A Pair of Deuces (Meng's 1/72 F-102 delta Daggers)

[Kiwikitbasher]

Meng's F-102 kits are very nicely moulded, and I thought they should prove quick to build given the Delta Dagger's simple shape. With this in mind, and having both the Case-X and Case-XX kits, it made sense to build both at the same time as many details would have the same finish. A portion of this logic fell away when I decided to finish the Case-XX in SEA camo.

Appearances can be deceiving, and despite the clean moulding, I had a mountain of cleaning up to do. This was largely due to the numerous sprue gates that didn't just join at the parts edge, but overlapped one surface of the part where they attached. The result was that each attachment paint (and there were hundreds!) had to be filed and sanded to restore the part's face not just its edge. There were also the usual very fine and barely visible mould seam-lines to scrape off.

Having spent a couple of lengthy sessions cleaning up parts I decided one  machine would have its missiles extended and the other would have its weapons bay closed. This was both for contrast and to save a considerable amount of work as the missiles and their racks took a lot of cleaning up.

It made sense to take a production-line approach and pre-paint as many detail parts, interior areas and pieces that would be added after main airframe completion. I also thought this would help check a negative tendency I suffer from - I find when I build and paint the main airframe early before all the bits and pieces that get added at the end, that if it does not turn out a swell as I hoped I loose interest in the project, and rush finishing all the bits and bobs. After all, the model has already fallen short of my vision for it, so get it finished, hide it at the back of the display cabinet and start something new!  So this is a first for me, other than the canopies I have finished all the boring bits before doing anything else.

The only problem I struck was with the wheels. These were moulded with only very slight and almost vague defining edges between the rims and tyres. This resulted in three attempts at masking and painting them (two full strips back to bare plastic).

The only addition I made to the kits was to make representative, as opposed to replica, seat harnesses from lead foil, and some intake blanks from plastic sheet to prevent any see-through effect.

Aside from detail painting, I also painted areas that would be tricky to mask on the assembled airframe. These included behind the air-intakes, around the wheel-well and weapons bay surrounds, and the metal-finished areas on the overall light-grey Case-X like the exhaust surround, intake splitter plates, fin leading edge and lower edge of the air-brake.

The following photos show where I'm at just prior to commencing airframe assembly:

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by Kiwikitbasher
Clearer title

[neil5208]

Looks good

[Andwil]

Intrigued by the box references to Dimorphodon series.

 

F-102's looking good.

 

Andrew

[Colin W]

That's a lot of pre assembly work Mark. Looks very good so good luck with the main assembly. 

Colin 

[Silver Fox]

Lovely work, I daren't do the pre-painting n my 1/48th Revell Monogram kits especially the intakes as the fit is rubbish. Looking forward to seeing the finished machines.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im a fan of the Deuce so im grabbing a seat. 

[Vultures1]

Very nice prep work - looking good!

[Kiwikitbasher]

Thanks for all of the above comments, I hope to start sticking all the major internal bits in the fuselage and wings today.

[Kiwikitbasher]

I found the fit to be generally good, but I think that fitting the missile bay into the lower wing may have pushed the wings out slightly, or something else happened to change what had been a good wing to fuselage join during dry test-fitting. Overall I found that a bit of putty was needed here and there.

 

The super-clear canopy and windscreen are made of what feels like quite brittle clear styrene, so the huge sprue gates needed some real care with a PE razor-saw and fine file.

 

Just need to wash and remove dust etc, plus mask the canopies,  and it's off to the paint-shop.

 

 

[Kiwikitbasher]

 

Small update, ready for decaling:

 

.

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Hook]

Indeed! Which paints did you use?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Kiwikitbasher]

2 hours ago, Hook said:

Indeed! Which paints did you use?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Thanks to Hakan, and to answer you Andre,

 

The overall Aircraft Light Gray Case-X wing is painted with Gunze Acrylic thinned with premium auto lacquer thinner, and the camo Case-XX is painted with Mr Color lacquers, thinned with the same product, and glossed with clear auto lacquer.  Or did you want paint or FS numbers? Oh, and the black is Tamiya acrylic Tyre Black, and the masked engine areas are done with Alclad II metallics.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Kiwikitbasher

[Kiwikitbasher]

Decals on the Case-XX

 

[72modeler]

On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 9:07 AM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im a fan of the Deuce so im grabbing a seat. 

Move over, CFFU- me, too! Nachos, anyone?

Mike

Edited May 6, 2018 by 72modeler
added text

[Kiwikitbasher]

As usual, I set low standards and failed to achieve them! Joking aside, despite my best efforts I stuffed up the awkward and very tight fitting canopy. I somehow left tape or another residue on the inside of the canopy, plus caused a slight stress fracture, snapped off the nosewheel, and had a little decal silvering. 

 

 

 

 

 

My other overall grey F-102 Case-X is on hold after one of the nose stripe decals(see Xtradecal instructions below) inexplicably shattered upon contact with water and without any handling by me, whereas the first one worked fine. Top marks to Hannants who are mailing me a replacement set to NZ, so hopefully I will have the grey one done in about 2 weeks time.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Sorry to hear about the troubles ... For what its worth both the deuce’s look great to me. 

[Kiwikitbasher]

Thanks, the photos don't pick up the canopy fouling.

[stevehnz]

Great builds Mark, for some reason I've been ignoring you, maybe I need to brush up on my skim reading skills when I whizzing through view new content.  I've the XX kit, I do like that scheme & I do like how its come out for you, I'll try to remember your caveats when I attack mine. 

Steve.

[Kiwikitbasher]

Thanks Steve,

 

I should have spent more time in particular on adjusting the canopy and windscreen to fit better. If anything, they are ever so slightly oversized for a closed lid, making things very tight, plus the hinges are overly thick to fit into their recesses. I think the canopy and screen are optimised for an open cockpit (although the kit's interior detail is not!). It would have been nice if Meng had provided an extra single-piece canopy for a closed option that fitted well. The other problem I had/caused was choosing to mask and paint the clear parts off before fixing to the airframe. I did so because there is some tight masking to do, including secondary masking for the yellow line around the canopy. This meant I had to protect the inside of the clear parts from over-spray when I painted them. When I removed the internal mask after painting I could not see through because of the external masking. Things looked clear, but I think clear-coat fumes or something penetrated the hairline gap between canopy and screen and settled on the tape residue I failed to see before fixing the canopy in place. I have a Parkinson's tremor in my hand, so it seemed easier to mask the canopy and screen off the model, but I now wish I had fitted it place with a clear view of the fit etc through unpainted clear parts. I just hope that things are better on the grey Case-X, although probably no,t as I followed the same procedure and had the same fit problems.

[RidgeRunner]

Interesting as I have one of these in the pile :). Nice so far :). Mine in going to be a n ANG machine using Xtradecals.

 

Maryin

[Azgaron]

Looks nice with decals on!  Both builds look great!

 

Good that Hannants will send replacement decals! 

 

Håkan

 

[Kiwikitbasher]

6 minutes ago, Azgaron said:

Looks nice with decals on!  Both builds look great!

 

Good that Hannants will send replacement decals! 

 

Håkan

 

Thanks Hakan,

 

Yes, excellent service by Hannants and standing by their product.

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Both the Deuces looks absolutely fantastic and I can’t see any disadvantages of your build here, @Kiwikitbasher. Bravo! 👏

[Kiwikitbasher]

13 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Both the Deuces looks absolutely fantastic and I can’t see any disadvantages of your build here, @Kiwikitbasher. Bravo! 👏

Thanks Nikolay, glad you liked them.