Carrera Revell 75th Anniversary Northrop F-89 Scorpion Gift Set (05650) 1:48

75th Anniversary Northrop F-89 Scorpion (05650)

1:48 Carrera Revell

 

 

The United States Army Air Force issued a specification for a jet interceptor in August of 1945, the same month that WWII ended, and Northrop’s response was a design that started life with swept wings, reverting to straight wings due to the low-speed issues inherent to swept wing configurations.  The prototype first flew in 1948, winning the battle with the alternative Curtiss-Wright XP-87, as it was the fastest of the offerings, and by 1950 it was faster still, having more powerful afterburning engines in the belly nacelles, and a great deal of advanced equipment for the time, entering service toward the end of 1950.  As was typical of the time, fewer than 20 airframes were built before the -B variant replaced it with improved avionics due to the rapid pace of development in the early jet age, followed by the -C.  Four years later, the -D was the main variant in production, which improved radar and avionics further, and dropped cannon armament in favour of unguided rockets, which was part of the blinkered thinking of the era, expecting dogfighting to be a thing of the past in the missile-equipped world.  The Scorpion was an all-weather interceptor that was intended to defend the United States in case of incursion by an enemy, with their former WWII ally the Soviet Union at the top of the list.  The Scorpion’s name came from the high position of the tail and elevators, which was due to interference with the airflow from the wings, forcing relocation to an ‘elevated’ position.  The sharp nose adds to the aggressive look and this had been lengthened by around 3’ early in the evaluation process to accommodate six cannons and a radome to give it more destructive capability along the line of flight.  The addition of permanent tip-tanks extended the type’s range, and gave it a distinctive look.

 

The F-89B variant was a problem child, and was withdrawn in 1954, while the following -C variant was also afflicted with issues from introduction in 1951.  The -D was also first flown in 1951, demonstrating how fast things were changing, benefitting from experiences and fixing issues that had plagued the early variants, and became the definitive version, recommencing production that had stalled after the earlier problems in 1953. Almost 700 -Ds were built, skipping two variants that didn’t reach the production line, after which the F-89H was created that was easily distinguished from the earlier types by the greatly enlarged tip-tanks, which instead contained an array of weapons.  There were three-each of radar and infrared missiles, plus another forty-two unguided FFAR rockets, but the complexity of this arrangement led to delays that ended its career early in 1959, as it was outclassed by the new types that were reaching service.  The final variant was the -J, which was essentially a modified -D that had the capability of firing air-to-air nuclear rockets under the wings, firing one during a test in 1957 - what an insane concept!  It was also capable of mounting up to four Falcon missiles for offensive operations that didn’t require a mushroom cloud.

 

 

The Kit

This is a 75th Anniversary release of this 1990 tooling to celebrate the formation of the United States Air Force (USAF) as a separate force, although at time of writing it’s closer to 76 years.  The kit arrives in an over-sized top-opening box, and inside are four sprues of light grey/green styrene, a clear sprue, large decal sheet and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour, reusing the old black and white drawings that have been updated to the new style.  This is a kit from another era of modelling, but even though it has raised panel lines, it is still a well-detailed kit, with plenty of interest in the cockpit, landing gear bays, and throughout the usual areas of interest, with both raised and engraved features.  There aren’t a huge number of panel lines on each external surface, so anyone wanting to rescribe wouldn’t be scribing for too long, as there are only eight main parts to rescribe, plus the tip tanks.  Why Revell put the model in such a large box is a source of confusion though.  It’s not the worst example of box over-kill ever, but it is noticeable, mainly because of the relative weakness of the cardboard that makes the package a little bit too flexible for my liking.  That might not sound too serious, but you must bear in mind that if you intend to stash models on top of this box, it won’t take too much weight before collapsing.

