Revell 1/72 F-89D/J Scorpion COMPLETED 10/02/21

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

Time for another WIP. 

 

I must admit I cannot put my finger on why I love this plane so much. Sadly my previous attempts at building this fugly flying machine was limited to the Academy offerings. Not bad (not great either) as kits, but the decals really let them down. Tried twice, failed twice. Hopefully 3rd time is the charm. 

 

Sexy contents pics: 

 

 

Box art, showing two Scorpions probably turning Palmdale into a war zone. Cough. 

 

 

Decals, printed in Italy so should be good. Please let them be good ...

 

 

 

Sprues in silver plastic. Eurgh. Recessed panel lines, need to check if that's all over unlike the Academy that has raised ones in a few spots. And unlike the Academy, I get some under wing drop tanks! Huzzah! 

 

Now, need to decide which version I'm going for. Both are appealing, the D with the sharkmouth or the J loaded for Bear hunting (don't think they ever carried that much ordinance, but I think it looks menacing, so I win ). So far the D is looking thr winner, will decide tonight. If this goes well, I will definitely get another one for the other version...

 

As for the NMF, going to use Vallejo Metal Color. So hold thumbs! 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Evil_Toast_RSA
Updated title

[Tomjw]

Looking forward to seeing this progress. Like you, there's something about this ugly thing...

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[VT Red Sox Fan]

I am in—this is one of my favorite planes—can’t wait to see it come together—cheers Erwin 

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

Well, looks like the pressure is on! This should be as easy as shooting down an unmanned out of ground control F6F drone doing leisurely turns with a much more modern jet packing more rockets than an entire P-47 squadron! Oh, wait.....  

 

Anyway, decided on doing the J version at the end, the spare decals will come in handy if I can only get an Academy kit again.  Plus, you know, the only US plane to fire a nuclear missile with the intent of causing a significant emotional event. 

 

 

So, got started with the office. Some ejector marks to fill, seats built and consoles cleaned up. Details will be supplied by decals eventually, still think the Academy kit has a better office detail wise, except the seats, these look better. Need to check up on the cockpit colour, think it's the usual FS 36231, but Revell calls out something closer to RAL 7005. Must admit info is a bit limited online for this kit unsurprisingly.  

 

 

 

Overall, the kit needs some scribing. The panel lines are a bit soft in places and some flash. But that's a future worry, my P-39* is nearing the time consuming decal and washes stage, so still a few days to mull things over. 

 

Next question for the experts. The "Arctic Red"(??) used on these guys flying out of the frozen northern wastes, what colour is it exactly? I've got something stuck in my head that it has an orange hue to it, no idea where or when I picked this up. So using Tamiya XF-7 Red with a small dash of XF-3 Yellow would be a good idea?   

 

* - Yes. There is a pattern here. I like the unloved and ungainly planes of the world. How many people do you know who are actively looking for another Fairey Gannet?  

[reini]

1 hour ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

This should be as easy as shooting down an unmanned out of ground control F6F drone doing leisurely turns with a much more modern jet packing more rockets than an entire P-47 squadron! Oh, wait.....  

 

Haha  'Combat' record of the Scorpion is not exactly spectacular - but it's such a cool plane otherwise. Full of rockets (including nuclear ones!) and it's HUGE! And looks so ugly that it's actually pretty... well, not really. But it looks... unique... to put it kindly.   I've built the Revell 1/48 Scorpion which isn't the best of kits but it still builds up to a pretty impressive looking machine.

 

Decals aside, do you recommend Academy or Revell for the 1/72 scale? 

 

BTW there is an Interceptor group build happening at the moment, in case you want to check it out (or join the fun!) https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/709-interceptors-gb/

I think there are a Scorpion or two there amongst all the Delta Darts and Daggers

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

32 minutes ago, reini said:

Decals aside, do you recommend Academy or Revell for the 1/72 scale? 

 

 

Can only tell you when I'm finished building! So far the Academy cockpit has better raised dials etc on the consoles, but I prefer the Revell seats, and the panel lines and details are crisper for Academy.  

