Need A Boost? (Area 88)
The finished model:
The scene:
Although the subterranean missile, the “Grand Slam” failed to destroy the base, the detonation destroyed a significant portion of the runway. With the base facing attack from the Desert Aircraft Carrier, Mickey decides to attempt a nearly vertical rocket-assisted takeoff to get his F-100D Super Sabre into the air.
Check out the original manga scene from Chapter 051 “Battle Line 88” here:
The story:
Although the F-14A with the Playboy bunny mark is Mickey’s signature aircraft in the Area 88 series, he didn’t actually start off with that plane. His original plane was the F-100D Super Sabre. Unfortunately, despite being Mickey’s first ride, it really didn’t have time to shine before it was unceremoniously destroyed (along with nearly every other plane) when the Wolfpack mercenary group launches a surprise attack on the base. However, after Mickey’s (first) F-14A is shot down by the Desert Aircraft Carrier, the F-100D Super Sabre gets this chance to shine. The base under attack, the runways all but destroyed, and Mickey decides to make a desperate move to get a plane up in the air.
It’s arguably the F-100D’s finest moment in the manga series, so it seemed the obvious choice to include it in my 1/144 scale project.
The kit:
- F-100D Super Sabre by Otaki
The build:
If I’m really honest, I’d actually forgotten about this little “moment of glory” for the F-100D, so I thought I’d just have to invent one “off screen”. Mickey had flown it in the first few adventures, but mostly in the background. A good example of this is Shin and Boris getting all the glory during their memorable “folded wings” flight through The Fang – even though Mickey flying his F-100D “up top” and keeping the heat of was equally important to the mission’s success.
Regardless, it’s on the list of Area 88 vehicles – not to mention flown by one of the main characters – so I wanted it in the project. But I originally started working on the ancient Otaki kit with the intention of creating a mid-air explosion scene – basically Mickey slamming on the airbrakes to let a MiG-21 run past before blowing it out of the sky. I even picked out a suitably ancient Airfix boxing for the MiG-21. Of course the Otaki kit is so basic, not really more than 10 pieces in total, that the first thing I did was cut out some space for the air brake. Then I covered up the very shallow wheel wells and got to work on creating something of a cockpit.
However, after re-reading the manga series, I ran across this rocket booster scene and decided to just switch this build up mid-flight. It wasn’t hard, I just got rid of the MiG-21 completely, and got to work making some rocket pods. The biggest problem was un-doing the covers on the wheel wells, and… deciding what to do about the airbrake. Even though the airbrake certainly wasn’t used in the scene, I was quite proud of the work I put into it and ultimately I decided to just call it “comic book action” and leave it in. Maybe Mickey needed a ‘sudden jump’ to get the plane to bounce over the runway debris, right?
Oh well, I’m happy with it. It’s an old kit, but with a little care and attention to thin out the nose intake, and scribe some panel lines, I think I was able to bring out its inner beauty. The biggest problem was really of my own making. I thought I was being clever to leave the tail LED until the last second, but after a bit of paint, the fit got a bit too snug and I ended up pushing the LED right into the middle of the fuselage. I was able to fish it out a bit with some tweezers and a good dose of frustration, but it wasn’t placed nearly as well as I would’ve liked. I basically just had to drop in a blob of CA glue gel and hope for the best. I think I learned my lesson.
All in all though, I think it turned out all right, but feel free to tell me how you feel.
