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By Adam Rehorn
Above: This is how the worms see the Razorback. You can clearly see the 'bubble' canopy hood, vernier cluster,
head turret and custom landing gear in this shot. The customized intakes are visible, but the faucet aerator grating
at the back of them is not. Milliput was used heavily in this project, the two most noticable areas in this shot being
the cradles supporting the booster packs and in the reshaped nose contour. The F-19 has a laser seeker in the nose,
which gives it a square end. Ugly. Thus, I did a nose job on the Rasorback, to make it a lot sleeker.
I should start this little review by stating that I have never really been much of a kit basher. I tend to like to build
my models like they're shown on the box. I take it as a challenge, to see how close I can get. However, for the one-year build
challenge we had this year at IPMS London, I decided to get wild.
My project was to take a Hobbycraft 1/48 F-19 'Stealth
Fighter' (a rip-off of the Testor's design) and convert it to 1/72 scale. The second I saw this kit at a garage sale,
I knew I wanted to do something with it. I just didn't know what. That was in July 2002. Then it came to me! I'd change the
scale and use some old VF-1 Valkyrie parts to create my own unique Macross aircraft! That was the start of the A-55E Razorback...
The
basic F-19 looked like a good kit, but once the building began it showed its true colours. Like all other Hobbycrafts I've
built, the fit and precision were terrible. However, there were a few saving graces. One was that the wings were molded into
the fuselage, which means there was no sanding there. The other was that the kit came with two cockpit canopies. The standard
F-19 'wedge' type was there, but so was a more bulbous, unstealthy 'training' cockpit. This got me thinking...
I made
a new 1/72 cockpit using the bomb bay from an old 1/72 scale Airfix He-177. Not only did it give me a flat surface to work
with, it fit right in the F-19 body AND it slanted! Thus, I was able to get a back seat that was actually slightly raised
above the front. I used the seats and rear console from a junked Hobbycraft F-18B (1/72 scale, of course), and the side consoles
came from the original F-19 cockpit tub. The front panel instruments were also from the F-19. To change the appearance of
the plane (and to fill in the horrendous mismatch of the parts), the 'training' canopy rails were glued on and Milliputted.
This gives the appearance of a single piece opening canopy, with no rails.
The fuselage was unaltered except for the
rear. The fins were left off, and in their place I put two modified VF-1 booster packs I found lying around. The packs had
to be cut to fit over the body, and special cradles were built up using Milliput. The packs were also modified using Milliput.
The exhaust nozzles were modded too. The F-19 has rounded exhaust outlets, but I chopped off the outer roundy parts and filled
them in. This was done to give the exhausts a square cross section (very Macross-y) and to make room for the boosters. I also
left the beaver tail elevator off the back, since it was ugly and didn't fit.
The front landing gear is stock, except
for the catapult spur, which came from a VF-1. The rear gear are a composite. The upper legs (an inverted V) were original,
but the F-18 style horizontal legs were cut off. The were replaced by a new horizontal bar carrying two tires. This new member
was made from the struts off the old He-177, and I used its tires as well.
The weapons on the belly are very slightly modified AGM-65 Mavericks. These came with the F-19, and are hung
on filed down and modified rails made from pieces left over from the 1/144 Geberra Tetra's Sturm Booster. Milliput filled
in the cracks, as well as giving me a blunt nose on the missiles. The main weapon is a modded missile from the old Cobra Moray
hydrofoil made in the mid 1980's. This was perfect, once I chopped off its front fins and
flattened its nose!
The
'head turret' is a VF-1J head with shortened VF-1S guns on it. The whole thing is mounted on the neck for the old 1/1/44 GP-01
Fb kit. The Fb also gave up its chest vernier holders to make the front end puffer jet blocks. I used the nozzles for these
blocks at the rear of the Razorback. I drilled 4 small holes in the bottom of the plane, and put the nozzles in.
Landing gear doors were very troublesome. I was able to glue the front right to the body, and thus avoid problems
with interference. However, the back doors are so big that they wouldn't attach properly at all. I intended to have the rear
halves of the doors closed, but the fit was so bad, it looked better just to have them open. Eventually I just glued the doors
to the underside of the wings, keeping them out of the way but ensuring they were there. No way you could land on a carrier
(in space or otherwise!) with the doors hanging as low as they did...
So, there you have it. That's a fairly quick
run down of how I made the A-55E from whatever spare parts I had lying around. The kit was assembled using Testor's liquid
cement, and painted using Tamiya acrylics (XF-12 IJN-Grey for the bottom/boosters, XF-14 JA Grey for the top). It was coated
in about 8 coats of thinned Future. Decals came from various VF-1 kits, as well as some old plane kits, although I'm stymied
to recall which ones come from where. The kit is painted entirely by hand, with no airbrushing anywhere.
Above: Here's the before and after on the landing gear. The black is the original F-19, the blue is old Airfix
1/72 He-177. The Heinkel also gave up its wheels for the Razorback.
Above: This the cockpit in the first stage of building. The floor is one of the bomb bay doors from the old Airfix
1/72 He-177, the seats and rear console are from a cruddy old Hobbycraft F-18B and the side consoles were cut from the F-19's
original cockpit tub.
Above: This shows some of the modifications to the F-19 as it was being made into the Razorback. The cockpit frame from
the F-19 is being milliputted down, while the inverted centerbodies in the intakes are, at this stage, also being filled in
with milliput. I've also got the VF-1 Super Valkyrie booster roughly fitted for this shot, but the mounting cradle isn't on
there yet.
Above: Getting there... This shows the rear of the Razorback. The cradles for the booster packs are in, sanded
and painted, and the rear engine face has been put in. You can see that I've chopped off and filled the outermost exhaust
vanes. Those are the hemispheres on either side of the square nozzles. Note too the cut out in the top outer corner
of the nozzles to accomodate the booster packs.
Above: Done! This shows the Razorback from the side. The VF-1 Booster packs reflect off the surface of the wings
due to the high gloss Future shine! You can also see the externally mounted and modified Maverick missiles. The ventral
turret is a VF-1J head with VF-1S lasers cut down. The small block below the U.N. SPACY writing are the open chest verniers
from the old 1/144 GP-01 Fb kit, without the big vernier nozzles installed. The nozzles were used at the rear of the
kit.
Above: The belly of the beast. This is the Razorback's underside. You can see the vernier cluster near the
nose, as well as the small nozzles near the back, both from the old GP-01 Fb kit. The white weapon in the weapons bay
is a modified missile from an old G.I. Joe Moray hydrofoil. You can also see the 'neck' supporting the head turret.
It came from the Fb as well!
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