(40609) F-117 Nighthawk

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Ahoy hoy,

 

Flying Admiral here again and have I managed to find a treat for you all. Well, a treat for me at least. Matchbox's reissue of Revell's F-117 Night Hawk:

 

 

One of my all-time favourite flying ships, revealed to the public a mere two years after my birth; many toys when I were but a wee Cap'n were based around its futuristic lines (I'm mainly thinking of a certain transformer...). And to my eyes the F-117 still looks futuristic. I cannot re-find the link but I remember a story when a RAF-bod saw one for the first time he burst out laughing and was insistent it would never be able to fly. Little did he know that in its short history (although it appears to still be flying), it would only ever suffer one loss to enemy action. 

 

The levels of secrecy undertaken for this ground attack craft are legendary, with another story I recall being that the 4450th Tactical Wing pretended the A-7s they were officially flying could be cloaked and setup a hangar where maintenance worked on thin air with bits and bobs suspended by wires to mimic a cloaked craft. They even created mock cloaking devices to be carried on the A-7's wing pods and flew these around during the day before flying the F-117 at night.

 

Brilliant stuff. No idea if it's true or my memory is accurate, but hopefully so. Anyway, the kit...

 

 

Already very good. I can't vouch for the accuracy - it's not a ship after all! - in fact, I'd be surprised if it were given the kit's original age, but it's captured it well enough for my liking. I have a feeling she'll be flying round the house in no time, with a certain happy camper singing the Top Gun theme tune attached.

 

There won't be any aftermarket parts for this build. Decals look to be in OK condition, but during my sleuthing I did find a rather handsome image of her 'farewell' flight with a catching stars and stripes pattern on her belly. I will need to consider how to paint those tiny stars at a later point or if there's a decal set I can get for them. Given I want to do other stealth planes, I'd rather not have multiple similarly coloured craft.

 

This will serve as an interim build for when I need a break from the Fletcher, as I happened to build the F-16 (that was meant to fulfil that role) a tad too fast. These three will be painted concurrently so for now I have to somehow put this down and get on with some 1/700 etch to catch up.

 

 

Until then,

 

David

[Rabbit Leader]

Great to see this F-117 and although it's an original Revell design, does quite suit that predominantly black Matchbox box. The parts look really crisp and I'm sure you will enjoy putting this together. 

Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff David

I had no idea that this kit had been re-released as a Matchbox item.

Good luck with it, look forward to following your progress. 

Cheers Pat 

[Paul821]

If this had been an original Matchbox kit I wonder how they would have dealt with their different coloured sprues? They did manage the Red Arrows Gnat and Hawk in 2 colours.

[Adm Lord De Univers]

3 hours ago, Paul821 said:

If this had been an original Matchbox kit I wonder how they would have dealt with their different coloured sprues?

Well, the original F-117 camouflage was a lovely looking greyish biege, orange and green number - so hopefully the latter two colours!

 

Here's a link to the various schemes: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41163/why-the-f-117-made-its-first-flight-in-pastel-camouflage-40-years-ago-today

 

David

[JOCKNEY]

12 hours ago, Paul821 said:

If this had been an original Matchbox kit I wonder how they would have dealt with their different coloured sprues? They did manage the Red Arrows Gnat and Hawk in 2 colours.

As long as it came with a pair of sunglasses,  it's all good 👍  

 

Cheers Pat

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Tiring of battling the Fletcher build on this GB (due to my insistence of using a pe set designed for another kit), I had a crack at this instead. Boy did it go together nicely by comparison, I actually had to force myself to stop at 1am...

 

 

David

[Rabbit Leader]

It’s always good when you look up at the close and don’t realise how late it is…. you must have been having lots of fun. I’ve never built a F-117, however imagine it would be a quick build. Looks great so far. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Thanks Dave, it really is, part well-fitting kit and partly choice of subject matter. The flat surfaces means it almost throws itself together. As you can see behind there's only 12 steps too, so not much left to do.

 

The most time-consuming aspect will be choice of camouflage; grey, black, stars and stripes undercarriage, 'toxic' patterning or the original pastel shades. I'm starting to lean towards the latter.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Well it all came together rather quickly, last night I took a few moments to attach the landing gear and that was pretty much build completed. Today, faced with the prospect of 1/700 etch, I instead gave it and her Falcon friend a spray of primer.

 

 

Looks pretty much as it did before, only more matt. Ignoring some ugly seams for now, onto thinking about camouflage! Well, I really wanted to do a stars and stripes undercarriage, but the prospect of spending money to get the decal set or carving out little stars on masking tapr is putting me off. Instead, I think I'll go with something equally unusual...

 

 

Yes, that should do it. Vomit orange and pastel green on stone grey. Not sure how that provides camo in the desert, unless the armadillos have been at the poison desert berries en masse again, but there you go. I've added a U-2 and SR-71 to the ol' wishlist so this should give some variation to the blackbirds.

 

I'll wait for the primer to fully cure and the seams fix themselves before continuing.

