The F-96B has just been finished and waits for its photo session, but - inspired by mat's P-80E - I'll try a similar stunt because I have suitable ingredients at hand, in the form of a Heller T-33 and in my case a pair of swept wings from a Heller Saab J29E. I even have a spare P-80 canopy, so the occasion is good to glue all this together.

I have also already settled on the operator: the young German Bundesluftwaffe, which received its first jets from American stock in 1957. This will, once more, result in an NMF aircraft, but with the different markings and some colorful highlighty this might look quite attractive. We'll see.

Another F-80E ! 

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One of the several options I had i mind for my F-80E was in fact a plane in the first operational unit of the Bundesluftwaffe: JaBoG 31 which was activated on 1. october 1957 at Büchel AB.
But now I'll just settle for one of my many other options. Dizzyfugu, You have actually made my choice much easier 

Pls. do not limit yourself through my plans! I just adopted your F-80E designation because my build will look very similar to yours, and the story of its poptential development from the F-80C with the longer fuselage from the T-33 with swept wings and an afterburner engine is just too plausible to be ignored and interpreted more than once. 

Don't worry - I do not fell limited by your plans. I had about 4-5 different options in mind. The Bundesluftwaffe was one of them, and for a long time my number one choice (I have decals for the JaBoG 31 squadron shield). But like you, I realised, that being in the 1950's it would mean natural metal - and not much else. So the JaBoG 31 decals will now be returned to the my dark caves of oblivion and I'll go down another lane.
Looking forward to follow your build,

Work started yesterday, with heavy modifications and a donor parts safari. As already mentioned, I use a Heller T-33 hull and Matchbox J29 wings, but the rest was less clear. First challenge: the cockpit. The OOB parts already went into the F-96B, and I eventually found an Italeri F4U tub with its dsahboard that could be trimmed down to fit into the front seat's position above the front landing gear well. A rear bulkhead was added, as well as a fairing to cover the rear seat, which will be PSRed over later. Canopy will be from an Airfix F-80 and should be easy to integrate later.


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The T-33 wings were already clipped down to the connection fuselage part, but this will come later. For an afterburner the rear fuselage section under the stabilizers was cut away and I try to fit the leftover tail section from the Italeri RF-84F into that opening. I'll probably also change the fin - either a leftover piece from an Emhar F-94, with a fin fillet, or a swept replacement (maybe from the RF-84F, too, just reduced in height). The swept stabilizers that match the Tunnan wings will come from a Hobby Boss F-86F.

At the moment I try to close the fuselage. because I need this basis for all further attachments.

This already sounds pretty damn cool Dizzy 🙂

More great progress. Fuselage was "closed" yesterday and the nose section with lead (it's separate on the Heller T-33 because the kit offers an optional camera nose) was added. Afterburner tail pipe was tailored to fit into an opening under the T-33's stabilizer attachment points, which will be retained because the area around them is so characteristc for the F-80. The ventral plate with the main landing gear wells was mounted, too, and dry-fitting the Saab 29 wings looks VERY promising. Exact position tbd, this will depend on the tail, which was added next, because I will have to cut landing gear wells into the wings to make them fit onto the fuselage.
I also checked for potential wing tip tank donors, and I will remove the dog teeth on the late Tunnan's wings, even though I will retain the small LERXs.
Drilled holes into the nose for heavier armament (4x 20 mm cannon).


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

For the fin I settled on the shortened F-84F tail, and it looks great; together with the slender F-86 stabilizers (which will retain the Sabre's slight dihedral position on the hull) this is a great combo. It has again a slight Soviet touch, I cannot help it?

The rear cockpit opening was also already filled with putty over the styrene sheet cover and PSR all over has started, too. The Heller T-33 has dubious fit and some poor sinkholes. Just as in mat's F-80E build there will probably not much left of the original raised panel lines structure. Hope I get the upper fuselage even and smooth today, so that I can start to blend the canopy (Airfix F-80) into it. This thing looks really good! 

I will also add a display adapter in the belly for later in-flight pics, the tail section will probably not be robust enough to carry the model's overall weight.

Modified and added the wings - and the aircraft looks like a 1:100 Saab 32 (or a juvenile version of it) now! 

  

About to do finishing touches and prepare the first coat of paint. Quickly added wing tip tanks to modify the look, and it helped. I also cut down the wing span a little because the wings looked very dominant with the tip tanks. Main landing gear was mounted, too, I had to improvise a little to elongate it slightly (the J29 are deeped than the original T-33 parts) and scratch parts of the covers, because they were missing in the donor kit. No rocket science, though.

Pictures - Please

Patience, pls. The F-96B will be finished/posted first (photo session has been finished, editing tbd), but I'll update this thread therafter.

Painting has started, and the overall coat with silver revealed some unexpected trouble around the windscreen - the paint reacted with the Clearfix I used (instead of the usual white glue) to mount the clear part, so I have to do some more PSR on the already painted/primed model. Has a very French look at the moment, but this will change with some colorful highlights in RAL 3000 (Feuerrot, a tone frequently used on early Luftwaffe airfcraft) and probably light blue, the color of the squadron within the unit. Those very early Luftwaffe machines had pretty "dry" liveries, and I'll try to liven things up a little.


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

On popular demand, a WiP shot for comparison purposes. 


1:72 Lockheed P-80E 'Shooting Star', aircraft 'BB-124' of WaSLw (Waffenschule Luftwaffe) 10, Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe; Fliegerhorst Oldenburg, 1958 (What-if/Kitbashing) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

More progress in the meantime; detail painting started, including an anti-glare panel in Gelboliv (authentic Bundeswehr-style...), bright light blue highlights on nose and fin, and the tip tanks were painted black in the inside half and Feuerrot on the outside (seen on a contemporary Luftwaffe T-33 trainer). I also did some panel post-shading with various silver tones (to compensate for the lost panel lines, looks very good), the landing gear wells became yellowish green, and I applied an overall black ink washing. More panel shading to follow, then the decals.
I will also give the F-80E a pair of streamlined pods with unguided air-to-air missiles - these weapons were not used by the Luftwaffe, but they fit thematically and I found a proper pair of pods with pylons (from a Matchbox Mystère IV).

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on May 01, 2023, 05:37:25 AMOn popular demand, a WiP shot for comparison purposes. 


Meanwhile... by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Looks great. The tail is very Ilyushin Il-28ish