 

As this is a gift set, it comes with a selection of acrylic paints in small “thumb pots”, a Revell No.2 paint brush, and a 12.5g bottle of Revell Contacta Professional glue, which is well-liked by many, partially due to the precision metal applicator needle that makes it easy and accurate to use, avoiding wasting glue in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the c…. complete fuselage, gluing the two halves together, and applying the nose cone to the forward end, dealing with the seams once the glue is cured.  It’s an unusual starting place, but the cockpit can be inserted from the underwing area once it is complete and painted, which is the very next task.  The pilot and radar operators have very different ejection seats, the pilot’s having a simple seat that is trapped between the two side frames with another at the rear that includes a simple head cushion.  The rear seat has an extended foot-rest moulded into the seat part, adding curved sides and a thicker rear frame at the rear, both seats having moulded-in belts to add some detail.  The cockpit tub has the side consoles moulded-in with raised instrument details moulded-in, and accepts the two seats, plus two instrument panels, one for each crew member, adding control column and throttle in the front, and a tiny clear dome in the rear cockpit.  The completed cockpit is then inserted from below, aligning the front instrument panel with the coaming moulded into the fuselage.  The front faces of the engines are inserted after it, moulded into a carrier to hold them in position, before closing the hole in the underside with an insert after cutting a small section from the rear if appropriate.  Once the glue for the insert has cured and any seams been dealt with, the exhausts are made from rear face of the engine  plus trunking, which slides into holes in the rear of the fuselage, then has C-shaped deflectors over the top, which were used to assist smoothing airflow over the tail, which had been a problem with the initial design.  An auxiliary intake is built from two halves and inserted into a slot in the port rear fuselage, and the intake lips are installed to the front, taking care to test fit and fettle to improve alignment as much as you can.  The nose gear bay is moulded into the lower insert, with detail in the roof, but none on the side walls due to limitations in standard injection moulding.  This is partly rectified by the bay side walls moulded into the bay doors, which slide down the sides of the bay and give the doors a firm connection to the fuselage.  A small clear light is popped into a recess just forward of the bay.  The gear leg is a single strut that is inserted into a U-shaped frame, with a retraction strut to the rear, spaced by a jack that gives it a strong triangular base that plugs into the roof of the nose bay.

 

 

 

The Scorpion’s wings are relatively short wide assemblies that are made from top and bottom halves, the latter having the gear bays moulded-in, which is really rather nice considering the age of the moulds, which are also very clean and relatively free from flash.  Each wing slots into its appropriate fuselage side on a substantial tab, with the instructions advising taping the wings to the correct dihedral, but a jig would be more effective, coupled with checking back to ensure nothing has moved.  The gear bays are filled by a straight strut with lateral retraction jack, vertical outer door, and the closed inner door, opening only for deployment/retraction and for maintenance.  This is repeated under the opposite wing, then four FFAR rockets are fitted onto the four pairs of carriers moulded into each wing, finishing with the two-part tip tanks that mate via the usual slot and tab method.  The elevators are a single part that attaches to the top of the flat lower fin section, trapped in place by the upper fin that has a long tab that passes through the elevators into the moulded-in portion of the fin.  Probes are fixed to each side of the fuselage around the intake area, then the windscreen is glued to the front of the cockpit cut-out, placing the canopy behind it, with the option of sliding it back to open it, or forward to portray it closed.

 

Finally, there is a clear rod that you can insert under the rear fuselage if you forgot to add enough weight to the nose during closure of the fuselage, for which the instructions recommend 20g, although a little more won’t hurt, within reason.

 

 

Markings

There are two decal options on the sheet, and it’s any colour you like as long as it’s bare metal.  They come from the post-war period where camouflage was no longer a priority, so the schemes were typically bright and with minimal paint over the exterior.  Some were painted grey, but the majority had colourful unit-markings at the extremities, with various flamboyant motifs such as lightning bolts and stars to differentiate their squadrons.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• F-89C Scorpion 51-5843, Montana Air National Guard, 186th Fighter-Interceptor Sqn., 120th Fighter Group, Great Falls International Airport, Montana, USA, May 1958
• F-89C Scorpion 50-746, 84th Fighter-Interceptor Sqn., Hamilton Air Force Base, California, USA, 1952

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

A surprisingly well-detailed rebox of this unusual early jet interceptor from the early part of the Cold War, which will doubtless appeal widely, and using the raised panel lines as a guide, re-scribing it shouldn't be a large undertaking.  It’s also the only kit available in this scale at time of writing, so qualifies as the best by default.

 

Highly recommended.

 

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