XF-108 Rapier

[Moofles]

XF-108 Rapier

1:72 Anigrand

In early 1955, USAF launched the program of LRIX (Long-Range Interceptor Experiment), the fighter was to be capable of Mach 3 performance and could destroy attacking Soviet bombers over the poles before they could get near U.S territory. As it was also to be the escort fighter for the XB-70 bomber that was built by North American Aviation, the company also was issued a contract for two prototypes which they designated F-108A Rapier.

The F-108A was designed as a large delta-winged aircraft, powered by a pair of after burning turbojets. A mock-up was inspected in January 1959 with a planned first flight in 1961. However, by mid 1959, the threat from the Soviet Union was perceived to be its intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of its force of long-range bombers. Against the ballistic missiles, the F-108 would be completely useless, and thus the program was cancelled in September 1959.

The kit arrives in a rather deceptively small, but sturdy top opening box with a print of the mock-up aircraft on the lid. On opening the box the first thing that springs to mind is ''release the kracken'' the kit is big...Inside are 2 bags, one containing 2 clear canopies and the other with 5 partitions containing 32 finely cast cream resin parts

Right, now for what you have been waiting for, I’m sure modellers out there have heard horror stories of badly cast resin kits, needing more work then possibly imaginable to get a decent result. So it was with a large measure of trepidation that I inspected the contents, and lo & behold I was shocked, very very few bubble marks, resin is just exquisitely cast with little flash and only minor clean up needed, the only area that looks like it will need some work is the intakes.Here the resin is not very smooth, and flashed over, so scratch building work in this area and some clean up will produce a very realistic looking engine intake.

The rest of kit as stated is very well moulded with a multitude of finely recessed panel lines, my only gripe is there seems to be none on the underside of the wing, I have no sources for what should be there, so some modellers licence will be required. Another area that proved to be of very high casting quality are the exhaust cans, unfortunately while the exterior is of high quality, the interior is left much to be desired, so some serious scratch build in there will be required.

The kit by all regards is very straight forward, instructions being a single A-5 sheet with an exploded diagram, not particularly straight forward, so some trial fits are a must.

Construction phase starts with the cockpit, which is a very delicate affair, with some nicely moulded instrument panels and a fair representation of the ejection seats, again as so often said during this review, some scratch building in the cockpit will really really set it off.

No decals are provided for the instrument panel, so I strongly suggest getting a painting guide from ''Squadron Signals F-102 Delta Dagger Walk Around'' this will also aid massively in WHIF painting guide, but more of that later on.

Construction continues with the mating of the cockpit fuselage halves and the main body halves, everything is butt joined with no location pins, so trial fit everything before committing to glue, the wings are also butt joined, so I strongly suggest some scratch built location holes and metal rods.

A nice feature is the option to have the bomb-bay open with a very nice representation of a AIM-47 bay roof detail is adequate for what will be seen, however side bay detail is sadly non-existent, again I’m not too sure what should go here, so modellers licence is once again required.

Final construction entails the addition of the landing gear. Here we have a very basic representation of the landing gear, the addition of some break lines, and ''weighting'' the wheels will improve them tenfold. The gear bays have some ribbing detail in the roof, again the addition of some wiring, will set them off nicely.

Ahhh now onto the fun that is WHIF painting, the only marking scheme provided is for the prototype overall white with a black nose, while this may be accurate for a prototype machine, since the F-108 was never built to an operation standard, the possibilities are endless, as I stated before I cannot stress enough how helpful the ''Squadron Signals F-102 Delta Dagger Walk Around'' will be for this project, with a multitude of marking options you can really paint a convincing WHIF F-108A in service. The decals provided appear to be in perfect register, but I have yet to use them, so I cannot comment on how they will behave, stencils are very few so again I suggest you source a lot of stencils from your spares and place them in accordance with similar F-102 placement.

Conclusion

well then, as a limited run resin kit I am deeply deeply impressed by it, the price tag of £41 is not really a bank breaker either and it is well worth it for the quality of the mouldings and the fun you will have building it. If WHIF 1950s/60s jets are your thing, then I suggest you pick one up, if you are looking for your first foray into resin like myself you cannot really go wrong with this kit, but I must stress mouldings for this kit vary drastically and you may not be as lucky as me.

Additions that I suggest:

Squadron Signal ~ F-102 Delta Dagger Walk Around

Master ~ Panavia Tornado Pitot Tube & Angle Of Attack probes (useful for that WHIF addition)

PJ Productions ~ 2 French 1960's High Altitude pilots seated in aircraft (they look about right for USAF High altitude pilots from Black Bird Photos I’ve seen)

Overall I give this kit a solid 8/10 rating, only let down my small little omissions of detail in certain areas, but for the price its a winner.

The kit and everything suggested is available from Hannants.