TheRealMrEd

You might be correct, but they DO fit precisely atop the scale 1/72 drawings in Bert Kinzey's "Detail & Scale Vol 33, F--100 Super Sabre". He has been known to get a few wrong, now and then, But I'm not sure. I don't have anything more to add on the subject, except for a few more pics for those interested: and one more of the 450 gallon: Interestingly, I did run across one picture of an early F-101 "C" (I think -- can't remember), that had these same F-100 style tanks as above, rather than the straight taper rear end; I'm pretty sure this was an early and late fuel tank matter. Ed

This F-84E appears to have the bottles in natural metal, possibly aluminum: Ed

The photo of the real plane and the lower item in the model pieces pic are the correct shape for the 450 gallon tanks for F-100's. Haven't seen the kit tanks you're talking about, but the picture above is correct. I have a few others that verify this. If they have the straight tapered rear section, they are correct for the F-101 series. Ed

Hi, Got nothing to share on the skinny tanks, but would like to give Starfighter and others contemplating using the Monogram F-101B tanks as 450 gallon tanks for an F-100, the the rear of the tanks on an F-100 had an ogive curve on the rear end, not a straight taper as on the 101-B. They probably figured out that it was cheaper to build the straight taper tanks, later on: Here are 3 out of 4 F-100 tanks: with the middle one needed a little filler. Ed

What Dana said. Also, since you usually have to put a layer of white down before you apply the dayglo or orange or red, I usually just cut Tamiya tape masks to the same size as a slightly oversize decal (You can use a larger cut-out decal to draw the mask pattern), apply the masks to the me white layer, and after the red/orange, etc. topcoat is dry, remove the paint masks and apply the correct sized decal, leaving the painted border surrounding the decal. Ed

Thanks guys, It's a model I've wanted for a long time. Just gave up hope on anyone ever giving me an easy way out! Ed

Hello again. It's now time to make some tail feathers for this bird. TGO did his with a combination of the F-105D kit parts, and some more parts from a Revell F-101B. Since I didn't have a spare Revell F-101B to sacrifice for the job (actually I did have one I could have molded some parts from, but as I've said before - I'm lazy!), I decided to find another way. Actually, assuming you have a few spares laying about -- and most people attempting this build would have -- then it gets to be simpler. First, you need a J-57 rear end, and since these were used on the F-101B, the F-100 and F-102 series, you should be able to come up with something. Next you need an outer surface or tail cone. I happened to have an old wing tip tank from the Mach2 B-45 kit that was laying about in the spares box. I needed a piece about 18mm diameter at the big, end, tapering to about 14mm at the small end, with the whole thing being about 12mm, from front to rear. So, I marked the needed distances on the tank, and cut the parts off with a razor saw. I allowed quite a bit of extra length on both ends, for sanding to shape, because my saw cuts on curved bits is often pretty bad: Above right, after gluing the two parts together and filling the space that would have been occupied by the B-45 wing, I used a small sanding drum on a Dremel tool and some hand sanding to smooth the outside and thin the inside from both ends, to get something scale-like. I had a beautiful resin part left over from the XF-102 model I did earlier, in fact it was the perfect size, after it was sawed to length. However, the tail end of the afterburner was right at the back end of the body, not inset as on the F-105: So, I had to sand the outsides of the J-57 casting to fit just a bit into the rear end of my new rear fuselage tail cone: The insides of both parts were primed, painted and given a black wash before assembling them together, and gluing to the back of the YF-105A body. It ended up looking like so: After a light coat of Alclad II grey primer, it's starting to look like I might get away with this build after all.... As you can see from the front view, the "wasp-waist" is pretty much gone, and she's starting to look like the prototype: Well, there's plenty of detail sanding left, around the cockpit area; there are a few spots where the plastic strips still look a little like boards laid side by side, but I'll work it all out. It'll just take some more time.... Back after MORE sanding, priming, etc. etc.... Ed

