This F-80 kit from Monogram was the first kit I picked up after I returned to modeling. I bought it in a ziplock bag with no instructions and no box. I think I paid $3.00 for it. I started on it to refresh my building skills and decided to redo the surface detail. Well my skills at the time, were below my ambition level, resulting in the surface detail being so so, and hence, the 5 footer designation.

But the shelf of doom moniker came from a different result. I decided at the time I was going to do an Arctic bird with natural metal and red paint. When I bought it I planned on using the kit insignia and trying to obtain the old Microscale decal sheet with the markings I wanted.

It took a couple of years before I was able to acquire the decals, but that wasn't much of a problem because I was still in slow build mode at the time. I received a Silhouette Portrait 3 vinyl cutter for a Xmas present sometime during that period and decided to paint the national insignia, serials and just use the Hat In The Ring decal from the Microscale sheet.

I had a decent enough metal finish applied (Alclad if I recall correctly), and I had even gotten the red and blue paint down in a good enough manner. I had designed and printed some insignia masks, but being new to the technique I chose the wrong type of vinyl (high adhesive).

So come unmasking day, I could not get the masks off without scraping, thereby ruining my paint job. Hello Shelf Of Doom.

Two years later, I'm going to finish that F-80. Fresh from watching the Mission Models video on natural metal finishes, and with new Mission Model paints in hand, I stripped the old paint and smoothed it out. Then sprayed the Mission Model paint as directed. Yikes, that paint looked like gray to me, not metal. Back to the shelf of doom.

Another three years (current year) and I want to get this thing off that S.O.D. I've always liked the scheme I had chosen, but decided that this kit is only going to be seen by me (up close) and only at the 5 foot distance (or more) by anyone else. Just get it done.

Rather than strip the paint again, I simply smooth sanded it, and promptly broke one of the wings loose from the fuselage. Ugh! Fixed that and applied a new metallic finish using AK Extreme Metallics. So far, so good. I started to mask it for the red and unknown to me, started a separation of one of the upper and lower wing halves, which only presented itself when I was painting the white undercoat. Ugh again!

Fixed that, and have managed to get the primary painting done. I only have to do the wing tip tanks blue coloring that matches the nose design and the anti glare panel on the nose. I also still have to paint the serial and aircraft numbers (using masks).

So here she is so far. Definitely not contest quality but presentable enough (assuming I don't have any other mishaps).

Looks beautiful so far, my friend @clipper! What a departure from its "original" state, what an awesome idea to revive this bird! Looking forward to your next steps!

Thanks Brian (@brithebuilder), Spiros (@fiveten), and John (@johnb). Perseverance, perhaps, or maybe just stubbornness! It really came down to overcoming my desire to do this right (which would have required considerable more work - and consequently would have kept it consigned to the S.O.D.), accepting it for what it will be, and getting it completed.

Pretty dog gone cool

That looks a lot better than a 5-footer, Carl. The old Monogram F-80 is still a champ - it even overcame all your assaults on it. 🙂

Thanks Matt (@coondog), Spiros (@fiveten), Tom (@tcinla), and George (@gblair). I do appreciate the compliments. I heard many good and bad things about this kit. It's accurately shaped, it's a dog to build, and it represents a different version than it is modeled as.

I cannot comment on the accuracy or the different version as I did not put enough research effort into this particular build. It wasn't too difficult to build, but it did take a long time, mainly because of numerous self-inflicted wounds on my part. I will say, that if I were to want to build another, I would spend far longer on the research and surface detail restoration. It would be nice if someone were to come out with a new tool 1/48 kit (that's accurate).

Hi Carl (@clipper): I always seem to jump into a kit and then discover things I wish I had corrected right after I build that portion of the kit. Hobby Boss has an early and late version of the F-80 in 1/48. I haven't built either one, but they are newer than the Monogram kit.

@gblair - the HB F-80s have problems with them that no amount of "modeling skill required" will correct them. The problems range from intakes that are 125% of correct, to a cockpit placed too far back - if you were making one of the YP-80As, it would be correct - to other shape issues. Unfortunately, that means that the shape-accurate Monogram kit is still the only option if accuracy is on your list of wants in a kit.