Convair F-106A Delta Dart of the 318th FIS

[Retired Bob]

Being born in the 1950s I have always been attracted to the Century Series of aircraft.  It was a difficult choice which aircraft and in which scale to build for this GB.  Having made the decision to build a 1/72nd F-106 I then had the task of which markings to apply, so many colourful and attractive schemes, all of of them on an overall ADC grey scheme.

First the kit,  I bought a couple of Meng Delta Darts when the kit was released in 2016 and they have remained in the stash ever since.  The only other Meng kits that I had bought prior were the 1/48th P-51 Mustang and the 1/72 F-102 Delta Dagger, both of those were disappointing because of the overdone surface detailing of large rivet divots and the F-102 also had deep panel lines and random, overdone panels.  The F-106 doesn't, thankfully suffer from these problems, surface detail is very fine and they have detailed the missile bay, undercarriage bays and have provided full length intake ducts and the exhaust/afterburner tube.  The kit is so complete that apart from a Master brass pitot tube and some Reskit resin wheels I couldn't find any other AM available for it.

Everything still bagged up in the box and the Master brass pitot tube.

For decals I will be using the excellent Caracal set, their part two for the F-106, the 318th FIS is the middle scheme on the cover sheet, I also have a set of Fundekal stencils and national markings to use.

I wanted to have a start made on the kit so I didn't just have the kit photo on my thread with no progress to look at for a couple of days.

So my first update, I have painted the intake ducts and compressor face ready to be assembled into the fuselage, same with the exhaust pipe and I have painted the ejection seat and cockpit parts dark Gull grey, detailed them up as best as I can and added some seat belts from Tamiya masking tape.  I just need to paint the instrument panel then I can fit it all inside the fuselage and join the two halves together.

Thanks for looking, any comments or questions are always welcome.  

Edited June 22, 2022 by Retired Bob
missing word

[Chrisj2003]

@Retired Bob nice; very pretty unit markings. 
 

Chris

[SoftScience]

Wow the detail.on the 106 looks light-years ahead of the 102 kit.  Your tasteful paint job just accentuates it!

[modelling minion]

Welcome to the GB Bob, and with what looks to be a stunning kit.

You have made a very good start on her too.

I really like your choice of markings, the 318th FIS tail markings is one of the best Dart markings, and the decals you have look very good and comprehensive.

Really looking forward tot his one.

 

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[Retired Bob]

Todays update, I cleaned up the wings and glued them together, the fit is pretty good, there were just a lot of ejector pin marks on the inside of the wings, they were like moon craters and needed removing so that the lower wing could  be fitted properly.  The detail in the main undercarriage bay is moulded into the upper wing, this was painted with zinc chromate green and the details picked out in silver, there is a small seam line to fill but nothing drastic.  There are a few strange ideas in this kit, one of them is the elevons at the rear of the wings, they have a pivot shaft to be held when the wing is joined to the fuselage, as if it could be moveable, but it has to be glued into position when it's attached to the rest of the wing and the actuators.  

 

From the upper side, the intake ducts and engine compressor fan have been glued into place, probably none of which will be seen after the fuselage and intakes are in place.

The tail and spine parts have been glued together, again fit of parts is very good, the option to attach airbrakes open or closed is better than the Trumpy kit, on that kit the airbrakes are moulded shut with the fuselage.  I will have this kit with the airbrakes open.

Any comments or questions are always welcome.

[modelling minion]

Neat job on the wings Bob, looks like Meng have followed the joint the same as Monogram did, just with a better fit!

 

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[Retired Bob]

8 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

looks like Meng have followed the joint the same as Monogram did, just with a better fit!

Unlike Trumpeter, but theirs was a good fit also.   I'll have to check to see where the joint is on the Trumpy 1/48th Darts.

[Retired Bob]

On 23/06/2022 at 22:24, Retired Bob said:

 I'll have to check to see where the joint is on the Trumpy 1/48th Darts.

The 1/48th Trumpy F-106 wings have the joint between upper and lower wing along the leading edge until just before the l/e slot when it goes under the curved l/e back to the elevons like the monogram kit wings.  If the 1/48th Trumpy kit fits as well as their 1/72nd Dart I will be happy, perhaps I should have built that instead of this 1/72nd Meng kit.

 

Update on said Meng kit, you know when there are really nice looking kit parts but when you assemble them the fit is a bit of a pig, this is one of those kits.  Despite lots of dry fitting and taping parts together to identify problem areas this kit keeps fighting back.  As I was trial fitting the intakes I noticed that the fuselage sides were very thin, as were the intakes themselves, I added some 10 thou plastic card to reinforce the intake attachment butt joint, dry fitted it to make sure it did not foul the intake ducts and painted the interior surfaces with ADC grey, there are no colour call outs in any of my Dart kits so I assumed it was the exterior colour.  Here is a photo of the parts prior to assembly;

Unfortunately, when I glued the intakes in place then added the wings, the intake ducts would not fit so I had to trim them so that I could get the wing on.  Despite lots of clamps the fit was not perfect so I have applied strips of masking tape and applied some sprue goo to fill the gaps, the fit of the spine and tail needed a lot of fettling to get in to the the top of the fuselage as well.

More sprue goo was added to the spine joint behind the canopy, next is some filler and and primer to check that the gaps are smooth.

[modelling minion]

She might be putting up a bit of a fight Bob but it looks like you are winning.

Even with the filling you are having to do she is looking like a good model, which is good as I might have let my guard down and accidentally ordered one.😁

 

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[Dansk]

bob you are doing a great job on this one too. whipping it into shape.

[Retired Bob]

7 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Even with the filling you are having to do she is looking like a good model, which is good as I might have let my guard down and accidentally ordered one.😁

To be honest, Craig, unless having the airbrakes open and drooping the wing control surfaces is a must, I would get the Trumpeter F-106A, it's got fewer parts and options but is a lot less hassle to build and a couple of quid cheaper than the Meng kit.  

[modelling minion]

20 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

To be honest, Craig, unless having the airbrakes open and drooping the wing control surfaces is a must, I would get the Trumpeter F-106A, it's got fewer parts and options but is a lot less hassle to build and a couple of quid cheaper than the Meng kit.  

Wish I had known that before I ordered my Meng one! It arrived this afternoon and does look like a very nicely detailed kit, and thanks to your build I now know the potential pitfalls to watch out for.

 

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