Heller 1/72 F-94B Starfire

HELLER 1:72 LOCKHEED F-94B STARFIRE

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: 17 January 2003

Kit Details:

Heller Humbrol #80302 - 1:72 Lockheed F-94B Starfire

Aircraft History:

The P-80 Shooting Star entered service too late to be part of World War II and was the USAAF's first operational jet fighter. In 1948 (or thereabouts) the designation changed from P for Pursuit to F for Fighter, so the Shooting Star became known as the F-80. The trainer variant of the F-80 was the TF-80C based on the F-80C fighter variant, which was also known as the T-33A.

What evolved from the TF-80C was a two-seat all-weather fighter, with the forward fuselage lengthened to house APG-32 radar and four less than formidable 5" guns. Two of these aircraft were modified to serve as YF-94 prototypes and a contract was awarded for 109 F-94A's which entered service in May 1950. The 19th airframe produced was modified as the YF-94B which essentially had upgraded internal equipment and centre mounted wing tip 250 gal tanks, and the type entered service almost a year later with 355 F-94B's produced. These two were the initial "Starfire" models that were gradually phased out by mid-1954 and the type also served in the Korean conflict. Although the name 'Starfire' was actually devised on the F-94C model whereas earlier F-94's were still considered Shooting Star variants.

In the initial stages of its deployment to the Korean war the F-94 was not allowed to fly over enemy territory due to its sensitive radar equipment. When these rules were relaxed in 1953 an F-94B shot down a Russian built Lavochkin La-9 over Korean skies. Not only was this the first combat kill in an F-94 but it was also a history making incident in that it was the first time that an opposing aircraft was destroyed solely on instruments. F-94B's claimed several MiG kills during the conflict.

The Kit:

The metallic grey molded parts come on three sprues inside a plastic bag thar also contains the decal sheet and clear sprue. There are 38 soft but solid injection molded plastic with raised panel lines and fine rivets, and etched control surfaces. There's virtually no flash to speak of, but there are a few ejector pin marks (thankfully in areas unlikely to be seen), and some sink holes, one nasty one on the radar scope between the crew members. The detail is not a strongpoint of the kit with simplistic moldings for the undercarriage and no detail in any of the wheel bays. First impressions suggest that this kit should be very simple and quick to put together. The three clear parts are quite clear and of medium thickness, but the one piece canopy had a nasty mark near the rear, that had to be removed. The decal sheet stuck out like dogs balls on this kit, it is horrible looking, and more on that further down! The other thing that stuck out like the proverbial were the nose bay doors, which were molded onto the fuselage in the open position. I'm not sure if this is an original Heller kit, as I know Emhar released the F-94 in their range (at least an F-94C anyway).

Instructions:

There are two sheets in the box, but the single A3 sheet actually forms the instructions. On one side are the four easy to follow instruction steps which leave little in the way of misinterpretation. One point to note is that there are a lot of smaller numbers included such as "60/7003"; "33/7010"; "56/7008" and no ready explanation as to what these mean. These point to many areas of the aircraft, and most notably the external parts of the aircraft which means they are painting information. The first number is the Humbrol number and the second Heller, which you can cross reference on the second sheet, more on that in a moment. In the left column there is a multi-lingual set of boxes with a very brief history of the aircraft and (questionable?!) basic specifications such as length, span etc, which do not precisely match any other specs on the F-94B I have in my reference library. The instruction sheet provides a symbol that nose weight is needed and that in Step four the underwing USAF decal needs to be applied to the model before fitting the wing mounted cannon pod which covers it. Only half of the rear side of the instruction sheet is used which shows the four view markings and decal diagram for the one aircraft option produced from the kit.

The second sheet in the box is a double sided A4 sheet, which is essentially an information for the modeller sheet. There's some general modelling advice, explanation of all the symbols used in the instructions and perhaps the most useful aspect of the kit, a paint chart which lists Heller paint number and the matching Humbrol paint number(s) and name(s), with the plural denoting that some Heller numbers are achieved by mixing Humbrol paints together. Unfortunately this is an old kit and many of the Humbrol numbers have been deleted from their range, so you may need to do some further digging to get the required mixes to match the Heller (and Humbrol!) paint numbers quoted.

