Revell 1/48 F-89D Scorpion

[reini]

"This box is too big, takes up too much space - can you build it?"

 

My dads words. Good reason as any to build a kit, right? I think he just wants more space for new kits...

 

I got back in the model making beginning of this year - and got my dad interested again too. I think it's only fitting as it was my dad who got me introduced into model making and aviation all those years ago. We used to build kits together  - but the hobby has been on bit of a hiatus for 20-25 years now. But this year has been model making madness and I've been loving it!

 

We both have pretty clear focus - my dad is into 1/48 WWII stuff and my main interest is cold war 1/72 jets. But it's fun to dabble 'outside the box' every now and then, right? So my dad has couple old jets in his stash that he's probably never gonna build - and we've had a deal: I pick a kit from his stash, build it, he gets it back for display - then I pick a new kit. Win-win, really - I get to build them, but I don't have to worry about where to put them all & keep 'em dust free 

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

 

So, what I will be building:

 

 

Revell F-89D/J Scorpion (kit number 4568), 1/48 scale, released in 1990. I will be doing the D-version as in the box art. It's a pretty large aircraft (still not as large as the box suggests) and I reckon it will look pretty cool once done.
 

 

 

I've taken a little head start, already went ahead and built the cockpit. Honestly, the kit as a whole seems bit dated with raised panel lines & ill fitting parts - but the cockpit isn't half bad!

 

- - - - - - - - - 

 

That's for today. Oh, and hi to everybody - been lurking in the forums for better part of this year - nice to finally contribute something to it.

 

[f111guru]

Nice start on a very old kit. I have 3 of the first run and found one to be badly warped. Haven't started any of the at this point because of other projects. Just curious on how Revell mold and fit would be.

I'll watch with great interest your progression through your build. So I'll sit back and relax.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

[reini]

9 hours ago, f111guru said:

Nice start on a very old kit. I have 3 of the first run and found one to be badly warped. Haven't started any of the at this point because of other projects. Just curious on how Revell mold and fit would be.

I'll watch with great interest your progression through your build. So I'll sit back and relax.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

Mine's warped too - I forgot to take a picture but I managed to force fuselage halves together with just glue. The plastic is quite bendy.

 

Fit is OK for the most part (not great but seen much worse) and I think most of the issues were caused by the fuselage warping. I recently built Monogram's F-102 Delta Dagger and this feels & looks very similar to it.

 

- - - - - - - - -

 

 

Fuselage parts were forced together, not any major issues despite the warping.

 

 

It's the bottom part that's pretty hard to fit nicely, quite a lot of putty & sanding was required to get a decent look.

 

 

 

And this contact point at the tail required some extra effort to sit nicely. Putting & sanding, round three - that's what I think what's going on here...  

 

 

What was bit problematic though was the cockpit fit, only thing that helps you align & position the cockpit properly was the front dash - other that that it was just sitting against the fuselage sides. And when I glued in the bottom part of the fuselage - it stretched the fuselage outwards a bit and loosened the glue a bit of the cockpit tub creating this nasty look. I'm not that worried that it will come loose - but doesn't look nice. Not sure how to fix that...

 

 

I painted some of the more hard to reach parts (inside intakes etc.) before putting them on.

 

 

One nasty surprise when I started cleaning the canopy parts - there's a piece of white plastic smack in the middle of the main canopy. It's embedded right in there - what's that about?  And right in the middle. I intend to put the canopy open, but it's still really noticeable. Crap. Not happy about that & no idea what to do with that. 

 

 

[reini]

I did some test painting on the seams to see whether I'm there yet. Well, I am not. Another round of putty & sanding - yay! 😐  

 

 

... but I needed a small break from all the dust - so I painted something to fill the cockpit with:

 

 

Not bad looking pilots for such an old kit.

 

- - - - - - - 

 

As a sidenote, I've recently gotten my first ever airbrush. It's all good except my hobby room is right next to our bedroom (with no door in-between) - so my better half has had something to say about late night spray sessions. Apparently we don't smell the flowery scent of Vallejo Air the same way. Who knows. Anyway, I've been working on a solution with my dad - a spray booth. I had a few hard requirements for it, tough:

 

1) Has to be dirt cheap

2) Has to be better than nothing

 

 

So a large cardboard box with some plywood for extra rigidity. Ventilator on the back wall to suck all the airbrush nasties out, will have some filter on top of it added. Also some lighting. Shape of the box is still undecided, might cut some of the top of if it seems too tight in practice.

