1/72 Tamiya F-84 Thunderjet

Thunderjet of the cross of Christ

by Fernando Borges

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The Thunderjet was the Portuguese Air Force first jet fighter and Portugal received as  many as 125 F-84´s in the 1950´s through MDAP. These were used by two fighter squadrons: 20th and 21st FS at Air Base 2 in Ota.(near Lisbon)

When war broke out in the Portuguese colonies in 1961, 25 Thunderjets were sent to Air Base 9 in Luanda and these formed the 93rd FS where they were  used in the heavy fighting in Angola and Mozambique. These were the last operational Thunderjets in the world.  

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My kit depicts a F-84G of the 21st FS "Barretes" in 1956 and i used the Tamiya kit and Eduard´s zoom fret. I used Ferrario Artist acrilic silver paint spray can for the paint job, which I used for the first time and I liked the result and Humbrol paints.

Decals came from the Santacruz sheet, but I didn´t use the portuguese crosses because they seemed a little oversized,so I used ones from  "Esquadrão 33" .

"168" came from USAF surplus stocks with us serial nr 51-16648 and later was used in Angola until 1970 when it was phased out.

Hope you like it.

Fernando

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Photos and text © by Fernando Borges