1/72 Northrop F-89D

by J.C. Bahr

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Let me refer you to my build article here on the F-89B from Hobbycraft for a general synopsis of what it's like to build a Hobbycraft/Academy series 1/72 Scorpion and what their faults are.  A lot of the things I did with the F-89B apply to this F-89D as well.

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Ever since seeing the 1/48 scale decals that Repliscale released years ago for the 59th FIS commanders bird, I have wanted to replicate this aircraft, but the decals unfortunately never got downscaled to the proper scale!  I waited for many years to see if anyone would deliver on these in the after-market world, but apparently Scorpions are going to stay ignored... which is a crying shame considering the amount of colorful schemes that the Scorpion family sported during their operational careers.  Lack of decals is probably the # 1 reason Scorpion kits are not seen built very often!

I finally decided to have a go at trying to create the markings for this one using my Epson Stylus C66 Dura-Brite printer and Testors clear and white decal film.  All of the markings that would be needed were created in Photoshop Elements and I set about the tedious process of replicating this bird.

In hind-sight, it's probably a good thing that the Repliscale sheet did not get downscaled as I have not found photographic evidence that fully supports their version.  A photo of this plane can be found inside the cover of the Squadron "In-Action" on the Scorpion, so this is what I based my markings on.

The 59th's bat & missile insignia for the rocket pods was printed on clear film and applied over the pods which were already painted yellow.  I then masked the yellow stripe behind the insignia and used liquid latex to mask the yellow edge around the insignia.

The stars on the nose and the rocket pods, the serial #'s on the tail and the blue & red striped rudder were all created and printed on clear decal film.  The rudder was painted white to provide the white-backing for the blue & red striped rudder decal.

This particular bird sported a segmented "U.S. AIR FORCE" on the nose that I've never seen in such a style on any other high-vis USAF aircraft, so this had to be created as well... as I could not find any existing decals in this style.

The white C on the vertical stab was printed on white decal film with a red-surround.  Once applied over the already red-painted vertical stab, I applied the decal and hand-painted the red up to the red surround.  Pollyscale railroad acrylic SP Scarlett paint was used for the Arctic red paint on this bird as it most closely seemed to match period color photos of the red used on these aircraft.

Floquil Old Silver enamel was used for the natural metal finish.

Once painting, final decals, landing gear and clear coats were completed, this bird was basically done.

A minor irritation with this model is that Hobbycraft did not include the under-wing fuel tanks that were commonly seen on F-89D's.  Haven't quite figured out how they could've overlooked this, but special thanks to Tom Teliczan of Hawaii for sending me a spare set from one of his Revell kits (Another reason to build the Revell kits instead of the Hobbycraft kits).

Again the nose-wheels on this one are scratch-built to more closely resemble the originals than the machined wheels that come with the kit.

J.C.

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Photos and text © by J.C. Bahr