building the KH 1/48 F-101A/C Voodoo

[Jinxter13]

Great looking build, how is the cockpit detail?, or is this another candidate for the AM kids. I most definitely want to do one of these One-O-Wonders, but would like to know what I'm in for prior to purchase.

[Ben Brown]

Great looking build, how is the cockpit detail?, or is this another candidate for the AM kids. I most definitely want to do one of these One-O-Wonders, but would like to know what I'm in for prior to purchase.

Based on other photos they've posted, it looks like they've used decals for the instrument panel and consoles. As if using photo-etched parts for these wasn't bad enough. :bandhead2:/>

Ben

Edited May 12, 2014 by Ben Brown

[Gene K]

OK, I don't see anything that isn't fixable.

Ben,

Are the fuselage vents correct (didn't Monogram get it wrong by having the same circular vents on both sides of the fuselage)? Been too long since I looked at a Voodoo.

Gene K

[Ben Brown]

Thanks, VP. The last photo I saw showed just blank shapes. Those aren't much of an improvement. Kitty Hawk, Trumpeter, et al really need to buy an Academy F-4 kit and study the instrument panels and consoles to see how these parts should be done. Photo etching just doesn't give you enough relief to properly represent knobs, switches, and bezels, even in 1/72 scale.

Gene, yes, one of those vents should be rectangular, but I can't recall which side it was on.

I'm still going to have to pick up a couple of these....

Ben

Edited May 12, 2014 by Ben Brown

[Finn]

Here are some views of the vents on the side of the fuselage:

http://78th-bushmasters.org.uk/page/cmanos/air23.htm

http://78th-bushmasters.org.uk/page/cmanos/air30.htm

http://78th-bushmasters.org.uk/page/cmanos/air49.htm

http://78th-bushmasters.org.uk/page/lpegg/p04.htm

Jari

[Gene K]

... one of those vents should be rectangular, but I can't recall which side it was on.

Yes, right side. I had to dig out my Monogram correction file. Jari's excellent pics (as usual) highlight the area.

Gene K

[Finn]

There is also a vent under the wing just aft of the intake, as seen here between the intake and the main gear door:

http://78th-bushmasters.org.uk/page/cmanos/air46.htm

It’s a fuel vent and here is a close up on the F-101B:

http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason/f-101b_59-0400/images/f-101b_59-0400_33_of_45.jpg

I don’t know if the smaller holes were present on the F-101A/C but the larger vent is. The other details in the pic show where the fuel tanks went onto the Aero-7A rack, from left to right

air

fuel

electrical receptacle

30”hooks (with sway brace locations on either side)

14” hook

ejector piston (above that the large hole is where the safety pin went)

14” hook

30”hooks (with sway brace locations on either side)

Jari

[skyhawk174]

I know when they do the B I can get good underside shots since there is one on a pole here in my city. It is outside the Alberta Aviation museum here in Edmonton. There is also one on display outside so lots of detail there.

I think I am still interested in the F-101A for the simple reason is that they had such colourful schemes. Not too crazy about the natural metal but I guess I can learn to work with Alclad 2.

[Eli Raphael]

Guys,

Besides the nose, where there any other external diff between the F-101A and the long nosed RF that was used in 'Nam? I have the C&H conversión and itching to use it on this kit. Ben?

Thanks

Edited May 13, 2014 by Eli Raphael

[Ben Brown]

Guys,

Besides the nose, where there any other external diff between the F-101A and the long nosed RF that was used in 'Nam? I have the C&H conversión and itching to use it on this kit. Ben?

Thanks

From a modeler's standpoint, I don't think so. There were the vents, intakes, and wing fence differences that Finn has pointed out (I'd never noticed those vents!). The RF-101A/C had cameras in the belly in the same area the missile pallet on the B was located, and if you look at the photos of the underside of the model, you can see the two sliding camera window covers scribed into the belly. In the bottom photo, the port one is abeam of that NACA duct and the starboard one is the square panel with the corner cut off by the edge of the photo. Later RFs had slime lights added, but they didn't stand proud of the aircraft's surface like they do on the KH and Monogram kits. Some RFs had radar warning gear added, with the antennae mounted on the drag chute door, under the wing tips, on the belly just aft of those afore-mentioned cameras, and on the nose. See photos of the RF-101C at the USAF Museum. Also, the instrument panels and glare shields were different. Judging from the breakdown of the kit, I would bet good money that KH will release a long-nose RF at some point.

It looks like you'll be able to get to an RF-101G/H easily with this kit. There may even be one in the future, since one of the photos of the clear parts included the camera windows for this version. Pretty much all you'd need to do is delete the guns, chop the nose down, and add those windows and a camera control panel to the top of the instrument panel glare shield.

Ben

[Eli Raphael]

Ben,

Thanks for the answer.

If I may, the KH kit is an A/C version?

If so and after reading the diff. between the versions on the Voodoo site, it states that the RF-101C was basically the same as the F-101C sans the RF long nose. True?

[Finn]

Check out the intake angles of these RF-101s, some look straight, some look angled:

http://www.raf-upper-heyford.org/17th/RF-101C__66_TRW__56-0097.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/McDonnell_RF-101A_in_flight_over_Vietnam_in_May_1967_060831-F-1234S-029.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/RF-101C_and_RF-104G_in_flight.jpg

http://trab.packwebs.net/area/mikesalmon/images/MS-RF-101C.jpg

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/3/8/2/2132283.jpg

Jari

[Eli Raphael]

Thanks for posting them, Jari.

