North American F-107C

[Jakko]

I need something quick and simple because my M32B1 tank recovery vehicle with T1E1 mine exploder isn’t cooperating. Well, the mine roller isn’t Looking through my stash, I decided to build the F-107 I’ve been planning to. It’s this kit by Trumpeter:

But I’ve decided to build it as an in-service plane, as if it had been adopted instead of the Republic F-105. That one “won” in the real world, but apparently mostly because Republic needed orders to stay afloat, not because its plane was so much better than the North American F-107.

Here is what you get in the kit:



The decals won’t be used, as they are only for the three prototypes that were built in the real world. I started per the instructions, with the cockpit and seat:



… and that’s where I stopped as well, because it was still 32 degrees in my hobby room

 

[Jim R]

Interesting Jakko. No grainy, b&w reference photos to be interpreted. Quite an odd looking plane.
Jim

 

[yak face]

Great stuff jakko . I had this kit as I originally intended to build it as a sidenote to my Century Series builds ( which i still havent completed yet , only the f106 left to do !) but the difference in scale plus the VERY tricky masking job meant it ended up on ebay . Great idea to do it as a What if? As you said the F107 was a very capable aircraft and would have been an effective addition to the USAF but politics and probably a few backhanders meant it was denied its chance. What scheme are you going for ? SEAC vietnam era camo would look superb , as would ADC grey or nat metal for that matter , just anything but that bloody spiky red and silver prototype scheme!

 

[Jakko]

No grainy, b&w reference photos to be interpreted.

No, that’s the great advantage here

Quite an odd looking plane.

It started out as an improved F-100 Super Saber, with higher performance etc. They put the air intake on the top because the USAF wanted the plane to carry a nuclear weapon underneath, and somehow, North American figured that this worked best with the intake on the top. That was probably because the weapon was to be carried semi-recessed in the fuselage, as you can see on this photo of the real thing:

At least, I think the white thing underneath is a (dummy) nuclear weapon, because the fuel tank that was normally carried there had no fins:

The kit only provides the underbelly fuel tank and no underwing stores at all — not even pylons for them

I had this kit as I originally intended to build it as a sidenote to my Century Series builds ( which i still havent completed yet , only the f106 left to do !) but the difference in scale plus the VERY tricky masking job meant it ended up on ebay .

I was wondering if you were going to do the F-107 as part of that series, yes I suggest doing much like what I’m doing here: build it as a what-if so it fits with the rest of the series, and avoid having to paint all those red bits.

What scheme are you going for ? SEAC vietnam era camo would look superb , as would ADC grey or nat metal for that matter , just anything but that bloody spiky red and silver prototype scheme!

It will be painted as if in service in Vietnam. I’ve got an F-105 Thunderchief kit to take appropriate decals and weapons from, so all I really need to do here is scratchbuild some pylons (or see if I have something I can use in my modest aircraft spares box) and I’ve decided to fill three of the four gun ports, as I figure an in-service plane would have had an M61 Vulcan cannon instead of the four M39 cannons the prototypes had.

 

[Jakko]

Minor progress:



The fuselage is just two halves, plus a bottom part that goes under the wing (which are a single piece going across the hull). I filled some seams and also three of the four gun ports, one of which you can see here with its blob of white filler. All of them will need to be scraped and sanded down still, of course.

I’ve also built the wings and tailplanes, but don’t see a need to photograph them yet

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting subject Jakko. It’s almost a good looking aircraft, just let down by the air intake
Nice start on the plastic though.

 

[Mickc1440]

Yet another new aircraft for me and has Tim said only spoilt by the intake. Look forward to following this one

 

[Mark1]

If you had to eject in front of that intake you'll probably lose your phone

 

[boatman]

YEA I cant understand why they dint fit the airintakes on the sides of the fusalarge like the starfighter as this does seem silly to me to have that airintake on the top like mark said lose your phone or maybe get sucked in whatever were the aircraft deigners thinkin ?
chrisbmtb

 

[Jakko]

They were most likely thinking that it wouldn’t be a problem, and apparently, tests showed that it indeed wasn’t. Think about it: when it launches, the seat is moving forward at the same speed as the plane, so relative to the plane, it’s just going almost straight up — slightly rearward, because it’s angled backwards, but as long as it’s not aimed at the intake, it should simply shoot past that. Yes, there will be drag from the wind when it gets out of the cockpit and that will slow the seat down (meaning it goes backwards relative to the plane) but at that point it’s still accelerating upwards at something like 120–140 m/s², so it will clear the intake very quickly.

