1/48 Monogram F-106

by Malcolm Reid  

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This kit was a classic in its day.  To quote Detail and Scale in their review “we highly recommend this kit as one of the best ever produced”.  That was in 1983.  Typical Monogram with nice interior detail, but raised panel lines.  I found one in some back alley 2nd hand shop and bought it on a whim thinking it may be fun to try build one of the Monogram classics again.

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The kit interior details are good, especially the main undercarriage bays and the weapons bay. The kit offers a challenging build by today’s standards. The fuselage split is horizontal into top and bottom halves and as a result, a nasty seam must be dealt with on the forward and rear fuselages.  Unfortunately, in filling and sanding these seams, the raised panel lines are destroyed.  So out comes the scribing tool which I must say is not one of my favorite modeling activities.  Anyway, I rescribed as much fuselage detail as possible as well as the wing upper surfaces.  I left all the wing underside raised panel lines as there are a vast number of these.  After half a pack of milliput and lots of elbow grease, the assembly was complete.

I painted the model using overall ADC grey (XtraColour X138).  I decided not to use the kit decals (23 years old) and bought the Fox One set.  These decals are beautifully printed but would not conform to any surface detail at all.  I used MicroSol, but this had no impact and once dry, the decals silvered badly.  If anyone reading this has experienced the same problem and found a solution, please let me know.

Final weathering was done using pastels but kept to a minimum as photographic references show these aircraft being maintained in pristine condition.  Comparing the completed model with an F-16 of the same scale, it is amazing just how big the F-106 actually was. Beautiful aircraft!

Malcolm

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Photos and text © by  Malcolm Reid