F-89 D Scorpion
Starting the build.
Hollowed out the air intakes and glued them on.
Primed.
A bit of scratch building, for the cockpit. Keeping it simple though since the canopy will be closed.
A bit of scratch building, for the cockpit. Keeping it simple though since the canopy will be closed.
Cockpit inserted
Engines attached. The way the kit required the back of the engines to be attached was pretty poor.
I had to do a lot of filling and sanding at the back of the engines to get them to work. I also did a bit of sanding in other areas.
Wings attached
Drop tanks required some filler at the wing attachments. Cleaning up this area was a bit delicate.
I had to cut the nose off and reattach the weights that came unstuck inside with CA glue.
More polishing and reshaping of rough areas in order to lay down a decent metallic finish.
Even more seam sealing, sanding and polishing.
Today I focused on making sure all of the round surfaces were the correct shape, smooth and without seams
Most of the problem areas have been worked out. On to the tape!
White underpainting for the red complete.
Yellow undertones for the red, which will go on top of the yellow.
OK, so I found some spots that were bothering me and needed some additional sanding.
Better. The surface is much improved.
A few highlights added to the underpainting.
Red over painting applied.
The first layer of tape removed.
Do to poor engineering the back control panel and the pilot seat broke off and somehow have to be remounted.
A plate had to be added to the bottom of the seat in order to increase the connection surface.
Everything remounted, hopefully for the last time.
There is a difference in the height between the clear plastic canopy and the back of the canopy, as well as a large gap that needs to be corrected.
A piece of styrene was added to fill the gap and the back was scraped down to a better height.
Grey for the interior of the cockpit applied. A few more adjustments due to seam lines made.
Smooth as silk
A few wires added to the front landing gear
More landing gear wiring.
Komentáře
33 10 November 2021, 22:18
SkyhikerMy... I didn't expect so much interest in this plane. So far the kit is decent.
11 November 2021, 21:04
SkyhikerWelcome everyone. I've been having fun with this one, except for both of my airbrushes messing with me. I needed to do a lot of cleaning and adjusting to get them to work properly again.
12 November 2021, 00:21
SkyhikerI got the wings on after a lot of reshaping of the fuselage around the engines.
16 November 2021, 23:16
Maxim MalparteSlow and steady, a very good sign I'd say. The surface of a starfighter I built years ago was not processed well enough, and it looked pretty messy. (And it was left dying peacefully in the graveyard since then.)
17 November 2021, 04:33
SkyhikerIt's always a challenge to get the surface correct, especially when you have to reshape things before applying metallic paint. I find it is a lot easier to work these issues out before and during the primer phase than afterwards. That being said I have yet to get it perfect.
17 November 2021, 17:38
Reaper_leadLove the scorpion, there's just something about it's profile that is so sexy.
26 November 2021, 20:15
SkyhikerWelcome everyone. I'm working slowly but surely, trying to get the surface as perfect as I can. We will see.
27 November 2021, 00:40
SkyhikerToday I focused on making sure all of the round surfaces were the correct shape, smooth and without seams
28 November 2021, 00:23
SkyhikerDoes anyone have any idea what the correct colors are for this plane? I have seen pure red and orange-red. Are the landing gear wells green or grey?
28 November 2021, 00:27
Maxim MalparteA question that caught my pure curiosity. cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f-89/f-89_to.shtml Found this on cybermodeler, but I am not sure if it fits the scheme you're going for.
28 November 2021, 09:02
SkyhikerMax, I saw that too, thanks. I'm not sure if international orange is correct. The f-89J at the Air Force museum in Dayton is red. [img1]
Other photos show f-89D planes having a bleached out red. I find it all confusing.
28 November 2021, 22:33
SkyhikerSo the restoration is red, the live photos are faded red and reference images are orange-red. Any clues?
28 November 2021, 22:57
Reaper_leadBased on the searching I did when building this, I think the specific color varies both by squadron and batch of paint, especially considering it was the 50s and 60s.
Here's another scorpion with more of a burgundy color
[img1]
28 November 2021, 23:38
Maxim Malpartemewreckchasers.com/Chapmanf89d.html
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_orange
I am not a Dr. scorpion, but the 'engineering' one looks to match the reddish color on the D variant (also based at presque AFB) salvaged at the crash site I think. I am not certain about the color of the J variant for now, supposedly, the difference is limited to the scheme, again, I am not 100% sure about it.
29 November 2021, 02:49
SkyhikerThanks guys for all the input. I think I will just have to eyeball a nice red that is close enough. Now another question. Does anyone know what color the wheel wells are? I think they are silver but I'm not sure.
29 November 2021, 04:50
Łukasz GlińskiI don't think the Int Orange is a good match, on my Agusta it looks much brighter.
29 November 2021, 09:05
Maxim MalparteYoutube Video
Youtube Video
colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=12197
Just found three of those too. May it help.
P.S. It is always too hard to be sure of colors from recovered footage, neither an image nor a film. The saturation is not enough; the color tone is biased; lighting varies, etc. Even with the same color, it can be different depending on manufacturers, batches, w&t, etc. I think I will do it with a red-orange like said above on my Acadamy J variant in the future, but IMHO. It will be just fine with most unpure red colors on a base that is not too cold (eg. cold white, black, green, blue).
29 November 2021, 13:11
Clifford KeeslerLooking good. From what I could find the wheel wells appear to be silver.I found one photo where the inner part of the main wheel wells were ZC green and the outer part was silver. Except for maintance the inner main gear doors were usually closed when the gear was down.
1 December 2021, 01:27
SkyhikerThank you Clifford. Any chance you could link the photo here with the zc green?
1 December 2021, 02:53
Clifford KeeslerI will try if I can find it again, and figure out how to link it. I'm computer stupid.
2 December 2021, 01:35
Nathan DempseyNice work. I remember leaving the main doors down on my 1:48 build only because there was so much detail in the wells it would have been a shame to close it all up. 😁
7 December 2021, 20:05
Clifford KeeslerThey were down usually during maint. or they would sometimes come down if hydralic pressure bled off. My next one will also have them down, for the same reason the nice detail.
8 December 2021, 02:20
SkyhikerNote: The instructions for this kit have the landing gear on the wings backwards. They should be curved inward not outward.
9 December 2021, 17:05
