Vought XF5U build log

1
September 10, 2025
Some examples of the sprue tabs that go over the mating part of a number of parts. It makes the preparation of parts that much longer.
2
September 8, 2025
I wanted to start gluing right away so I started with the wheel wells. Fit and design seems very good.
3
September 8, 2025
Starting on the cockpit tub. The first major modification will be to hollow out the floor, since the XF5U did not have a cockpit floor.
4
September 10, 2025
The cockpit parts after a bit of work to modify the floor and paint the details.
5
September 10, 2025
The cockpit tub is in. Fit is very good but it makes more sense to glue it to the top half of the fuselage rather than the bottom (as in the instructions).
6
September 10, 2025
A view from below. I added a couple of links to the stick, and more detail will come.
In my enthusiasm, I forgot to add the rudder pedals, but I should still be able to.
7
September 10, 2025
I’ve now added feet trough and decided to wall in the part below the cockpit.
8
September 10, 2025
The cockpit as it stands, nearly finished. I added a lever for the seat (back) and throttle controls (front) on the left hand side.
9
September 10, 2025
I managed to squeeze in the rudder pedals. The feet trough are barely visible underneath.
I used the decal for the instruments panel and I think it looks ok.
10
September 10, 2025
The right hand side needed less added details, as it’s quite busy with the fuse board and radio gear.
The oxygen bottle (and seat, obviously) will come later. I just wanted to get to the point of closing the fuselage halves together.
11
September 11, 2025
After checking all the mating surfaces and cleaning up bits of flash here and there, it’s time to glue this beast together!
Again, fit is rather good, with the wheel wells acting as structural spacers.
12
September 13, 2025
Adding structural parts now. The fit is still very good,the parts only need to be cleaned up a bit.
I decided to swap the left and right parts (compared to the instructions) for the rudder and the propeller extension. The rudder only has the lower row of rivets on one side, and the propeller extension has a visit panel that extends over the end of the parts, and that looked unpromising. Now the panel ends with the part, and there is a small panel on the other side.
13
September 23, 2025
Propeller hubs and tail surfaces added. I considered positioning the engine cooling flaps partly open but decided to go simple and I glued them shut. The top ones needed a small spacer to sit flush with the top of the pancake… er, I mean: fuselage.
14
September 23, 2025
Fit and engineering is good (similar parts can’t be inverted), but what a strange-looking beast!
15
November 10, 2025
Some detail work : gun-holes plugged (there were none on the two built prototypes), a headrest added to the armor plate, and the seat mounting structure built.
16
November 10, 2025
The armor plate is installed at an angle and the support are glued against it after trimming (they are much too long, I’m not sure why).
Also, the hole for the gun-sight is plugged (none mounted on the prototypes).
17
November 10, 2025
The air inlet inserts have a good fit if test-fitted, adjusted and glued properly. No putty necessary for me.
The fit of the windshield is very good. The tabs on the rear canopy do not match, though, so they need to be clipped off (good fit otherwise).
18
November 11, 2025
The busy seat is in (I cut the plastic above the bar in the back to run the belts through it) and the oxygen bottle. That's good enough for me !
19
November 11, 2025
I plugged the holes for the bomb rack. If there is one gripe I have about this kit, it's the fact that it's designed as a what-if operational plane, rather than the prototypes as they stood: no guns, no gun-sight, no bomb racks...
20
November 11, 2025
...and no arresting hook ! The kit is designed with the hook only in its extended position: spectacular but speculative. The covers (which are not complete in the kit) should not even be visible on the prototype, but I can live with the inaccuracy on this one.
21
November 11, 2025
The beast is painted, top and bottom, using Model Master Dark Sea Blue.
Happy with the result. I could have used a bit of putty here and there, but I’m trying to keep the build moving on, and I can live with less than my best for this one.
22
November 12, 2025
The landing gear parts are ready after a fair bit of preparation: they are delicate and take time to take off the sprues and clean up, and some need to be modified (the ‘spring’ added to the front of the main gear should in fact be a cylinder).
Also I added brake lines, and painted the rear gear so that it doesn’t look like it’s fully extended, as if it bears no weight).
23
November 13, 2025
I added a couple of ‘wire bundles’ leading to the boxes on each side of the wheel wells to busy them up a bit.
Since it’s a prototype that was worked on for a long time, I opted to keep it rather organized and neat.
24
November 12, 2025
The gears in : also a fiddly process which needs to be done in the right order. Because I added the gear after gluing the boxes to the fuselage, I had to shorten the mounting cross rod a tad.
Also, adding the doors is best done later, but then the retracting mechanism is glued blindly, without being sure it will match the doors placement.
25
November 12, 2025
The rear landing gear is fiddly too. Also, I believe it’s mounted backwards: the wheels and spring should both be behind the axis (I prepared it this way but ended up gluing the spring on the front, and decided to leave it at that).
26
December 1, 2025
A big gripe about the decals : there are no tail markings (model and serial numbers, etc.), and what is there is either crazy what-if decorations (USAAF for a navy design?!?) or the wrong size.
What’s more, the decals are very thick and don’t conform to the curved panels or to the panel lines and rivets.
I wish there was an aftermarket alternative!

Boris B Автор
Hi Frank, No, no eduard PE for this kit, unfortunately. I used bits left over from a P-40 fret to make the throttle control. Also eduard US seatbelts will go on the seat.
By the way, my trick for depth on PE levers and such is to dip them several times in paint until a ball shape is achieved.

1 12 September, 11:10

Lochsa River
checking a flapjack....

13 September, 01:52

Sam Shay
Following!

11 November, 17:45

Boris B Автор
Now that I'm in the finishing stages, I need to find 4 proper main wheels: they should look like those on a F4U Corsair (or F6F Hellcat).
If anybody has some in their spares, even sad ones that got replaced with nice resin ones, I'm interested!

12 November, 19:17

bughunter
Wonderful progress!
Have you lost the kit wheels or are they wrong? Sorry, I can't help.

12 November, 19:32

Boris B Автор
The kit wheels are completely wrong, which is strange because they are quite visible on the few pictures we have of the XF5U.
The other inaccuracies in the kit are more minor, or linked to the what-if nature of the kit (guns,…). As for the design of the wheel wells, for instance, who knows how they came up with those, but I doubt they had access to original Vought documents (besides what is on the web), or the kit would feel more authentic overall.
I don't mean to sound too critical, since the engineering is good and the kit rather enjoyable to build.

1 13 November, 09:54

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Building the Kitty Hawk XF5U kit, pretty much out of the box… Well, there will be some modifications, but I'm hoping for a quick build.
The fit seems very good so far. The plastic is on the soft side, with fine details. There is a little bit of flash here and there, which can be a bit confusing on small parts, since there is so little documentation on this aircraft.
The molding tabs come over the mating surfaces on a number of parts, which makes the clean up longer.

Vought XF5U Flying Flapjack

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