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Scratch built F-80C Shooting Star


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Good afternoon everyone

 

I haven't been on this forum for a good few months as I have been visiting family and friends in the States and I just got back home to my office before all the lock downs due to Coronavirus!.....what a terrible state of affairs for all of us and I do hope that you all are staying safe in your self isolation!

The only positive I can think of whilst isolating for us modellers is of course hopefully more bench time!

I am in the process of scratch building a 1:20 scale B17G but I really needed a break from it ....so I thought I would have a go at the F-80C.

Just love the lines of the F-80 and I'm interested in jet aircraft of  this era...early 50s!

I wanted to see if I could build it in 1:48 scale out of the usual materials I build in ...which is balsa wood /card/wire....well anything which looks useful I guess...and as usual I am building this the old school of modeling way...ie no C.A.D ,special tools...just look at photos of the real thing and try to use the materials I have to replicate an aircraft the best I can.

I have actually finished this build but thought I would show you some photos I took whilst building it....so it's not in real time (hence the quick photo upload!)

 

So lets start.....................

 

First up....I searched for some decent scale plans of the Shooting Star and re scaled them to 1:48

 

SHOOTING-STAR.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-1.jpg

 

I started on the fuselage......

 

SHOOTING-STAR-2.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-3.jpg

 

Formers were glued into place and the cockpit and front wheel well area were prepared....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-4.jpg

 

 

 

Mustn't forget the lead weight in the nose as she will sit tail heavy....something I always forget to do!!!

 

SHOOTING-STAR-5.jpg

 

Next up I filled the gaps between the stringers with scrap balsa....something I always do so that I can sand down to the stringers and get a good shape of the fuselage.

 

SHOOTING-STAR-7.jpg

 

Here is the fuselage sanded down and the tail unit (made from balsa wood) and the wing roots and fillets prepared....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-8.jpg

 

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Balsa wood wings were then shaped from a block and fitted to the wing roots....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-11.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-12.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-13.jpg

 

It was time to build up a basic cockpit...I say basic as I wanted to display this F-80 with the canopy closed....(the aircraft looks better that way in my opinion!) so actually you wouldn't see much of the detail anyway......

 

SHOOTING-STAR-14.jpg

 

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I wanted to try something completely different than how I normally skin my scratch built aircraft and that was to cut each panel separately from a sheet of sticky back silver paper. This took me a few days I have to say but I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. As I cut each panel out I made the rivet markings with a pin as I went along...as hopefully you might see!!

 

SHOOTING-STAR-17.jpg

 

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The air intakes on either side were a nightmare I might add!!

 

SHOOTING-STAR-20.jpg

 

I am about half way through the photos now so I will have a break and get back to the completion of this F-80 either later or tomorrow!

 

Thanks for looking in ....and please stay safe out there!

 

Cheers

 

Fozzy

Edited by Fozzy
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A very interesting thread to watch, I'll certainly bookmark this for future reference I have several things I'd like to apply the same methodology to, great work.

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Afternoon to you all!

 

Thanks for the replies to yesterdays post.....and here are the remaining photos I took whilst tackling this build!

 

I left off yesterday starting to skin the fuselage and wings with sticky back silver paper and here is the end result!...

 

SHOOTING-STAR-21.jpg

 

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The main undercarriage wheel wells were next...odd bits of plastic was used for this.....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-27.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-28.jpg

 

Here are the 6 x 12.7mm machine guns in place in the nose.I drilled out the holes and glued wire insulation that represented the barrels....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-29.jpg

 

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....and the tail pipe was made by a wrapped piece of paper pushed through another hole that I drilled out!....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-31.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-32.jpg

 

SHOOTING-STAR-33.jpg

 

Now came the hardest part!

Of course I had to get together my own markings for this F-80C.The national insignia was taken from my stash of kit decals I collected over the years and unfortunately I had to hand paint the rest. The way I do it is hand paint the markings on a piece of baking foil (nice and thin)... and when dry .....simply glue them in place!....actually it wasn't that simple!....this is why I chose this particular F-80.....F9696...as it was easier to replicate the markings!

Here are some of the markings cut out from the foil.....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-34.jpg

 

So the next 6 photos are of all the markings in place......

 

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The two tip tanks were made from a couple of old kit bombs that I had to cut and shape up a bit!...

