The starting point
for this build was the tried and somewhat true Hasegawa Viking. A old
squadron buddy of mine contacted me and asked me to build him a VS-24 Viking of
mid 80's vintage, like we used to fly back in the day. Most USN aviation
enthusiasts are familiar with the Viking's basic role as a carrier based
submarine hunter and medium range patrol aircraft, and its subsequent
mid 90's conversion to a mission tanker to support the Navy's thirsty F-18
fleet. Leaving commentary on the wisdom of that decision aside, I will
instead focus on the build itself.
The kit is an
older mold from the late 70's, and his been released many times with different
decals. It features mostly raised surface detail, with control
surfaces and a couple of large vents engraved. The boxing I used featured
a nice painting of an aircraft from VS-28 in a mid 80's scheme, a good
starting point for a Viking of this period.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Construction is a bit
unusual. The Viking's fuselage is square, so in addition to the
normal fuselage halves, there are two sections, forward and aft of the
bomb bays, that have to be glued in. Care should be taken in
their alignment. Outline and planform are correct, but the kit does
have some inaccuracies. There is molded gridding on the top of the
wing. This just does not exist on the real aircraft and should be
sanded off. The pod mounted engines also represent a challenge.
For some reason Hasegawa engineered the nacelles with a tapered
intake lip which wraps around and inside of the engine intake trunk.
The real engines have straight intakes. I sanded a good
bit off of the inside of the lips in order to correct them. It
is also a hassle to eliminate the assembly seams inside of the
intakes. You have to assemble the nacelle halves, fix the
seams, set the fan blades in the nacelles, then attach the nacelles
to the engine bodies. This is difficult because the fan
locating guides and engine placement guides have been removed in order to
fix the seams. This kit cries out for a set of aftermarket
seamless intakes.
The paint scheme is classic light
gull gray over white. Airbrushing was accomplished with Model Master
enamels. I used a Paasche H for large area work, and an H & S Infinity
for feathered edges. There are numerous decals which take a good bit
of time to apply accurately. I used the kit decals except for a few
numbers, USS Nimitz, the stylized AJ on the tail, and the small dutycat.
Weapons were Mk-82 slicks, which came with the kit, and were carried by the
Viking on occasion. Clearcoat was Testors Acryl thinned with Tamiya thinner.
Thanks for looking!
Gil Gregg
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