Convair XF-92A

Ben M Autor
I bought this primitive kit on ebay. I had it when I was a kid but never built it for some reason. The kit I bought is partial so I will have to scratch a few small parts.

The big thing is the choice of livery - the decals are for the white version, but hey they were printed in the 70's, so not much confidence in them. I've seen the XF-92A in white, in bare metal, and in fake Soviet markings as a "MIG-23" for the movie "Jet Pilot" by Howard Hughes. I've been unsuccessful at locating this movie online, but I do have pictures of a couple of stills showing the fake Soviet livery in black and white.

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Alex K
Hi Ben... I'll take my seat... and... I might be able to help with the movie... 😉

John
Cool subject! 👍 Watching with interest.

Robert Podkoński
Watching too! I love this plane! BTW, to the best of my knowledge, the plane did not appear in the final version of the movie... 😭
cda.pl/video/63827604a

Alex K
Robert is right... I "browsed" through the movie again and couldn't find a single shot - then I noticed what Wiki says: "Due to the lengthy delay in releasing the film, by the time it appeared in 1957, the XF-92A's role had been left on the cutting room floor."...

Torsten
Interesting object, I'll take a look

Bob Leader
Built the Hawk version in about 1958, so I;ll be following. Great early experimental jet!

Ben M Autor
Love it. The last kit I finished was a Hawk plated T-33A. Also built the Hawk T-6 Texan, Supermarine S-6b, and the Ryan STM. I built all those kits when I was a kid too, also built the plated F-104.

Ben M Autor
I just have no mojo right now. It's a very hard time of my life and I have little creative time.

Jennifer Franklin
Sorry to hear you are having a hard time. I hope things get better.

John
That stinks Ben. Keep your chin up. Nice thing about kits, they don't spoil.

Ben M Autor
I peeled the fuselage apart and I decided to try to improve the canopy fit as well as how it is secured within the fuselage.

Ben M Autor
I'm scared of the decal sheets from 1973. They do not look to be in great shape.

Jennifer Franklin
Decal sheets from 1973? Oh dear, can you buy replacement sheets?

Ben M Autor
Well despite coating the decals, they shattered 🙁

S M
Cool subject I somehow missed. Following! And good luck with the decals. Hopefully you find some solution.

John
I have never had luck with coating the decals. A set for a USAF Starfighter of the era might work to get decals at least close to scale.

Ben M Autor
Good tip, thank you.

Erik Leijdens
Cool subject Ben! Looks great already. Hope you'll get some new decals

Ben M Autor
Thanks, Eric. I'm on a waiting list for a guy who makes decals, I'll see how that goes, otherwise, as suggested, I'll get some decals from an F-104 or something.

Ben M Autor
I had new decals made here: www.stsdecals.com - so far so good. They are very thin and due to lack of skill I tend to fold them.

Ben M Autor
Lessons… somehow the new decals are missing the 2 in the usaf number ☹️. The aftermarket decals are extremely thin and easily distort and fold. I ended up using some original decals and two sheets of replacement decals. The sts decals can't be removed. When I had one distort terribly, I had to paint over it. The large sts decals also tend to get air bubbles under them. The blacks are sort of a dark green and the red is pale and not in register. But… I could not have done it without them.

Decals are always stressful for me for some reason so the wisdom of building a kit where literally every small detail is a decal… hmm.

Oh well. Now I get to work on fragile little antennas and more Microsol to try to get the decals to lay flat where they bubbled and folded and wrinkled. Whew! This has been a project..,

Robert Podkoński
Keep calm and carry on, Ben. You've done fantastic job so far!

S M
Decals seems good this far. I hope you find number 2s from somewhere.

Ben M Autor
I'm going to accept the #2 is missing and move on with the build

Robert Podkoński
I could send you the scan of the decal sheet from the Mach 2 (1/72) kit, Ben. It is just matter of enlarging and printing it on the clear decal sheet. PM me, if you wish.

Ben M Autor
I have a scan of the 1:48 sheet. The STS guy will want $25 to print it up. Not worth it - it's my fault for not catching it on the proofs he sent.

Robert Podkoński
If you have scan, you can print it by yourself (laser printer is optimal) on a clear decal sheet:
Clear Decal (Techmod 32014, 1:32)
and then you give it a coat or two of clear varnish, and done. I have prepared few custom decals in such a way and it works 😉

Ben M Autor
Interesting. I don't have a laser but I do have a HP inkjet that always seems to be out of ink. 😀 I'll give printing my own a try some time.

Ben M Autor
Calling it done!

Robert Podkoński
Cool! Congrats! (makes me want to assemble the 1/72 Mach 2 kit I have in my stash 😉 )

Ben M Autor
You should! Hopefully less of a decal fight than I had.

Robert Podkoński
I would not be so sure about that, Ben... It is a Mach 2 kit...

Ben M Autor
The kit only had like 10 parts and half of them were missing 😂. The decals from 1973 + the replacements being of a type I was unfamiliar with was the source of my troubles.

John
Congrats on finishing this one, sounds like it was a real bear to finish. Now on to a nice Tamiya that falls together to relax after all that "fun?"

Ben M Autor
You would think, but I have a couple more ancient struggles on the bench.

S M
Well finished! Congrats!

Torsten
Well done 😎

Casey Beckett
Far out - quite a challenge! -Never seen a Collect-Aire kit actually finished. Very cool

Ben M Autor
Not the best kit I've ever built 😂