Mcdonnell F101B Voodoo

[neil5208]

Straight off the back of the Meng F102 Delta Dagger I'm starting another century series aircraft, Revell's F101B Voodoo from 1991. This was purchased from Rob at my local model club last month for the princely sum of £5, I'm pretty sure this is from 1991 as the original price tag of £6.95 was still on the box and the instructions are dated 1991. Apart from the decals looking a bit yellow the parts look good moulded in very 1970's "airfix" like soft silver plastic and were all still on the sprue. I have ordered a set of Almark decals from Hannants which has the choice of US and Canadian aircraft as I haven't decided on air superiority grey or NFM. Sprue shots first and then work started on cockpit.

 

[billn53]

Another “must build soon” from my stash!
I’ll pull up a seat, if you don’t mind me leaving peanut shells on the floor. 

[neil5208]

16 minutes ago, billn53 said:

Another “must build soon” from my stash!
I’ll pull up a seat, if you don’t mind me leaving peanut shells on the floor. 

Of course Bill, revell or valem?

[billn53]

Just now, neil5208 said:

Of course Bill, revell or valem?

One of each!

[neil5208]

20 hours ago, billn53 said:

One of each!

I'm not surprised after you shared the stash picture last week, how many F4 does one man need. Does the Valom kit have decent colour details, FS hopefully has the revell instructions are the usual 1990's vague hints at colours if any (see pictures below)

On this one only part 8 has colour indicated nothing for the intake itself and the next the cockpit side wall and the camera housing have no colours mentioned.

Test fitted the air brakes and both fit extremely well and have detail on the inside but the fuselage aperture has no detail so I may have to add as the kit give the option for flaps down and the few pictures I have seen with flaps down the air brakes are deployed.

Cockpit decal applied but show Revells have printed out of register so the after market set was a good choice.

Oh and the instructions have the pilots and back seaters decal panels the wrong way round No2 for the front not No1

[Robert]

Nice start Neil. I will check my decal stash as l may have some extra Revell F-101B sheets which l will bring to the next meeting.

 

Regards

Robert

[Christer A]

This kit is a real gem, especially considering it's age!

Nasty sinkmarks on the air brakes though. 

I really should restart my attempt at it...

[Serkan Sen]

I will follow with big interest. Many years ago I started to build in 1:48 scale but no further progress since then. Also 1:72 one waits in original box for its turn.

[marky sparky]

Looking good. It's a lovely kit.

[Nikolay Polyakov]

We can never have too many Voodoos! I’m in... 🍿

[neil5208]

On 6/13/2022 at 4:32 PM, Christer A said:

 

Nasty sinkmarks on the air brakes though. 

 

The sink marks look bad but dont feel like they much surface distortion. I think is the effect of the silver plastic but will see more one a primer coat is on.

Small update before I go down to Devon for 8 days, finished the seat painting.

The nose wheel bay has been bonded to one of the fuselage side, if you follow the instructions you should join the fuselage halves and insert the cockpit tub through this large hole but I have tried this without the instrument panels and failed hence only bonding once side of the wheel bay.

The replacement Almark decals have arrived only to find out they are a year older than the kits but they look to be in better condition, also picked up some RoPs Blenhiem decals at the same time.

I have an idea what to do with the airbrake for detailing but will need to do some experiments.

[neil5208]

After a quick think and beverage I made some inserts for the air brake wells from the tin of said beverage, based on pictures of the eduard etch set. Not perfect but better than nothing.

Pressed the rivets in with back corner of blunt scalpel blade.

[Robin-42]

The formation “slime” lights may have to come off depending on your final choice of markings. Same for the nose infra-red seaker head. Finally, depending on how pedantic you are, some airframes had an extra set of guide vanes in the intakes. MDC initially added them at a certain production number, then decided they weren’t needed after all. A photo is the only sure way to know. I go from trying to correct everything in a kit to not bothering to put an interior in another myself. 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Robin-42

[neil5208]

2 hours ago, Robin-42 said:

The formation “slime” lights may have to come off depending on your final choice of markings. Same for the nose infra-red seaker head. Finally, depending on how pedantic you are, some airframes had an extra set of guide vanes in the intakes. MDC initially added them at a certain production number, then decided they weren’t needed after all. A photo is the only sure way to know. I go from trying to correct everything in a kit to not bothering to put an interior in another myself. 

