1/48 F-21A Kfir - Marine Edition

by Erin Kewin on Nov 10 2003

 USMC 228th Birthday!!!  Semper Fi 

 

My model represents an F-21A flown by VMFT-401 "Snipers" form June 1987 to October 1989.  The Sniper still exist today flying ex-Air Force F-5E/Fs, gonna build one of each of those too!  My model was cobbled together with an old F-21A and a Mirage V kit, both made by Esci.  There are lots of problems with the Esci kits that need to be addressed.  I'll discuss some of the major corrections I made.

Starting with the nose, radome shape is wrong.  On the real thing, as you look at the nose from the side, the contours have "straight edges."  (We're talikg about the small black portion at the tip of the nose cone.)  As you look at the nose from the from the front the radome is perfectly round.  So a new radome with the correct shape was turned from acrylic rod and faired into the remaining nose section.

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The cockpit was for the most part scratch built.  I only had one picture of the instrument layout of the Kfir, and not even an F-21 so I just used the decals supplied.  I cut up the kit's instrument and panel decals and arranged them in a way that made sense to me.  You really can't see inside very well so I just was worried about making a "correct looking" impression of the instruments and panels.  The instrument coaming, seat and the area near the seat rail can be seen and I focused on detailing those areas.  A gun sight and various electronic stuff were added.  Since you can see it so well I went to town on the seat.  The kit seat was a blob of plastic and there was no after market seat that I knew of so I was left to scratch build.  The F-21 and the F-4 have similar features so I used a seat from a Hasegawa kit as a starting point.  Modifications included:  New seat cushions, the basic frame was shortened in height to fit the cockpit, the parachute container was slightly modified and repositioned, the face curtain housing was lengthened and paper seatbelts with Waldron's Jet Buckles.

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The spine is covered with small scoops for the big J79 engine that was stuffed into the airframe.  Most were molded on the model, but they were solid and did not look real.  I built new ones with sheet plastic.  The small exhausts were made with steel tubing, rectangles of Evergreen HO scale, maybe N gage, "siding" plastic let-into the fuselage and decals.  The wings were molded with a saw tooth on the leading edge, which is correct for a later Kfir but are not for the F-21.  The Saw tooth was cut off and a notch in the leading edge was added.

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The intakes were in the kit are molded in two haves, the outer curved section and the flat inner section with the spike mold on.  Unfortunately the kit parts had very thick leading edges.  My fix was to fill inside of the outer portion with Milliput and shape the inside curve of the intake and thin the edge while I was at it.  I removed the spike and glued it to a thin piece of plastic.  Once the two halves are joined you get a realistic intake.  The landing gear was a complete mess.  I used a combination of doors from both kits plus some scratch built parts to get the right configuration.  The molded detail was removed from the kit parts and replaced with plastic tube and wire.  Again I only had a few pictures of these area so I used a little artistic license and best guesses.  The main wheels were to thin and to small in diameter.  Plastic was sandwiched between the wheel halves to correct the thickness, no problem.  To fix the diameter I wrapped the wheel around it circumference with plastic, filled the resulting gaps and sanded the tire to shape.

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The small canards, unique to early Kfirs, were added near the intakes.  Under the wings I added scratch built weapons pylons complete with spare missile rails from a Hasegawa F-18 kit.  I intended to use a after market burner cans, but they were too narrow in diameter.  So they too had to be scratch built.  I took the after market burner nozzle and wrapped it in sheet plastic.  The Plastic was carefully glued on the edges.  Rolling ng the plastic between a small metal rod, e.g. a file handle, and your fingertips will help you form a curve in the plastic.  After these steps what I was left with was a thin tube that was the right diameter.  Then strips of plastic were glued on inside and out to form the nozzle flaps.  One the inside a second tube was formed and detailed which made up the inner flaps of the nozzle.  Adding the nozzle to my after market exhaust pipe completed the engine.  I should also say that the aft portion of the fuselage housing the afterburner was reshaped to match the real thing.  Below the engine there is a large structure that contains a camera port an countermeasure dispensers.  This again was a heavily modified kit part with camera window and photo etched parts added.

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I painted this model to match a specific airframe.  I modeled one of the F-21s in the book "Superbase 9, Yuma, The Marines' Mean Machines" by George Hall, published by Osprey Publishing Limited.  I used the following Model Master Enamels:  Sand, Dark Tan, Pale Green and Light Ghost Gray.  I made my own markings on my Mac and an ALPS printer.  The kit decals were for the Marine version but they were all wrong, size shape you name it.  Besides I had just bought my ALPS printer and I wanted to break it in.  Plus I was able to match the F-21 I was modeling exactly, right down to the BuNo.  Because of the many modifications there was no way the raised panel lines were going to make it, and they didn't.  The panel lines were drawn on with a drafting lead holder.  I used strips of tape, small brass straight edges and Verlinden stencils to help with the various panels.  I really like this effect for models with raised panel lines.  One, I don't have to scribe, I not very good at that anyway and two, the lines are subtle like the real thing.  Finally, black and silver ink in a technical pen was used to simulate deeper panel lines and unpainted screw heads.

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This model won best in it category, Single Engine Jet and Best Marine Aircraft at the 2003 IPMS Region 2 Convention.   Thanks, the show was great.

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Yours truly and his big gray beast!

To all you Devil Dogs out there HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  228 years and still kicking ass.  For those who have returned home, welcome home, for those still there I am grateful for your continuing sacrifice and come home safe.  Always remember the injured and the fallen.  Semper Fidelis!

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Erin

Photos and text © by Erin Kewin