Childhood Memories: Building a stone-age kit with stone-age tools (Double build)

[billn53]

My local club holds a group build twice each year, in June and December. The theme for our upcoming build is "Childhood Memories" -- we are expected to build a kit from our childhood or, alternatively, refurbish a model that we built as a youngster.

 

I fondly remember my very first model, Hawk's F4D Skyray, which I built when I was eight or nine years old. The original kit dates back to 1955, and has been re-released many times since then. I was lucky enough to find not one, but two, Hawk Skyrays on eBay at reasonable prices.

 

 

 

My intent (not dictated by the group build rules) is to build one kit straight from the box, following the guidance given in the instructions and (most importantly) using ONLY the tools listed in those instructions -- Everything you need for a perfect model:

 

 

 

That's right: No putty, sandpaper, masking tape, or clamps -- and painted only with the old hairy stick. 😱

 

 

 

For the second build, there are no holds barred: I can use anything I want to improve upon this ancient kit, as long as it's finished on time!

 

 

Let's take a look at what's in the box.

 

Just eight pieces (including the canopy) for the main build, the remaining parts are things that stick out the bottom:

 

 

 

Not much needed as far as instructions go:

 

 

 

 

 

Must remember -- Be neat, do not use too much glue!

 

 

Surface detailing consists mainly of raised lines:

 

 

 

Big, gaping holes for the intakes, cockpit, and exhaust. And, the fit leaves much to be desired:

 

    

 

The wing leading and trailing edges are extra thick. Same goes for the vertical stabilizer.

 

 

 

Landing gear are glued directly onto the bottom of the fuselage -- no gear wells here!

 

    

 

The cockpit is totally absent:

 

 

 

Well, almost. There is this piece I found on the sprue. It isn't mentioned in the instructions, but thankfully the part is clearly labeled:

 

 

 

Considering how thick the canopy is, the lack of a cockpit probably won't make much difference:

 

 

 

Check out this curious marking that I found on the inside of the lower fuselage. I wonder what the story is behind this?

 

 

 

Lastly, the decals (as one would expect after 60-odd years) are trashed. I'll see if I can't re-produce them on decal paper for my "stone tool" build. Failing that, I'll resort to aftermarket items. 

 

 

 

==================================================

 

 

So, that's what I have to work with. Let's get started on build #1.

 

I painted the interior of the fuselage black around the intakes, cockpit, and engine exhaust, then glued the top and bottom fuselage halves together. I did my best to get the seams together properly, but still had gaps and overhangs. Here's an example:

 

 

 

Using my knife blade as a scraper, I leveled out the errant join:

 

 

 

There wasn't much I could do about the overly-thick trailing edges with my limited tools. I did round off the corners (again, using my knife as a scraper), to make them less conspicuous:

 

 

 

With a lot of fettling I was able to get the wing outer panels to fit reasonably well. Same story with the vertical stab:

 

   

 

Here's where I stand with my "stone age" build. I've done my best to mitigate the fit issues, there's still a need for some gap-filling material. My only possibilities are to use glue, and/or paint, as a poor substitute for putty.  Stay tuned to learn exactly how that turns out!

 

Time now to start on my "no holds barred" build!

 

[billn53]

Moving on to Build #2,

 

I first tackled the problem of the too-thick wing leading & trailing edges. It was sure nice having proper tools to work with!

 

   

 

Here's the trailing edge now, compared with the original:

 

 

 

Here you can see how much thinner the wing is now, compared to the (unmodified) wing outer panel:

 

 

 

The Hawk intakes are not correctly shaped, being angled more than the actual aircraft:

 

    

 

To correct this, I used a coarse sanding stick to re-shape the inlet fronts:

 

 

 

To deal with the void behind the inlets, I copied the approach taken by Tamiya with their Skyray kit. It's not a full set of intake trunking, but does eliminate the "gaping hole" appearance:

 

 

 

Here's how the intake now looks with an inlet lip from the Tamiya kit in place:

 

 

 

I will need to improvise or otherwise find a set of inlet lips, as seen above. I'm tempted to steal the ones from my Tamiya kit, which isn't as crazy as it sounds because I have a set of X-Mold intake trunks for the Tamiya Skyray.

 

Lastly, I cut a piece of brass tubing to represent the engine exhaust. This is what I'll use, unless I find something better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ray S]

A very interesting double build @billn53, I am looking forward to seeing how they go.

 

The quality of this kit reminds me of the Hawk Javelin I built a few years ago. A part on that said 'SEAT' (if I remember correctly) too, and the 'bench' went completely through one intake to the other and through the cockpit opening, the epitome of detailing at the time! And the wheels fitted directly to the outside of the model too with the doors moulded closed. Ah, nostalgia, eh? It is great.

