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The aircraft that never was: F-19 Stealth Fighter: Monogram 1:72


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One of the best looking aircraft of the 1980s turned out not to be an aircraft at all. The F-19, one of the most famous smokescreens of the period, represents a spectacular failure to predict the form, focus and even the name of the upcoming stealth fighter, which would eventually be presented to the public as the F117.

 

But, as effective as the Skunk Works's wobblin' goblin was, it was beaten with the ugly stick for way too long and some (or all) of the F-19 speculated concepts have it soundly beaten aesthetically. The models I build are all selected, at least in part and usually primarily, based on how good looking they were, so I'm building the make believe stealth fighter. No offence intended to the designers of the F117, who of course had much different priorities, but I do think the F117 would look much better if it really was invisible.

 

On to the game plan:

Here's the kit.

 

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The more observant among you might notice that there is more than one kit in that image. And there's a reason for that. This build is going to be something of a kitbash, because with the F-19, an aircraft that only ever existed as artists concepts and a computer game, artistic license comes with the territory and indeed is at the very heart of the F-19 story.

 

To be precise: There were two major concepts floating around for the F-19, and Monogram's offering depicts the swoopy, big droopy winged concept, while Testors modelled the competing concept which has much smaller wings and kind of resembles a teardrop going backwards.

 

Loral released an advert with an artist's rendering of the big swoopy version. It is easy to find on the internet, and here it is:

 

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This is the same concept that Monogram modelled, but there are some significant differences and to my eyes the Loral rendering is the best looking depiction of this concept. To the best of my knowledge, the artwork above is the only rendering of the F-19 in this particular form that has ever been released.

 

It is the Loral version of the F-19 that I intend to build, and that is where the kitbashing will come in, as I'll explain in a moment.

 

The kit itself is very simple and is supposed to snap together. No glue required though I'm sure I'll be cementing it together anyway.  There isn't even a landing gear included (though you do get a display stand). The kit has only 6 parts for the whole aircraft, and another two for the stand.

 

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The assembly instructions are equally simple.

 

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This was also in the kit.

 

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I was thinking of sending off for it. Think it will be honoured? I'm a bit past the cutoff date, and I'm miles away from the USA and Canada. Then there's the small matter of Monogram's current lack of existence. No, probably not worth wasting a stamp on.

 

So the kit itself is simple. All the complex bits of this build will be making it look like The Loral image. There are four main areas I'll focus on for this.

 

The first is the nose. Some sanding, and possibly some milliput, is going to be required to form the Loral pointed nose out of Monogram's duck bill. The plastic has quite thick walls around that area and I think I can get there with sanding alone. 

 

The second change is to the canards. Loral's artwork has large, swept, straight edged canards. The canards on the Monogram model look like wings formed by pinching Blu-Tak between thumb and finger. This is where the Gripen comes in.

 

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The pinched-putty canards on the F-19 will be amputated and replaced by the swept, supersonic-looking Gripen canards visible just below them in the image above.

 

The third change is the wingtips. They are completely rounded on Monogram's offering, but on the Loral image they are straight edged at the rear of the wingtip. I'll be building the wingtips up with plasticard, and probably more milliput, to get that 90 degree angle on the trailing edge tip.

 

The final difference will be the paintjob, where I will again reflect Loral's offering with the dark grey underside and grey upper finish - though I might go for a more metallic look for that upper colour, like a dull aluminium.

 

So that's the project and it's one I'm really looking forward to so it's leapfrogged quite a number of kits in my build queue. Let's hope I can do it justice!

 

 

 

 

Edited by kiseca
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If you're lucky. I had to wait over a year for one to come up at a price that was worth actually buying to build. They were advertised for $60 - $70 usually, and add another 30 -50 for the 1:48 version.

 

This one came up paired with a 1:144 Rockwell B1a for, I can't remember exactly but I think it was $30 - 40. And of course add US shipping which is nearly as much again.

 

I had a similar wait for Monogram's old 1/48  Tigershark, which from USA was $80 - 100 with shipping for a 1980s quality kit. Eventually one turned up in Europe for a decent price and reasonable shipping.

 

And I have the same problem with the Matchbox Barry Sheene Suzuki that I wanted. They want £150 for those. It's a 35 year old model and it wasn't top class when it was new. 3 times the price of a brand new bike kit and it will be miles behind on quality and detail, not to mention the decals will be knackered.

 

I don't care how rare it is now, it's not worth that money. And then if you dare build it, it will be worth nothing. So what's the point of it?  I gave up looking.

