Interceptor Group Build

How bout we get something Polish in here? I'll do Mirage Hobby's 1/48 scale PZL P.24C of the Turkish AF (that particular plane was export only, even though it was far superior to the P.11 which the PAF used, and this puzzles me greatly as Polish logic is NEVER this stupid).

Got my resin cockpit and wheel wells and decals last night from High Planes.

Spent the night cutting and sanding to get them to fit this kit as I have a feeling they're for the Heller kit.

I've just about completed the re-scribe, my first, and only have a few line that need correction.

I'll be spending the weekend moving house so I don't think I'll be able to make any real progress as all my paints/AB are packed away.

I think Ill have a crack at my exhaust nozzle tonight.

All this detail work usually kills me but as I can't do anything else I'm quite enjoying it. 

I'm looking to start a 1/48 RAAF Mirage III0 in the next week.

It's an Italeri III E that I'm converting to the Australian O.

It'll have

• Resin cockpit
• resin wheel wells
• Scratchbuilt exhaust/afterburner can
• I'll detail the landing gear with brake lines etc
• Full re-scribe
• Custom decals

 

I hope to start on the rescribe tonight as I'm waiting for my cockpit to turn up. I'm thinking I'll be scratch building the exhaust can as I don't like my chances of finding an AM part.

Hope this fits the bill.

Mark

I'll be interested to see how you go Harvs, one of those Spitfire VIIs is on my build soon list too. Just painting a Spit IX for use with Red Roo decals too.
Cheers
Tony

Howdy Folks,
Can I jump in with a Hasegawa F-104G  in 1/48 ?
Is there a logo fo this GB ?
Cheers
Tony

Finally the weather broke long enough to do some work on the Spitfires. I have managed to paint the PRU Blue on the Mk VII undersides and the light grey underneath the other Mk VII and the Mk IX. Now I just have to get long enough good weather to do the top sides on the last two.

My Six met a similar fate.  That was after I closed the speedbrake and (poorly) filled in the IFR receptacle, too.  But for what that kit costs, I think I'll just try again sometime.  This one will be "target practice" when I finally get an airbrush.

I am mostly done with the Dawg's office.  One look at that 'pit and one understands why most early (and some recent) interceptors had a G.I.B. to work the radar.  The IP attaches to the tub via these itty-bitty side and front consoles.  I fiddled with it for a while yesterday and still couldn't get it quite right, but the IP also fits snugly into the fuselage so I might just glue it in there and work backwards.  Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how everything looks.  This was my first time using a wash in the cockpit, a white pencil on the guages, and Future on the gauge faces, and I'm happy with the results.  I don't have a digicam but if I can get usable images with a Polaroid and a scanner I will try to post something.

Overall, it's a very high-quality kit.  The instructions are very thorough and include reference photos and various little tips & hints.

I might in the future, but it's too big a project to tackle in the course of this GB. After all, it's supposed to be fun, and I don't really want to mess around with that thing anymore.

Why not use the kit as a learning curve? Strip the paint job, rescribe - everything? It's always good to have a kit that you don't care about to try new stuff on or try different ways of doing things.

The spitfires will be done, it just will take a break in the weather to strip them and paint them to my satisfaction.

I've decided I'm giving up on the F-106.

Apparently during one of the many months it sat neglected while I worked on other projects, it fell off the workbench. I haven't even looked at it much until today, and now I see that the fall apparently busted open a few seams in the fuselage (that were a pain in the *** two years ago when I put it together), knocked off the drop tanks and broken off part of the wingtip that I had painstakingly repaired two years ago. The fragment is nowhere to be found.

Coupled with the facts that it was already far below my standard of workmanship (I mostly bought the kit in the first place just as a testbed for gap-filling techniques, since the fit was so abysmal), I've hardly touched it for two years, the paint job is terrible, and most of the panel lines have been sanded into oblivion, I've decided it's not worth trying to save. Considering how many times this kit has nearly brought me to throw it against the wall, I don't think it's much loss. I might get another F-106 kit later and build it, but as for this one, I'm pulling the plug.

I guess that leaves the F-14. It's not really that much better as far as fit is concerned, but I think I can do much better since I know so much more than I did when I assembled the F-106.

That's too bad. I look forward to seeing those.

Well, it's going into summer here and I'm out of college for now, so I should get back to the bench this week. I do have to try to clean up, though, right now everything's buried beneath a pile of crap.

My MkVII Spitfires are in need of a paint stripping as the paint job worked out very badly. What realy sucks is that it's winter here and modelling has almost come to a standstill as it's too cold to open the windows!

Okay, I'm happy to say that I haven't dropped off of the face of the Earth completely. College has been eating up almost all of my time, luckily finals are next week and after that, I'm in the clear.

I'll update the list tonight.

I am waiting for Hobby Lobby to get a supply of Zinc Chromate paint in before I can start mine.  I have all of the other colors needed. 

Acctually I got 2 different kits 1 for this GB is the F-104G "NATO Starfighter" that comes with west german and italian markings and a F-104J in JASDF markings for maybe a second build.I'm still looking for a Mig 25 or 31 just because i love the look of the beast

PanzerWulff wrote:

put me in for a west german F-104 by Hasegawa in 1/48

Which one did you get, the Marinenflieger?