 

David

[Rabbit Leader]

Now that Vomit Orange scheme is really quite different!

Where did you come across that image and what's it all about? 

Cheers.. Dave  

[Adm Lord De Univers]

4 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Now that Vomit Orange scheme is really quite different!

Where did you come across that image and what's it all about? 

Cheers.. Dave  

I found it during a sleuth of the internet (incidentally trying to find the stars and stripes number), from here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41163/why-the-f-117-made-its-first-flight-in-pastel-camouflage-40-years-ago-today

 

Apparently it was the paint scheme used for YF-117, serial number 79-10780, the first full scale test flight (although it was delivered to the airbase in grey). It was quickly repainted, after 10 flights, to grey. It was also used on the Have Blue predecessor. I think as they conducted the initial flights in daylight it was intended to break up the shape. The article above says that it was only when the USAF intervened that the grey was eventually changed to the black we all know and love.

 

Personally I prefer vomit orange.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Well the seams didn't fix themselves, but will be no more soon:

 

 

Bit of sanding and then onto the home stretch.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Slow progress due to work, but the seams are smooth and ready for painting:

 

 

David

(Sorry for duplication with the F-16 thread, these will separate out again soon enough)

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Photo time, the above set was primed and then - in my continuing pre-shading attempts (this will be the third time I've tried it) - highlighted in a variety of whites.

 

 

And because I'm duplicating content, I'll separate out from here onwards.

 

 

It's not clear, but the brightest colour is brilliant white (and should pick out the angled face where the camera is directly pointing/just above the wing). Next, deck tan applied, the closest I could get from my selection of paints to the base colour (looks a lot like the above photo but to the eye is v different):

 

 

And time for that to dry. Pre-shading not entirely effective, but a lot better than my first 2 attempts, just a bit heavy-handed with the ol' airbrush still. Pastel green, then orange to follow.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Well pre-shading went out the window with the camo, but here you go, another coat of vomit orange needed though (and touch-ups and canopy needs tidying):

 

 

It may not be accurate to the original in either hue or pattern (although I was trying to match it with the photo above and the one here), but I like it. Something a bit different from the usual black or greys anyway.

 

Unfortunately, unseen, the undercarriage was broken in its first (unplanned) flight, courtesy of an inquisitive toddler - I'm both happy she understands the concept of plane=flight and that it miraculously landed on its wheels.

 

Amost there.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Another one photo update:

 

 

First coat of varnish on. Those eagle eyed among you will perchance notice a rather rookie error: In my idiom to gloss for multiple models in one round and in my haste to apply some pretty eye catching decals to the Falcon, I seem to have forgotten to actually varnish this and began decaling and weathering (without being able to remove the excess).

 

Oh well. Since this beaut was trialled in the desert I reckon she'd have gotten pretty beaten up and the more I look at that camo in photo form the more I dislike the contrasting hues - they're more pastel-ly to the eye, but still. I'm hoping a light grey glaze over the top will blend it together, after which I will be heavily weathering it anyway.

 

David

[JOCKNEY]

Looking terrific David 

And as you say a nice contrast to 50 shades of grey, whoops , well you know what I mean !

Cheers Pat

[Adm Lord De Univers]

5 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

nice contrast

Not sure I'd describe that vomit orange hue as 'nice', but certainly 'contrast' is bang on the money.

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Second layer of varnish just on and she'll soon be ready to have the a few touch ups and weathering completed.

 

 

David

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Well, I guess a shipbuilder prioritising a ship over a plane isn't the most surprising thing ever. So, I'm almost ready to call this one done, depending on time with a Fletcher build more shrapnel than ship.

 

 

I'm not particularly happy with how it turned out, but it remains fixable at some point down the line,  although I need time to get the Fletcher built, so chances are this will be my gallery submission.

 

How would I fix it? Remove that paint (maybe try wire (wool) brushing it and doing a beat up version?), properly repair the tail, etc. I really liked the camo scheme, but not my choice nor application of colours, and I somehow had a bit of a moment with varnish and weathering ordering. Trying further layers of wash or glaze I don't think will blend it to something I prefer, when I tried it, it didn't work well and was largely removed. I've left a 'dirty' layer on, unvarnished.

 

Still, I really enjoyed the kit and if you can find one - it goes together nicely, if you don't mind some understandable (minor) inaccuracies. The rough shape however, well it's unmistakably The Night Hawk, and boy, she looks good, even in armadillo vomit orange!

 

David

[JOCKNEY]

Congratulations David

And please accept my apologies that I didn't congratulate you on completing this one at the time.

Did you pop this one in the Gallery, as it certainly deserves to be there ?

I think the colour scheme is inspired 

Cheers Pat 

[Adm Lord De Univers]

That's Pat, I was hoping more time would be available for me to fix her up, but alas twas not meant to be. She's posted up in the gallery now and I'm calling her done, here she is next to the F-16 in her temporary home.

 

 

David