Convair F-106B Delta Dart
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Kit Build
If you were to ask a group of modellers their opinion regarding Trumpeter kits you would end up with a very mixed reaction. Some love them while others loathe them. The reasons for this put simply are questionable accuracy, overly complex or indeed overly simplified. To counter this you can argue those points with very detailed, well produced, well-fitting etc. Every now and then a new kit appears from them that seems to tick all the boxes and that is the case here with the F-106B Delta Dart. Having already produced the single seat version to a very high standard we now have a two-seater to go with it. I admit that I’ve never really been that interested in the Century series jets but after seeing a build of the F-106A by our own Steve Evans it looked like a really nice kit so When the opportunity came up to build the B version I jumped on it. On opening the box with its very attractive artwork we are presented with nine sprues of well moulded and detailed parts with a further two sprues for the transparencies. Respectively these contain over 190 Grey and 11 clear parts. To complement these there is a photo-etched Brass fret of 25 parts. The instructions are typical Trumpeter covering fourteen pages with a separate full colour paint and decal guide sheet for the two options provided. Decals can be another stumbling block for this manufacturer but they would appear to have done a good job with this one. They are well printed with good colour and register but just as important the sizing is pretty much spot on too. In service with the Air National Guard these aircraft didn’t vary much in the way of schemes, ok its Air Defence Grey or nothing. To counter this the markings they carried were quite bold, in this case for the New Jersey or Florida ANG wings. It all looks good in the box so I had better tell you how well it builds!
Construction
After a quick wash I cut the main airframe parts from the sprues and reached for the masking tape to have a quick look at how well it all fits together. On first impressions I have to say very well, I wouldn’t be needing much filler for this one. The other thing that struck me was the sheer size of the aircraft. Even in 1/48th scale this is quite a big model at around seventeen inches in length. I now took the time to have a look through the instructions so I could plan the build and I was pleased to see that there is plenty in the way of detail where it is needed. There is no time consuming complete but hidden forever internal stuff to worry about. Diving in you start with the ejector seats which are pretty good representations of the Weber seats fitted to the real thing. The photo-etch seat belts are a touch stiff but are fine once they had been annealed. The cockpit tub is nicely detailed with two part joysticks and separate throttle boxes. The side consoles and instrument panels have excellent raised detail with the option of using the decals supplied. The next step is the nose gear bay and leg. To make life easier it was better to leave the nose undercarriage leg off until much later in the build. Ok, so I didn’t snap it off during the build! Fortunately this is quite easy as the leg is separated into two parts already. The internal sub-assemblies continue with a full length jet pipe and the internal weapons bay. Jumping ahead slightly the main undercarriage gear bay was put together ready for paint. With a pile of interior parts prepared it was time for some paint. The basic colours are given using the Gunze-Sangyo range so for detail work you will need to hit the references. The first colour to go on was some H317 Grey FS 36231 for the cockpit tub, seats and the cockpit side walls. The side consoles, instrument panels and sidewall details were picked out with the appropriate Games Workshop/Citadel acrylics. The decals for the instrument panels were used but I cut them down so that only the dials were left. The switches etc. were picked out with a Silver pencil with a few spots of colour here and there. The gear bays and weapons bay were next with a coat of MrHobby 351 FS34151 Zinc-Chromate Green. When that was dry they were given a dark wash to add some depth to the detail. Once again some details were carefully with the paint brushes. The last internal parts for some paint were the jet pipe which were sprayed H18 Steel. The cockpit, nose gear bay, weapons bay and jet pipe can all be fixed into the fuselage halves now and the fuselage closed up. The intakes are added now but before fixing them in place the interiors were painted. These were sealed off with blocks of foam to protect the paintwork. A few spots of MrSurfacer blended them into the fuselage nicely. The main undercarriage bay was fixed into the lower wing section not forgetting to drill out the holes for the wing pylons. This is then added to the fuselage with the upper wings fitted afterwards for such long seams the fit here is very good. A few more bits and pieces are added to the airframe now. The heat exchanger outlet, flaps and ailerons which are dropped by the way start to fill in some of the gaps. At the base of the tail-fin there is the air brake assembly and you have the option of open or closed here. I went for open so the parts were cleaned up now but left aside with the undercarriage doors etc. for later installation. The next couple of steps mostly deal with the canopy and its actuators so I skipped past these for now. In fact I worked my way through the instructions adding the last few bits and pieces needed before I could start thinking about some paint. The first job here