While checking my stash, I got a sudden inspiration to return to an old build, put away years ago. In fact, I had two kits, and that made me a little braver to get on with the build since having an extra was a back-up in case I messed one up. The main thing that held me back from working on this project originally was the rescribing. The 106 is such a beautiful plane that I finally thought I might just forget the rescribing and just get on with building it, just to have at least one in my collection. BTW, I have never liked the look of the Trumpeter version, which has shape issues to my eye. Monogram really got it right, just those darn panel lines to deal with. Anyway, I finally decided to rescribe at least one of these, probably both. There are actually few lines, and I am getting better and faster at the scribing work with time.

So, I found I had already done quite a lot of test fitting and interior painting on one kit, so I decided to finish all the gear bay and weapons bay work for both models at the same time. Monogram's OOB detail here is beautiful and shows up very well with a preshade of flat black, followed by a thin spray of Gunze Interior Green.

I am doing two kits partly to give me some options with rescribing but also to allow me to do two colorful schemes. I will definitely do one in the Sun Burst 318th FS scheme, which you don't see modeled so much. I have the hard-to-find Aeromaster set, still in great shape.

The other I do will probably be the distinctive 49th FIS version with SuperScale decals

Otherwise, I will go for the 84th FIS, which I have on order from eBay but which is also in the not-so-great kit decal sheet.

I lean towards, the 318th FIS, since I saw one of these up close in a static display at the Abbotsford Airshow as a kid and really liked the distinctive green tail markings. Lot's of time to think about it. It could depend on how well the decals behave after long storage.

Lacking an Eduard Etch set, I did some pretty good work on the interior awhile back. I did the switches on the side consoles by an abrasion method. Light grey first coat, Tamiya clear to seal, flat black final coat and then rubbing the black off with a nail buffer to highlight the raised switches.

Finally, I masked the whole surface of the panels and sprayed the rest of the pit Dark Gull Gray.

I am especially pleased with the hand-painting and decal work I did on the IP.

The Century Series release of the kit had decals for some of the instruments and I supplemented these with dials and details from am Mike Grant sheet.

One comment about the Monogram 106 is that I have not encountered any serious fit problems many have complained about. Maybe I have a couple of exceptional kits, but the tested fit is very good so far, with no warping or other issues. I found that gluing the fuselage haves together at the cockpit end allows easier test fitting with the bottom half and all cockpit parts can be inserted from underneath after gluing.

The only thing that was a bit of a pain was the burner can, which has typical gaps showing with the halves joined. I have attached strips of 5 thou styrene sheet and I will pre-sculpted it to conform to the ribs. Once joined and sanded by inserting a dowel with sandpaper attached, it should erase the gap and join line nicely. Fingers crossed on this one, but the seam is very hard to see without shining a light in there anyway.

So far, this build has been a lot of fun. That's something I need right now after working with more fiddly kits for awhile. Comments welcome.

Amazing entries and solid, quality progress already, my friend @coling!

Thanks for your comment, John@johnb. I am finding this build very relaxing, so far. I like the way Monogram packed detail into relatively few parts. I am also getting inspired watching interviews with F-106 pilots talking about their rivalry with F-4 Phantom drivers. The F-106 was a formidable fighter and could match or beat the F-4 in mock dogfights.

Thanks, George@gblair. I hope to get this done fairly quickly - not much assembly to do. I am still working on my other builds but my day job keeps me pretty occupied through the week, so modeling time is a weekend pursuit until summer holidays.

It's true that you don't see the Monogram F-106 built up much. Funny, because this is a great kit and much more convincing shape-wise than the Trumpeter version.

Sounds like you are a teacher, Colin (@coling). Thanks for doing a tough job. I was a pilot in the Air Force for 20 years and my building dropped to 2 or 3 models a year. I retired and started teaching high school and junior college, and I figured I would have time to build more. I found I had less time than in the Air Force to build. So, now I am retired from teaching and I get to spend a lot of time with my models and train layout.

Good guess, George. I divide my time between teaching and administration these days. Much the same schedule for the year but more hours. I have a few years to go before retirement but I look forward to my summers. I am doing OK with my model output, considering. I find it takes it takes a major push to get projects finished. It's a lot easier to get builds started and that can seem like a waste of time to some. Even so, it's good to be able shift around to keep up your energy when you hit snags on any one build. I will finish the Heinkel soon and the Super Etendard, hopefully, since they are the farthest along. Meanwhile, the 106 will be my most relaxing project to fall back on.

You did some very nice work on the seat, Colin @coling
Very nice seatbelts.

One thing to do when you get ready to assemble the wing subassembly is to scrape down the inside of the lower wing leading edge, so it fits real tight ans snug into the upper wing, so you don't have to fill a gap there and lose all the surface detail you'll sand off. I haven't seen a Six since I was up at George AFB 40 years ago this month to go flying with the Wild Weasels for AF Mag. Cali ANG had four of them there on alert.