Subject: Re: RarePlane 1/72 Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "claudio luchina" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 19:32:55 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: claudio luchina 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 4:47 PM
  Subject: RarePlane 1/72 Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket

  Gallery Template #05

  "RarePlane 1/72 Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket" 

  by "Gabriel Stern"
  --------------------

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  Always looking at the practical side of things, today we will review a vacuformed kit that you most likely won't be able to acquire, since it's now long out of production and probably won't emerge in any of the virtual universes where humanity stubbornly persists in exchanging mostly useless goods with a commendable passion otherwise lacking in other aspects of their real life and now I'll finish the sentence before you pass out.
    A while ago I turned my modeling attention to two periods of aviation history that are often ignored or not strongly represented: pioneers and golden age. But today we will make an exception given two factors: the prototype nature of the beast and the irresistible lines of the design.
    The Skyrocket, first flown on April 1st 1940, is not unknown to modelers; so suffice to say that the design evolved in a series of prototypes with ever-growing noses, a sort of "Pinocchio effect" some times likely to develop in government environments.
   The Skyrocket had a Comic-born close relative, the Blackhawk, with many attractive liveries; but the chrome-yellow/metal scheme of the prototype was hard to dismiss.

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  A real jewel, the RarePlane's 1/72 Grumman Skyrocket kit has such well detailed parts that equals or surpasses many injection cousins. The skills and care put into the master of this vac are amazing.
    It comes -well, used to come anyway- with metal parts (landing gear, props), vac canopy and decals, plus illustrated instructions; sort of a paradigm of the vacuformed model kit.
  It is clear that somewhere in the evolution of model kits, nature (human nature, that is) discarded wonderful options in order to stick to more mediocre, poorly fitting, scarcely detailed subjects, save some honorable exceptions. It makes you wonder about other evolutionary choices.
  Nevertheless, the kit has its minor faults, more due to the media than to the lack of care.
  Halved parts require some adjustments in order to match each other, some very minor flaws on the surface have to be corrected and if joined as they are the wing upper and lower halves will render an oval profile for the engine cowls support, which is not the case. The fuselage/wing joint towards the back, where the fillet is, has to be filled, since it leaves a void area.
    The cockpit is provided with a floor, seat and instrument panel, basic but not bad at all. I scratched some detail for the cockpit sides. Head rest and coaming are molded in the fuselage. Some areas of the kit, like the wheel bays and the above-mentioned aft wing joint can be improved if desired. I added some structure to the wells and had to pack-up the wing leading edges and the engine fairings joints, either because there was a minor design flaw or an over-enthusiastic sanding. The cowls were, as is often the case with vacs, a bit smashed at the front, where the plastic is stretched to a thin wafer. Application of epoxy from behind filling the affected areas cured the problem, allowing for later drilling and sanding. Same goes for the aft part of the wheel wells fairings. I stayed with the provided engines, as they were acceptable.     Again, as it is often the case, gluing, filling, filing and sanding tends to affect the detail of surrounding areas. Looking at the finished model in the dark usually improves the results.

          
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  The time-honored techniques for building vac models are pretty much known -although seldom followed, used or applied- so I won't repeat here what you can find -and shamelessly forget- elsewhere. I'll just say that it helps to separate the parts from the backing sheet before gluing. Oh, by the way, all the mistakes you can see in the photos have been already corrected :-)

  Bibliography:
  -Grumman XF5F-1 & XP-50 Skyrocket, by D. Lucabaugh and B. Martin
  -The Zen Art of Not Loosing Your Marbles Whilst Building Vacuformed Kits, by Peperino Pomoro (this one is probably apocryphal)

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  Photos and text © by "Gabriel Stern"

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