 

Academy had issues with the following: Nose to fuselage was a bit pants, the bottom fuselage panel that slips between the 2 fuselage halves was designed by Satan on a pay Friday afternoon, the main gear doors that stay closed but don't have a very good surface to join properly to the lower wing. The wingtip pods -> wing were a bit naff too, but it was a easy fix. Except the J pods, Satan designed the front/main pod attachments points at 5 minutes to knock off time after finishing the underside panel. 

 

32 minutes ago, reini said:

BTW there is an Interceptor group build happening at the moment, in case you want to check it out (or join the fun!) https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/709-interceptors-gb/

I think there are a Scorpion or two there amongst all the Delta Darts and Daggers

 

A bit late I think for that! 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Evil_Toast_RSA
Words

[Big Dave S]

3 hours ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

 

 

* - Yes. There is a pattern here. I like the unloved and ungainly planes of the world. How many people do you know who are actively looking for another Fairey Gannet?  

Understandable. The ulgly babies are the most loveable

Another Gannet? It remains the only plane to beat me. The weight was so biased towards the tail I couldn'r make it stand up. And Revell's kit was a nightmare to build. Fuselage refused to go together. Which did you build?

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

14 minutes ago, Big Dave S said:

Understandable. The ulgly babies are the most loveable

Another Gannet? It remains the only plane to beat me. The weight was so biased towards the tail I couldn'r make it stand up. And Revell's kit was a nightmare to build. Fuselage refused to go together. Which did you build?

 

The Trumpeter 1/72 AS Mk1/4. And I had to jam a small 10g weight into the front gear bay for mine, to go along with the ~15g I shoved in the nose (instructions made no note of how much so I guessed. Poorly.)

 

Want to try the Revell one next, but the only one available here has an obscene price tag attached. Waiting for a second hand one to appear. I'm surprised the Revell one is so bad? It's reasonably new and looks pretty detailed? 

[Big Dave S]

3 hours ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

 

 

Want to try the Revell one next, but the only one available here has an obscene price tag attached. Waiting for a second hand one to appear. I'm surprised the Revell one is so bad? It's reasonably new and looks pretty detailed? 

At first glance it looks great. But the fit and balance are dreadful. The three crew cockpit assembly on mine simply wouldn't fit where the fuselage halves were concerned, and ended up with a ~3mm gap to fill underneath. No way the closed bomb bay doors would work and it used a fair bit of filler as I had to put lots of weight in there to try and make it stand up.

This failed, and was the final straw. 

I certainly WOULD recommend Trumpeter's 1/72 Wyvern, if you haven't done it yet. A real pleasure and the polar opposite in terms of quality. Lots of wing accessories.

I did it last Xmas (started it during a week off with concussion!) and am happy with how it turned out.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Big Dave S

[Big Dave S]

Quick snap. This kit stands out as one of the nicest I've worked on.

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

@Big Dave S My Wyvern suffered a decal related booboo with the wing walkway stripes and sits on my shelf of doom, awaiting the day I decide to go on. 😕 Loved building it. 

[Big Dave S]

46 minutes ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

@Big Dave S My Wyvern suffered a decal related booboo with the wing walkway stripes and sits on my shelf of doom, awaiting the day I decide to go on. 😕 Loved building it. 

Oh those decals are a nightmare. I often ignore them.

Very naughty. Don't care 😈

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

@Big Dave S, what you think about the RWC 2023 draw? Falkland's and Singapore II: Electric Boogaloo?

[Big Dave S]

42 minutes ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

@Big Dave S, what you think about the RWC 2023 draw? Falkland's and Singapore II: Electric Boogaloo?

I confess I haven't looked. Still coming to terms with Leicester winning at the weekend. Shock to the system after the past 3 yrs.

Will check through this week. 

Which is your team?

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

@Big Dave S South Africa. We got Scotland and Ireland in our group. You got Japan and Argentina. 

 

I always supported Bath when I lived in Blight, but not followed the English league in many a year. 

[Big Dave S]

9 minutes ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

@Big Dave S South Africa. We got Scotland and Ireland in our group. You got Japan and Argentina. 

