 | F-89 D/J Scorpion Revell 1:72 kit no: 04848 build time: November 1 2015 - December 5 2015 |
Introduction
The Northrop F-89 Scorpion is reputed to be the first combat fighter with air-to-air nuclear capabilities (the unguided Genie rocket).
Originally designed to replace the P-61 Black Widow, this design by Northrop won an Air Force bid in 1945, and saw its maiden flight in August of 1948. The first production airframe, designated F-89A, took to flight in September 1950 with two permanently mounted wingtip fueltanks. After the first major upgrade to the B-version, the aircraft entered active service in 1951, but severe problems were found with several systems, including the engines. The C-version soon came to life, but soon the major production model m, the F-89D started rolling out of the factories.
The D-version separated itself from its predecessor by replacing the wingtip fueltanks with underwing droptanks, so to make room for two wingtip mounted 70 mm rocket pods, arming the F-89D with 104 Mighty Mouse FFAR rockets. A total of 682 D-models were constructed. For some reason, the E,F,G models were propsed but skipped, and an upgrade to the F-89H happened in 1956. The final variant was the F-89J, and it was provided with two underwing pylons capable of carrying the nuclear Genie rocket. By the end of 1969, all Scorpions were retired in US service.
Statistics
crew: 2
length: 16.40 m
wingspan: 18.20 m
max. takeoff weight: 19.2 metric tons
powerplant: 2x Allison J-35 turbojets with afterburners for 7200 lbf
maximum speed: 635 mph
service ceiling: 15,000 m
armament: 104 70 mm might Mouse rockets
All of the above assuming someone on Wikipedia did his homework correctly
Sprue shots
Let's start off with the mandatory sprue shots:
As you can see, the kit comes with some nice recessed panellines, and some details in the wheelbays as well. This comes at the price of some sinkmarks left and right, but for a Revell molding from 1991, I'm completely happy.
I'll be building the D-version, as in my mind there's no choice to be made when you have those wingtip rocket pods! And so, we'll be doing the version from the boxart. I bought myself some of the AK Extreme metal paints the other day and the natural metal part of this bird will be done with those. It'll be interesting to see if I can get a good a result as Phil did.
It starts...
As usual, the cockpit is the first to be tackled. Two seats of 4 parts each are easily constructed, and the rest of the cockpit parts released from the sprue. No details whatsoever for the instrument panels or side panels, but since revell provide decals there, I'm gla they didn't bother. Saves me the trouble of sanding off the lot of it....
Next up: gluing up the rocketpods and fueltanks. Seams were filled with some filler, and are awaiting sanding.
And that's pretty much it for a first update. The next update should have paint.
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