 

All the best, Ray

[matti64]

very interesting. just the split level parts breakdown makes me wan to to go out and get one of these. I love seeing vintage builds in progress.

[RichieW]

Great project, I'm so looking forward to seeing how this works out. I loved how you updated the Monogram Thunderbolt.

 

As a child I used to mix styrene cement with either talcum powder or scraped sprue shavings for filler. Not sure it ever worked out too well, my models were mostly appalling. 

 

 

[Troy Smith]

15 hours ago, billn53 said:

Lastly, the decals (as one would expect after 60-odd years) are trashed. I'll see if I can't re-produce them on decal paper for my "stone tool" build. Failing that, I'll resort to aftermarket items. 

 

 

 

I used some 44 year old Matchbox decals,  they had been stored in lofts and sheds for long periods, ie hot, cold and damp,  they were part stuck to the cover sheet, and the adhesive between the decals was gone, and looked shot, but with the crud wiped off, and with a coat of liquid decal film and close trimming, they worked. 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235107668-pk-29-skyhawk/#elControls_4423339_menu

 

The above don't look cracked, if there is a spare, like stand title, you may want to see how/if they work. ....  

 

Neat project, be interesting to see how this progresses.

Cheers

T

[billn53]

20 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

I used some 44 year old Matchbox decals,  they had been stored in lofts and sheds for long periods, ie hot, cold and damp,  they were part stuck to the cover sheet, and the adhesive between the decals was gone, and looked shot, but with the crud wiped off, and with a coat of liquid decal film and close trimming, they worked. 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235107668-pk-29-skyhawk/#elControls_4423339_menu

 

The above don't look cracked, if there is a spare, like stand title, you may want to see how/if they work. ....  

 

Neat project, be interesting to see how this progresses.

Cheers

T

 

Since I have two kits, I have two sets of decals.... I'll try your suggestion and see how they go.

 

They should be perfect, according to what Hawk wrote on the backside:

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

56 minutes ago, RichieW said:

Great project, I'm so looking forward to seeing how this works out. I loved how you updated the Monogram Thunderbolt.

 

As a child I used to mix styrene cement with either talcum powder or scraped sprue shavings for filler. Not sure it ever worked out too well, my models were mostly appalling. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I've considered making up a batch of "sprue gloop" by mixing liquid cement with the kit's leftover sprue. Or, stretch some sprue to create filler pieces.

 

Those ideas would, technically, be within my self-made rules, but isn't exactly in spirit of what I'm trying to do.

[billn53]

I glued the wingtips together on my "no holds barred" F4D (aka "Ford") and did some touchup on the trailing edges. Having proper tools (scrapers, sandpaper, and sanding blocks) sure makes a difference! Compare here to the best I could do using my "stone age" tools:

 

 

Also, I decided to see if I could clone the Tamiya inlet lips, so set about making a latex mold which I'll later use to make resin copies:

 

 

 

While looking over the Tamiya kit, I noticed the instructions call for weight in the nose. So, to be on the safe side, I believe it best to add some weight to the Hawk builds. The "no holds barred" Ford is already together, but there's a direct path from the exhaust to the nose, so that's how I got my weight in:

 

 

 

I cleaned the plastic with soapy water, followed by alcohol, so that build is ready for some hairy stick work.  Wish me luck with that!!!

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

Got my cloned inlet lips made, it took a couple of tries before I was happy with how they turned out:

 

 

I also poured some leftover casting resin into the bottom-rear of the lower fuselage, as I'll be doing some re-shaping of this area later:

 

 

 

The Hawk underside is quite different from the actual aircraft, as can be seen by comparing the Hawk and Tamiya kits:

 

 

 

It's also a quite-busy area, with tailhook and a "bumper" caster. Hawk didn't even provide a tailhook for this carrier fighter!

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I've begun painting my "stone age" Ford with multiple coats of highly-thinned white paint. I'm using AK Interactive's "Gen 3" acrylic, which I'm finding goes on very nicely using the old hairy stick:

 

 

 

 

[RichieW]

Hooray for modern tools! That's a big difference in the trailing edges. I've been pondering resin casting for a while now, good to the process in use here. I think it would would make scrathbuilding life a lot less time consuming. In my case considerably neater too. Great work again, these are progressing really well.

 

Richie

[billn53]

Guess what craziness I'm up to now!

 

 

 

🤪

[billn53]

The kit canopy is a poor fit in the cockpit opening (seen here on my "stoneage tools" build). For my "no holds barred" effort, I glued the clear piece in place and used putty to eliminate the gaps. After polishing, I'll use this as a mold to vacuform a new canopy.

