I do use is Humbrol Clear varnish instead of Johnsons Klear as I find it keeps the shine better on Alclad and doesn't dull the finish. I used it on two Vampire jets and I was very happy with the results. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234976478-172-vampires-take-flight/

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Thanks Mario. I know Tamiya gloss black gives good results with Alclad but I have never tried Humbrol's. No I haven't tried Testors sealer I only have Model Masters. To be honest I was a bit nervous about using Alclad but the more I use it the more I like it. What I do use is Humbrol Clear varnish instead of Johnsons Klear as I find it keeps the shine better on Alclad and doesn't dull the finish. I used it on two Vampire jets and I was very happy with the results. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234976478-172-vampires-take-flight/

I think Testors and Model Master sealers are the same. I have seen your picture of the stuff and was wondering if you already had experiences with it over Alclad and glossy black primers. If not perhaps better try with an old part before ruining the paintwork.

Johnsons Klear is extremely difficult to get here in Germany, so I usually use a german substitute. The Humbrol gloss I have has a very awfull smell and looks very brownish in the cup. Always wondered if this is standard or if I got a bad series of it. Obviously the last as your Vampires look great.

Cheers,

Mario

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Thanks for the comments lads. On the Shooting Star after the sealer I gave it a few light coats of Humbrol Clear and then started on the decals. This is where I had a problem. Because the kit decals where not at their best I couldn't use the red band for around the fuselage, the red "no step" marking on the flaps and the black "walk way" markings either side of the cockpit. I had aftermarket decals but the weren't on them. I could mask and spray them in but if they are just slightly out of true they would stick out a mile. So I decided to make my own using the old decals, a scanner, photoshop, a colour laser printer and a sheet of printable clear laser water slide decal paper. I also printed the anti-glare patch on the nose.
To make your own decals isn't that hard if you have never done it before. You can use an inkjet printer but with that you have to wait for the ink to dry and then give the whole sheet a coat of acrylic varnish to seal the ink in plus the finished decal are a bit thick. I use a colour laser printer because you can use them almost straight from the printer as you don't have to wait for them to dry, they don't need a coat of varnish and they are very thin. If you do want to have a go the A4 water slide sheets come as white background or clear and cost about £1 each depending how many you buy and where from. Also if you use a clear sheet as I did you should know that your printer doesn't print the colour white and as with everything else you have to be careful of copyright.
Those done I proceeded to use aftermarket decals for everything else and once finished I attached the drop tanks.

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