August's CF-101B Kitty Cat - FINISHED

[K5083]

My shopping trip to the attic yielded the old Matchbox F-101B.



I was impressed by the size of the model, the high parts count for a Matchbox kit, and the detail, which is mostly fine and raised, not trenchy. Some areas are fairly well detailed. The canopy can be displayed open and even comes with a pair of boarding ladders, but unfortunately the cockpit detail is sure to disappoint if this is done. I'll build mine closed, and even so, will have to add a little detail.

My next shopping trip, to the decal files, yielded the old Microscale/Superscale sheet for special paint Canadian Voodoos.



Canada retired its Voodoos in 1982, and three of them were painted in special paint schemes. Two of the four, from Lynx and Hawk squadrons, are on this sheet, along with a special all-black ECM Voodoo that was kept in service a few years longer. I don't care for the black scheme and it is still too cold to use my airbrush to do the Hawk scheme here, so I'll be doing Lynx One from 416 Squadron, serial 101043. I never got to see this plane when it was flying, but it is preserved at the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum in Nova Scotia. When I dropped by in 2008, it was in the middle of a repaint.



But it used to look like this.



Hopefully I can manage the black and white paint scheme with rattle cans.

August

[TobyC]

The black and white scheme will be very distinctive and will look good.

[K5083]

This project hit its first snag, maybe a fatal one, when I test fitted the fuselage to see how the cockpit tub would sit in there. One fuselage half turned out to be warped such that when the front half of the fuselage is aligned, the tail is misaligned by fully 2 mm. Here are some shots taken with the forward part aligned properly.





Now, messing with classic kits is all very well, but my masochism has its limits. So I have cemented the cockpit tub in without even painting it and will try to join the fuselage while correcting the warp. If I can do it, I'll add some detail and the seats. If not, this one will go into the bin and I'll pull a 104 out of the stash for this build.

August

[iggie]

That does look a bit out, now you come to mention it....

I hope you can pull it back into some semblance of shape

[TobyC]

I wouldn't even bother it's so far out.

[Kitaholic]

Is it possible to find the point where it goes out, cut it in half then either remove or insert a piece to bring it in line?

[Blueberryruby]

or superglue it?

[K5083]

By cementing the fuselage in stages with a lot of clamping, I was able to bend it back into shape, more or less.



What remained of the warp was a saddle-shaped depression in the right fuselage half. I filled that with a plate of sheet plastic and some Perfect Putty. This was my first experience with Perfect Putty; it had just arrived and I was interested to try it out. A bit thick and difficult to squeeze out of the tube, but it works pretty well.

After sanding, it looks pretty decent so I guess I will go on with the build. There's no chance that my semi-fixed fuselage warp will create a whole cascading series of fit problems with the wings and intakes, is there? Naaah.

There's no point in detailing the cockpit until after painting the model, since the fuselage is already closed up. It occurs to me that detailing the cockpit last may have some advantages. It will avoid the problem that the detail I add obstructs other parts of the cockpit or prevents the fuselage from closing. It will be easier to size and fit parts that bridge the fuselage, such as the control panels. And I will not have to worry about protecting the fuselage detail through later assembly and painting, so no jeopardizing delicate cockpit parts by stuffing tissue in there or attaching the canopy sooner than I would prefer just to keep the paint out. Of course the main drawback is the ship-in-bottle problem. But we'll see how it goes and, depending on the subject being modeled, I might get in the habit of saving at least some cockpit detailing until the end of the build.

August

[Marek]

Good resolution, you got the warpage out. Rest should fall in.

[TobyC]

Well done on the rescue. I'd have binned it.

[shangos70]

Nice rescue, those are the same markings I had chosen for my Mbox Voodoo too! It's currently half built in the box of shame.

[iggie]

Impressive efforts to get this back in line!

[K5083]

More than any other of my recent builds, this one is a throwback to when I was 12 years old. To begin with, it's a bad kit. Some of the problems are owing to my specimen being warped, but not all of them. Some others, I suspect, are because this is a late issue, molded in all-silver rather than the traditional Matchbox multi colors, and the age of the molds showed up in a lot of flash and imprecise part definition. Filler is needed everywhere. The silver plastic also had none of the soft pliability of the colorful Matchbox plastic. If I were ever to acquire another of these kits - for what reason, I can't imagine - I would seek out one of the older issues.

Added to these problems is my own incompetence. For some reason the spirit of the 12-year-old has overtaken me in this build, and I seem to be unable to get parts together without glue spills and fingerprints. At least once I've dropped it and knocked major parts off. In the spirit of the 12-year-old thing, I have taken care to preserve the kit's one moving part, the all-flying tailplane.

For all that, just like when I was 12, the model looks okay considering all the fumbling around. It is currently in the process of having thin coats of Tamiya Surface Primer (White) layered on, which will also serve as the main color for the paint scheme.



August

[Marek]

I feel your pain, but the end result will be soooo satisfying! Nice progress on the ancient lemon. The only Matchbox kit (maybe an F-4 too) that I have never tried to complete past a certain stage.

[TobyC]

I admire your perseverance and it looks like it's paying off at last.