F-106 Dart

[Kayleigh Telega]

Formost aircraft, I like the two-seat version better than the single-seat version. This includes the F-106. I think I just like seeing more glass around the cockpit area. Or, maybe it is subliminal in that the only way I would ever get a ride is in the two-seat aircraft. For whatever the reason, two-seat versions of most aircraft is what I like.

The markings for this project come from an ancient MicroScale (before they were SuperScale) decal sheet. Back when Monogram released their 1/48th scale F-106A kit (about 1983), MicroScale released a couple decal sheets. Even though the Monogram kit was only a single-seat F-106A, one of the MicroScale decal sheets had decals for a two-seat F-106B. I really like the markings, and squirreled off a decal sheet in my decal stash for "someday" if I tackled an F-106B conversion.

I had forgotten I even had this decal sheet in the stash. When I picked up the new Trumpeter F-106B kit, I was aiming to build a different set of markings, up until I did a scan of my decal stash and found this ancient decal sheet still waiting for me to build an F-106B. The decal sheet seemed to be in good shape, even with it being over 30 years old. I hoped the decals would not explode when they hit water and started building the model to use them.

The following image is a scanned artwork from the center spread of the old F-106 Delta Dart in Action book by Don Carson (Squadron Publishing, 1974, ISBN 0-89747-014-1). The artwork is done by renowned aviation artist Lou Drendel. The MicroScale decal instructions name this art for further information on the markings. Ironically, the artwork caption names the decals for further information, so there is not much more beyond what is seen in this artwork to help with the aircraft or its markings.

The Trumpeter kit has very nicely engraved details. The cockpit is basic, but adequate, right out of the box. The ejection seats seem a bit too "clunky" looking for my taste. I clipped and dry-fitted the major airframe parts on the first night I owned the kit. All the major pieces fit together quite nicely, including the under-wing seam that turns into just a panel line when fitting the wings together.

Monogram has had a 1/48th scale F-106A Delta Dart kit for decades, and it is really not a bad kit. I could not help pulling out the old Monogram F-106A kit I have had in the stash and making some comparisons. What follows is a description of the Trumpeter kit as it compares to the Monogram kit.

Trumpeter and Monogram do not really have big difference (except for the single-seat and two-seat cockpits). Monogram is raised scribing (which bothers some modelers) while Trumpeter is engraved, but both kits have very petite and fine scribing. The two kits are close enough to the same size (and hence the same scale) to not be any worry. The airframe breakdown differs between them. Monogram does a three-way left/right/bottom split on the fuselage. This complicates dry-fitting the Monogram kit. Trumpeter does a left/right only, with only the wings coming up from the bottom. It is easier to dry-fit this and know things are fitting.

Both kits have well detailed wheel wells. Trumpeter improved on the Monogram kit by making the main wheel well door actuators as separate parts. This allows us modelers to build and paint the whole airframe, then add the landing gear. Monogram has these actuators molded as part of the wheel well, so they are hanging out and begging to be broken off while working on the rest of the kit.

Both kits also have well detailed weapons bays. Trumpeter did get the two-seat F-106B features of the weapons bay correct. Both kits provide the same weapons load of Falcon missiles and a Genie nuclear rocket. The Trumpeter kit actually has some extras in the weapons. The Genie rocket is provided on a "common" tree that had two sprues in the kit, so they provide two Genies, but the F-106 only can carry one. Also, the kit provides four IR seeking Falcons and two radar-homing Falcons. The F-106 only carries four Falcons, so you can mix and match them to vary the weapons load.

The parts breakdown of the Falcon missiles is better in the Trumpeter kit. They build up easier into the missiles without having to deal with hard-to-reach seams along some of the missile fins. The Falcons in the Monogram kit are difficult to build without seams running the length of the missile fins. Both kits have different ways to build the Genie rocket, too, but they both capture the rocket's details adequately.

The wing flaps in the Monogram kit are molded in the drooped position with no choice to reposition them without kit surgery. Trumpeter has the wing flaps as separate items with kit options to pose them as either drooped or in the neutral position. On the topic of the wings, both kits provide the longer supersonic wing fuel tanks. While Monogram molds the pylons as part of the tanks, Trumpeter molds the pylons separate. This allows for the inclusion of other ordnance loads. Although, F-106's carried very little other than the fuel tanks.

