Convair F-106 Delta Dart

Maciej Bellos
Following!

Eric Thornton
Me to following!

Sebastian Meyner
I'm in! 👍

Erik Leijdens
Definitely following James!

Konrad -
Count me in here as well.

Ingo F
Will take a seat. 🙂

Murad ÖZER
samo. 🙂

James C
Cheers guys... will make a start on it in shortly😉

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Count me in. 🙂

Celliers
Following

James C
Cheers & welcome guys... I still haven't made a start yet, but will do soon.
I hadn't anticipated this subject being so popular. Hope I don't cock it up 🤔

Slavo Hazucha
Popular subject for sure - and a potential carrier for some cool tail-art too!😉

Maciej Bellos
It was a splendid flying machine, it's potential limited by those useless Falcons.

And yes cool tail arts.

Jos Jansen
Count me in James...cool subject, iconic airplane!

Lode Schildermans
I'm in for the Thud

Nathan Dempsey
Oh man this is going to be a good one! Your build will be inspiring for sure.

James C
Welcome guys 😉👍

The kit includes decals for both Florida and New Jersey based aircraft, but my initial plan had been to use the aftermarket decals (pictured) to build the Orange (or is it red?) wingtip and tail version (QF-106) of how the New Jersey aircraft ended up. I'm now undecided on whether to build this kit in the Florida scheme, or do the New Jersey scheme both before and after the QF-106 conversion 🤔
Any thoughts suggestions?

Anyway, as painting is still a long way off, I intend to pull my finger out and make a start today but probably wont post any album updates until there's something to see... in a day or two. Until then, here's a short "primer" that's worth a look...

Youtube Video

Nathan Dempsey
I'm going to vote for the Florida scheme since I live here in the lightning, err I mean sunshine state 😄

James C
😄😄😄😉👍

Slavo Hazucha
As a kid I saw the picture of the Florida 106 with the lightning in a magazine (or a book..?) somewhere and I thought it must be the most badass plane - geometric "fast" shapes and such minimalistic, yet menacing heraldry 😄

James C
So that's 2 for the Florida scheme😉

The other option of course is just to build both the standard Florida and New Jersey schemes that Trumpeter include, and drop the QF-106 version altogether? (I don't intend to acquire a third kit)
I received the second kit for my birthday last year from my brother, but he wasn't aware that I already had it in the stash and even advised me to sell it and buy something else.

Edit: I just added some shots of the paint schemes to choose from. Note that the AeroMaster decal sheet includes additional nose art decals that the Trumpeter kit doesn't.

James C
The build has begun with cockpit and bomb-bay components assembled, as well as started on the engine assembly. I painted the insides of the engine combustion chamber? flat black, then went over the raised details with a Tamiya weathering pastel ("Oil Stain"😢 to bring out the hi-lights. Probably wont notice it once closed up, but always good to experiment, and I thought it turned out ok, and found it much easier and cleaner than dry-brushing.

The nose gear assembly is a little odd in that the nose gear strut attaches to the side walls of the wheel bay (sitting flush with the roof) rather than mounting directly to the roof of the wheel bay. So I'll need to paint the insides first (along with the strut) prior to assembling the nose wheel well itself.

Still a little more clean-up to do, but I hope to get the engine assembled and painted along with the wheel bays and cockpit interior tomorrow.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
I too cast my vote for the Florida scheme, should the voting booth still be open😉
The curved anti-glare paint on the nose and the blue tail art look quite nice.

James C
Yeah, I've pretty much settled on the Florida scheme with the weapons bay displayed open, and a QF-106 version (with bomb-bay closed) using the AeroMaster decals just as a point of difference when both are eventually built. As to which one this build will be, will depend a lot on how well the bomb-bay and doors go together... which from what I've read is a bit of pain in the backside with this kit.

James C
Not a lot of progress to show, but I have been slowly plodding away assembling and painting the interior components. The cockpit, engine, bomb and wheel bays have all been assembled, painted and weathered etc, and I have been adding them one at a time to the right side of the fuselage, then temporarily attaching the left side while the glue cures to ensure correct alignment. Just the main wheel bay and cockpit to go before I close up the fuselage permanently.

Nathan Dempsey
Your interior is looking great James.

Slavo Hazucha
Not a huge lot, but a nice lot for it, every addition looking great and I´m sure the whole will be more than just a sum of it´s pieces!😉 👍

James C
Thanks Nathan and Slavo. I tried to get better close-ups of the instrument panel and side consoles etc, but the camera just wouldn't focus properly unfortunately. Will see if I can get better shots before I install the canopy.

