Convair XF-92A

Ben M
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
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
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
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
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
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
Good tip, thank you.

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

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