One construction issue on the Monogram kit is the way they handled the vertical tail. It is hard to build the kit without having to sand off all the detailing on the right side of the tail due to where Monogram chose to place the seam when they broke down the kit parts. Trumpeter is better on this with the seam located in a place that does not damage the scribing to fill it. Now, the Trumpeter kit does have the vertical tail as a separate item, making seams at its base, while Monogram molds the tail as part of the fuselage halves (no seam). But, the Trumpeter tail does fit good on top of the fuselage with only a little care in the construction.

Rounding out the Trumpeter kit, there is a small etched metal fret with harnesses for the ejection seats and a few minor airframe details. One of these etched metal details is the bracket that holds the rear cockpit radar scope into the canopy frame. This piece requires some careful bending to make it cradle the radar scope and fit the space between the canopy rails. Monogram has no etched metal pieces in the basic kit. There is also no comparison on the radar scope bracket because the Monogram kit is a single-seat aircraft, only.

The Trumpeter kit provides two sets of decal markings. While the instructions do not provide any dates for the markings, both are later aircraft from after the F-106 was relegated to the Air National Guard. A fair selection of airframe data is also provided in the decals.

As with most aircraft kits, the construction starts in the cockpit. Trumpeter provides enough details to make the cockpit look OK. There are molded lines on the inside of the fuselage to provide cockpit sidewall details. It is all just flat, though. Some after-market resin would probably look better and make it more 3D. That can wait for the next build. I just painted up the molded details and moved on.

There are some interesting details of the F-106B cockpit that Trumpeter did well on. On the real aircraft, the rear cockpit radar scope mounts into the canopy. There is also a shroud over the rear instrument panel that lifts up when the canopy is open. Trumpeter provides all these details with alternate options for opening or closing the canopy. I wanted the canopy open on my model, so those were the options I chose to build.

One significant thing to note on the cockpits, Trumpeter only provides the "round eye" instruments for the cockpits. All F-106's underwent a change to their main instrument panels that introduced "tape style" instruments in place of the round ones. This improved the pilot's ability to operate at night and in adverse weather. To stay true to the only instrument panels provided in the kit, it is necessary to only build an aircraft from the early 1960s. Of course, most people will not know this difference if a modeler chooses to build a later time period with these instrument panels.

The ejection seats are a bit lacking. They are missing some prominent details and are "clunky" looking. The etched metal seat harnesses dress them up a little, but not enough for my taste. I had a couple extra Monogram F-106 ejection seats in my spare parts bin. I decided to use those in this Trumpeter kit.

To further fill up the cockpits, I decided to include pilot figures. So, I went out into my spare parts bin and grabbed a couple Hasegawa Phantom pilots and modified them to fit into the cockpits. Their flight gear looks close enough, and Hasegawa is nice in that the two pilots are in different poses. To add more color in the cockpits, I planned to have the pilots in orange flight suits. I added Waldron Oxygen hose to the figures after they were painted.

After I took the above picture and started painting the cockpit components, I realized the seat harnesses hanging at the sides of the seats needed to be removed. Since the pilots were "strapped in", the harnesses needed to be attached to the pilots, not just hanging at the sides. Oh well.

Unless you build the Montana ANG, the F-106 cockpit is D.Gull Gray (F.S.36231). The details are like other modern fighter cockpits with black instruments and other details picked off in gray, silver, red, and yellow.

I added lead foil shoulder harnesses to attach the pilots to the seats. I considered the lap belts on the lower seat sides, but decided they would not be visible after the cockpit is wrapped inside the F-106 fuselage.

The panels are pretty accurate for the "round-eye" instruments of the early F-106 cockpits. The decals appeared to be properly sized to fit the molded details, and they did fit, perfectly. I painted the overall panels in D.Gull Gray (F.S.36231), then applied a lot of Solv-a-set with the decals and they snuggled down into all the details. This was a lot easier than the normal detail painting I do on my instrument panels. The picture shows the panels, waiting for me to paint the rest of the details, like the upper radar scope on the forward panel.

Now, the kit decals for the side panels were a different story. Trumpeter printed then in "negative" of what they should be - they are black where they should be clear and clear where they should be black. So, I still had to paint the side consoles, but that is not so bad.

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