I must say I like the intake above the fuselage, though

 

[Jakko]

Almost there …



At this point, all I need to do is mask and attach the canopy, add a pitot tube on the nose and out some pylons under the wings, then I can go and paint it. The model is slightly tail-heavy, though: on a level surface it sits correctly, but tips backward very easily; on a slight incline it sits on its tail. Maybe I need to drill a hole in the nose and add a little weight.

I am kind of struggling with what to put under the wings, though. The Thunderchief kit I will take decals from has two weapon options: two AGM-12 Bullpup missiles or two racks of four Mk. 83 bombs each, and I have some odds and ends left over from old kits and weapon sets. I’m leaning to using the bombs, but that kind of precludes underwing tanks because the bombs would weigh too much for the outboard stations. So maybe Bullpups on the outer wing stations and a fuel tank from an F-104 on each inner station? Or three bombs on each inner wing station (I’ve got some TERs in the spares box) and one bomb on the outer ones?

Alternatively, I could put drop tanks on the inner pylons and one bomb each on the outer, then make something to fill the belly cavity and glue half-bombs to that to represent bombs carried recessed under the fuselage, instead of the fuel tank.

 

[Code no 10]

Yesteryears' planes seem have more interesting graphic. Present ones are quite muted. We need more shark mouths on everything that fly.

 

[Jakko]

I guess that explains your avatar Not sure this is the right plane for a shark mouth, though, with the intake above the fuselage.

 

[adt70hk]

Interesting Jakko. Not heard of or seen this one before.

Will look forward to it crossing the finish line.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Jim R]

You've made speedy progress with this Jakko. Looks good.

 

[Jakko]

It’s a simple kit, though it needs a little work to get everything to fit. There is a little flash around some parts, fit of a few parts is tight while others are slightly loose — it reminds me of a 1980s kit instead of one released in the last 20 years. But it’s a cool-looking plane and I wanted something quick and simple, so it’s fine by me

The build is essentially finished now, aside from weapons pylons and the weapons themselves. I spent some time today going through the weapons I have in various spares boxes and accessory sets, and comparing them to a little research in what would be realistic for a USAF plane in Vietnam to carry. I’ve more or less narrowed it down now to either four Mk. 83 bombs under each wing (three on a TER, one on a single pylon), or one AGM-62 Walleye guided bomb under each wing, either with no outboard pylons or with an AIM-9 Sidewinder on them. The Walleye is plausible but not likely, as the USAF didn’t use it much, but at the same time: in an alternate timeline in which the F-107 was favoured over the F-105, maybe the AGM-62 was also received more enthusiastically despite it being a Navy weapon …?

 

[Allen Dewire]

Nice to see you doing this little sidetrack Jakko. Very interesting wing thingy kit and you seem to be whipping into great shape. Like the idea of making it a production model too. Proto's always have kinda boring camo/paint schemes on them anyway.......

If you had to eject in front of that intake you'll probably lose your phone

Oh, and don't worry about Mark too much!!! It's either something serious in the South London air or the Old Bean has forgotten to take his meds again...............

Prost
Allen

 

[Jakko]

Now with canopy and pylons:



Here’s a better view of the pylons:



The outboard ones are from a Fujimi A-4 Skyhawk kit I built 30+ years ago, the inner ones from some plane I don’t recall; both had to be fettled a bit to fit the curve of the wing, but they sit OK now. They’re probably wildly inaccurate for an F-107, but I couldn’t find any good photos of the real ones, and in any case, I have to make do with what I have I did try and put them in the correct locations under the wings, by measuring in photos and drawings of the real plane.

The white triple ejector racks (TERs) are also from a Fujimi Skyhawk I built around the same time as the other one. Armament will be three bombs each on these and one bomb on each outboard pylon, as that neatly uses up all the bombs in the Thunderchief kit. The centreline will just have the tank supplied in the F-107 kit.

 

[papa 695]

Just seen this one Jakko, one I’ve not seen before. Great idea to do it as a what if, and a cracking start.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks, though the start is some way behind me now that I’ve finished building (other than the wheels)



The pitot tube is scratchbuilt:



I didn’t want to use the kit part because it’s very long and looks like the kind used on prototype planes, like those near the wingtips — which is why I cut those off too. The replacement you can see here is shorter and consists of three lengths of brass tube one inside the other: 1.0 mm, 0.8 mm and 0.5 mm.

And here’s a better view of the stores:



The fuel tank is from this kit, the bombs like I mentioned earlier, are from the Trumpeter F-105A Thunderchief kit. It has four fuse extenders and four normal-length fuses, which I find odd. Why not give eight of each? But hey, make do with what you have …

Once the glue has dried, I can start painting.