 

 

Hose will come out the back, will be connected to an insulated foam board that fits the ventilation window next to the painting area.

 

I hope it works as planned!

 

 

 

[reini]

Okay, I'm getting there - starting the painting.

 

¨

 

There are some white details so I'm painting white first. Also the red really needs a white primer.

 

 

There are decals for the white details but they are easy enough to mask them so I rather do that instead. Especially as the decals seem very dry & yellow bordered. Most of the yellow I got out of by taping the decals onto a window and letting them have some sun. I'm using the decals as a guide for the masking tape.

 

 

Here they are all masked up, ready for red.

 

 

Red done! Next step is to mask the red and paint the aluminium.

 

 

 

[Lightpainter]

2 hours ago, reini said:

Okay, I'm getting there - starting the painting.

 

¨

 

There are some white details so I'm painting white first. Also the red really needs a white primer.

 

 

There are decals for the white details but they are easy enough to mask them so I rather do that instead. Especially as the decals seem very dry & yellow bordered. Most of the yellow I got out of by taping the decals onto a window and letting them have some sun. I'm using the decals as a guide for the masking tape.

 

 

Here they are all masked up, ready for red.

 

 

Red done! Next step is to mask the red and paint the aluminium.

 

 

 

A rare subject, will look spectacular when its done!

 

I will follow this with intrest 😀

[pinky coffeeboat]

Hi reini,

 

When the model was released I recall many reviews all mentioning the lower belly panel as being the worst part of the kit, other than that it was a decent model. The 1/72 scale kit had recessed panel lines.

You've made a great model so far and the bright red panels will make it really stand out. Watching this with interest.

 

Thanks for sharing your work.

 

Jeff

[shortCummins]

I real like what you've done with the pilots, good job on those at 1:48

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Silver Fox]

Nice work so far on the beast. I still regret giving mine t a modelling friend, who proceeded to mess it up and bin it. 

 

Great work on the figures.

[reini]

3 hours ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

Hi reini,

 

When the model was released I recall many reviews all mentioning the lower belly panel as being the worst part of the kit, other than that it was a decent model. The 1/72 scale kit had recessed panel lines.

You've made a great model so far and the bright red panels will make it really stand out. Watching this with interest.

 

Thanks for sharing your work.

 

Jeff

The lower panel indeed is the problem part - not too bad of a model otherwise. Recessed panel lines would be nice but i'll make it work. The 1/72 is bit more new I think? Anyway, looking forwards to having that in my collection some day.

 

I have much more experience in painting miniatures than plastic model airplanes - I spent quite a bit of my early years painting Warhammer miniatures.

 

Thanks for your comments!

 

[jet-mech]

Great kit, but you've done a grand job on those pilots. Lovely 

[reini]

Slowly, but surely.

 

 

Ready for paint, red areas masked up.

 

 

I went with gloss black primer. This is my first test with airbrush metallics, I've been using Tamiya spray can until now.

 

 

First layer done, I'm using Vallejo metallics. I'm letting it dry and seeing if I need another coat. Planning to do some different colour panels to break up the surface a little bit.

[f111guru]

Outstanding progress!!! Nice and bright. You've done wonderfully on the seams. Should be quite a looker.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

[MeteOzkar]

Metal finish with such an old kit..?

 

Such a bold decision, and an outstanding progress..! 

 

 

 

 

[reini]

Thanks guys

 

Today I managed to do finishing touches to the base aluminium - will be doing some different coloured panels tomorrow.

 

Also today, I did most of the fiddly stuff like the landing gears, so they're ready to be glued in at the very final stages of the build.

 

The wingtip tanks slash rocket pods . There is few things more exciting than taking off the masking tape and seeing how good a job you did. Like with christmas presents, there's the thrill of opening a present even if the end result isn't always to your liking  But let's see how we did...

 

... not bad, I'm pleasantly surprised - only few minor touch ups required!

