John's prototypes - the foreigners

[John R]

To those (anybody?) eagerly awaiting the follow up to my earlier on of the British protoypes in January apologies for the delay. I got involved in designing a website for the local branch of a national charity. With that, the P1040 and spring finally appearing in the garden the follow-up took a back seat. Anyway I hope you like them but first a consumer warning. Some go back a long way - hopefully my modelling skills have advanced in the meanwhile

John

First the Americans

Douglas D558-I Skystreak
Anigrand resin, not the best of kits. Tail surfaces were very inaccurate and replaced by scratch built items



Douglas D558-II Skyrocket
Anigrand resin, not terribly impressed with this kit either. A pity as it was one of my favourite a/c.
One of my model club members recently produced the Hobbyboss version and it looked ‘right’ whereas mine doesn’t



Bell X-1
Hobbycraft kit – awful decals and I didn’t dare attempt to paint the canopy!



Lockheed F94C Starfire
Emhar kit. I think that there is something not quite right about the nose of this kit. A pity as I used to think that this was a most impressive a/c and I really wanted to model it.



Douglas Skyray - No it is not the prototype but it was one of the many weird and wonderful efforts of the US Navy in the fifties that culminated in the Phantom.
Tamiya kit - Why can't everybody produce well moulded kits like this?



Convair XFY-1
KP kit. Quite a nice but heavy panel lines and undersize decals



North American F107
Trumpeter kit. This went together with little trouble except around the intake but for some reason I had dreadful trouble with the paint job. Don't look too closely (Oh yes you will won't you!) Then a grandchild broke the nose probe!
I wish all Trumpeter kits were this good.



McDonnell Douglas F15
Hasegawa kit. Went together well but kit was old when I got it and the decals were a nightmare to separate from the backing sheet
This seems to be a problem with old Hasegawa kits



Lockheed YF22
Dragon kit. Some problems with sink marks but otherwise OK



Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF23
Italieri kit



General Dynamics F16 XL
Monogram. One of my most recent completions. The rear fuselage does not have the uptilt of the a/c. I also suspect the a/c wing may not be as simple as the one in the kit. I was unable to find anything to verify this.


And now some Russians

Yak 23
A simple KP kit. I didn’t know it was a prototype until recently I found a picture of it in the book ‘Early Soviet Jet Fighters’



Mig 1-44
Zvezda kit. First time I have made one of their kits and it went together well. Only real problem was that the colour scheme had the upper and lower colours reversed



Su 37
Revell kit. Went together fairly well with a few issues with the fit on the front fuselage and around the intakes. It wasn’t clear (to me anyway) from the instructions how the boundary layer bleeds fitted and of course I got it wrong and had to correct it.



And finally a French one

SO Trident II
Mach II kit.

Edited January 2, 2016 by John R

[jaguarfan]

A nice collection John, good finish on all too.

Did not know that Trumpeter did a F-107A, will need to have a look for one of those.

cheers Bob

[Shar2]

A very nice selection.

[Deon]

All look very nice, but love the trident John, I havent started mine as a rather complicated fix for the wings was published in the 'replic' magazine!

[John R]

Trident wing fix? What was wrong with it? I had no trouble but then it was built before I contracted AMS and I was just happy to build things straight from the box without asking questions.

John

[Deon]

I wouldnt have known either but apparently the chord is out and it might need to move forward a little, cant remember off the top of my head, but as i said, would never have known and yours looks a cracking model so who cares!

[AnonymousDFB1]

Nice collention