I've since closed up the fuselage and installed the wing as well now.
The fit overall has been pretty good, and the molding detail is superb... BUT, as with the Hobby Boss Corsair II that I built last year, the panel lines are very shallow and wont take much effort to accidentally erase during cleanup or while painting.

James C
A small update showing the fuselage closed up and wing installed. The tail is only resting in position at present, and I have not made a start yet on cleaning up any of the joins which for the most part are pretty good. There are several gaps where the intakes mate to the fuselage and wing on both sides as well as the vertical tail where it mates to the top of the fuselage spine, but these should be fairly straight forward to fill and clean up... "touch wood"😉

I was quite impressed with the clean joins at the wing roots.

Starting to look like the "Dart" now at least.

Lode Schildermans
I am impressed too, James, and not only by the clean joins at the wing roots, but more by the clean building

Murad ÖZER
take care of the nose lg mate, that's the only thing that you gotta knock on wood for the dryfit seems pretty solid, great job so far and so quick!

Augie
Really nice start James 🙂

James C
Thanks Lode, Murad & Augie 🙂

James C
I've been plodding away on the Dart build, making some (slow) progress.

The nose and canopy have now been installed along with the vertical tail; including the rudder and air-brakes. (I opted to install the air-brakes closed rather than opened/deployed)
The join on the nose wasn't the greatest and still needs a lot of clean up. The gaps on the air intakes have been filled, but I will need to apply a layer of Mr Surfacer over the top to try and blend them in a little better.

For a fairly recent kit (2014) I was expecting a little more from it to be honest.
The fit has been (mostly) pretty good, but I've found most of the parts to be riddled with molding seams and flashing as you would get from kits three times it's age, and the assembly instructions for some of the smaller parts like the main landing gear braces to be a little vague which has been disappointing.

Clifford Keesler
Looking nice James. I have a Deuce on the go right now.

James C
Thanks mate😉

Nathan Dempsey
Your build is looking nice James. That weapons bay is going to be full!

Clifford Keesler
Are you going to do the New Jersey version of the QF-106 James. Expert Choice decals makes a nice set of decals for it. I actually worked on converting the F-106's to QF-106's from 1990 until 1994. We did 188 of them. I worked in the flight operations dept.

James C
Thanks Nathan, I'm not familiar with the early weapon types included in this kit, but Hobby boss provide 2 bombs, and six early looking air-to-air missiles across 2x identical sprues. The load-out will consist of 1x Bomb with four missiles. The missiles are odd in that you get 4x with a clear seeker head lens, and 2x without?

I decided to assemble all six to play it safe, but the intention is to use just the 4 with the clear seeker heads in the lowered and ready to fire position so they should hang just outside of the weapons bay.

EDIT...

I just looked them up on a review of the kit and apparently they are...

4 x AIM-4B/C (GAR-2/2A) IR Falcons
2 x AIM-4A (GAR-1D) SARH Falcons
2 x AIR-2 Genie's

James C
That's really interesting Clifford 👍

The plan for this build is to do a Florida ANG scheme with the weapons bay displayed open, and for the other kit to do the New Jersey ANG scheme... converted to the QF-106.

As with the ES-3A "Shadow" I built a while ago, I also saw (and took pictures of) this very same aircraft, also on display at the Davis Monthan Airforce Base a few years ago. I didn't even realize until after I acquired the replacement decals for it. Funny how things work out like that.

Eventually, I've got the F-100, F-102, F-104, F-105, another F-106 and F-111 to build and line up together.

Slavo Hazucha
I think the bomb may actually be the AIR-2 Genie nuclear rocket 🙂 + the small missiles should be the SARH and IR versions of the AIM-4 Falcon (if they are the same size) or the non-clear seeker ones are larger and generally somewhat different they could be AIM-26 Super-Falcons (nuclear/guided)... As the Russians do +/- until today, same missile body/different seekerhead...

I guess a version with the Genie and 2 SARH/2 IR would be a well imaginable config, some sources say the Falcons should have been fired in pairs well like the Soviet doctrine to fire IR first, then follow with the radar-guided one to constitute increased hopes of actually hitting something...

James C
HAHA Yeah, I wasn't sure what they were off the top of my head 😳 (the aircraft is a bit before my time) until I looked up the kit review, as the instructions don't indicate what they are. But the plan is for 1x AIR-2 Genie and 4x AIM-4 IR Falcon's.... that is if I ever finish with the bloody joins and re-scribing lol!