Construction:

Work started in the fairly spartan cockpit. The ejection seats are plain, but reasonable replicas, and are inserted into a long bathtub piece, with a bulkhead doubling up as the rear navigator's radar scope, separating the two cockpits. The scope has a nasty sink hole, which is thankfully not seen as it is on the underside of the part. A control stick for the pilot and main instrument panel make up the rest of the cockpit. Both the side consoles on the bathtub (for both crew) and the main instrument panel have nicely scribed and raised detail which can be picked out with a dry brush. True Details have released an internal set for the F-94C (Emhar) kit, so this could be a possibility for using in this kit? Anyway, the instructions are confusing in whether to paint the cockpit Mid Green (supposedly Interior Green) or Black. Not much reference could be found on the cockpit interior so I went with my gut instinct on Interior Green. A small HUD from the clear sprue is added later in the construction.

Before joining the fuselage halves together the cockpit must be attached to the top of the separate nose wheel bay and the nosewheel installed into the bay. All this fits together quite well and is less complicated than it sounds. The vertically split simplistic jet pipe is also installed with a small locating pin on one side intended so it fits one way, with the interior painted matt black and the exterior gun metal. I also painted the interior of the fuselage black where the pipe sits. The intake plates/trunking are also added in this step, which is simply just boxing in the intake area, and quite basic. The rear wall was painted black and the interior of the intake area, aluminium. As I suddenly realised while test fitting the intakes, that its worth noting that the intake trunks should be installed before the cockpit, otherwise you will have problems trying to get them in! They do fit well but I found that you needed to gently coax them into their intended resting place. The cockpit tub can then be installed and the fuselage halves affixed together, which go together very well. As with most 70's style of kits, the join lines needed smoothing out being very careful not to remove too much of the raised surface detail.

As I am predominantly a wheels-up modeller, the gear doors for the open nose bay were removed from the fuselage halves with blunt nose sprue cutters then the cut was sanded and smoothed over with the half doors then placed in the cavity to give the effect of closed gear doors. Filler was needed to blend in the join, but it came out okay in the end. The other option would be to use plasticard.

The main gear doors fit very well, just a quick once over with the blade to remove any mold lines and take your time here, as the bays are made up of some three doors each, so it is worth getting the fit right. Test fitting will reveal just a slight trim here and there. The speed brakes can be displayed in the open position, and I think this is what the kit intends you to do, as they will not fit without some surgery to remove the locating lugs. Even then the fit is not flush and a bit of filling and sanding is needed.

The main wings come in a single underwing piece and two upper halves, with wingtip tank halves molded integrally with their wing part. You will need to open the holes in the underwing if you wish to affix the wing mounted gun pods. I sub assembled the wings and then added the sub assembly to the fuselage and it is a very snug fit, and only the real perfectionist in me decided filler was needed at the roots. The tailplanes also fit very well, but pay attention to the part numbers as they are intended only to go on one way. The gun pods can be installed if you wish, as I did, and again it pays to be aware of how straight they are when affixing to the wing, since they are very easy to coax off-centre. But be aware that the USAF decal should be applied first to the under port wing section and the gun pod over the top, as it says to in the instructions.

Although the instructions and boxart do not, some photos suggest a darker colour on the insides of the wing tip tanks upper areas, which I am pretty sure are not shadows, so I suspect they were painted matt black as an anti-glare means for the crew. The aircraft I was working on had red wing outer wing panels and rear fuselage, but I added the anti-glare part anyway. The anti glare panel in front of the cockpit is Army Green (Humbrol) according to the Instructions but I thought Olive Drab was more accurate so applied this. But more on painting in the colour schemes below since the model received a primer first.

Overall I must say for an older statesman, this kit was exceptionally easy to whack together with only a small amount of filler used in the usual areas. A weekend project for sure!

