Lightningboy2000 Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 I've had this in the stash for a few years now, purchased it when it came out, & here's a good excuse to get it made. I know it may be a small thing to some but I really like the quality of the box top & the artwork that Meng employs. I'll be using the Microscale decal sheet 72-363 which has an F-102A 56-0977 of the 32nd FIS at Soesterberg & Microscale's info says it's from 1961. Here's a couple of rererence pics of mine from a few years ago of 56-1032 at the National Military Museum at Soesterberg . Got some primer & relevant paint on the first stage parts that initially need painting before it goes together. They'l get an enamel wash for the cockpit & undercarriage bays. Primed with Ammo one shot which dried & set quickly then airbrushed with Mig acrylics. Before I close it up, will I need any nose weight? Is the 102 a tail sitter? So far I can see that this will go together pretty quickly. Martin 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Can empathise with you in regard to enjoying nice box-art. If anything it can 'sell' a kit to me that may not have otherwise caught my attention and I'm sure that must account for a good percentage of sales to many. The contents certainly looks more comprehensive than the older Hasegawa kits being worked on here already, then there is several decades between them so that's only to be expected, so it'll be interesting to see how well it goes together in comparison. You look to be off to a nice start already. Lovely choice of colour-scheme as well 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Share Posted December 13, 2020 13 minutes ago, Col. said: Can empathise with you in regard to enjoying nice box-art. If anything it can 'sell' a kit to me that may not have otherwise caught my attention and I'm sure that must account for a good percentage of sales to many. The contents certainly looks more comprehensive than the older Hasegawa kits being worked on here already, then there is several decades between them so that's only to be expected, so it'll be interesting to see how well it goes together in comparison. You look to be off to a nice start already. Lovely choice of colour-scheme as well Yes, looks good so far. Panel lines are well defined, already broken off one of the antennas from the top spine! The parts go together & line up well which is a sure sign of a good kit to me. The cockpit attaches directly to the wheel well & with the instrument panel attached, fits into the fuselage perfectly. Can't say that with many kits as I usually have to fettle something & end up with a gap somewhere. Now I'm jumping ahead & making sure I've got the correct equivalent grey in my paint stocks to FS16473. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 Had an hour or two this evening to pop a few parts together. The model goes together a dream, only wish I didn't go plopping glue everywhere it shouldn't. Got a big dollop on the tail fin. Remembered some advice from ages ago about not touching it to clean it up so i'll leave it to set until its rockard then sand it smooth. Got the cockpit painted up & added the decal for the instrument panel. Found a spare AML 1/72 WW2 etch seat belt, I think it was for a Mustang. That'l do nicely. It's only 1/72 & it's adequate. Like I says it goes together quickly. Would be nice if I found enough time to complete it before the 31st! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 (edited) Hi, It will be interesting to compare this with my old Hasegawa kit. I can see it is a Case X wing, but what sort of period are you intending to model it in - as mentioned in my build thread quite a few bits and pieces were added over the years, such as the arrestor hook and the IR detector. The one in your pics has the UHF aerial behind the cockpit which was fitted in 1969 and the fixed red beacon near the tail which was fitted in 1967, but not the IR seeker in front of the cockpit which dates from 1963 according to D&S but I guess that has been removed. Mine is as in mid 1965. Cheers Pete Edited December 17, 2020 by PeterB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted December 17, 2020 Author Share Posted December 17, 2020 6 minutes ago, PeterB said: Hi, It will be interesting to compare this with my old Hasegawa kit. I can see it is a Case X wing, but what sort of period are you intending to model it in - as mentioned in my build thread quite a few bits and pieces were added over the years, such as the arrestor hook and the IR detector. The one in your pics has the UHF aerial behind the cockpit which was fitted in 1969 and the fixed red beacon near the tail which was fitted in 1967, but not the IR seeker in front of the cockpit which dates from 1963 according to D&S but I guess that has been removed. Mine is as in mid 1965. Cheers Pete Hi Pete, thanks for that. I understand what you say about that Soesterberg museum exhibit, it's just there for example, but what you say is very helpful. I googled 56-0977 and came up with an image of the airframe on abpic. I wasn't sure if the owner of the photo would take kindly to me linking it here. It's a photo of 56-0977 at the B.O.B day at Waddington 1961. There is an arrestor hook in the kit, but I don't think I'll need the IR detector. That's one copy of D&S that I haven't got, funny I swore that I had it. Cheers mate. Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Hi Martin, If you want any particular info from D& S let me know and I will see what I can do. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 7 hours ago, PeterB said: Hi Martin, If you want any particular info from D& S let me know and I will see what I can do. Pete Thanks Pete, the only thing I can think of at the moment is if my "56" fiscal year build, would have had the arrestor hook fitted. I'm assuming that by the time it got to Soesterberg it ended up with one. I've sanded off that beacon on the spine & the UHF aerial came off with my kack handedness anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Hi Martin, My understanding is that all planes were fitted with the hook from 1960 onwards, so yours would have had one retrofitted I would think by 1961. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 5 hours ago, PeterB said: Hi Martin, My understanding is that all planes were fitted with the hook from 1960 onwards, so yours would have had one retrofitted I would think by 1961. Pete Thanks Pete, that's what I thought. Cheers Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 Had a quiet few weeks away from the models. Something festive just had to get in the way of things. So back to the workbench & had a few days of masking & spraying. Always really satisfying pulling the tape away, apart that is when it pulls up little bits of paint. Used some Vallejo Modelcolor 70.907 for the light blue/grey. Looking at the microscale decals I found that the red white & blue tail decals were way too small for the Meng tail fin, which means there must be a big size difference between this & the Hasegawa kit which Microscale recommend. So I decided to mask & paint the markings, which means I'll have to cut out the crown & Sqn insignia from the decal. I'm wondering if there's a seperate decal of that crown & wreath insignia somewhere? I used Vallejo Model Air for the red & blue. Next job will be to touch in some of the grey. And here's something else I've been working on that will be revealed in the RFI section at a later date. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Nice paintwork creating the tail markings Martin. That looks to be a better result than the decals could have provided Your RF-4 is looking good as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 9, 2021 Author Share Posted January 9, 2021 Cheers Col! 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Just a bit more masking revealed... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 Been adding a few decals. Managed to get hold of a Microscale decal sheet with some badges which included the badge for the 32nd Fighter Sqn. So that was good, saved me using the undersized decals on the sheet. Apart from that a small forest of Falcon missiles appeared, along with the barbers pole curtesy of Master brass bits for the pointy end. I thought I'd show these little beasties off & have the weapons bay doors open & a couple of the launch frames lowered. After adding all the small bits & pieces I'll give it a panel line wash & some dirty bits in a few select places. The code numbers were scavenged from the decal spares drawer - an old Academy F-84 & an Italeri F-100 to gather all the numbers together. It turned out according to the decal sheet that the badge was 15" tall. And finally a cheeky pic of my dodgy Xtradecal aftermarket decals on the Photospook. Seems that old decals, much like those modeldecals go off with time as these had a lot of scum that had to be washed off each decal. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 Nice work again. Both are looking good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 Finally completed! On to the next one... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestFan Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Beautiful, well done 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 That looks superb, a cracking result. Very well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 On 1/17/2021 at 9:00 PM, ForestFan said: Beautiful, well done 👍 On 1/17/2021 at 10:11 PM, modelling minion said: That looks superb, a cracking result. Very well done. Thanks chaps! 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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