This
MPM
plastic kit of the Ryan
XF2R-1 Darkshark (in the upgrade version) appeared in the hobby shops I guess two
years ago.
Uncommonness
of conception with simultaneously applying
a gas turbin unit in the forward engine mounting and a
jet engine in the rear part of the fuselage and the presence of resin parts in this
version caught my interest, so I bought the kit.
The
kit is designed as a short run kit with 34 plastic parts, plus a strip of
photoetched parts, 11 resin parts for cockpit, vacuformed canopy and the decal sheet.
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I
began the assembly with the cockpit. The control panel was improved by “holes”
representing controls, pilot’s seat was supplemented by seatbelts and also the
area behind the seat went through some changes. Serious thinning of the
cockpit sidewalls was need before placing side consoles (parts P2
and P3). I opened the bottom air intake and made a new deeper front wheel well
before putting the fuselage together. Don’t forget to add weight to the nose! The kit dorsal
fin is too high and must be lowered.
It's
good to make new wheel wells for the wings as well. Attaching the wings to the fuselage was
problematic in the front wheel well area and air intakes in the roots of wings.
These jet engine air intakes got ribs. Darkshark was not armed and so I did not
drill holes for machine guns and did not use a gunsight.
I
made a new wheel for the nose gear and modified its mechanism according to
references. The main gear was modified too.
Blades
were separated from spinner (part 9) and both sections were done separately. It
is definitely better.
All
parts were airbrushed by Mr. Surfacer before their painting by Gunze Sangyo
Gloss Sea Blue.
Weathering
was made by black oil paint and the whole aircraft was sealed with semi-gloss clear.
If
you are willing to put in the effort, you will get a nice replica of this nice plane.
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images below to see larger images
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References:
Pavel
Liberec,
Czech Republic
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