Maciej Bellos
The only cool thing about the Falcon, was its red colour. And the fact that one lucky F-4D driver managed to shoot down a Vietnamese MiG-21 in Operation Rolling Thunder. Out of 54 Falcon launches, just 5 scored a hit (Wikipedia).

Slavo Hazucha
Not an AIM-9X or R73/74 for sure, but for a missile conceived in the late 40´s - hey... & I´m sure the pilots in early Vietnam period were to a point trying to prove missiles don´t work just to get the guns installed back on their rides😉 it´s effectively & scientifically proven missiles & rockets work better fired from aircraft which DO have internal guns 😄

Maciej Bellos
Oh, oh, oh, those sneaky bastards, that's how we got the long nosed Phantoms! Great work!!! 😄

Kim Branders
Nice start, yes.

Clifford Keesler
If you you would of known of me when you saw that bird, if you would of looked on the nose wheel door you would of seen my name on it.

James C
Thanks guys 🙂

@ Clifford... That's awesome! Unfortunately, the coach trip we did to Davis Monthan AB didn't allow us to get off and walk around up close to the aircraft like at the near by PIMA museum unfortunately, but was still well worth it for the experience.

I made a little more headway on the clean-up yesterday, but not enough to warrant taking any more pics. Will update the album when there's more to see.

Clifford Keesler
Looking forward to it.

Ben M
I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

James C
Thanks Ben. I haven't touched it for a couple days now, as I got a bit side-tracked messing around with Elite Dangerous 😳

James C
A little more progress to show with the joins mostly dealt with now... still a little more clean up to do, but not far off giving the airframe a coat of primer.

It's been 2 steps forwards and 3 backwards at times with the clean up and re-scribing; with the re-scribing in particular not being one of my strong points. So to break up the tedium I assembled the main landing gear components and cleaned up all the remaining parts like weapons and wheel bay doors and assorted actuator arms etc.

I was relived to see that it doesn't sit on its arse like my prev build of the Canberra 😳

Maciej Bellos
Pic #15 is really nice, if someone disregards the intakes it pretty much looks like a B-58. Both of them thoroughbreds!

James C
Thanks Maciej, and yeah... being of a similar vintage when delta wings were all the rage. Hehe, I was thinking it looks a lot like a big over-scaled Dassault Mirage III😉

Daniel Klink
Following👍

James C
Welcome aboard Daniel 🙂

Daniel Klink
Thanky mate, that will be a very long one in the en i guess...

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice James.

James C
Thanks Clifford. 🙂

I attached the replacement pitot tube on the nose today but still needs a little work to clean up the join. I'm hoping to be able to shoot a primer coat over the airframe tomorrow.
All the remaining attachments like weapons, actuator arms and wheel bay doors etc have already been primered, and some painted interior green where applicable.

Will update the album when the primer coat is done.

Clifford Keesler
Looking forward to it.

Alexander
Me too, looks very nicely done so far. 👍

James C
Thanks Alex 🙂

I gave it a light coat of Stynylrez acrylic white primer yesterday.
I'm trying to take extra care to not flood the panel lines as I did on the Corsair II build, so will keep the coats as light as possible. Will rub it down shortly with a 3000 grit sanding sponge ahead of doing a little pre-shading.

James C
Base coat of "ADC Grey" applied using AK2146.
Will give it a gentle rub down all over once more, and then mask of the nose for the black. Fingers crossed that I don't snap off the pitot tube in the process. 🤔

Jos Jansen
Very nice progress James, nice subtle marbling effect in the base coat...👍

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice James.

James C
Thanks Jos & Clifford 🙂

I finished up the paintwork today. Will give it a couple coats of Pledge floor polish tomorrow, then leave it a for a couple days to cure before applying a panel line wash and decals etc.

Nathan Dempsey
Looking great. That black on the nose is nice and crisp too.

Lode Schildermans
James, nice progress and your paintwork is crisp as usual

Mirko Römer
Following. Great work so far!

James C
Cheers Nathan, Lode and Mirko 🙂

Tamiya "curvy" tape was invaluable for masking the subtle curve of the anti-glare, and nose cone, as well as the silver trim on the air intakes. I used Tamiya rubber black for the anti-glare section, and semi-gloss black on the nose cone itself. I had a bit of a "brain fart" opting to use the semi-gloss over standard flat black as the entire thing is going to be clear gloss coated anyway. 😳

I'm hoping that once finished, that the two different shades of black will stand out as apparently the paint on the anti-glare section faded much faster than that on the nose... presumably due to being made of different materials?