Colour Schemes:

The kit provides for only one colour scheme to be built out of the box which is a USAF F-94B, 59th FIS, based in Iceland, 1954. It is natural metal overall with olive green anti glare panel in front of the cockpit, red outer wing panels and rear fuselage section, and yellow stripes along the fuselage, which is of course the model depicted on the boxart. As is the normal practice of mine when finishing an aircraft in natural metal, an undercoat of matt grey primer was applied which helped in spotting any blemishes in the plastic that could be dealt with before the Polished Aluminium metalcote was painted over it. I also used Metalcoate Matt Aluminium, silver and normal super enamel aluminium to help provide some subtle changes in the finish with different panels. The red panels were painted in gloss red.

Decals:

My first thought of these was Erggh! And I should have heeded that thought and got some aftermarket stuff. The USAF code, insignia and tail fin serial are all surrounded by a silver box or border, obviously to show the effect that you can see on the boxart in matching the painted natural metal areas nearby by having a box, when placed on the bright red panels. The backing sheet is very glossy, adding to the yucky effect I think, but the decals themselves are more matt with very little carrier film over them. There is absolutely no stencilling provided. Superscale provide at least one decal sheet I believe for the F-94B, not sure if you will find one around nowadays, but another option nonetheless. In any event I decided to apply the kit decals and they are thin and need very little soaking time. They go onto the model quite well but are too easy to move around and are thus, easy to rip apart. The decals are quite brittle, probably due to their age, and will not take much to break. With care though they will stay in tact without any problems. With and without decal setting solution on the gloss red they would not bed down very well on the model and had to be left to dry before sealing in with a gloss coat afterward which did not fully hide the carrier film. It pays to be absolutely spot on with your red panels because the USAF insignia on the fuselage are supposed to be two-thirds on the red part and a third on the natural metal (since obviously there is no silver border around that one third). The yellow fuselage stripes are too large in length and will encroach on the rear fuselage where either the red fuselage band or the red painted rear part starts. Unfortunately the silver borders and boxes are no where near the natural metal on the fuselage. It may pay to paint the whole aircraft natural metal, use masking tape to mask the size of the decal and put it over the portion where the decal will go, and paint the red around the mask. Remove the mask, cut the decal to size, minus carrier film and the silver border (which means the individual USAF lettering) and apply it to that part of the model. But good luck with those brittle decals. My model won't be one for any competitions, the difference in "silver" can be seen, and in hindsight, perhaps investing in some aftermarket decals would have been better.

Accuracy:

I had a few problems getting the dimensions of the real F-94B aircraft, since almost all the several sources I consulted disagreed with each other. Some quoted "F-94 Starfire" and since the F-94C is a bit bigger than the F-94B with its own upgraded airframe and avionics, I assumed that these were related to that variant. In the end I went with my latest reference information, which is the "World Aircraft Information Files" which matched the initial dimensions I took from my normal source of information, which is an encyclopaedia of fighters, and these list the F-94B with a length of 12.22 m and span of 11.43 m. In 1/72 this should thus be 16.97 cm and 15.875 cm respectively. The model comes out at more than a centimetre overscale in both areas at 18.2 cm and 17.0 cm respectively. It is disappointing to have a model so out of scale, but otherwise, it seems okay in profile. I'm not too certain about the profile of the tailplanes being correct, and the gun troughs are missing from the nose area (there are some lines on the plastic you could drill out), and there is also the absence of a small scoop under the belly and the pitot tube under the forward fuselage.

As a sidenote, for the C variant (L 13.56m and S 11.38 m), the dimensions above also makes it half a centimetre out as well as out of proportion, which suggests Heller (or whoever produced the original molds - Emhar?) may have decided on one mold for both variants, and put the dimensions in between the two?!

Overall Recommendation:

The model may well be old in the tooth now, and possibly of Emhar vintage, but it is certainly one that could be described as the ultimate weekend project for those interested in this era of jet fighters. The kit is very simple to build and would be in the scope of the novice (with open speed brakes!) so certainly a winner on that side of things. The accuracy leaves a little to be desired but the basic profile and shapes are there and it's a fond way of adding an F-94B to the cabinet. Recommended for all but those looking for a definitive F-94B.

web hosting • domain names • video sharing
free online games • photo sharing
free blog • short URLs