 

SHOOTING-STAR-41.jpg

 

The main wheels made from balsa wood.......

 

SHOOTING-STAR-42.jpg

 

The nose wheel was stolen from an old kit and attached to the scratch built undercarriage leg....

 

SHOOTING-STAR-43.jpg

 

Here is a shot of the reflector gun site...or a bunch of pieces of scrap plastic glued together!!

 

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The last 3 photos are of the undercarriage .....

 

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So ...that's it!

 

I forgot to take a photo of the canopy that I vac formed....but you can see it in this very last photo of this post.

 

I don't normally scratch build jets as I find them difficult to do....I find prop jobs easier for some reason....but I really wanted to give it a try......not sure if I would do another one....just yet!

 

I am going to post some completed shots in RFI in a bit.......but for now...thanks for your interest in this build!

 

F-80-SHOOTING-STAR-COMPLETE.jpg

 

Stay safe everyone and cheers!

 

Fozzy

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fozzy
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Wow! What can I say? That is old-school model building! Reminds me of the old Monogram Spedee-Bilt balsa/plastic kits, of which I built several. Yours is 'way better, though. Thanks for sharing your  WIP with the rest of us unworthies! Well done, sir! You and yours stay safe and well, too.

Mike

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4 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Wow! What can I say? That is old-school model building! Reminds me of the old Monogram Spedee-Bilt balsa/plastic kits, of which I built several. Yours is 'way better, though. Thanks for sharing your  WIP with the rest of us unworthies! Well done, sir! You and yours stay safe and well, too.

Mike

 

Hey Mike...I was doing the river walk in San Antonio and visiting The Alamo less than a month ago!....Great City you live in!...thanks for your remarks!

 

4 hours ago, malpaso said:

Lovely job!  Did you use sanding sealer or anything like that to harden the balsa before the skinning?

Hi there...yes I sealed the balsa with Cellulose dope!

 

 

Thanks guys for your input!

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51 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Welcome back, Fozzy, and with a bang too! Nice to see how it's done.

Howdy Pete!😉

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3 hours ago, perdu said:

Oh yeah back with a bang indeed Fozzy

 

B word lovely mate

 

Outstanding, keep safe yourself

Hi there Bill....cheers mate!

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Fozzy, awesome build--since you seem to be the guy to ask, are there any good P/F-80 references you would recommend?  Apologize if I missed any callouts earlier in your thread.  I found the scrap balsa in between the stringers to be a great technique that I will leverage in the future--thank you for sharing!  Best, Erwin

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Really lovely work. I notice rivets how did you do them?
 

I’m currently building a Caproni Campini and it’s similar bare metal I was going to scribe and paint it but your method of foiling by panel lines would be perfect and much easier. What foil did you use? I have aluminium and chrome baremetal and a large roll of Bostic plumbers foil( this looks like the best candidate)

Edited by Marklo
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10 hours ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Fozzy, awesome build--since you seem to be the guy to ask, are there any good P/F-80 references you would recommend?  Apologize if I missed any callouts earlier in your thread.  I found the scrap balsa in between the stringers to be a great technique that I will leverage in the future--thank you for sharing!  Best, Erwin

Thanks a lot!......there is quite a bit of reference material for the P/F-80 on the internet.....for example....

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/awa01/201-300/awa280-F-80/00.shtm

 

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/t-33/f-80b_walk.shtml......this is the sort of thing I was looking at...hope it helps!

 

 

7 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Really lovely work. I notice rivets how did you do them?
 

I’m currently building a Caproni Campini and it’s similar bare metal I was going to scribe and paint it but your method of foiling by panel lines would be perfect and much easier. What foil did you use? I have aluminium and chrome baremetal and a large roll of Bostic plumbers foil( this looks like the best candidate)

Hi Marklo

I used a sheet of sticky back silver card sheet to skin this F-80...I can't remember where I got it from as I have had it lying round for a few years but think that most Art/hobby stores will have it...if only they were open at the moment!!

If I tell you how I make the rivets ...then I would have to kill you!.....😉........

Turn the panel of foil you are going to use to the glue side and simply use a pin to make an indentation....simples!....making sure the next panels rivets line up....laborious but worth while in the end....good luck! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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