1/72 IDEA F-89D Scorpion
This is a boxing by a company named IDEA, but it is essentially the Academy kit, I think, as I do not have the academy kit, but the sprues are the same as photos on the net of the Academy kit. Quite good fitting parts, but I decided to model my Scorpion with the wing tip pods closed. Some shades of Alclad II Aluminum and Model Master (Testor's) Arctic red. Kit decals used, but I did not use the silver decals to be applied beneath the Insignas and USAF on the red parts, but masked them instead and left them in Alclad finish.
Very nice build - love the interesting look of the Scorpion (well-named I think). I need to build mine (a Revell boxing I believe).
Thanks Greg, the Revell kit is their own, and it's better than this one. It is also the J version.
This is an excellent model, Gordon, depicting greatly the "Scorpion" distinctive looks.
Love the NMF!
Beautiful build you have made, Gordon.
The name Scorpion is indeed perfectly chosen for this plane.
Looks fantastic Gordon! What you really have here though is an F-89H. (The covered groups of seven FFARs and the hatches for the Falcon missiles are what give it away.) The D had full time open pods with 104 2.75" FFARs. (Except for the outer row of rockets which were behind some pretty ingenious automatic retractable covers.) The H "only" carries 42 of them in groups of seven behind frangible covers but is backed up by the six Falcons retracted into the wingtip pods! (It looks awesome when they're out!) Everything cleaned up I'd say the H was the cleanest of the Scorpions for the amount of munitions it carried. Just out of curiosity, does the kit give you the option to have the six missiles extended out of the pods? It's something I've always wished Revell would've offered on their 1/48 Scorpion. (Or I wish I could find a resin kit of the pods.)
In any case this looks really nice. It's hard to go wrong with the arctic markings on anything!
Here's some photos guns out!
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
We're certainly lucky there was no nuclear war for the Falcon to fight, since it turned out (when disarming the F-4D by its presence) to be the most worthless of all the worthless US missiles of the period. One never wanted to mention the thing around Robin Olds.
Absolute massive load out with all those rockets and missiles! Wonder if the Falcons ever were tried out as a functioning armament on the F-89 or if it just was a matter of deterrence by looking mean on photos...
Yes, the H and J models both carried Falcons. (The J swapped two Falcons out for two nuclear tipped Genie rockets, all carried externally on pylons. The H definitely had the cool factor upped a few pegs!)
Nicely done! There is something about the look of the Scorpion.
Hello Gordon,
Nice. The color scheme gives it power.
regards, Dirk
Beast of a plane and a great model. I think we are all very lucky that the Cold War stayed that way.
As Josh pointed out, it is an F-89H not a D. And yes, Josh, you can build it with the 6 Falcons on the rails in deployed position. Thanks to everyone for your positive comments.
Thanks for the info Gordon. I'll have to pick one up so I can use the tanks as reference to scale them into 1/48. Again, great job on it, one of my 50's favorites! (Lucky enough to live in Oshkosh and have a J model outside the EAA museum that I can go visit anytime!)
Great looking model Gordon, great build and nice job with the metal and the red and the masking too.
Very nice. Isn´t it that the Academy tooling is ex-Hobbycraft tooling that is originally done by IDEA actually?