Grumman F8F-2 "Conquest 1" racer - High Planes 1/72nd

 

And now for the High Planes "Conquest 1", a modified F8F-2 with custom decals already provided.

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/high-planes-172nd-grumman-f8f-2.html

I truly love that some manufacturers make a great effort (usually without any meaningful personal financial gain) to present to civil modelers kits of planes that otherwise have been ignored by mainstream manufacturers. I buy and build their products even when they may be a bit challenging, although many are very nice and a pleasure to build. But there are cottage industry kits and cottage industry kits. This one I deem borderline, because it will be really difficult for anyone but the experienced modeler willing to solve many problems, do some basic research to solve the accuracy issues, and with sufficient will to endure the hard work and no little frustration ahead.

My, oh, my. I have built a not small number of rough kits, but this one it’s undoubtedly among the ones that will make you sigh, again and again, during the build. I would have never chosen to build this kit, but very kind friend and fellow modeler Luis S. sent it as a gift. In fact upon opening the box and evaluate the contents, I told Luis that I was not keen on building it, and offered to return it to him, apologizing for what could be seen as ingratitude, but was actually honesty, as it wasn’t right to toss the kit in the garage an forget about it. As I slowly advanced in the build of another (less) challenging kit,  Pegasus' XP-40Q racer

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/curtiss-p-40q-racer-converted-pegasus.html

I decided to give this other kit a go, knowing this was a build I wouldn’t really enjoy, but aiming to put a smile in Luis’s face.

I have seen actually a fair amount of High Planes racer kits built online. I wouldn’t say they look to me as particularly great models, save a remarkable few (Alex Bigey's and Patrice Roma's come to mind as great examples of beautiful builds of High Plane racer kits). It’s really, really difficult to come to a good ending starting with what comes in the box.

Somewhat crude moldings, big sprue gates, inadequate fit:

What is that weird blurb about the lottery?:

I mean...

The spinner was molded wonky like this (higly exaggerated) sketch:

For some F8F racers -including this boxing- the intakes on the leading edge will have to be filled and blended smooth with the wing. As you can see this sandwich has too much ham and cheese, and the halves won't close at all:

 Even after reducing the thickness of the wheel well roof to a wafer, the wing halves won't close properly, so the upper wing half will have to be ground:

The kit bears a certain resemblance with the old Monogram issue regarding that wing-through-fuselage weird arrangement. Once again, take a wild guess about the general fit. A feature of the Bearcat wing was a reinforcement of the intrados. Maybe this is an attempt to it? Notice that the ducts that originally go from the intakes into the fuselage have been eliminated, but not the intakes themselves:

After some boring time all parts cleaned up. Some parts will benefit from replacements.

As with the Pegasus kits, it must be said that these series of racers can still be built, given time, skill and a lot of patience -as often seen on the Net- sometimes to fair results. 

The racer didn't have the side consoles. The seat is not accurate.  You can see a modified new seat from the spares and a cylinder to its right, which was in the actual racer. The inst. pan. can be adapted:

The fit of the spinner, prop and backplate was not good, to put it very mildly. I glued the spinner to the backplate, re-did the prop blade locations, will cut them off the axle after painting and glue them in. That way the spinner can be smooth too:

These are screengrabs from the Smithsonian. As you can see the racer cockpit has very little to do with the kit's rendition, or any other F8F. As I always say: it pays to do a little research and verify:

 The cockpit as photographed above belongs to the later all-yellow version of this racer. For the earlier white scheme it was maybe also white or grey. I will go for grey.

