Revell-Monogram's 1/48 scale
F-101B Voodoo

by John Trueblood

1/48 Revell F-101B built Out of the Box. The Revell/Monogram kit is over 30 years old comprising about 100 parts in light grey and clear styrene. The kit features finely defined and well aligned raised panel lines. I encountered no significant fit problems during assembly and no putty was required. Some airframe details are simplified but look right for the scale. The intakes and compressor faces are not quite correct but look fine under normal viewing. The cockpit and seats are spot on and  look authentic with careful detail painting. I chose to close the canopy to protect the One-Oh-Wonder’s sleek lines. 

The landing gear and speed brakes are molded with retraction locks in place and the instructions correctly call for them to be painted red. All red surfaces were painted with Gunze H44, RLM 23. The Gunze red is less intense than other options and I think adds to “scale effect”. The main gear doors are molded as one piece rather than two and lack some of the actuators. However, the gear and flap wells are extensively detailed and look great with careful painting and some Tamiya Panel Line Wash. 

I chose to build the Voodoo without rescribing the panel lines.  In looking at photos and museum examples I noticed the panels were tightly fit and not particularly noticeable  especially under a coat of gloss ADC gray. I felt that recessed panel lines with a wash would be overly stark. The technique I used was to lightly sand the bare plastic to knock down the raised lines a bit followed by a coat of Gunze Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Gray. Be sure and hunt down and eliminate the manufacturers raised mold & date stamp. Revell is proud of their work and it’s easy to miss this detail……………ask me how I know. The Voodoo was then given an overall coat of Testors Acryl 4693, Aircraft Gray FS 16473.  Once dry I used Micro Mesh clothes to polish the Acryl gray and gradually reveal the darker gray on the raised panel lines. The subtle effect I tried to achieve was to just hint at the panel lines. I did not weather with a wash or pastels since the ANG Birds were maintained with immaculate care. 

The exhaust cans are a bit fiddly to attach. Don’t remove the longitudinal seam lines as they are present of the full size AC. 

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Thumbnail panels:

The kit includes 2 AIM-4G Super Falcons which my research suggest were not used on Voodoo’s. I instead chose to configure my model with the AIR-2 Genie missiles. The blue band identifies them as the non-nuclear practice versions.

I used the excellent Caracal Models decal sheet CD48010. I liked the clever use of evergreen trees, common in the state of Maine, to form the fin marking and MAINEIACS fuselage logo of the 132nd FIS.

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2021 by John Trueblood
Page Created 8 June, 2021
Last Updated 8 June, 2021

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