Korean War Lockheed T-33A
Starting point: the victim, new decals and oven cleaner
Initial breakdown, not too much damage so far
And stripped. Damage assessment: canopy OK, not all paint gone yet, one busted main gear, one busted speedbrake and kit a bit less detailed than I remembered. New tip tanks left over from Airfix F-80C build.
Adding detail to the very basic interior and seats
Painted cockpit, added nosewheel well. Note bad condition of nose, damaged in earlier build. Trouble ahead...
Adding main wheel wells and scratchbuilt speedbrakes. Huge gaps around original ones, so better leave them open...
Main assembly done, lots of filler needed everywhere, especially around the wing.
Lots of work later, rescribing done, wing root finally OK. Far more work than I expected..
Tailplanes on, now only smaller detailing ahead before I get to the painting stage.
Detailing wheel wells
Cockpit ready, added blind flying hood and associated hoop
Wheel wells painted and weathered
Ready for the paint shop
I did lots of sanding and filling so first a Tamiya gloss black coat. Not too bad, some minor rework done
Second try with Vallejo Metal Color and uh oh... this did not go well.. Not sure what went wrong, probably thinned paint too much and applied too wet coats.
Pressing on, spraying on darker color... and damaged paint during masking...
Re-applying previous color to fix things... this time the paint is pulled off by the masking tape and also rubs of easily. Aargh!
... think I nailed it now... Wondering if the black base coat was a bad idea.
No question of masking the anti-glare panel, so making a decal
Decal sprayed, this is not a bad idea, easier than masking and spraying!
Finally in the decaling stage, so far so good. Using old Microscale sheet 72-239, with stencils from another (F-80) Microscale sheet.
And done.. but not without problems. The fuselage band fought me all the way and the tip tank stripes started to disintegrate.
Some weathering with dark pastel
Installing the gear, this being a rebuild one main gear is very weak, hope it will not sag over time...
Installing doors and scratch built speedbrakes
And we're done. Finally...
Did not turn out as hoped, lots of blemishes, but certainly an improvement over the previous build.
Comments
22 March 2017, 19:58
Hans ZwetslootAnd here we go for another rebuild, rejuvenating the T-33A I built as a teenager ages ago. Will be rebuilt as a Korean War T-33A to better fit in my collection. First up: cockpit and wheel wells.
22 March 2017, 20:06
Hans ZwetslootDid not do too much building lately but this one progressed a bit further. I misjudged the condition of the kit, it's a lot more work than I expected. But we're getting there 🙂.
5 June 2017, 18:32
Hans ZwetslootFinished another rebuild. Not at all as easy as I expected. Build stage went OK, but had lots of problems with the Vallejo Metal Color, it did not go on well, rubbed off easily and in some areas was pulled of by masking tape. Duh... Maybe it didn't agree with the Tamiya gloss black base coat. Decals gave problems as well due to their age and the complex shapes. Should have treated them with decal bonder first. Nevertheless happy enough with the end result. Just don't look too close 🙂
12 July 2017, 10:15
Hans ZwetslootOh, and during the build I discovered that the tip tanks are the wrong type. Should have been the longer Fletcher underwing tank. Could have sourced these but unfortunately the tip tank stripes were sized for the shorter Lockheed tanks. Oh well...
12 July 2017, 10:19
Album info
A rebuild of my very old Hasegawa T-33A, it now fits nicely into my Korean War collection. Rebuild was much more difficult than anticipated, especially the painting and decaling did not go too well. Still, a big improvement over the earlier build.