Friend and fellow modeler Michael D. just sent this very valuable link regarding refrigeration on this and other racers:

https://www.enginehistory.org/Accessories/EvapCooling/EvapCooling2.shtml

 The white metal landing gear legs provided are well molded and sturdy:

Here are some indications regarding the decals:

 The decal sheet on this kit (more than 20 years old and apparently too well-traveled) doesn't look good at all, so just in case -and so you know- during the failed 1968 speed record attempt, the plane was all white, with no marks other than a small red registration in italic font (that is "inclined") on the fuselage sides, that can easily be printed at home if needed. The plane finally broke the world speed record in 1969:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Bnx1gPeko-k

If you are building this kit, firstly, my condolences; secondly, regarding the cockpit interior: most modelers may not need to concern themselves too much about accuracy or detail, as the canopy is minuscule and not precisely a miracle of transparency. Of the few mods I made, nothing really can be seen. It's better perhaps to concentrate on fixing the various fit and surface issues.

Let's try to make a round opening of that:

 The black "firewall" to the right will need energetic reduction of its diameter to be able to fit inside the fuselage:

The modified cockpit, now at resembling the real thing better:

 The prop is painted white, the narrow band masked, then the tips painted red, and in turn masked to apply the medium blue:

Beware that the width of the solid band at the mouth of the fuselage is thicker on one side. To that thicker side you have to glue the round support. If you glue it to the narrow band side the fuselage will not close:

On an ill-fitting kit this system is a no-go from the beginning. I went through so many dry fitting sessions to make this work -with filing and sanding in the middle-  that I lost count:

This surely is among the most ill-fitting kits I ever built:

After a few hours of struggling, the fuselage halves could be joined:

And now the Karmans, also needing refining:

Time to work on the little vacuformed canopy. A bit at the time the surplus is trimmed back, testing as one goes. The edges of the opening -where it seats- are as undefined (not sharp, not crisp) as the rest the rest of the kit, so perhaps I will have to glue some flanges around the opening to help secure the transparency:

Prop. As a building strategy I try to complete what I can of the ancillaries (wheels, prop, canopy, etc.) while I wait for glue, paint or primer to set, so as not to be delayed by them at the end:

The stabs are added. Some preliminary work is done on the seams:

Milliput is used to fill the many wide gaps around the wing. The slot exhaust at the fuselage nose bottom is carved with an Olfa engraving tool:

The two models (the other is Pegasus' P-40Q) in progress. I feel more like a mason than a modeler, chiseling plastic away, grinding and polishing). Hours and hours invested, and yet so far from a good surface:

First coat of primer, and the work has just began:

A few corrections and the process of adjusting the vacuformed canopy to the fuselage began. You get unfortunately a single shot at it, as, unlike kinder manufacturers, you are provided with just the one canopy. You have to blend the surrounding area with the fuselage, easier said than done, as the very poor nature of all edges in this kit do not help much. Regarding details and surface finish, I reached a point where further interventions just don't do any good and actually mar other things, so I am stopping here on that area. The fact that the whole plane was white, even legs, bays and LG doors, should facilitate painting. All will be added before final painting as soon as I am done with this stage.

As I had to grind the cowl mouth to make it round augmenting is diameter, I glued from inside a styrene strip that was blended with the rest. This had the benefit of producing a more realistic, narrower gap to match photos of the real plane:

Photos show a sort of whitish band inside the canopy, possibly a plastic reinforcement. This is replicated with a decal strip:

The transparency is glued:

After some touch-ups, the landing gear is glued and a final coat of primer is applied. The leg metal parts do not fit well in the wells, and have to be tweaked a bit. Also a missing brace needs to be added:

White paint:

Well, as I suspected, the decals are actually confetti. Yes, I know you can try to rescue them with a coat of varnish and then cutting the individual subjects as close as possible, but you end up with a thick pancake decal, so thanks but no thanks:

As I feared this, concurrent with every aspect of this kit, I took some precautions:

As I am not sure how these home-made laser printer decals will behave regarding color density and such, if after I try them I am not happy, I will follow the path I mentioned before, representing the model as in the first speed record attempt, with just the registrations.

The area surrounding the exhausts is masked and painted a steel color to match photos:

Almost there:

The landing gear doors do not fit properly because their lower supports on the legs are too short (yet another problem to fix). Need to correct before adding them. This kit has a remarkable ratio of issues per square inch.

To be continued...