 

I always supported Bath when I lived in Blight, but not followed the English league in many a year. 

Ah I see. A good rugby culture over there.

I'm ambivalent about international rugby. Soon got over England losing last year (that very afternoon). And like both Japan and Argentina.

Did you live in Bath?

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

@Big Dave S used to live in Bath a good 20 years ago, my brother stays close by in the Dark Ages Cornwall. I'm back here going on 10 years, but will see what the next few years bring. 

[adey m]

On 13/12/2020 at 16:38, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

Box art, showing two Scorpions probably turning Palmdale into a war zone. Cough.

😂 🤣

[Big Dave S]

Hard to tell right now. Future is murky to say the least.

One of my team at work grew up in SA and still has family there. Her dad is from over there. Can't remember where though - sorry!

[adey m]

The Scorpion is one of those aircraft that always gets my interest. I built a 1991 issue Revell one and really enjoyed it, I was very impressed with how well engineered the kit is and mine went together with no issues at all. Builds up into a very impressive and accurate looking model of the big interceptor. Only gripe is that Revell do not provide the internal blast screen between the pilot and radar operator or any crew. When you add crew figures to the cockpit you realise then just what a big interceptor it was.

I could not decide at first which version to make, then I found a photo of a J with the wing tip rocket pods and the black underwing pylons for Genies, and so I used a bit of artistic license and built mine as a J with rocket pods and Genies 🤫

 

Looking forward to your progress

 

regards, adey

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

Not much to add, been futzing with bits and bobs whilst my P-39 gets done. Got the cockpit painted and mounted, nose weight added and ready for fuselage assembly. 

 

 

I like the seats OOB. The rest of the cockpit is unfortunately very reminiscent of a Matchbox attempt. 

 

 

The cockpit tub is meant to rest on the intake assembly and 3 plastic nibs that are slightly bigger than fly droppings. So I'm trying to beef it up with some plasticard supports. Not pretty but it hopefully works. 

[alex]

Nice, it is one of the few shortfalls, the lousy cockpit tub attachment points. Overall a nice kit, I enjoyed it very much! One tip, very careful if you want to preshade red paint. I ended up sanding the red colour away and applied a post-shading, much easier to control.

 

Here is my turnout of this kit: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=11437&p=albums&album=41296,

 

And the way to it: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=11437&p=albums&album=37302

 

About the revell Gannet, it's one of the kits which look nice in the box, but once you start, you find out the hard way that the kit is not up to its expectation. Very poor fitting, and almost every part needed rework. Pin marks in the most awful positions etc.

 

Alex

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by alex

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

On 23/12/2020 at 22:13, alex said:

About the revell Gannet, it's one of the kits which look nice in the box, but once you start, you find out the hard way that the kit is not up to its expectation. Very poor fitting, and almost every part needed rework. Pin marks in the most awful positions etc.

 

Well, poop. So I'm stuck with the Trumpeter version, and based on the local Trump-boss distributer, I should get one around about the time the sun turns into a white dwarf. 

 

Anyway. Finished the P-39, so full steam ahead with the Scorpion. 

 

 

Finished putting the plasticard " "supports" " under the cockpit tub, fuselage halves together and some tabs to help with the insert thats going in. Ran into some alignment issues with the rear fuselage, probably me being careless, but a small ridge running underneath along the seam needs some TLC. 

 

 

Major elements assembled, some clean up, seam and sink mark filling to do. So far not too taxing on the brain. Also lightly rescribed the panel lines to make them a bit sharper and more uniform. Some mistakes were made, but trying out this Mr Surfacer 500 that finally managed to arrive into the country recently. I'm impressed. Seems to fill these nicks and scratches rather well. 

 

Still 2020 here, so off to spend time with my doges outside so the fireworks don't drive them nuts >:(. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im a bit jealous, this is one of my Unicorn kits. 🦄... Mind if I follow the build ? 

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

10 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im a bit jealous, this is one of my Unicorn kits. 🦄... Mind if I follow the build ? 

 

Go for it! I'm average at best, so as long as you don't mind disappointment....