I have three F-102A kits, two Case X and one Case XX wing.  I ordered the TF-102A conversion and will be doing the Case XX as a TF-102A.  The other two are Monogram Pro Modeler Case X which I am doing in the colors of the 32 FIS, aircraft 56-1027.  The TF-102A will be from the 4756 ADWC, Tyndall AFB.

I haven't started on any of them yet, as Spring and Summer projects have come first.  That and I spent a week at my camper in the tri-state area doing some necessary fishing and relaxing.

put me in for a west german F-104 by Hasegawa in 1/48

Bumpitty-bump.

One more day.  I'm really looking forward to starting my Sabre Dawg.  My first NMF (minicraft 727) didn't turn out super-duper but I learned some lessons and I can practice another one on the F-107 I started for the Ohio GB.  I'm going straight OOB with the Wright-Pat decals.

 

My 2 Mk VII Spitfires are starting to come to shape now. The wings are together and the internals are ready for weathering, at this rate hopefully they should be together in the not too distant future.

Nice choice! I was hoping we'd get a little more variety here.

Not that there's anything wrong with century-series jets, of course, but it never hurts to "broaden your horizons".

I may as well jump on board this GB as well. I will be doing two 1/48 ICM Spitfire Mk VII interceptors decked out as 453 SQN RAAF in WWII using Red Roo Decals.

Updated list. Glad to have you guys on board.


The F-106 has the same problem with the lower and upper wing, and unfortunately when I put the kit together I didn't have the skill to fix it properly, but I'm not going to go back and fix it now. The F-14, on the other hand, I want to do that one right.

I've seen a few Monogram F-102s in person at contests, and they can build up real nice. Looking forward to seeing how you guys' kits turn out.

Desdinova wrote:

Updated to add the list of participants. I think I might start working on the 106 early just to free up workbench space so I'll have room to work on the F-14. How is that F-102 kit in terms of fit? I thought about getting one but the F-106 was such a pain in the rear that I kind of shied away from it. Not that I don't like a challenge (I don't build many Tamigawa "shake and bake" kits, and for more reasons besides cost), but I have my limits.

The Monogram F-102 was released in the late 80's and does have some fit problems.  With dry fitting and sanding you shouldn't have to much problems.  The weapons bay doors fit very bad and will require careful work to get them to fit properly.  There is a large gap where the lower wing and upper wing join, which will require some filling and sanding.  I have built several and it is a fun kit to build.

Ok I'm in not sure with what probably a F-104 or mig 25 or 31 I'll get back to ya on it

Put me down for the Monogram F102A please. 

Updated to add the list of participants.

I think I might start working on the 106 early just to free up workbench space so I'll have room to work on the F-14.

How is that F-102 kit in terms of fit? I thought about getting one but the F-106 was such a pain in the rear that I kind of shied away from it. Not that I don't like a challenge (I don't build many Tamigawa "shake and bake" kits, and for more reasons besides cost), but I have my limits.

Really? I know I read that somewhere from an otherwise decently reputable source, might've been one of the Janes' air combat books, I don't know. It does seem farfetched but stranger things have definitely happened. I'm sure you'd know more about it than the rest of us do.

Desdinova wrote:

Outstanding. The F-102 and the -106 both carried some very cool markings, I'm not familiar with the 32nd FIS though or its color schemes. That reminds me of a bizarre story I heard about the F-102 during the Vietnam war. Apparently, they had a couple squadrons moved to southeast asia, I think Thailand, to protect our airspace. Then, someone got the bright idea to use them for ground attack. They were ordered to fly, nap-of-the-earth along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the middle of the night, and look for Vietcong campfires with their infrared gear designed to detect Soviet bombers. Once they found a target, they were to shoot at it with their air-to-air rockets and return to base. Apparently this hilariously ludicrous misapplication of technology lost most of its humor when they started losing pilots left and right from flying into the sides of mountains in the dark. So, fortunately, they stopped doing it. Kind of makes you wonder what the heck they were smoking over there. Though, I do think the Delta Dagger looks pretty good in SEA camo.

I see another one that fell victim to inaccurate fiction reports from "Un named sources".  The F-102 was sent to Vietnam and Thailand and performed the alert duty roll and limited B-52 escort.  They never were used for ground attack at any time during the Vietnam war.  Some one that wanted to glorify the roll the F-102 played in Nam probably started that story and now it is assumed as true.

The 32nd FIS had red, white and blue fan stripes painted on the vertical stab.

  

Outstanding. The F-102 and the -106 both carried some very cool markings, I'm not familiar with the 32nd FIS though or its color schemes.

That reminds me of a bizarre story I heard about the F-102 during the Vietnam war. Apparently, they had a couple squadrons moved to southeast asia, I think Thailand, to protect our airspace. Then, someone got the bright idea to use them for ground attack. They were ordered to fly, nap-of-the-earth along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the middle of the night, and look for Vietcong campfires with their infrared gear designed to detect Soviet bombers. Once they found a target, they were to shoot at it with their air-to-air rockets and return to base.

Apparently this hilariously ludicrous misapplication of technology lost most of its humor when they started losing pilots left and right from flying into the sides of mountains in the dark. So, fortunately, they stopped doing it.

Kind of makes you wonder what the heck they were smoking over there.

Though, I do think the Delta Dagger looks pretty good in SEA camo.