Well, I'm back again, this time with something more fun than just sanding and filling --- for a little while! Next item on the agenda is the turtle-deck, or rear part of the canopy area. When TGO did his, he glued together wood sheet, sanded it to shape and then pulled a vacuform from that master. In the end, it didn't work out exactly right and he still had to fabricate some plastic parts to make it all work. Being the lazy modeler I am, I decided to find another way that would hopefully be more simple. What I came up with is the following: First I took the kit's F-105D canopy and did a little surgery, sawing off the two arms on either side, but keeping the center part: Above, only was arm is shown removed, The single mount type canopy was used only on the first two prototypes and the first 10 F-105Bs. Next, for a donor turtle-deck, I called on an old bagged Testor's/Italieri RF-84F Thunderflash kit. First, I glued the rear windows into place using GS-Hypo cement (watch cement), because it dries clear and can be cleaned up and/or smoothed with rubbing alcohol later. I have not had much luck using the standard 71% drug store alcohol, so I use the 91% kind, which you sometimes have to track down. Then, I sat the modified canopy from the F-105D kit onto the taped together RF-84F fuselage halves, and the using scrap plastic card, I shimmed the RF-84F turtle-deck out to meet the width of the F-105D canopy. After the glue had dried, I used the canopy to determine how much material to remove from the widened turtle-deck to fit the F-105D canopy: I then sawed off the modified turtle-deck from the RF-84F kit, added a little more plastic card on top, and sanded to close to the right shape: Next I used a resin casting I had made from an Airfix (or was it MPC?) kit. I duplicated this to add to an Italieri F-84F (which still is not finished...), and made a few spares at the time. This is the piece on the Airfix kit that fits behind the seat area, but is missing in both the Italieri F-84F and RF-84F versions. This is the part that you see in the rear windows, similar to turtle-decked P-47's, RF-84's, etc. from Republic. In this case the piece was sawn and sanded, top, bottom and sides, until it fit under the new turtledeck, atop the YF-105A fuselage. Then, a small part was sawn out of the top front, to allow the piece to somewhat slide up closer to the YF-105A cockpit rear, and then it was glued using CA to the fuselage: TGO made his out of flat plastic scrap, but again -- I'm quite lazy! Above, the arrow points to the added part, while "A" refers to an odd part, perhaps a hinge(?) added to the rudder. Her it is smeared down with liquid glue; I'll clean it up a bit later. "B" shows the now filled-in area where the tail hook used to reside, and "C" shows 3 scrap pieces of plastic added to the front, to help reinforce the nose cone join later. At this point, the rear area was painted inside and out with interior grey (Dark Gull Grey, FS# 36321), which became standard in the U.S. around 1953. Then, the windows were masked and the turtle-deck was glued to the fuselage with the G-S watch cement at the front and regular liquid cement at the rear, after the front had dried. The GS also helped to fill some of the inevitable gaps: It should be noted that I temporarily fixed both windscreen and the canopy into place to determine precisely where, for-and-aft, to position the turtle deck. At this point, since more drying and sanding lay ahead, I chose to go ahead and add the Hasegawa F-105B nosecone: I put regular tube cement on the three nose reinforcing pieces, and used liquid glue all around the join, taking care to align the vertial seam on the fuse and the nosecone with one another. Only after the fact, did I remember that I had forgot to add any additional nose weight -- hope that doesn't return to haunt me later! Well off to more sanding and drying! Are we having fun yet? Ed