Would you have any from the bottom of the lower fuselage that includes the RF nose?

[Finn]

Eli I just google images and sometimes I luck in and find worthwhile pics, like these:

http://jetpilotoverseas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/53aca44ad83a16a9_large.jpg

http://jetpilotoverseas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/4f3937aa1d1515a0_large.jpg

http://jetpilotoverseas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/5a89cbe0860b3791_large.jpg

http://jetpilotoverseas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/06f6bd591980ab71_large-1.jpg

edit: found another interesting pic, note the rectangular vent on this side where others have a circular one:

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060728-F-1234S-067.jpg

also note the angled c/l pylon.

Jari

Edited May 13, 2014 by Finn

[Eli Raphael]

I did!

Guess you are a better searcher than I am!

Thanks

[KursadA]

In stock at Sprue Brothers:

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/kth80115.htm

[a4s4eva]

Based on other photos they've posted, it looks like they've used decals for the instrument panel and consoles. As if using photo-etched parts for these wasn't bad enough. :bandhead2:/>/>

Ben

As long as the decals are over plastic with raised detail, and the decals match the detail then I think this about as good as it gets straight from the box(much better than PE)

The Hasegawa A-4 and F-104 IP/decal combo are examples of where this works well (better than painting a resin panel IMHO)

[KursadA]

I received my kit today. Overall, I like what I see - it is well detailed and should be a relatively straightforward build. The parts breakdown is a bit overengineered, but this is understandable considering that they seem to have tooled everything to allow future F-101 variants.

[KursadA]

OK, I don't see anything that isn't fixable. F-101B main gear tires can be cut down to the narrow single-seater type and the slime lights can be sanded off, . The biggest problem will be fixing the intakes. Also, the ailerons didn't droop like an F-4's did. They should be in the neutral position.

Ben, for what it's worth, this is how the intakes are depicted in the "holy scrolls" (i.e. the McDonnell-Douglas engineering drawings I obtained from the NASM library to help with my decal design).

I think this clarifies how they really looked. Note that there is a reference to an intake modification for later aircraft.

Sorry for the quality of the photos - these drawings are 16 ft long and impossible to scan.

Edited May 20, 2014 by KursadA

[Ben Brown]

Very cool! Does it say "Airplane 124 Up" for the mod? It will be interesting to find the s.n. of #124 to compare before & after photos of the intakes and wings. If I'm reading that right, they changed the leading edge of the wing in that area, too. Do your drawings show the shape of the splitter plates, too?

Thanks for posting these!

Ben

[jholt]

I'm coming in late on this one but I don't think the 101A's had the slime lights. More than likely you can just grind them out and rescribe the panel lines but I know on the C&H RF-101 conversion it has you remove the slime lights on the Monogram kit. The underside of the tail is also shaped slightly different.

[Jennings]

The idea for slime lights hadn't even been thought of when the F-101A/C was in service.

[Ben Brown]

I just looked through the F-101A photos I've found online over the years (I know, I should be working), and I don't see that fairing or whatever that fills the notch created by the wing and the intake, even on the prototypes. Comments, anyone? This is very interesting that there might have been two different types of intake on the single-seaters.

I'm guessing the slime lights are molded into the KH kit because that's the way Monogram has them on their F-101B. Looks like the KH kit has a couple of other spots where they've repeated Monogram's goofs. I'll bet when the do release a B, it will have raised lights on the nose, too. KH should've just left them off and provided them as decals for the B & RF-101A/C, when that one's released.

Ben

[KursadA]

I just looked through the F-101A photos I've found online over the years (I know, I should be working), and I don't see that fairing or whatever that fills the notch created by the wing and the intake, even on the prototypes. Comments, anyone? This is very interesting that there might have been two different types of intake on the single-seaters.

I can certainly see a difference in the intake and wing root area between the two different sets aircraft below:

"Early" examples:

"Late" examples:

Look at the distance between the intake edge and the wing root; and there is a clear difference. Even though the intake is extended a bit on the "late" version, the new fairing makes the distance between the wing root and the edge of the intake to look shorter.

I have not seen any mention of this wing difference in any book or reference I had seen earlier. But it must be mentioned somewhere - those engineering drawings have been sitting at the NASM library for 60 years, and I find it difficult to believe that an immigrant modeler was the first person to look at them. Note that I do not have the corresponding drawings for the F-101B so I can not draw a comparison.

I believe the drawing says "aircraft 12 & above", which corresponds to a modification for 53-2430 and above. So the early wing design is only valid for the first 12 aircraft; perhaps not significant enough a fact to go into books and reference material.

Edit: After looking at many other photos, I tend to believe that the wing fairing change was somehow reverted later during the F-101's service life - it is not seen on any F-101A photo taken after 1957-1958 or whereabouts.

Edited May 20, 2014 by KursadA

[Ben Brown]

I see it, now. This is very interesting! Notice how they've moved the national insignia forward, so it is still the same distance from the intake. Maybe that's why nobody has noticed the different intake, since it's hard to see, unless you're really looking for it.

Ben