Northrop F-89 Scorpion
Hobby Craft F-89A
Revell F-89D
Academy F-89J
All Three...
Hobbycraft F-89B
F-89B - 190FIS, Idaho Air National Guard.
XF-89 Scorpion Prototype
Hobbycraft F-89B kit compared to XF-89 drawing - the hatched areas need to be modified.
Milliput applied to the inside - in case of 'breakthrough' when sanding down the exterior.
Milliput removed, plastic card keel added.....
Keel and bulkheads,
Adding strips of plastic card.
Rear hole filled - and front intake hole blanked off,
The rear of the jetpipe has to be removed - along with the lower fuselage....
Plastic knitting needles for the replacement jetpipes.
Trial fit.
The lower fuselage section has to be shortened.
The plastic section reamed out and a brass tube fitted.
Jetpipe in place - note the difference in lower fuselage shape.
Attacking the starboard fuselage - the original is at top.
Nose profile cut from thick plastic card........
.... and test fitted in place.
Rough and ready - but it does the job.
Rear fuselage almost finished.
New rear fuselage and revised jetpipes.
A bit more filling and sanding needed.
Milliput applied to nose area.
Initial sanding and filling.....
.... but the shape looks OK.
Intakes from a 1/700 scale submarine !
Sanded to shape, they fit OK-ish....
...... a bit of filler will sort them out.
Rear cockpit faired over.
Wing tip fairings added.
Making the fin/tailplane bullet fairing.
Final leg - I still need to add some more 'instruments' to the rear cockpit.
Ready for a final coat of primer...
Underside view.
Alterations to pilots seat to make it look like the XF-89 version.
New canopy carved ready to plunge mould.
After a couple of false starts, I finally managed to get a decent canopy.
Modified nosewheel to remove steering mechanism and add landing light.
Eartly Scorpions only had 3 brake discs......
..... and spoked nosewheels.
Final primer coat of Halfords Grey.
Instrumentation behind the pilot's seat - lots of artistic licence!!
Homemade canopy temporarily in place.
Canopy attached - and masked.
Looking sinister in a coat of gloss black....
Nearly finished - underside view.
Awaiting red USAF decals...
Some silvering to sort out.
Finished XF-89.
Spot the difference!
The Scorpion collection so far.........
F-89H Scorpion.
Hobbycraft F-89H Scorpion - with 3 GAR-1 Falcon missiles exrended from the port side pod.
The real aircraft would not have this asymmetric configuration - it is my 'artistic licence'.
The starboard pod is all closed up - note the apertures for the FFAR rockets.
Closer view of the Falcon missiles - they are dummies, painted light blue.
I had to cut out the decals to cater for the missile bays.
Each pod could carry 3 X GAR-1 Flaacon missiles plus 21 X FFAR rockets.
F-89H Scorpion of the 437th FIS, Presque Isle AFB, 1958.
'Clean' starboard pod.
Scorpion - ready to strike!
My complete Scorpion collection.
New kid on the block - Textron AirLand Scorpion arriving at RIAT Fairford,
Taxing in....
In the static park.
Tails.
Ken Duffey
Jun 2014