US F-106B Delta Dart

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a 1/72 F-106A kit and my love of the old Convair Delta interceptors was born. When I recently started building a few 1/48 scale aircraft, I decided I needed an F-106. I bought this particular kit for three reasons, the A-model was out of stock, I think the B-model is a better looking aircraft, and this kit comes with decals for the 159th FS/125th FW FANG in the box (the 125th was my hometown ANG unit when I was a kid). The box was larger than I was expecting, and the reason is that this is a highly detailed kit that requires a lot of parts and even included some photo etched parts. The detail is outstanding, even in the cockpit. The cockpit has extremely fine raised detail that is augmented by beautiful decals that go overtop of said detailing. The decals were a bit of a pain to get lined-up properly, but once lined-up and allowed to set, the result is worth it. The large canopy has excellent detailing for the frame, even including nice rivet details. Because of the size, the canopy and windscreen were probably the easiest to paint I've ever seen. The kits includes the option to build the kit with the weapons bay open or closed, which is nice. Included are nicely detailed AIM-4 Falcon missiles and AIR-2 Genie nuclear rockets that can mount in a hightly detailed weapons bay if you chose to show it open. There was absolutely no flash on any of the parts and the pieces fit together very well with almost no fitment issues except for some very minor issues with the intakes that only required moving the intakes around a bit to get proper alignment. The only two problems I found with the kit are the total lack of pilot figures for the cockpit and the fact that the shade of bluse used for the 125th FW tailstripe was a bit too light. Since I build my kits as if they are in flight, the lack of pilot figures is a minor annoyance, but doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the finished model on my shelf. The gear doors did require some trimming and filling to assemble closed, but that's a result of my own preferences and not the kit (although I've said before I really wish companies would just give us the extra parts for closed landing gear doors so we have the choice without having to do the trimming and filling). Once I painted the finished aircraft in ADC gray and applied the blue FANG tailstripes, I decided I really liked how it looked on the shelf, so much so that I actually bought a 1/48 F-102 and tracked down a set of 125th FW decals for it. I have to admit that two ADC gray Convair Deltas with the blue tailstripes look great sitting together, so great I'm thinking about buying an F-106A so go with them. If you're like me and a fan of the Convair delta-wing designs, then you'll love this kit.