 

- - - - - - 

 

A question - does anyone know what is the big light bulb or vacuum tube looking thingy is in the F-89 cockpit? It's located on the rear cockpit panel (in the picture, just behind the front seat pilot's head). I've seen the same/similar thing on other same era US jets, there's one in the back of an F-84 cockpit for example.

 

[FPDPenguin]

https://elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/northrop-f-89d-scorpion-cool-indeed/amp/

 

Radar compass loop antenna according to that site with the same picture

Edited October 3, 2019 by FPDPenguin

[bentwaters81tfw]

If you haven't got that far yet, the jet pipe deflectors can be a pig.

It does come out OK. And watch the 'Y' shaped footstep decal.

[reini]

6 hours ago, FPDPenguin said:

https://elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/northrop-f-89d-scorpion-cool-indeed/amp/

 

Radar compass loop antenna according to that site with the same picture

Oh I got so close with my Googling Anyway, thanks for the answer

 

6 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

If you haven't got that far yet, the jet pipe deflectors can be a pig.

It does come out OK. And watch the 'Y' shaped footstep decal.

Thanks for the heads up. That is one sharp looking Scorpion, brilliant job

[reini]

Some more progress this morning.

 

 

I masked out some of the panels to be painted in slightly different shade of aluminium (Vallejo Metal Colour Duraluminium in this case).

 

 

... and took the tape off. Which took longer than expected as there was a LOT of it  Need to learn to be more economical with my tape...

 

 

And I was left with this. After black (the nose & anti glare panel) I think I'm ready for gloss coat and decals. Which frightens me a bit as the decals aren't in the best of shape. But I think I got most of the yellow out and I have Liquid Decal Film as a backup if they start tearing so we see how it goes.

 

[David H]

Looking Good!

 

I built the kit when it first came out in the late '80s/ early '90s. I'm sure it was not the cash cow Revell hoped for,  but it holds up well. The silver plastic is an added bonus since you can see all the panel lines after you sand them off. I have the fuselage of Scorpion no. 2 largely assembled and partially rescribed. If its the only 48th scale injection-molded Scorpion i see in my lifetime... i can live with that.

 

I agree that the fit of the cockpit tub is um..... vague? Tenuous? Imprecise? Problematical? However i love what you did with the cockpit and the pilots look great too.

 

By all accounts a nice-flying aeroplane according to those who flew it, though i'm not sure it was a great climber. I know it was notorious for sucking up debris from ramps, taxiways, runways etc..... and of course the Navy laughs at the F-89 every time people mention the "Battle of Palmdale".

[reini]

Thanks for the history lesson David, had not read about the 'Battle of Palmdale'. Ive always wondered about the all rocket armament, how practical would it actually be. 

[paulsbrown]

Nice job, I'm a big fan of the Monogram 1/48 kits.

[John_W]

3 hours ago, reini said:

Thanks for the history lesson David, had not read about the 'Battle of Palmdale'. Ive always wondered about the all rocket armament, how practical would it actually be. 

It was an era of wild and often impractical ideas. Remember the F-89 was also equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to shoot down bomber formations...

[reini]

On 06/10/2019 at 12:32, John_W said:

It was an era of wild and often impractical ideas. Remember the F-89 was also equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to shoot down bomber formations...

Indeed. 104 rockets, two nuclear missiles and four air to air missiles - that was some heavy armament. If you'd hit anything.

 

BUt I guess that it's the 'wild & impractical' side of things that make these planes so cool.

[reini]

I want to keep the bird rather clean - but still wanted to practice some weathering. I thought the extra fuel tanks would make good candidate for some weathering.

 

I painted silver first, clear coat on top. Then a layer of Vallejo chipping medium and painted black on top. I filled the paintbrush with some thinner and blasted some parts of the tanks with it, agitated it some more with a brush and then blasted some air at very close distance to 'peel' the paint of. Repeated until I was happy with the result. This was the end result:

 

On to the decals, which had took a turn for the worse, some of them looked like this:

 

I did not made them smooth out 100% - but luckily I got most of it out with Micro Sol.

 

 

Decaling on the way! It looks happy!

 

 

Decals are done.