Just got the new Kitty Hawk F-101A/C. There's a strange breakdown of the fuselage, but there is method to the madness, since it foretells an RF-101C. The parts fit beautifully - I have the fore and aft fuselage sub-assemblies done and they go together with no problem, no seams or anything like that, and they will mate up with no problem. I suspect the rest will go similarly.
The cockpit will look nice with the decals over the photoetch details. The seat is better than the Monogram kit seat, purists may want to get the True Details seats, but they're not really necessary.
I've been wanting a single seat F-101 with guns for-freaking-ever, and this delivers, baby! Decals provide markings for both units that flew them. Everything looks good.
Buy. In. Confidence.
I'll have photos up later and will document the WIP.
UPDATE 1:
I have posted photos of the assembly of the model. You will note quite a bit of Mr. Surfacer 500 was used on the fuselage joints. Looking back, I think I can say that a good half of the reason for this was "operator error" in substituting my judgement for assembly sequences for those in the instructions. I realize it's a radical, revolutionary, act to suggest to a male modeler that he actually follow the instructions, but if you do here, you'll be happy. Follow the instructions and take care in fitting parts. This kit does have the best fit I've found yet in a Kitty Hawk kit.
Researching the finish, it appears to me that the airplanes were not in unpainted aluminum finish. Their period of service 1959-66, is when Coroguard was used. I am putting in a site location that has photos of just about all the F-101A and F-101C aircraft, many in color, including all the airplanes for which markings are provided in the decal sheet. These airplanes were "ridden hard and hung up wet" from accounts of their service with the 81st Fighter Wing in England, which combined with European weather leads to a weathered, flatter finish, which is still "multi-hue" enough even painted in Coroguard to look good. Here's the site:
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/F-101.html
UPDATE 2:
After looking at the photos on the site above, I noticed that F-101s on the ground seem to all have their flaps up, and most have the dive brakes retracted. I like that, since it thus emphasizes the lines of the airframe. As with most kits that have dropped flaps, open dive brakes, etc., the model is more easily done when you do it that way - you don't have to worry about the parts fitting and such. Nevertheless, I proceeded on and glued the flaps and dive brakes closed. In the case of the flaps this might have worked better had it been done while assembling the wing before attaching it. If you choose to do this, that would be my advice.
Once everything was glued and then filled and sanded smooth with progressively finer-grit sanding sticks, I then used my Dremel to polish the model overall before rescribing panel line detail.
Now on to the paint shop.
Here are some more photos.
UPDATE 3:
@##%^%$##@!
Kitty Hawk, the Classic Airframes of "mainstream" injection-molded kits.
I put on a coat of primer, and then saw all the @#$^^%#@! seams. It turns out that on this kit, like all their other kits, nothing really fits the way it's really supposed to.
Re-putty. Re-sand. Re-apply Mr. Surfacer. Re-sand some more. Re-apply CA glue in the seam. Re-sand some more.
As with all other Kitty Hawk projects, my get up and go has done got up and went. It's going to be awhile before I come back to this.
@##$%^%$#@!
10 attached images. Click to enlarge.