Konrad -
Very very convincing result in my opinion 👍!
Looking forward to see your next steps!

James C
Thanks Konrad 🙂

I finally mounted the main landing gear struts and then gave the airframe 3x light coats of Pledge floor polish, with just a single coat to both the missiles and insides of the wheel bay doors. Will leave the airframe now for at least a day or two for the clear coat to properly harden.

While I wait, will look at assembling the fiddley cradles for the Falcon missiles and applying the decals to the missiles themselves.

I took a bit of a gamble by not pre-shading over the panel lines, as I didn't want to risk flooding them under multiple layers of paint due to them being so shallow. (Next time I will deepen them a little with a scriber prior to assembly) Hopefully the marbling I did outside of the panel lines will be sufficient enough to give it a little more depth and break up the otherwise mono-tone looking ADC Grey.

I was thinking that the Italeri "Flat Red" (4606AP) that I used on the Falcons would be a fairly good match for the hi-vis wing-tip and tail markings on the QF-106?

Robin (WhiteGlint)
I think that red would look great. And it fits quite well with the pictures, too.
On some it looks more orange but that could be because the color of the pictures was fading.
I am not sure if the aircraft were used for a long time after being converted to drones.

Slavo Hazucha
Cool work on the weapons & peripherals! 👍 Can´t wait to see it all in full technicolor on that black sunlit table!😉

James C
@ Slavo - Thanks mate... neither can I lol!😉

@ WhiteGlint - Yeah, I took a picture of a QF-100 in storage at the Chino Planes of Fame Museum in Los Angeles and it definitely has a more orange hue to it than red. Perhaps a custom mix will be in order by adding a couple drops of orange to the Italeri flat red.

Maybe Clifford (having worked on them) can shed some more light on the life expectancy of the drones?

Clifford Keesler
The actual color on the wing tips and tails was Int. Orange, but it had a little more of a red tint to it. So adding a few drops of red to the orange should just about give you the right color. Most of the drones, the 106's at any rate usually lasted a couple of years. They had a scoring system on them so were not usually shot down all the time. As they got more worn out etc, then they would shoot them down, or if one was damaged during a mission and could not be recovered safely, they would blow it up remotely with the bomb they carried installed in the missile bay for that purpose. Not all of them were destroyed, some are in musuems,and I think there are a few in the bone yard again. They could also be flown by a pilot after they were converted to drones, which they were quite often. They are now converting F-16's to drones. Having gone through the F-4's. Hope this helps. But again the wing and tail colors were not red.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Thanks Clifford! 🙂 👍
I thought they were converted to be shot down directly...
But yeah, using a scoring system and sensors to simulate the engagement saves some drones and money.
I guess this is what you meant?

James C
Thanks for your insight Clifford, that's really interesting to know as I too thought that the conversions were done for immediate destruction as well... which I thought was a bit extravagant. Also can you pm me your email address? I've got a couple pics to run by you (if you wouldn't mind) that I took of the "International Orange" on the F-100 Super Sabre; but I have no idea if it's authentic or just a re-paint by the museum staff.

I gave the F-106 a panel line wash yesterday and sealed it in, in readiness for the decals.
Quite pleased with how it turned out.

James C
I finished applying the decals this afternoon.
Will let them settle down properly overnight, then seal them in ahead of final assembly.

Clifford Keesler
It looks great James.

Nathan Dempsey
Wow James, I'm loving it more with each update.

Maciej Bellos
She looks great in the blues!

Konrad -
A really straight forward build 👍! Nice!

Kim Branders
Nice with the decals James. Very nice. Smooth clean build.

Erik Leijdens
Really coming alive James! Looks very striking in the Florida markings. I remember now that when I was kid I had a bed cover of a Florida F-106🙂. Good times

Alexander
Agreed, looks really nice. 👍

Eric Thornton
That's looking really good!

James C
Thanks guys 🙂

The decals were very thin and settled down perfectly with just a single application of Microsol over the top.

I had a near disaster with the large "U.S. Air force" stencil on one side when it grabbed slightly, and out of position which then caused a huge crease in it.
Thankfully, after lightly brushing on a ton of water, and with some careful manipulation, I was eventually able to reposition it, and remove the crease so that it would lie flat. Next time I will split these decals into 3 parts and place them individually to make them more manageable. Other than that, my only gripe with them is that the blue Florida tail band and pin stripes look a bit too pale/light?

Anyway, next up is to open up the weapons bay and install the missiles and then hinge the doors open... a fiddley bit of assembly that I'm not looking forward to...