Edited by kiseca
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10 hours ago, Richard E said:

That's different - all-be-it as a two man aircraft the F-19A was one of the principal players in Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising".

 

I didn't realise that! I've never read that book, in fact I think Red October is the only Clancy book I have read.

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6 minutes ago, John_W said:

Brings back memories. At one point they released this in a plastic that glowed in ultraviolet.

 

I've never seen one of those kits. Must be rare as hen's teeth! I guess it's one you can't paint 😆

Edited by kiseca
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Read a book once with this plane on the cover as a trans-atmospheric fighter called the Mako Shark. (I think I'm remembering that correctly, It was decades ago and now I'm old!)

As for the price of these kits, that is crazy! But the only way they charge that is if people are paying it, which is crazier!🤪

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19 hours ago, Richard E said:

That's different - all-be-it as a two man aircraft the F-19A was one of the principal players in Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising".

 

8 hours ago, kiseca said:

I didn't realise that! I've never read that book, in fact I think Red October is the only Clancy book I have read.

 

It's very reflective of the mid-eighties including the West's assumption of the effect of the overwhelming size of Soviet forces but it's a very good read. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After one evening's work with various sanding sticks the nose looked like this:

 

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So, it's pointed, but it's still quite wide and bulky. Also I thought the canards were affecting my impression of the shape of the nose. I had to remove them anyway so I got on with that step next.

 

I also started thinning out the sides to try make the whole thing rather less bulky, to try profile it a bit more like a cone with chines. I was never going to get it anywhere near that without just chopping it off and building a new nose, but I figured the more material I can remove, the slimmer it will end up looking.

 

Another night's work in front of the TV and here's where it is now:

 

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That'll do for me. I'll end with a quick check of what it might look like with the canards in place.

 

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Next challenge is to make the mounting slots for the canards and smooth off the bodywork profile around them.

 

On the Loral image they look either flat, or sporting a little bit of dihedral, and I was originally thinking of having them sweeping up and back quite dramatically, rather like the huge canards on the HiMAT experimental drone from the same era.

 

With some experimentation though, I think they actually look best with a bit of anhedral, to match the downward slope of the inner wings. The Gripen's donor canards have some dihedral built in so I'll likely be mounting them upside down to get the effect I want. I think I'm also going to have to prep the canards a bit as Revell's Gripen kit has really deep and wide panel lines that are very pronounced, while the F-19 kit has hardly any panel lines and they are really subtle. Not sure yet whether to thin the canards down or to fill the lines.

Edited by kiseca
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Good work on the nose, but I see what you mean about it looking too broad. And, perhaps, a bit too shore as well. But short of replacing it with a new one, you’ve done as well as on can with the kit parts.

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I did look at replacing it with the Gripen's nosecone, which would make it a little shorter if I added it where the radius matched up best, and then building out the chines with plasticard and milliput, but the problem is the cockpit area isn't tubular with chines, it's a flattened oval much like the kit's original nose is. I wasn't confident I would be able to get the contours from the new nose into the cockpit section to be seamless and coherent, and if I tried, by the time I've realised it's not going to work, I'd have already cut off the original nose and likely permanently reshaped the remaining bodywork. It would be very hard to go back to the original nose at that point.

 

So working the original nose into the closest shape I could get seemed the safest route.

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I actually like the look of the nose without the canards! I recall an article where an aircraft design engineer was making fun of the imagined "stealth" designs back when, as most had canards, and he thought it was hilarious, as canards give a radar return " like a bus". He reckoned no canards for a genuine stealth design. Looking forward to how yours turns out; liking your approach over all!

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On 3/25/2023 at 3:58 PM, Richard E said:

That's different - all-be-it as a two man aircraft the F-19A was one of the principal players in Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising".

A good read! Clancy's characters had nicknamed the stealthy planes " the Frisbee" as I recall...I think his description more closely resembled the Italeri/Testors design. Fun stuff!

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3 hours ago, Rusty Shackleford said:

I actually like the look of the nose without the canards! I recall an article where an aircraft design engineer was making fun of the imagined "stealth" designs back when, as most had canards, and he thought it was hilarious, as canards give a radar return " like a bus". He reckoned no canards for a genuine stealth design. Looking forward to how yours turns out; liking your approach over all!

 

I do agree. It has a very nice curved delta look without the canards. It makes the nose look longer and more elegant.

 

 

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I added a bit more rake to the leading edges of the canards to try make them look a bit more tuned in to the rest of the aircraft.

 

Here's before (lower) and after (upper).

 

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A comparison of how they look on the fuselage. Before on left of photo, after on right.

 

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It's a small difference but it does look a bit more dynamic to me.

