This
is my latest project, Trumpeter’s F-105G Thunderchief
“Wild Weasel” in 1/32 scale. Let
me just start by saying that you’ll need a lot of shelf space for this beast!
The final length including pitot tube is over 26 inches, and it builds up
to be an impressive kit.
I
was quite pleased with the model overall. It
has nice recessed panel lines, the armament is both abundant and accurate, and
the decals by Two Bobs are outstanding. However,
as with all kits, it has a few issues that need to be addressed.
The vertical stabilizer is misshapen, and I replaced the kit fin with
Cutting Edge’s replacement set. The
shape of the nose is not accurate either (it’s shaped somewhat like a golf
tee), and Cutting Edge has a set available to correct this as well.
However, I elected to correct this myself using putty.
The
kit cockpit leaves a lot to be desired, so I bought Verlinden’s replacement
set. The Verlinden set is a big
disappointment, and I can honestly say that I would not recommend using it.
By the looks of things, the Black Box set is the way to go.
In any event, I made the best of it and accentuated the Verlinden set
with various details such as wiring, oxygen hoses, and other scratch built
items.
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The kit
is designed to have moveable control surfaces, but I elected to glue them in one
position. Each wing has 5
individual spoilers that can be glued in either the open or closed position, but
since these were never open while the plane was parked, I glued them in the
closed position. The fit of these
parts is not good, and there was a lot of subsequent sanding and rescribing
involved.
The
main landing gear is VERY weak, so I replaced them with a white metal set from
Scale Aircraft Conversions. The
landing gear and wheel wells were spruced up with various bits of plumbing and
brake lines.
The
afterburner section of the engine is an absolute horror show!
Not only is it made out of 4 pieces creating 4 ugly seams, but it’s
riddled with ejector pin marks. To
resolve this, I created an Excel spread sheet, used black outlines with gray
fill in the cells, and printed it out on photo paper.
I then oversprayed the sheet with a light coat of Model Master’s
metallic Burnt Metal, cut it to the correct circumference, rolled it, and
inserted it into the engine with the one seam at the top.
The end result is much more pleasing to the eye, if I do say so myself.
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All in all, the kit
went together very quickly. I used
MM enamels and airbrushed the camouflage free hand.
After allowing the paint to dry several days, a coat of Future was
applied to gloss things up. As I
mentioned earlier, the decals are outstanding, and they went on with no trouble
at all. After sealing the decals
with another coat of Future, the model was given a black wash.
A coat of Dull Cote was airbrushed on the kit to finish off the painting.
For final details, I scratch built boarding ladders and FOD covers, and
the RBF tags are from my color printer.
John
Special
thanks to Scott Craig and his website www.craigcentral.com
for invaluable info and photos.
Please check it out!
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