Thanks for the tip, will have to do some checking.

[Tony Edmundson]

Those Almark decals are atrocious, please don’t use the Canadian markings, they’re no where near accurate

[neil5208]

On 6/19/2022 at 6:22 AM, Tony Edmundson said:

Those Almark decals are atrocious, please don’t use the Canadian markings, they’re no where near accurate

I see what you mean the maple leafs are very small.

 

On 6/19/2022 at 3:32 AM, Robin-42 said:

The formation “slime” lights may have to come off depending on your final choice of markings. Same for the nose infra-red seaker head. Finally, depending on how pedantic you are, some airframes had an extra set of guide vanes in the intakes. MDC initially added them at a certain production number, then decided they weren’t needed after all. A photo is the only sure way to know. I go from trying to correct everything in a kit to not bothering to put an interior in another myself. 

The decals I have have the IR seeker but no formation lights so I have sanded the moulded one off.

[neil5208]

Finally made some progress on the Voodoo, the cockpit fitting was very troublesome but after some sanding of the wheel bay and cockpit floor I managed to squeeze the fuselage halves together.

Wafer thin but its against the cockpit floor.

Together at last but I haven't removed the formation lights on this side. The wing upper section had some nasty sink marks in the intake area that have been filed and sanded.

Quick test fit of the wing section.

[Serkan Sen]

Very good progress Neil. The Voodoo getting her shape nicely.

Serkan

 

[neil5208]

I was hoping once the cockpit was finally in place I could make some decent progress this week but alas the Revellness of the kit keep showing up. Firstly the intake ramps don't meet up with the intake edges.

One side is high the other lower than where it should be.

Nothing a couple of clamps and a tooth pick jammed in cant sort out.

Next problem is the rotating missile pallet, the pallet itself if fine but the bay that is meant to hold it has no locating method in the fuselage and is not large enough for the pallet to rotate.

It also has alignment issues. AIM 4 side.

Genie side

The pallet also seems short as the wing section lines up nicely in the fuselage so I think I'll do away with the internal bay and fix the pallet in the fuselage before fixing the wings, that will leave a gap between pallet and wing section but fixing here will be easier than at the front with multiple joints.

 

[Serkan Sen]

Nice progress so far Neil. As far as I remember 1:48 kit has same issues too.

Serkan

 

[neil5208]

Now I've finished the Bandai X Wing I can get back to the voodoo

Had to get creative clamping the port side intake so it could set properly and then some sprue gloop.

The canopy has been polished, dipped in Future floor polish and test fit, good on this side but no so much on the starboard.

Once the sprue gloop has hardened enough to shape I can move on to the rotating pallet.

[neil5208]

Sanded the sprue gloop and fitted the wings

The intakes below the engines are moulded without opening so after a bit of filling and plastic card I end up with this

The pallet strakes fitted and cover the poor fit of the pallet.

And test fit of AIM4's

Also put together the jet nozzles and fuel tanks.

Considering the age of the kit it has for the most part gone together quite well but both the exhausts and tanks didn't line up so well.

[alt-92]

I wouldn't worry too much about the seam in the exhausts, there is a line visible on the real thing as well - in fact, adding rivets would make it really lifelike:

[Robin-42]

As alt-92 stated, there are rivets and seams. I took this for when I build mine. Gander, Newfoundland. 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Robin-42

[neil5208]

Fitted the engine aux intakes and sprayed the red flap wells.

Canopy has been fitted, masked and sprayed as well.

Due to the Almark decals poor quality and just being plain wrong I will need to find some different ones so I cant start painting until new ones have been sourced. Onto the Bandai B Wing!