1/48 Testors F-19: The Game Changer

“STEALTH!” was one of those things that captured the collective imagination. I certainly can’t think of another time when esoteric aircraft technology was part of the culture. Maybe when Lindberg crossed the Atlantic? Maybe the advent of the jet engine? I don’t know, I wasn’t around then. But I was around when ‘Stealth’ became a thing.

Picture this: The world was at one of the many heights of the cold war. Missiles were to be MIRVed and hidden in freight train consists, the Starwars missile defence system was only one or two trillion dollars away from becoming a reality. And mixed in with all of that, there were rumors of an airplane that was completely invisible to the enemy’s radar.

A complete game changer.

Pre-internet, there were those ‘in the know’ who described ominous black fighters roaming the skies behind enemy lines, striking at any airplane or ground target with complete impunity. And the artwork! Oh man, that artwork was amazing! Just look at these crazy things:

This spurred on techno thriller novelists and flight sim developers to create some fantastic content. I played the crap out of the Microprose F-19 sim. I wreaked havoc over the North Cape. Absolutely no Soviet was safe… so long as I flew my F-19 at 50 feet above the deck, full flaps and 10 knots above stall speed. Yeah… otherwise I was pretty much toast.

It wasn’t too long after that we got the first grainy images of the F-117 and a reality check. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a cool shaped hunter killer of all things communist. But, as we found out in the first Gulf War, it was an extremely effective strike aircraft when used properly.

The Testaleri F-19

The plastic model industry was not going to let this opportunity get by! Before the F-117 was revealed, everyone seemed to have an interpretation of a ‘Stealth’ airplane. Monogram went with an elongated fuselage and Italeri went with what was generally acknowledged to be THE ‘Stealth Fighter’ shape, pear shaped as it was.

And these models were very popular. Depending which old ‘model expurt’ you ask, there were anywhere between 100,000 and 25 billion of these models sold. I might have those figures slightly off but, forty years later, if you can still easily find a kit of an airplane that did not exist, I think it is safe to say that bushels of these models were sold.

I kinda, sorta recall that Testors regularly teamed up with Italeri and other model manufacturers. If Scalemates is to be believed, it was Italeri that first boxed this kit of the F-19 in 1985 and then it was re-boxed by Testors a year later.

I remember seeing F-19s on the shelves at my local hobby shop when I was a kid. I very much remember the box art of the Italeri version. I also remember being interested but this was about the time when other interests were competing for my time and attention. Ultimately, I felt the need to hang up the orange tube of stringy model glue and my dull xacto knife.

So, I never got one.

I have talked about the crappy old kits I used to build. Oh yeah, there were some real stinkers that needed a half pound of putty and a whole lotta dry and wet sanding. I don’t miss them. And I don’t have any sort of need to revisit any of them. I might have acquired a few more tools and skills over the years, but those models are still crappy.

But I always wanted one of these F-19s.

When I started building this old school model, I got a lot of comments. Most of them were of the “what is that?” variety. Some were of the “Cool!” variety. But more than a few were variations of “What the hell are you doing?”

And I get it. Tamiya, this is not. Hell, this is not even Revell. But, armed with several grades of wood rasps, and a whole lot of nostalgia, I went for it. And, no, I did not go crazy – this was a straight out of box build with some borrowed decals. Considering this model has less than 50 pieces and I did it in-flight, it went together rather quickly.

Knowing that I would be closing this one up and making it an in-flight model, I did not go wild on the interior. I painted the tub with a medium grey, I masked off the instruments and painted them nato black. This was followed by drybrushing. The instrument panel was simply painted black before it was drybrushed. The bang seat frame was painted black and drybrushed as well. The cushion got a green colour and I painted in the shoulder harnesses. While it is not anywhere close to today’s model kits, once it is painted up, it doesn’t look too bad for a closed cockpit.

I wanted to try something different for the canopy. I found a recipe for a transparent paint mix online and I sprayed this on the inside of the canopy as well as the sensor window in the snout of the airplane:

• 50% Clear Gloss
• 30% Clear Yellow
• 10% Clear Orange
• 5% Clear Red
• 5% Gold

The only parts of the build that gave me trouble were the underwing joins, the rudders and the air inlets. All of these required a lot of filling and sanding. And I mean a lot. On the other hand, the fit of the gear doors and the bomb bay doors was perfect. And I mean as good as any modern kit perfect. Better than most, actually.

Painting started with black primer over the entire model followed by 3 colours of paint mottling through photo etched mottling masks. I agree with the concept: these should save time or make the mottling much easier for those who do not have a fine tipped airbrush. But I had difficulty seeing how much mottling was being applied until I lifted off the mask. I am sure this can be improved with experience and practice.

The top coat was a mix of 4 parts Tamiya Nato Black to 1 part Tamiya Hull Red and this was thinned down to 40:60 paint to thinner. This thinner mix allowed me to slowly build up the colour on the model and not obliterate the mottling underneath. I was able to fix the problem areas by going over them a few more times.

Want to See a Video? Of course you do!

Last Thing

To me, the F-19 is an interesting bookmark from the 80s. While it never existed in the sense of an actual airplane, it did exist. It existed as a concept, a model, a flight sim, and as a crazy idea. Oh sure, we can look at this model and laugh at how “wrong” it was. But I think that is missing the point. For me the model is not about some flying airplane or something in a museum. The model represents a brief but very memorable point in time.

And I am glad I made it (despite the few flaws it has).

As for availability, I have seen more than a few of these kits at hobby shows and contests. Of course, as soon as I wanted one, there were none to be found. I hounded my LHS for a few years asking to message me if he ever got one in but, I guess I hit a dry spell. Then, in the fall of 2024, I saw there were two available on Facebook Marketplace. I contacted the seller, Chris Viscomi, and we worked out a deal. Chris is a great guy and runs sales of kits every Tuesday and Thursday. He is always getting good models in. Chris is based out of Massachusetts but will ship anywhere. Find him on Facebook and he will send you lists of what he has.

So, what do you think? What do you remember about the ‘Stealth’ concept? Have you built one? Do you like tackling these old school models? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear them!