Daniel Klink
Ready to play a round 501 you got a Board james?
Looking very impressive your Dart 👍

James C
Thanks Daniel😉👍

James C
I finished it off this afternoon.

I had intended to display the weapons bay open, but ran into a couple difficulties.
To cut a long story short... given such a confined space, my eyes just weren't up to the task, let alone my dexterity. After several close calls by bumping the pitot tube on the nose, and then finally snapping off the tube on the vertical tail I decided to cut my losses and just keep the weapons bay closed.

Other than that, it was a pretty nice kit to build. There were some molding seam lines on most of the smaller parts that I wasn't expecting for a fairly recent kit, but not a big deal to clean up in the end.

Anyway cheers for following 🙂👍

Nathan Dempsey
That turned out quite nice James. Looks like she just landed. I bet the pilot is heading off to his favorite beach bar by now.

James C
Cheers Nathan... I know I am😉👍

Konrad -
Ist seams that there is always nice weather at your end 😉! Anyhow very awesome looking bird! Congrats James!

Sebastian Meyner
Very nice & clean build James 👍

Erik Leijdens
Turned out Fantastic James! Have fun at the bar 🙂

Ingo F
Turned out really great!

Kim Branders
Looks awsome James.

Jasper Breur
That turned out fantastic James! Very clean build, which nicely shows the unique lines of the Delta Dart!

Neuling
Super clean build of one of my favorite airplanes! Very cool presentation with black background!👍

Eelco Gregoire
Very nice James!

Alexander
That's a bit unfortunate James, but the result looks stunning nonetheless - great work! 👍

Thomas Bischoff
I don't mind the closed weapons bay 🙂
Stunning result 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Lookin' good 👍 The shading and the decals really break up the grey body.

James C
@ Konrad - It's been a bit wet and overcast these last few days, but cleared up enough to take the pics, and stayed that way long enough to bring the Canberra back out and shoot again😉

@ Alexander - Yeah, it was disappointing and especially so after taking the time to paint and weather the weapons bay and missiles... but I ended up doing more damage than what it is worth to keep persisting with it.

I've learned a lot with these last two builds, that I wouldn't have done had I kept building armour.

Many thanks for your comments guys, always appreciated. 🙂

Ben M
Beautiful build of a beautiful subject.

Mathieu
The century fighter are the best looking jets. You have done it justice. Congratulations

Jos Jansen
James, you did it again...congrats mate! Your armor builds rocks, but those jets are a joy to see man...👍.

Rui S
Very nice clean build, Mate. Well done 👍

James C
Many thanks Ben, Mathieu, Jos and Rui 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Very well done sir.

James C
Thanks mate 🙂

Nathan Dempsey
I think you achieved the differing look of the black on the nose quite well. I forgot to mention in my previous post.

James C
Thanks Nathan. 🙂

It was a bit of an experiment to use the rubber black, but it gave a nice contrast in the end which was what I was trying to achieve. The Tamiya grey panel line wash also helped as well.

Clifford Keesler
I think I am going to get the "B" model and do it in the B-1B chase scheme, they used both an A and a B, and yes we converted both.

James C
Sounds like a cool project then mate 👍

Murad ÖZER
ÜBER!😎

Lode Schildermans
James, you've build a true beauty. It was a joy to follow this build. I'm looking forward to your next

Daniel Klink
Fully agree with Lode 👍

Slavo Hazucha
The deal is on the table and it´s a stunner (again)

Great job over all aspects, especially the paint-job on the upper delta - applying shading but only the mildest contrast in panel lines - looks super-realistic and the NZ sun nods approvingly 👍

Looks exactly like the mental picture I had from my early days seeing it in the magazine 🙂

James C
@ Murad, Lode, Daniel and Slavo - Many thanks for your feedback guys 🙂

Having completed this one, the QF-106 is definitely on my to-do list now... but need a brief change after building aircraft for the last five months😉

Glock Gustave
Beautiful ! The color variations are superb 👍

Rui S
I agree with Glock. Very Nicely executed 👍

James C
Thanks guys 🙂

Clifford Keesler
I will say it again, beautiful "Six" well done. I also plan on doing a QF-106. I built quite a few for company executives and so forth when we were doing them, but have never built one for myself. So many to choose from, but am partial to the Montana ANG, and Cape Cod ANG birds, but do not know if I will be able to find decals for those. I have another set of the NJ. ones.

James C
Thanks Clifford 🙂

Jos Jansen
Absolutely a clean build James...love the early jets, so this one is definitely a reference model!

James C
Thanks Jos 🙂