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My third build will be a Trumpeter 1/72 F-106B, to be built as NASA 616, which was used to study inlet and nozzle designs for the supersonic transport programme in the 1960s. They mounted two General Electric J85 engines (as used on the T-38 and F-5) and tested several different intake and nozzle designs on the one on the left, with a standard intake and nozzle on the right. Here's a NASA photo:

 

GRC-1969-C-02871~medium.jpg

 

I'm going to build it in the configuration in the photo, with the conical "plug" nozzle on the test engine. I'll make the engines on the 3D printer, and I've found NASA test reports online that include drawings to work from. I'm probably a week or two away from starting, but will be getting on with it soon.

 

Julian

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Thanks everyone. I'd never heard of this one until I was given a very interesting book for Xmas last year - Testbeds, Motherships and Parasites by Frederick Johnsen. It's page after page of modelling inspiration!

 

I've not started on the kit yet, but have done the test engines. The CAD was surprisingly straightforward - just took a couple of hours - here they are:

 

F-106B WIP

 

more soon

Julian

 

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2 hours ago, Courageous said:

Always wondered, how do you get rid of striations on your print?

 

Stuart

A light sanding (which I've done on these already) plus a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 followed by another light sanding usually does the trick

 

2 hours ago, Mycapt65 said:

Right!? It's like the arousing odd looking girl that you can't figure out what's hot about her. 

In this case a very odd looking girl with 3 exhaust nozzles. And in the interests of keeping this thread family-friendly I think we should leave it there!

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10 hours ago, zebra said:

In this case a very odd looking girl with 3 exhaust nozzles. And in the interests of keeping this thread family-friendly I think we should leave it there!

Ahem, yes, moving swiftly on...

Tidy work on the test engine pods Julian :goodjob: How long did they take to print out?

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1 hour ago, Col. said:

Ahem, yes, moving swiftly on...

Tidy work on the test engine pods Julian :goodjob: How long did they take to print out?

Thanks Col. I think it was about 4 hours - just left it going overnight.

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14 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

Cool, never knew such a configuration existed. Did you have scale plans to design the test engines or was it done just using photos?

 

Cheers

Markus

 

I found some reports from the NASA test programme online which had some drawings in them - not scale drawings as such, but enough information to get the basic dimensions and layout, plus a few measurements taken from photos.

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  • 1 month later...

Fuselage assembled. All pretty straightforward so far, everything fits quite nicely.

 

F-106B WIP

 

Then on to the wings and time for the first modification: The elevons were split with the segment above the test engine on each side fixed, and smaller moving elevons inboard and outboard of the fixed bit. Rather than just filling the hinge line of the fixed bit and scribing a couple of lines, it seems to me that the best way of showing this off will be to droop the elevons. So out with the razor saw and the first wing is cut up:

 

F-106B WIP 2

 

I ran out of time to do the second one today, but will get it done soon.

 

cheers

Julian

 

 

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I was so busy being impressed by your scratch-made engines I'd not realised you'd not started the actual kit Julian but you're certainly making great progress with it now :thumbsup:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wings on, canopy on, nose on. I've also reattached the flaps. The wing was a very tight fit - so much so that I cracked open the seam on top of the fuselage trying to get it in. Easily fixed though. Just a bit of cleaning up, then masking and painting time. There are a few custom decals I need to do so I'd better get on with that too.

 

F-106B WIP

 

cheers

Julian

 

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Just catching up with this one, Julian, and liking what you're doing :) 

 

On 10/8/2022 at 11:27 AM, zebra said:

I was given a very interesting book for Xmas last year - Testbeds, Motherships and Parasites by Frederick Johnsen. It's page after page of modelling inspiration!

I have this book too, and I agree it is full of fascinating projects begging to be modelled!

 

Mike 

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