Get 'em while they're hot.....E-Bay Ed

Moving right along, at this stage I've decided it might be a good idea to do a re-scribing of some panel lines. I'm just using the lines on my drawing as a guide -- I have no way of judging their validity. At this point I also sanded the re-enforcement panels on the top and bottom sides of both wings --- but only one side at a time, so that I could see the remainder of the lines on the other side for comparison: You can see in the above photo just how little filler putty I ended up with on the model, to this point. Next I started the final work on the items needed to close up the fuselage. In the next pic, I show the little scrap card "shelves" I glued to ea ch side of the cockpit area behind where the seat will fit, to support a piece of scrap card, cut to size, for sort of a rear "package tray": Another item is the wing spar. TGO determined that his best way was to trim the hole larger on one fuselage half and then insert the spare from the outside. Since the 1/72 scale spar seems different from the one on the 1/48 scale kit, I decided on another approach. Trapping the spar between the unglued fuselage halves, I pushed the spar all the way to one side and made a small mark on the spar with a #11 X-Acto blade, then, still holding the fuselage halves together, I slid the spar as far as it would go the other way and made another mark. The space between the two marks is is how much I need to widen the spar, which in my case was only about 1mm, while I expected 3 or 3. (I seem to recall that TGO ended up with 2mm.) Let me say here that id I had shimmed the initial flapped cutouts of the fuselage to stick out the the bulge between the fattest part of both ends, this distance would have been more. So, should you attempt this, don't use my measurement, use whatever is needed when you do it! In any event, I added on piece of scrap card of the appropriate thickness, after sawing the spar in two down the center. I also glued in some scrap plastic card on both sides of the spar as re-enforcement: I also prepped the stock kit cockpit. I had ordered a Trumpeter F-105D resin replacement set, but decided not to use it here. The only non-stock item I did was to scan a picture of the instrument panel in the YF-105A flight manual, massaged in a little in Photoshop, because it had been photographed at a slight angle and I had to correct the perspective somewhat: I multiplied this actual picture by 5.333 percent, to scale it down to 1/72. Then I printed it on bright white paper at 360 DPI on my Epson printer. It ended up looking okay, but I did have to removed the detail from the kits' F-105D i.P. with a small chisel first. Then, I just glued it on with white glue, and later a topcoat of flat acrylic. I'll try to include a shot of the cockpit later -- if I can remember to do so! TGO did his larger model with punched-out card and Mike Grant decals, but that's a LOT of trouble in this scale, and where there won't ever be a clear view of the I.P. . Anyway, here's what it looks like after gluing in the nose gear bay, the cockpit with I.P. and the rear "package tray": All that remains to be added before buttoning up is the wing spar, which I of course forgot, and had to pry the newly-glued fuse halves apart to stick it in later! By the way, be sure to glue it in sloping down and forward at the ends, NOT the other way 'round! At last, here it is with the fuselage (what there is of it to this point anyway...) all buttoned up: The legends are as follows: A - is where I added a piece of scrap plastic card cut to fit the now-missing tail hook's gap. A thinner sandwich of card will be glued on after the center one here has dried, fluffing it out to a suitable width before sanding to shape. B - A strong clamp is used here to force the bottom front of the tail together as closely as possible, as removal of the intake there will require further filling and sanding to shape. C - More scrap fill card of various thicknesses, used to fill the gap along the spine D - The "package tray", and E - the correctly-installed wing spar. And it's drying time again.... Ed

Martin, The Ink Freeze looks a lot like baking soda. Not being a chemist, I can;t say for certain. You might try a small non-critical trial run... Ed

Martin, Do a search for this product : Papilio Ink Freeze Pigment Drying Agent It is a fine powder than you sprinkle atop the just-printed ink jet decal, and let set for about 15 seconds, then wipe off with a artist's foam pad. You can then spray a fixative over the top. I use the Papilio fixative as it is flexible and clear and goes on with a very fine mist. Their own website is not fun to navigate, but there is a lot of detailed info on printing decals there. A couple of years back, Papilio offered a trial kit which had paper and everything you needed to do the job. I have used their products with other manufacturer's decal paper with good results. While not perfect, it does a good job of keeping the ink from smearing or running. That being said, I often print four or 5 of each figure, as some will inevitably be better than others. I used this stuff for the special decals on my Laven F-84B and the YA-7F models earlier. Ed

Fubar57, Please recheck your links -- the second one DOES NOT downlaod the Amarillo USAF type font! It downloads a brandname "Amarillo" script font whose real name is "Marigold". That site just adopted the Amarillo name for it's own use... Ed

Yeah Dave, That was issue. I use an old copy of Photoshop CS-4 and imported the font, but unlike other font, mine only shows up as one size. That got me to wandering whether there might be something wrong with my version. My last time around, I just scanned some black decals for what I wanted, changed the color in Photoshop to Insignia Blue, and then printed two copies on my Epson Inkjet, using clear decal paper, then just added the second layer (to darken the color) atop the first decal when that had dried: Somewhere online and years ago, I found the colors swatches ".ACO" files that could be plugged into Photoshop, to have ready to go color swatches for USAAC, USN, etc. and many other nationalities. You might just try a search for "color Swatches" or whatever they're called for your photo software. Ed

Yes Cookie, Info on the YF-105A seems pretty scarce, unfortunately. Hi Stuart , or to paraphrase "It's REALLY darkest right before they kick your .... behind parts"! Ed