Lockheed F-94C Starfire – Kitty Hawk 1/48

Fresh off of both the Shelf of Doom and the workbench this week is a seldom seen kit, that is the Kitty Hawk 1/48 F-94C Starfire. I got this kit when Kitty Hawk was still in business, so it was purchased for a reasonable price. Beware of scalpers on auction sites, and if this subject is really something you feel that you need, it may be worth waiting to see if Zimi Models will re-pop this subject in the future. Anyhow, onto the subject...

The Lockheed F-94C Starfire was a jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft developed and produced by Lockheed Corporation in the early 1950s. It was a major redesign of the earlier F-94B model (itself a derivative of the T-33, and thus F-80), featuring a thinner wing, a more powerful engine with an afterburner, a sweptback horizontal stabilizer, and a new fire-control system. Instead of guns, the F-94C's nose was armed with 24 rockets behind four slick trap doors, as well as an AN/APG-40 radar antenna. Weapons pods fit mid-span on each wing housed a total of 24 more rockets.

The Starfire was the first operational USAF fighter to have an afterburner and the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War. The F-94C served mainly in the air defense of the continental United States with the Air Defense Command and its successor, the Aerospace Defense Command, until 1959. It was also used by some Air National Guard units until 1960.

The Kitty Hawk 1/48 F-94C kit is a decent model of this jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft. The kit has some nice features, such as a decent [if inaccurate] cockpit, separate flaps & speed brakes, and a choice of two markings. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as poor fit of some parts, slight inaccuracies, and a mix-match of poor surface quality & inconsistent panel line depths. In truth, the kit is not very difficult to build, but it does require some extra work and patience to ensure good results.

The most difficult part of the kit was finding the best way to fit the canopy, which I can only recall needed a lot of modification. Beyond this, the wing roots gave me trouble, I think because I glued the bottom of the upper wing to the top of the wheel well... Don't do this! Lastly, the intakes scoops took a lot of sanding and reshaping to get the best results, so again, be careful.

After carefully sanding much of the pebbly texture off of the airframe and rescribing shallow or faded panel lines, paint was applied as a mix of Vallejo aluminums layered over Mr1500 primer. Tamiya X-22 was then used to seal the paint, after which the black wing boots, exposed rudder fiberglass, and antiglare panels were sprayed. This left a canvas layer for decals. The kit provided two decal options, one being a fairly attractive "shooting star" theme, while the other more docile theme matches the aircraft on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH. Despite some interest in these schemes, I decided to take a more interesting approach, and through a set of Caracal decals into the mix.

Utilizing a few of the kits stencils, as well as the sufficient stencils in the Caracal set, I dressed my Starfire up in a scheme that has a mix of chrome yellow and insignia blue artwork that I felt was a nice bold display of 1950's jet color. The Cartograph printed decals conformed and set nicely with Mr Decal solvent, though some touch up had to be done on the nose and leading edges of the intake. Following the decals, Tamiya Semi-gloss clear was liberally applied. Finally, some gray panel line wash was applied for subtle highlighting.

The final result is a good representation of the F-94C, but not a perfect one. If you're a fan of this aircraft or the early jet era, you might enjoy this kit. If you are looking for accuracy and quality, then you've got some work ahead of you to make the needed corrections.

This particular jet represents F-94C 51-5607, 354th FIS, Oxnard AFB, CA.

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.