1/67th F-106 Delta Dart

Revell F-106A from 1958

My dad built one of these when I was a little kid. I don't remember the model so much as I do the box art. With visits to Selfridge open houses in the early '60s, I saw F-106s and F-102s and they made a huge impression on me. As I became a plastic modeller, I dearly wanted an F-106 in my collection. For a long time, this Revell kit was the only option. They re-released it as one of their "Whip-Fly" line, but only for a short time, then it was gone.

In the late '60s, of course, Hasegawa released their Delta Dart in 1/72 scale and I finally could get my Six-fix. Not only that, it came with the red/white striped tail and 94th 'Hat-in-the-Ring" markings of the Selfridge based outfit I was familiar with and would've wanted on my model. I was over the moon.

Finally there was a pretty good F-106 kit readily available, but I still thought about that Revell effort. Was it any good? What exactly came in that box? How I would LOVE to get my hands on one of those, just to look at it. Just to see what my dad had to work with when he brought one home to stick together. In the mid-seventies I'd made friends with some of the model fans and critics who hung out at the Detroit area Squadron Shop. Not sure how the subject came up, but I let it be known that my personal Holy Grail model airplane kit was the Revell box scale F-106. There were members of the assembled group that didn't believe such a thing existed. I must be thinking of their F-102 -- big one with the retracting landing gear or the small short-tailed one. Revell never did an F-106. I told these guys there was one in my house as a kid. I knew the difference between a Six and a Deuce. They weren't convinced.

Sometime in the late seventies I traveled to an IPMS Regional in Ohio, I think it was. One of the vendors had a mountain of old, old kits, and I spotted my prize among them. It had a $60 price tag on it. I held the box (and probably opened it -- I don't remember) and thought of what I could do with $60. It was WAY too steep for me. I was happy enough I'd found and held such a rare item. With the advent of eBay, I started seeing them again occasionally. They did not sell at bargain prices. I bid on a couple, but was easily outbid by the time the auction ended. C'est la vie.

Then, unbelievably, around 2010, I was gifted a kit. My friend Tory Mucaro (you've seen some of his work here in the past) has a friend Andy Yanchus. Andy worked for Aurora when Aurora was one of the heavy-hitters of the plastic kit world. He's been into this stuff since the very early days and collected and hung on to all kinds of old kits. He decided to thin his collection some. I don't know how the conversation went between he and Tory, but it was established he had a Revell F-106 and I was really hot to own one of those.Well, Andy sent me his. Receiving it was one of those plastic model peak experiences. 

Andy had slightly started it ages ago, gluing the main gear doors closed (my kind of modeler!) and there was a little bit of acrylic paint to scrape off of some parts. No issue at all. Missing was the familiar Revell globe stand -- again, not an issue. The airplane and decal sheet was all there. For so old a kit, it featured exquisite recessed surface detail, much like their F-89. Unfortunately, to balance that plus, Revell decided to incorporate many moving parts, making it essentially an F-106 shaped toy. But hey, that was cool in those days. Also a throw-back to the old days was all the major decal locations embossed into the model's skin, the famous "Idiot Marks". Truly Andy had sent me a time capsule.

Naturally, the question came up: build it or don't build it. Were it a virgin kit, the question may have been a tougher one to answer. It had been started, after all. Started in a way that locked it into a gear-up configuration, which I'm more than partial to. If I didn't stick it together, it's unlikely I'd ever see one built. As mentioned previously, I have no memory of my dad's effort. So I decided yes, for my own entertainment/amusement, I'd build and finish it as close to stock as possible.

The biggest issues were the moving parts. The elevons in particular were a sloppy fit that I had to fill a bit with something. Everything else I glued in place as best I could and left alone. I wanted the Revell kit represented -- not a "corrected" version. Fit overall was OK, except for the canopy pieces. The fit of them to each other and to the rest of the airplane, was a horror. Clearly, this model was never intended to be built with the canopy glued shut. I did what I thought was the minimum amount of shimming and filling. Since I was never going to get a smooth fit between the windscreen piece and the rest of the canopy, I let it be as a tribute to what this kit was meant to be -- a toy.

Paint job was easy enough. The pre-production Darts flew out of Edwards with lots of day-glo orange. I opted for plain Testors orange out of the little quarter oz. bottle. Close enough for this job.

The gray was my own mix of mostly white with a touch of black and blue. All along I'd planned on using the kit decals. By an amazing stroke of luck, I had three sheets. One came with the kit and two more were part of a payment package Marty Isham (rest his soul) sent me for a model I built for him. With three sheets, I felt covered. But probably predictably, they were all in the same brittle condition. I hosed them with gloss coat, which helped, but unlike decal film, a cured layer of gloss coat doesn't want to conform to curves. So I used what I could use and made up the difference with 72nd items out of the decal collection.

I also planned on using the idiot marks for decal placement, but I didn't agree with those on the fuselage so used photo references instead. The marks on the tail and wings were good.

I HAD to give her a pitot tube. It just wouldn't be a proper F-106 without one.

Shape-wise, I'd rate it very, very good. The most obvious goof to my eyes is the size of the canopy side windows, which are about half of what they should be. There are also goofy bulges on the tops of the wings to accommodate the hinged movable (not on mine) elevons.

It was significantly more work than I expected. That is so often the case, in my experience.

Comments

[Terry Burns]

Superb work, and very nostalgic! Thank you for sharing this one.

[Michael Clemente]

Pat all I can say is that you do amazing work. No matter how bad the kit is or not, you seem to bring them to life with your craftmanship. I am glad to call you my friend. You have been building models for me for over 20 years and some of my kits have been horrendous and your skill always impresses me. Kudos to you for a great job on the F-106. You can't get any better than a plane in flight with a pilot at the helm. As always, AIM HIGH! Mike

[Pat Hawkey]

Thanks for stopping by and having a look. I know there's been a dry-spell around here lately...

[Pat Hawkey]

Thanks, Mike. You've got me blushing again. I appreciate the continual promotion and "challenges" you provide!

[Robert Ray Little]

I've always loved the F-106 since seeing them fly with the Florida Air National Guard (after they converted from the F-102, which I also loved). I've seen this kit pop up from time to time, always for princely sums, so I never bought one. Maybe Atlantis will re-pop it.
You did a great job here as always.

[Pat Hawkey]

Thanks, sir! Agreed, if Atlantis could re-introduce this one to the world, it would be a cool thing.

[Douglas Warren]

That's simply a beautiful build Pat. I'd love to have one in my collection one day. But as you pointed out, they go for premium prices nowadays.