Monogram P-80C Shooting Star

[I-16]

I'm going to join with Monogram's venerable P-80C configured for close air support. Markings will be Areomaster, FT-547, which is pretty colorful. Other than a True Details ejection seat, she will be pretty much out of the box. 

Obligatory opening shot...  

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by I-16

[Grandboof]

Nice choice Looking forward to the start 

Martin H

[I-16]

We often complain of soft plastic, but I have never had a kit so brittle! Broke a wing, trimming off a nub, and then broke off the left side of the nose, doing the same. At least it reacts fairly well to Tenax. Because I need it, to fix it! Wings together, painting, and getting ready to attack the bare metal finish.

 

[Fubuki4]

Damn, that is brittle. Perhaps the age of the plastic has effected that too?  Nice start though.

[I-16]

Got the basic fuselage together, but not without a struggle. I ran out of Tennax, and the plastic does not like to react with liquid cement. Again, it's some brittle stuff. On to prime and a little more filling. I think I am going to go with a gloss black base, and shoot either MM buffing metalizer or Tamiya aluminum. Not sure which will be more bare metal-ish. We shall see. 

[Kurt H.]

Nice start. I really like monogram kits of this era.  It is odd to hear the monogram silver plastic is brittle, I always like the silver plastic because it it tends to be soft and forgiving. And if you want to scribe the panel lines, you can still see where they were even if you sand them off.

 

That kit is probably almost 40 years old so perhaps the plastic has changed, maybe it was stored in a hot place or something.

 

 

[I-16]

I remember building this same kit, about 40 years ago!

 

[I-16]

Primed and ready for the gloss black coat.

[I-16]

A bad picture of the Tamiya gloss black. Appears glossy.

[I-16]

Top coat of MM Buffing aluminum metalizer, which didn't buff out as well as hoped. I plan to shoot a few panels with Tamiya flat aluminum to break it up a but.

[I-16]

Painting complete, starting to decal and put on the (very few) fidly bits.

[mlicari]

Wow you got a really nice finish on that paint job!

[RKic]

Wow, that looks super cool!

 

I had similar brittle plastic problems with an old Monogram kit ( f-100). I wonder if they had a small batch of bad product at some point, becUae usually their plastic is very good to work with. 

 

 

By the way, how did you handle the part of the fuselage right behind the wing, where the halves meet? A lot of people complain about a step there, between the front and rear parts.

[I-16]

I opted to assemble the back half, and then spread the front half to match. Mated pretty well, after a bit of sanding. There is still a minimal step, but not to bad. Finish turned out better than I expected. Was my first "bare metal finish". The gloss black seemed to help.

 

[I-16]

This plane has lots of random markings.