 

Both canards done now:

 

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I've also cut the slots in the fuselage to locate the canards. I've put them as far back as I can while still being in the area where the contours are for the original canards.

 

I do think they blend in a bit better now.

 

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It's such a slim, flattened aircraft. It's going to look unique in the collection.

 

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The wingtops are now squared off.

 

I started by making inserts from thin plasticard to fit on the rounded trailing edge and square it off. I then sanded a flat trailing edge to give me something to cement these inserts to. I forgot to take a photo at this stage so here's a photo of a rejected attempt at an insert, hopefully imagination can fill in the rest.

 

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Then, on the assumption that this joint would be very weak, I put more thin plasticard on top and bottom to secure it in place.

 

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i then sanded these down to try get a smooth transition. It looked a bit odd with straight edges at the wingtips so I also reprofiled the leading edge a bit to move the point where maximum span is reached further aft.

 

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Now I think the body mods are just about done, but...

 

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Hmmm... 🤔

 

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👍🍻😁

 

I also rescribed the panel lines I had obliterated while smoothing out the wingtips, and while I was at it, I rescribed all the raised panel lines too because I've hardly ever done that so, well, what better time to practice?

 

Some primer to show up where the handiwork needs some attention. The joins are still visible. Instead of trying to fill them in and make them vanish, I think I'll put the scriber to work again and make panel lines out of them.

 

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That's the mods done. She's now pretty much ready for me to paint the interior pieces, that is, the cockpit and engine panel, and then she can be assembled.

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My scribing skills need some practice...

 

Anyway, there is progress. The plate carrying the engine detail is painted.

 

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The exhaust side is Vallejo Metal Air, Jet Exhaust... with a little bit of Copper mixed in for a misting over for the final coat. I am not sure that actually made any difference, to be honest. The intake side is Vallejo Model Air USAF Light Grey. I debated for some time whether to make the strakes light grey, and therefore visible, or make them black and thus less prominent. I don't think there's a wrong answer but the coloured strakes add a little more detail. Blackened strakes might make the intake look hungrier, or simply wider.

 

The pilot / cockpit (1 piece) is also painted. The belts are too bright yellow. It's what I had handy at the time but I will be tinting the canopy, which doesn't have an open option (probably a good thing considering the kit also has no landing gear) so I am not expecting the interior detail to be very visible. Saying that, I could also actually put a dark wash on them before closing the cockpit up as well, to darken them a bit. I think I will do that.

 

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Also in that picture you can see where one of my scribing lines went off the guide tape, nearside just below the binnacle. It's not the only wayward line on the model. I'll have to fill them in when I am prepping for the final primer coat.

 

Those are the only two pieces that go inside the model, so with them painted and ready, the whole thing could be assembled. And so it was.

 

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It is such a unique looking aircraft, and with it assembled it's easy to see why. The whole thing is only slightly longer than a Rafale, about the same length as  Tornado IDS.. and only because the latter's huge tail extends out quite far behind the exhaust nozzles. So, it's about a mid sized fighter in length and span. But it's also almost flat. The engine space doesn't look big enough for two typical fighter sized engines. It's too shallow and also too short for anything with afterburners. I think it barely looks big enough for a pair of helicopter turbines... and those aren't going to be pushing it anywhere. They'd only be good for turning all the lights on.

 

The Loral blurb says something about hydrogen powered, but hydrogen engines don't tend to be smaller than fossil fuel ones. And hydrogen is not very energy dense. The fuel takes up a lot of room. And, in that mid sized and rather flattened frame, there needs to be room for those engines, their fuel, and there's the undercarriage and an internal weapons bay taking up most of the space between the cockpit and engine room...

 

And then what about all the avionics and a radar useful to an aircraft that supposedly flies in the stratosphere and looks down to find targets?

 

So despite all the hype about it in the 1980s I can't imagine this layout has ever been seriously considered for an aircraft. It does look gorgeous though. Even amongst today's aircraft, this still looks like it would be any airforce's sophisticated flagship. It hasn't aged a bit. If they could make it actually work effectively, it would be a queen of the skies.

 

 

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Oh and I forgot. In the Assembled photos you might notice a black dot has appeared on top of the nose, and that the dot wasn't there on the photo of the cockpit. It's a hole. Apparently perfectly round. It appeared while I was assembling the fuselage and I can only assume it's likely caused by the cement melting the rather thinned plastic where the front locating pin is. It's not quite in the centre though, which the locating pin is. And I thinned the sides a lot, not the top and bottom.

 

 Whatever caused it, it's there now and that will have to be filled too.

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