was to mask up all the internal bays and the cockpit. All the doors were mounted on a board and then I found a piece of tube that fitted nicely into the jet pipe to support the airframe. With the compressor fired up a coat of H12 went on to the Radome and anti-glare panel. When that had dried it was masked up with Tamiya tape. I spent some time looking through images of the real thing to get a feel for the overall paint scheme. It was fairly obvious that whilst in service with the National Guard they were very well looked after so very little in the way of shading, fading or weathering on this one. With this in mind on went a coat of H61 IJN Grey which is a pretty good match for Air Defence Command Grey. A few touches of colour here and there were picked out on the intakes and exhaust outlets before the whole airframe was given a coat of gloss to seal it all and prepare for the decals. I decided to go with the Florida ANG option as I thought the Blue markings on the tail and drop tanks went well with the overall Grey finish. Armed with some Micro Set/Sol solutions I started with the larger decals. Even though some like the U.S. Air force text on the fuselage are quite long they went on without any problems. So, top marks to Trumpeter for the decals. Once decals had set and dried a wash of Grey ink was applied to make the engraved detail stand out. Usually at this point I’d be saying “All that’s left to do is add all the delicate parts to complete the build”. It’s not that simple I’m afraid as in this case there is still a lot to go on! I started with the centre piece of the underside, the weapons bay. Into here you need to add not only the weapons but the retraction jacks for the doors and the trapezoid mounts for the AIM-4 Falcon missiles as well. Tucked away in the rear half of the bay is a single large missile. This turned out to be a bit of a first for me as the Genie air to air missile is a nuclear weapon and it’s the first time I have ever fitted an atomic weapon to a model. At first glance all this looks fairly complex in there but if you take your time it all goes in without any drama. In the same way the undercarriage legs and doors are just as detailed and sturdy enough to support the finished model. The whole model was given a coat of Vallejo satin clear now to seal it all and even out the various finishes. The seats were dropped in and the canopy attached now leaving me with the pitot, lights and ariels to fit. Amongst the numerous items sent to us for review from Aires was a set of antennas for this model from their Quickboost range. All the relevant blade ariels were included with the kit but the Aires ones are a little more refined so these were duly fitted. The last touch was the inch and a half of pitot tube to finish the model.
Conclusion
Now it’s finished I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed building this model. The fit of parts, amount of detail where you need it and quality of the decals are all top notch. Where value for money is concerned it’s about right with plenty in the box to keep you busy and you do end up with a big model on the shelf. As I said at the start, Trumpeter can be a bit hit or miss at times but with this one they definitely have got it right. Highly recommended then, well done Trumpeter.
Our thanks to Pocketbond Ltd/Bachmann Europe for the review sample.
Paints
Tamiya acrylic
X11 Chrome Silver
X19 Smoke
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Colour
H1 White
H2 Black
H8 Silver
H13 Red
H61 IJN Grey
H317 Grey FS36231
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Colour
351 Zinc Chromate Green
Games Workshop/Citadel
Chainmail
Boltgun Metal
Vallejo Satin acrylic varnish
NOTE: My apologies to Alan and all readers for not getting this visible on the site sooner, my mistake! - Editor
If you were to ask a group of modellers their opinion regarding Trumpeter kits you would end up with a very mixed reaction. Some love them while others loathe them. The reasons for this put simply are questionable accuracy, overly complex or indeed overly simplified. To counter this you can argue those points with very detailed, well produced, well-fitting etc. Every now and then a new kit appears from them that seems to tick all the boxes and that is the case here with the F-106B Delta Dart. Having already produced the single seat version to a very high standard we now have a two-seater to go with it. I admit that I’ve never really been that interested in the Century series jets but after seeing a build of the F-106A by our own Steve Evans it looked like a really nice kit so When the opportunity came up to build the B version I jumped on it. On opening the box with its very attractive artwork we are presented with nine sprues of well moulded and detailed parts with a further two sprues for the transparencies. Respectively these contain over 190 Grey and 11 clear parts. To complement these there is a photo-etched Brass fret of 25 parts. The instructions are typical Trumpeter covering fourteen pages with a separate full colour paint and decal guide sheet for the two options provided. Decals can be another stumbling block for this manufacturer but they would appear to have done a good job with this one. They are well printed with good colour and register but just as important the sizing is pretty much spot on too. In service with the Air National Guard these aircraft didn’t vary much in the way of schemes, ok its Air Defence Grey or nothing. To counter this the markings they carried were quite bold, in this case for the New Jersey or Florida ANG wings. It all looks good in the box so I had better tell you how well it builds!
