jeaton01 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 I've been building the early jets and it became the F-80's turn. It would have been nice to do the XP-80 but it really had little in common with the Monogram kit, being a lot smaller and planned for a different engine. I some time in the past bought a bunch of P/F 80 sets from Fox 3, Gerry Asher, and for this I used the resin and vacuform parts to do a P-80 from the first production block, the P-80A-1. These airplanes were painted ADC Grey (16473) and were filled and polished. The finishes didn't last well at all and the P-80A-5 and later airplanes were all delivered in bare aluminum. The P-80A-1 had a landing light in the nose in place of the black panel that covered a radio direction finder antenna in later airplanes, and the cockpit was 9 inches further aft than later P-80's with ejection seats. Early P-80's were not built with ejection seats although many were later retrofitted with them. Four P-80's from the -1 Block were sent to Europe before the end of WW II, and two of them were sent to Italy where they flew but did not enter into any combat. The other two went to England where one was lost in a crash. A P-80A-1 with the markings "Lil' Abner", an Al Capp character from the cartoon Dogpatch, was flown by Rex Barber, who was a participant in the Yamamoto shootdown and is most likely the pilot who fired the fatal shots. He was commander of a P-80 squadron at March Field. It seems strange to see a jet with an antenna wire and masts, but that's the way it was with the first P-80's. I worked really hard to keep the detail on the bottom while fixing the parting line between the front and rear fuselage so I wouldn't lose all the liitle bumps. After the model was nearly done and I was adding the antenna masts to the bottom I happened to read the part of the instructions where it said to remove the bumps because they were for JATO bottle mounting, an item which the A-1 was not equipped. You can get it right when you build yours! And here with the Bell XP-59A (Hobbycraft) and Gloster Meteor F.3 (Tamiya). 35 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Lovely finish and strangely interesting aircraft in an all grey scheme. Great photo of the three early jets together, beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansReggelsen Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 A beautifull model of an important plane! I converted the Monogram kit myself many moons ago but sadly it didn't survive the "Great Cat-Attack of '93"! It wasn't as good as yours either! Cheers Hans J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 That’s really lovely and beautifully finished off in that smooth gloss finish. So much to like about this and your other early jets. Excellent stuff! Cheers and well modelled.. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cellarfrog Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Thanks for the photos and back story. Great model! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Superbly elegant rendition of this important pioneer! Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desert falcon Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Very nice clean build 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Getting Old Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Very nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Lovley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadMax8 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Great work on the P-80. Also wanted to say the P-59 is expertly finished... All three pioneer aircraft look very right sitting next to each other. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toryu Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Very appealing model and a great addition to your wonderful collection of early jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne87 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Lovely clean build! Like the other two aswell! Funny how all the early jets looked pretty similar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Great build of one of my favourite family of jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 That is gorgeous work and a great collection 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeaton01 Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 Thank you all for your kind comments. One day I will get a picture together of the early jets I've built in 1/48 so far, but it will be difficult to compose. I won't feel it's reasonably complete until I build the Alley Cat Vampire and the Tamiya MiG 15, though I wish there was a better MiG-15 in 1/48. So far I've built the He-178, He-280, Gloster Squirt E28/39, Me262 V7, Meteor prototype, F.3 and F.8, Nakajima Kikka, P-59, and now the P-80A-1. Probably should also have the FJ-1 Fury as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Wow! Shades of Bob Steinbrun John! 😀 What a great conversion and a great model of an important bit of aviation history. You've done it proud, and I love the group photo too. I'm a sucker for those type pics and really enjoyed seeing the planes together. Cool. 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 1 hour ago, jeaton01 said: I won't feel it's reasonably complete until I build the Alley Cat Vampire and the Tamiya MiG 15, though I wish there was a better MiG-15 in 1/48. So far I've built the He-178, He-280, Gloster Squirt E28/39, Me262 V7, Meteor prototype, F.3 and F.8, Nakajima Kikka, P-59, and now the P-80A-1. Probably should also have the FJ-1 Fury as well. How about the early Navy jets John? Are there good 1/48 versions of the Banshee and Phantom available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Keg Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 That`s a great presentation!!!!!!!! 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeaton01 Posted January 2, 2020 Author Share Posted January 2, 2020 Thanks, Sky Keg. Gary, so far as I know there is only the Collect Aire FH-1 Phantom in 1/48, and same for the F6U Pirate. I don't have either one. I would consider any later jets to be second generation, and the subject of a different group for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Really good, John!...very nice stuff here! Luiz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobo Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) Your P-80 turned out beautiful. Thank you for the history; I didn't realize a few P-80's made it to Europe before the end of WWII. The light gray color scheme is a nice change of pace. That is a nice collection of finished models. Edited January 2, 2020 by Hobo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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