D.C. 1952 UFO Incident F-94 Starfire

Very basic kit, basic build...fuselage closed, filling overdone panel lines - intake seams require almost virtual elimination, as real jet is quite smooth, and seams are almost invisible - plenty of real photos out there, and after seeing the real thing at the National Museum of The USAF in Dayton Ohio, the kit's panel lines are far too pronounced

nationalmuseum.af.mil/  

Kit's intakes and splitter plates are very, very, thick and need a lot of thinning - I should have done more before installing them! Now it's tough to do  

Closing gear doors - pretty good fit, filled voids with small balls of putty to aid keeping doors flush. Filling small gaps, rescribing. 

Again not a bad fit on the fuselage speed brakes, little bit of putty inside, fill and rescribe. 

While test fitting the lower wing, I noticed it tended the sit below the fuselage belly line, making a fairly tough "step" to eliminate later - so bamboo skewers to the rescue! I've cut them to serve two functions - they both push just very slightly on the fuselage where the wing tops will join the fuselage, reinforcing that seam, and also buts up against the cockpit floor, pushing down with just enough pressure to eliminate the step in the wing/fuselage fit. 

No step! Time for the epoxy on this particular join.  

 

PJ pilots, the poor fella up front lost his feet due to fit issues...almost done and ready to drop in-to the cockpit. 

 

Repainted and in place crew - PJ Productions 50's US pilots. 

Aerograph scale fit is darn near spot on, and helps rocket pod positioning as no clear reference point given in or on kit parts or instructions.  

Falcon canopy was SO much better than the kit block of 'clear' kinda sorta canopy with MASSIVE framing 

Falcon canopy getting interior decal strip framing and FB paint 

Touching up Canopy /fuselage seam 

 

New Anti glare panel with Mission Models OD 

First saucer getting stripped - lights didn't show up very well, so backtracking.... 

Pleasant surprise, very old Microscale decals are working great -  

 

USAF is from Emhar sheet, test rune cause it looks like it will silver terribly -  

Different saucer model, testing lights - this may just work - LEDS are from Evan Designs 

Bare metal foil started  

foil and reflective cardstock coming along 

LEDS glued in (Use white glue!) 

 

references galore, finally found ONE documented serial number at the right time, with this particular squadron, but no photos of this squadron found anywhere - so she will get the standard 50's USAF look, added the blue fin cap just for a bit of color. 

Nearly done , nav lights to add on tip tanks and wing panels, paint added-on intake on top of nose behind radome (Emhar kit leaves this off)