Construction
After a quick wash I cut the main airframe parts from the sprues and reached for the masking tape to have a quick look at how well it all fits together. On first impressions I have to say very well, I wouldn’t be needing much filler for this one. The other thing that struck me was the sheer size of the aircraft. Even in 1/48th scale this is quite a big model at around seventeen inches in length. I now took the time to have a look through the instructions so I could plan the build and I was pleased to see that there is plenty in the way of detail where it is needed. There is no time consuming complete but hidden forever internal stuff to worry about. Diving in you start with the ejector seats which are pretty good representations of the Weber seats fitted to the real thing. The photo-etch seat belts are a touch stiff but are fine once they had been annealed. The cockpit tub is nicely detailed with two part joysticks and separate throttle boxes. The side consoles and instrument panels have excellent raised detail with the option of using the decals supplied. The next step is the nose gear bay and leg. To make life easier it was better to leave the nose undercarriage leg off until much later in the build. Ok, so I didn’t snap it off during the build! Fortunately this is quite easy as the leg is separated into two parts already. The internal sub-assemblies continue with a full length jet pipe and the internal weapons bay. Jumping ahead slightly the main undercarriage gear bay was put together ready for paint. With a pile of interior parts prepared it was time for some paint. The basic colours are given using the Gunze-Sangyo range so for detail work you will need to hit the references. The first colour to go on was some H317 Grey FS 36231 for the cockpit tub, seats and the cockpit side walls. The side consoles, instrument panels and sidewall details were picked out with the appropriate Games Workshop/Citadel acrylics. The decals for the instrument panels were used but I cut them down so that only the dials were left. The switches etc. were picked out with a Silver pencil with a few spots of colour here and there. The gear bays and weapons bay were next with a coat of MrHobby 351 FS34151 Zinc-Chromate Green. When that was dry they were given a dark wash to add some depth to the detail. Once again some details were carefully with the paint brushes. The last internal parts for some paint were the jet pipe which were sprayed H18 Steel. The cockpit, nose gear bay, weapons bay and jet pipe can all be fixed into the fuselage halves now and the fuselage closed up. The intakes are added now but before fixing them in place the interiors were painted. These were sealed off with blocks of foam to protect the paintwork. A few spots of MrSurfacer blended them into the fuselage nicely. The main undercarriage bay was fixed into the lower wing section not forgetting to drill out the holes for the wing pylons. This is then added to the fuselage with the upper wings fitted afterwards for such long seams the fit here is very good. A few more bits and pieces are added to the airframe now. The heat exchanger outlet, flaps and ailerons which are dropped by the way start to fill in some of the gaps. At the base of the tail-fin there is the air brake assembly and you have the option of open or closed here. I went for open so the parts were cleaned up now but left aside with the undercarriage doors etc. for later installation. The next couple of steps mostly deal with the canopy and its actuators so I skipped past these for now. In fact I worked my way through the instructions adding the last few bits and pieces needed before I could start thinking about some paint. The first job here was to mask up all the internal bays and the cockpit. All the doors were mounted on a board and then I found a piece of tube that fitted nicely into the jet pipe to support the airframe. With the compressor fired up a coat of H12 went on to the Radome and anti-glare panel. When that had dried it was masked up with Tamiya tape. I spent some time looking through images of the real thing to get a feel for the overall paint scheme. It was fairly obvious that whilst in service with the National Guard they were very well looked after so very little in the way of shading, fading or weathering on this one. With this in mind on went a coat of H61 IJN Grey which is a pretty good match for Air Defence Command Grey. A few touches of colour here and there were picked out on the intakes and exhaust outlets before the whole airframe was given a coat of gloss to seal it all and prepare for the decals. I decided to go with the Florida ANG option as I thought the Blue markings on the tail and drop tanks went well with the overall Grey finish. Armed with some Micro Set/Sol solutions I started with the larger decals. Even though some like the U.S. Air force text on the fuselage are quite long they went on without any problems. So, top marks to Trumpeter for the decals. Once decals had set and dried a wash of Grey ink was applied to make the engraved detail stand out. Usually at this point I’d be saying “All that’s left to do is add all the delicate parts to complete the build”. It’s not that simple I’m afraid as in this case there is still a lot to go on! I started with the centre piece of the underside, the weapons bay. Into here you need to add not only the weapons but the retraction jacks for the doors and the trapezoid mounts for the AIM-4 Falcon missiles as well. Tucked away in the rear half of the bay is a single large missile. This turned out to be a bit of a first for me as the Genie air to air missile is a nuclear weapon and it’s the first time I have ever fitted an atomic weapon to a model. At first glance all this looks fairly complex in there but if you take your time it all goes in without any drama. In the same way the undercarriage legs and doors are just as detailed and sturdy enough to support the finished model. The whole model was given a coat of Vallejo satin clear now to seal it all and even out the various finishes. The seats were dropped in and the canopy attached now leaving me with the pitot, lights and ariels to fit. Amongst the numerous items sent to us for review from Aires was a set of antennas for this model from their Quickboost range. All the relevant blade ariels were included with the kit but the Aires ones are a little more refined so these were duly fitted. The last touch was the inch and a half of pitot tube to finish the model.
Conclusion
Now it’s finished I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed building this model. The fit of parts, amount of detail where you need it and quality of the decals are all top notch. Where value for money is concerned it’s about right with plenty in the box to keep you busy and you do end up with a big model on the shelf. As I said at the start, Trumpeter can be a bit hit or miss at times but with this one they definitely have got it right. Highly recommended then, well done Trumpeter.
Our thanks to Pocketbond Ltd/Bachmann Europe for the review sample.
Paints
Tamiya acrylic
X11 Chrome Silver
X19 Smoke
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Colour
H1 White
H2 Black
H8 Silver
H13 Red
H61 IJN Grey
H317 Grey FS36231
Gunze-Sangyo Mr Colour
351 Zinc Chromate Green
Games Workshop/Citadel
Chainmail
Boltgun Metal
Vallejo Satin acrylic varnish
NOTE: My apologies to Alan and all readers for not getting this visible on the site sooner, my mistake! - Editor
