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F-106B Delta Dart 1:48


Mike

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F-106B Delta Dart
1:48 Trumpeter


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The F-106 Delta Dart was a development of the troubled F-102 Delta Dagger, which never reached potential until its design was changed sufficiently to warrant a new name and number. The Six was America's last dedicated Interceptor and had a long life from the 60s through to the 80s when it was gradually drawn down and consigned to history. The problems of the F-102 were solved by changing the shape of the fuselage to comply with the "area rule" for supersonic jets, adding variable intake ramps, plus other substantial changes to the wings, tail and the avionics system. With that brief list it is easy to see the need for a new name which recognised the differences and distanced it from the stigma attaching to the old name.

The improvements were so successful that the airframes remained almost unchanged throughout service, despite some proposed changes that didn't reach fruition. The B model was the combat capable trainer version, the changes for which actually improved the aerodynamics of the aircraft at supersonic speeds. It also reduced the apparent sharpness of the cockpit and nose, which some would say improved its look somewhat. During drawdown many single seated airframes were converted to drones to be blown apart in high speed missile tests.


The Kit
The initial release of the F-106A was greeted with initial suspicion from fans of the 'Six, but it was given a clean bill of health after inspection, and pronounced fit for the duty of taking the mantle from the old Monogram kit in this scale. Now we have the two-seater, and high hopes for another good model. The box is standard Trumpeter fare, with a painting of a 106 with deployed braking 'chute on the top, and inside is plenty of plastic. There are nine sprues in mid grey styrene, two in clear styrene, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, large decal sheet, instruction booklet and separate colour painting guide. Detail appears good, and there is little in the way of riveting on the surface, but the panel lines are engraved into the surface, with a constant depth and width throughout.

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We start the build with the cockpit, which houses two ejection seats. The seats provided are the final seats fitted to the 'Six, which were Weber zero-zero ROCAT seats, that superseded the original Weber Interim and Convair B-seats in 1963. The seats are quite well detailed and have a set of PE screw belts that are perhaps a little skinny and simplified for the task. They fit into a one-piece cockpit tub, which has moulded-in rudder pedals and side consoles, the latter also having panel decals on the main sheet. The instrument panels are fitted next, and detail is again good. They also have instrument decals, which also include the panel colour around some of the dials to simplify painting. Control columns and throttle quadrants are added to complete the cockpit, other than the modeller having to paint the simple sidewall details that are moulded into the fuselage. The nose gear bay forms the base for the cockpit, so must be built up from individual surfaces that trap the twin-wheel nose gear leg inside, after which the exhaust trunking tube is glued together and encased in a larger surround. A simplified representation of the rear of the engine is moulded into the end cap, and set of exhaust petals are added to the rear of the inner section, surrounded by the flared outer nozzle. This, the cockpit, nose gear bay and a four-part main weapons bay are then closed up in the fuselage, after which the two part engine intakes are added to the sides, with the trunking extending around 5cm, as far back as the ends of the intake inserts. There are ejector pin marks inside the outer part of each intake, and you will need to do something to the intakes to prevent possible light leakage from any gaps within the fuselage. A blanking plate and a faded black semi-circle would be my favourite option to fool the eye into thinking there is a full intake trunk in there.

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The lower wing is full width with a large and well-detailed gear bay added to the insides, which is then glued to the fuselage and the upper wing halves are added along with their inner and outer flaperons, which can be off-set to add some interest. An insert is added to the spine behind the cockpit, and the two-part tail fin with separate rudder is installed on the flat space at the rear, using two tabs and slots to hold it in place. At the base of the tail are a pair of clamshell air-brakes that can be posed open or closed by adding or leaving off the extension jacks during construction.

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The canopy is a substantial moulding and is beautifully clear, with a five-piece assembly fitted between the cockpit to accept the jack that raises it for entry and egress. A rear bulkhead and three PE rear-view mirrors are added before it is attached in either the open or closed position by adding an extra part or not. The angled windscreen fits closely over the coaming on a well-defined ledge, so should fair in well. The nose cone and separate pitot probe are added to the bulkhead at the front, with the latter best left of until later to protect it from damage, as are the tiny PE angle of attack probes on each side of the nose.

