1/48 F-80 construction

Katya Hodgson
Just test fitting for now, I can't do any painting yet as I need to buy some more cotton buds to clean my airbrush with.

Katya Hodgson
Well I got the cockpit done... but the aircraft doesn't fit together properly, and I got glue all over it, so it's effectively ruined anyway.

Martin von Schreckenstein
if I ever learned anything from building kits, it's that nothing is ever ruined! oh the disasters I fixed! also, nice work on that cockpit

Katya Hodgson
It's just a mess, and I couldn't even do half the photo etch seatbelts..

Glenn
Doesn't look broken yet! I think photo etch stuff sucks anyway and half the time you don't even see all that work you put into the flippin' cockpit anyway KEEP GOING i'm not calling this one dustbin material yet! Just take your time and if it gets ya down move onto something else for a while then come back to it a few weeks or years later 🙂

Katya Hodgson
But the surface needed to be smooth...

Glenn
Smooth? Um for the bare metal look i guess? well you can just polish it with fine wet and dry paper then a little buffing with polish! DO OR DO NOT THERE IS NO TRY!!!

Katya Hodgson
With the aid of this wondrous magical device I discovered, I seem to have solved the glue problem!

Katya Hodgson
Just checking to see how the canopy looks, I need to use some filler and do a lot of smoothing that down before I actually put the canopy on though. I did dip it in pledge gloss though so it does look lovely and shiny.

I also fitted the gear doors. They were a pain and really don't fit very well, but this was the best I could manage. I'm hoping maybe I can use some filler to improve the look, or at least that it will look ok after painting.

Martin Oostrom
It aint over till the fat lady sings!
Keep going Katya, looks fine!

Katya Hodgson
Well, I can keep trying... hopefully my perfect plastic putty will arrive soon, then I can have a go at filling and smoothing the seams.

Katya Hodgson
First experiments with perfect plastic putty! Hopefully all goes well.

Katya Hodgson
Part 2 of the perfect plastic experiments, this time trying out the wet finger technique.

Katya Hodgson
Slowly getting there...

Katya Hodgson
Topside is primed, hopefully won't get any weird paint effects after it dries.

Katya Hodgson
I love it when it's SHINY!

Katya Hodgson
I finished the painting! Just needs clear coats and decals.

Maciej Bellos
Well done Katya, the silver finish you achieved loojs pretty shiny. Looking forward for the decals.

Katya Hodgson
There are a lot of them, so I hope they all go well...

Clifford Keesler
Where do you guys get this perfect plastic putty? I keep hearing about it, but I have never seen any. LOL.

Clifford Keesler
By the way how is the Hobby Boss kit. I am sure it is better than the old Monogram kit.

Glenn
Hey Katya, It's not looking too bad at all now KEEP GOING!

Katya Hodgson
Clifford, I bought the putty online, either eBay or Amazon, I forget which. The kit is... well it had a whole bunch of fit issues, particularly around the wing area, and the landing gear bay really didn't like being closed. Apparently the intakes are slightly the wrong size and shape compared to the real aircraft, although I don't mind that so much. It's probably an improvement over the Monogram kit though! Now if they would just release an F-94A or B Starfire...

Glenn, thanks! I'll try get it done today. 🙂

Katya Hodgson
I did forget to paint the black strips on the wings, but they're on now, and it's clear coated. I could start doing decals now but i'm tired after work so might wait a bit.

Glenn
Good on ya Katya! Glad you didn't launch it into the bin! Good idea not to decal when tired you might make some silly mistake... I wish i'd get off my own butt and get things done but i'm too busy looking after my elderly mother, She isn't too well these days.

Bryn Crandell
Looking good so far Katya. The Perfect Plastic Putty is amazing. Water based so you can do filling without sanding details away.

Katya Hodgson
Decals are done, going to leave them overnight to dry and then apply the final clear coat tomorrow.

Maciej Bellos
She looks really nice. Well done Katya!

Katya Hodgson
I'm still not really happy, but at least it's nearly done.

Bryn Crandell
Decals look fine. Going to look just fine.

Katya Hodgson
As always, it looks much worse in reality.

Clifford Keesler
It is looking very nice. Kitty Hawk does a F-94, but I think it is a "C". But I hear it is not bad.

Donald Dickson II
Perseverance! With the PPP you can wet q tips and use them to clean up. Let the putty set for a half hour or so and start wiping it away. It does not harden like a rock, so can also sand it with out doing much damage. I saw you did the mask around the seems trick. With the PPP you dont need to do that as the clean up is fairly pain free.

I have found that closing up gear bays is a 50/50 proposition at best. Very often they are designed only to be open, so the fit closed is not great. A trick for that or any other panel you want to be close. Take some blue tack and make a ball out of it. Press that in the middle of the gear/gun/air brake bay. Do it so it sicks up over the egde a bit. Then take the door and slowly push it down on it until it lines up correctly. Then run some thin glue along the seams. If need be, you can putty later. That way there is something under the hatch holding the part up even with the boday. Hope I explained that well.

With bare metal finishes, it doesnt have to be PERFECTLY smooth. Yes, the smoother the better. And you certainly dont want any deeper scratches. Use a primer like Mr Surfacer 1200 that will fill in more noticeable scratches. You can sand that down with really fine grit pads, like 8000 and up. Go over that with a black coat. If you want a super shiny metal finish, gloss coat the black. Spray your metal and there ya go. I am sure you as the builder can point to every little flaw in the finish. That being said, I think you did a great job with a kit that was fighting you.

Katya Hodgson
Thanks Clifford! I'm not so keen on the C model of the F-94, since I think removing guns entirely in favour of nothing but unguided rockets is... unwise. Plus they make the nose unpleasantly bulky. This is seems to be designed in modular/multiple parts though, so it's a possibility Hobbyboss may make a Starfire version in the future!

And thank you too Donald, this was my first time using PPP, so I didn't have much idea how to use it, but I know for future. I did put the blu-tack in the gear bay, but sadly the doors were slightly too big, but they were also too complex of a shape to easily trim, so I had to just do the best I could. I wish kit manufacturers would either include doors that fit properly, or even just a couple of extra parts, for those of us who don't have unlimited shelf space.😉

I'll see about getting some Mr Surfacer maybe. I actually had a choice here, as I could have choses humbrol chrome silver spray over the vallejo aluminium metallic, which would have given a much shinier finish, but the chrome silver you tend not to be able to paint over very well, so I decided on the vallejo as a "safer" option, so that I could paint the black strips on top.

Clifford Keesler
I hope HobbyBoss does come out with a Starfire. I agree it was a bad Idea to get rid of the guns also.

Katya Hodgson
Indeed Clifford, either an F-94A or the F-94B, both of which had 4x .50 M3 in the nose.

...or the F-94D prototype, which was used to test the aircraft mount for the 20mm Vulcan cannon. >😄

Katya Hodgson
I did finish this model incidentally, there IS an album of pictures of the finished one. 😛

Clifford Keesler
That would be cool an F-94 with a M-61 Vulcan 20mm cannon.