ghodges Posted December 31, 2023 Report Share Posted December 31, 2023 Got this one in just under the wire for 2023! This is the 1/48 Monogram F-80C Shooting Star converted back to a P-80A and painted in my interpretation of the colors from the only b/w pic of Robin Olds "Scat-X" @1946/47. The conversion is extremely easy... you just have to add a landing light in the nose, move the pitot to the tail fin, add a radio mast to the bottom behind the nose wheel well, leave out the ejection seat (I used a P-38 seat), and reshape the rear of the canopy to eliminate the "tear-drop" (I vacked a new canopy to do this and also get around using the kit's separate canopy glass and frame). I did use a Black Box cockpit, though I installed the Monogram main IP in it. In hind sight, and if I ever do a gray P-80 again, I will not add the wash as it's too stark looking. But, what's done is done and finishing it did allow me to get my 21rst build in for this year! This shows the BB resin tub and the P-38 seat I used in place of an ejection seat. The resin IP is on the left and the Monogram IP I ended up using is on the right. I used sheet plastic strips to fortify the interior seams between the front and rear fuselage halves, and scracthbuilt the upper flap well structure using strip plastic. The rectangular piece is to fill the gap betwen the flaps across the fuselage bottom. This shows how it all fits together... The landing light was a piece of clear sprue with a hole drilled into its rear for the light. It was super glued in place and the sanded and polished to shape. I long ago glued together an F-80 canopy frame and the kit glass together to make a vacuform mold. This gives me a clear canopy I can slide the kit canopy frame under to detail it. For this P-80A I also sanded the rear of the mold to a point. And here's the rest of the finished pics.... This is the only known pic of the aircraft. The nose and tail fin color looks to be lighter than the insignia blue star/bar, yet they do not match the black code letters, so I went with red. The center of the nose lettering appears somewhat close to those trim colors, so I elected to go with red there also. The lettering outline is clearly a lighter color, but not as bright as the white on the insignia so I went with yellow. However, these are just my guesses based on my interpretation as well as a little common sense as to what colors were commonly used for such nose art. Comments, critiques, and questions welcome as always! Gil 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyKing Posted December 31, 2023 Report Share Posted December 31, 2023 Beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmarc Posted December 31, 2023 Report Share Posted December 31, 2023 LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLooking great and well done , Way to go SIR and thank you for sharing it with us, it's quite appreciated ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stikpusher Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 Very nice work! IIRC, I had read somewhere that the gray P-80’s were finished with having panel lines puttied, sanded smooth, and sealed with the paint scheme for maximum speed performance. What paint did you use for the gray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted January 4 Author Report Share Posted January 4 I know the gray "modified" P-80R had the lines filled and smoothed they way you described (along with the other speed mods) in order to help it set the records it did, but I'm not sure about the production model P-80As. However, since they did that sort of thing on the production Mustang wings at that time, Lockheed may have indeed picked up that idea and went with it on the Shooting Star. Whether they did or not, the panel line wash did not work like it does on most models and detracts from the finish. Although I used a water based wash, and have since removed as much as possible, it's still there even if only with half of the intensity as before. This is a case where my regular "build habits" kept me from considering whether or not I should accent the panel lines and I now believe the "clean" look would have been much more pleasing to the eye. In any case, it's taught me something and still fills a niche in my collection of Robin Olds aircraft. Thanks for the critique! Cheers! Gil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMF211 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 WOW! That is nice!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stikpusher Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 I found this tidbit regarding the putty on the "This Day in Aviation" website/blog Several hundred of the early production P-80 Shooting stars had all of their surface seams filled, and the airplanes were primed and painted. Although this process added 60 pounds (27.2 kilograms) to the empty weight, the decrease in drag allowed a 10 mile per hour (16 kilometers per hour) increase in top speed. The painted surface was difficult to maintain in the field and the process was discontinued. I will have to remember it when I tackle the Hobbyboss P-80A in my stash one of these days... 🤔 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley25mm Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 That’s one awesome build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlander Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 Really nice. I agree with your read of the wash; I'll keep it in my stolen experience tool kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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