The main landing gear are substantial struts with two ancillary struts forward and aft of them, plus two large retraction jacks, and another two bay door jacks on the centreline bulkhead. The bay doors are equally large, with one captive to the gear leg, and the others hinged along the centreline. A pair of clear landing lights are installed to the outboard doors before installation, the rears of which should be painted silver and the lenses masked off to give them a realistic looking reflector. Trumpeter have thoughtfully included an APU forward of the main bays, which has a little RAT to power the aircraft in the event of an engine stall.

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The 106 was capable of carrying its weapon load internally to keep a smooth aerodynamic profile in pursuit of speed in the days before Stealth. The bay is well detailed, and you have the option of covering this up with a single piece door, or displaying the contents with a pair of open doors with large struts that open and close them. The doors have a cut-out to allow the release of the centrally mounted AIR-2 Genie air-to-air (A2A) nuclear missile (what were they thinking???). The inner bay door folds in as the outer door folds out, leaving the bay totally clear when fully open. This allows the four AIM-4 Falcon A2A missiles to swing out from the bay on their double-trapeze mounts, pushed into the airflow by a long ram at the rear. The missiles are provided in three parts plus clear seeker head, an adaptor rail, and the two trapeze mounts, which are stowed either side of a large avionics box at the front of the bay. A pair of streamlined additional fuel tanks are slung under each wing to give the aircraft extra range, which are made up of two halves split vertically with a separate pylon that mounts just outboard of the main gear bays.


Markings
There are two decal options available on the sheet, and it's any colour you like as long as it's ADC (although the profiles look like natural metal finish). From the box you can build one of the following:

  • US Air Force 125th Fighter Wing, Florida Air National Guard, 57-2533/02 – all over ADC Grey with blue tail stripe containing white lightning bolt.
  • US Air Force 119th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 177th Tactical Fighter Wing "Jersey Devils", New Jersey Air National Guard 57-2514 – All over ADC Grey with red chevron on the tail and New Jersey in red.

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The decal sheet is well printed and generally in good register, although the blue seems to be the tiniest fraction out in the vertical, but it doesn't show up anywhere other than a few small decals under close scrutiny. There are a couple of misspelled stencils too, but you have to be looking hard to spot them, so it's hardly worth doing anything about them. The instrument panel decals are nicely done with some sections surrounded by black panels, and various lines on the side consoles to differentiate between sections of the panel.

Conclusion
What looks to be another winner from Trumpeter, and a surprisingly large model when completed.

Review sample courtesy of
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Thanks for that :) Yes... it's a big'un alright. Mind you, it has a pretty big bay in the belly, and its prime requisite is speed to target, so gas guzzling is going to happen.

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Interestingly the decal sheet features the same two units as the F-106A single seat kit and not unsurprisingly it has the same errors!!

Black USAF and U.S. Air Force titles which should be blue and incorrect shades on the blue and red of the Florida and New Jersey main unit markings!!

I've recently built the single seater and it has to rank as one of Trumpeters best efforts in 1/48th, decal aside of course.

One small query Mike, as far as I'm aware all service Delta Darts both A's & B's were overall FS16473 ADC grey not natural metal?

Greg

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One small query Mike, as far as I'm aware all service Delta Darts both A's & B's were overall FS16473 ADC grey not natural metal?

Greg

Ya got me - I was being pestered by a little boy at that stage of the review and didn't look too hard at the instructions :blush: They state IJN grey, which I guess is Gunze's nearest shade to ADC Grey? I'll update the review :)

That's one of the things I quite like about "live" reviews. People can add useful things and help us correct errors like that one that do creep in, no matter how we try :)

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No pics related to decals/markings?

EDIT : sorry, a few minutes mate, this is what happen when you open to many windows at the same time.

I think Mike might have slipped that pic in later :whistle:
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