SPA Modeler

While readying the Su-6 AM-42 for a coat of flat clearcoat once the decals dried and settles in, I've decided to move on to my next build - Minicraft's 1/48 scale Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket. I bought this kit a couple years ago out of curiosity and interest.

Box cover:

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I didn't provide sprue shots because I was too anxious to get started on it. Step 1 was.... wings. LOLOL!!!




I jumped ahead on the simple parts... the tail wings




Rudder pedal parts attached to the back of instrument panel. I used Deluxe 10 Second Liquid Glue for this one,

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More to follow....



For those interested in learning more about this odd, one-off prototype aircraft:

http://aviation-history.com/grumman/xf5f.html

HAWKAAAA-AAAA

indeed very odd looking plane...
The instrument panel looks very good!
Are there decals for the IP included ?

Nice find and great looking cover Bruce!

- Kari

Grumman’s first attempt at the twin engine heavy fighter. They got it right the next time with the F7F.

Stikpusher wrote:Grumman’s first attempt at the twin engine heavy fighter. They got it right the next time with the F7F.

Which again is a beauty !

- Kari

Oh yes indeed. My father saw the kit I have of one on my stash shelf and said, “That looks like a real hot rod”. He crewed on B-26 Invaders in the late ‘50s, so he was pretty familiar with twin engine performance of that era.

KSaarni wrote:indeed very odd looking plane...
The instrument panel looks very good!
Are there decals for the IP included ?

Nice find and great looking cover Bruce!

- Kari

No decals for instrument panel. The panel has just the right amount of details to paint it.

Funny, the cockpit is assembled directly on the top center wing area.

That’s possibly how the real thing was built. Some aircraft of that era had the cockpit flooring as part of the wing top. I know for certain that the P-40 did. I believe the early model P-51 did also.

A little progress....

So far, this kit hasn't shown me any fit issues.

I opt to build the early version of the Skyrocket. Tail rudders attached.






This is what the late version rudder looks like. They're more pronounced even though they are the same exact size..

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Nose with gun ports filled in since I'm building the early version.




Masking the canopy was very time consuming. The main canopy took me 2 hours to mask.



Nose canopy. This took me about 45 minutes - an hour to mask. Side windows stiil needs to be masked off. Just wanted to show how thin the tape strips were I used to mask.