 

   

 

And, on the tail end, I wasn't totally satisfied with my "brass pipe" exhaust, and found some parts in my spares box to dress it up:

 

 

 

I jury-rigged a mount on the lower rear fuselage part, to make it easier to align the engine when I install it later:

 

 

 

This is going to look much better!

 

   

 

I also opened up the wheel wells (using my Tamiya kit as a guide) and boxed them in with sheet styrene and a couple more items from my spares box:

 

 

The kit landing gear (besides being a bit rough on the detail-side) are too short for my new wheel wells, so I'll be using a cast metal set from Scale Aircraft Accessories (SAC):

 

 

 

Note that the Skyray's main gear slant forward -- I'll need to take this into account when I add weight to the nose, as the forward-slanting gear accentuate the tendency to be a tail-sitter.

 

Also, notice in the last photo that I've sanded away the raised surface detail. I'll either re-scribe the detail, or pencil it in after painting. That's still to be decided . . .

[Flying Badger]

Just a thought.... your basic build rules preclude using anything beyond what is in the kit right?

....the paper instructions and the cardboard of the box are clearly part of the kit... you could cut a piece out and curl it like the brass for the jet pipe then paint it. That would still technically be within the rules?

[billn53]

2 minutes ago, Flying Badger said:

Just a thought.... your basic build rules preclude using anything beyond what is in the kit right?

....the paper instructions and the cardboard of the box are clearly part of the kit... you could cut a piece out and curl it like the brass for the jet pipe then paint it. That would still technically be within the rules?

 

Technically, yes. But I'm trying to build this one as I might have built it as a child (the only difference being that I'm more patient and experienced). 

[81-er]

That's a very interesting idea for the builds, and quite a dramatic difference as well

 

James

[billn53]

1 minute ago, 81-er said:

That's a very interesting idea for the builds, and quite a dramatic difference as well

 

James

 

Unfortunately, there's only so much I can do for the Hawk kit. It has some significant errors in terms of overall shape -- the forward fuselage is about 1/4-inch too short, the rear fuselage (around the engine area) much too narrow, and the angle for the wing leading edges is off by a few degrees. 

[RichieW]

What a massive difference in the trailing edges between the 2 approaches. That comparison photo says it all! Great find in the spares box, the tail pipe looks so much better now.

 

When you vac form the canopy could you outline what materials you use? I've not enjoyed the greatest/any  success with it. 

 

Richie

[opus999]

Bill, this is a really fun project! I love how you've improved the kit.  I've often thought of dabbling with resin casting and was even thinking about it yesterday when I was looking for bomb pylons for my current build.  I think your no holds barred build is going to look fantastic in spite of the kit inaccuracies. 

 

This all looked familiar to me so I went to scalemates to discover that the Testors F4D I built in the late 90's was a reboxing of this kit.  It was one of the last things I did before stepping away from the hobby and I was torn between being proud of the work I did (some of my best up until then) and the terrible quality of the kit.  The terrible quality was only highlighted when I set it next to the Airfix Ford I did in high school.  I liked the scheme on the Testors kit and I've since purchased the Tamiya kit so I can do it right!

[Learstang]

Great work on these Fords! I've the Tamiya kit, which is a lovely little kit. How does the Airfix kit compare with the Tamiya kit (I'm sure it's much better than the ancient Hawk effort)?

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[billn53]

4 hours ago, Learstang said:

Great work on these Fords! I've the Tamiya kit, which is a lovely little kit. How does the Airfix kit compare with the Tamiya kit (I'm sure it's much better than the ancient Hawk effort)?

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

Hi Jason,

I have both the Airfix and Tamiya kits. The Airfix is much better than the Hawk (its general shape and dimensions look good), but Tamiya is more detailed and by far the best of the three.

 

I may end up borrowing stealing a few parts from the Airfix kit for my current "no holds barred" version (e.g., underwing tanks, tail hook, maybe some interior bits).

[AdrianMF]

Nice work on both of them! The grey and white scheme is so attractive that I bet you your OOB one will look pretty much perfect on a casual inspection. 
 

I built the Airfix Skyhawk (1958 tooling) with my daughter nearly twenty years ago on the same OOB basis and it still looks very smart (from a distance) on a streaky sea base.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[LorenSharp]

10 hours ago, billn53 said:

 

Technically, yes. But I'm trying to build this one as I might have built it as a child (the only difference being that I'm more patient and experienced). 

But the proof in the pudding, when finished with the "Old Fashioned" Ford, will you make jet airplane sounds while running around the room "flying" it. And both are coming along splendidly I might add.

[billn53]

1 hour ago, LorenSharp said:

But the proof in the pudding, when finished with the "Old Fashioned" Ford, will you make jet airplane sounds while running around the room "flying" it. 

You must have been at my group’s meeting today, that’s exactly what they asked me 😆 

[LorenSharp]

Depraved minds think alike.