VT Red Sox Fan

Martin, You have done nothing but blow my socks off--your attention to detail, skill & knowledge set a new bar to strive for--looking forward to this--looking at your blog, it makes me wonder if one of the after market crowd should lean forward to make a new F-105B nose section--if there monitoring, I bet your finished product will lead to an update--thats this amateurs plan anyway Best, Erwin

Martin—I am joining @billn53 pulling up a chair—this is going to be awesome!

One last item on the topic of rectangles on Honey Pot's nose--if you look at the old Revell decals for Memphis Belle, you will see there is is a black warning rectangle roughly in line with AF outstanding unit award--it has about the same dimensions as the rectangle in the photo of Honey Pot--perhaps this upper rectangle is a warning rectangle as the Revell decal sheet indicates--sorry for the fuzzy rendition below--based on this data--2 Vietnam photos of 2 F-105s w/ the armament box beneath the gas ports, the photo of Honey Port w/ fuzzy rectangles & Revell's decal that correlated w/ the rectangle on Honey Pot I feel a little more confident on my plan to place the armament stencil beneath the gas port & rectangle beneath the wind screen--I wonder who Revell (most likely Monogram since I believe Revell bought them out before the 1/72 version of their 1/48 F-105) used to research their decals--thank you all for the inputs!

@Corsairfoxfouruncle & @Sabrejet--you guys rock! This thread is now the most clear cut discussion of this ongoing discussion on this topic--I usually use foil & Alclad 2 (for compound curve areas) for my builds--based on the above, I am thinking an shade like Alclad 2 steal to replicate vice the dull side of foil. @72modeler--I hope I didn't highjack your thread to much w/ the graduate level F-86 knowledge crew--this elementary level kid fully appreciates the ability to ask and share info... best Erwin

Martin, you nailed it as usual thank you for the info--I appreciate the NMF background... cheers, Erwin

Thank you all for this very informative thread--apologize if I am taking this thread one more deviation off track, but I have a very basic question on the NMF F-86 that I have not been able to find an answer on (I am sure I missed lurking somewhere out there). As everyone knows, NMF P-51Ds had their wings lacquered to improve the laminar airflow--is a Korean War F-86 wing NMF or lacquered? I understand the slats/flaps were likely NMF, so I guess my main question is if the darker center portion was lacquered or bare metal (I thought read somewhere the darker center section was milled and left in bare metal following the machining process). Thank you all for any info & I apologize to @72modeler if I took this to far off track--FWIW, you are getting me excited about tackling an F-86 next.. thank you for the informative thread .... Best, VT Red Sox Fan

Martin the above checks, very confusing--the block under the gas ports seems to be rare but not unprecedented--period photos clearly show F-105G Fat Fanny (Sq Signal Walk Around) & F-105D Mary Kay (Col Seymour photos on Craig Baker's F-105 Site) w/ the armament block underneath the gas ports & I think in the photo you shared of Honey Pot you can make out "armament" in the block underneath the gas port--I fully acknowledge this was rare--perhaps because the block could not be easily seen if the canvas nose cover was on the acft while it was on the ramp or the weapons bay panel was open for servicing. FWIW, the USAF Museum restored Memphis Belle 2 w/ the armament block in this same location--I know, I know--we don't use restorations As I was thinking this through today, it occurred to me Print Scale provides a kill marking flag for Honey Pot which is not in the picture, but I remember visiting mt dad's ANG unit when they flew F-4s long after the war & info on the kill was sometimes written underneath the kill star on the splitter in a container--maybe this info is in the block underneath Honey Pot's front canopy wind screen instead of a star? Never the less, I am now validating to the thread why I married up--I am not sure how I go so lucky to have someone who puts up with these conundrums ... I think my way forward will be to use an armament block decal under the gas port & draft an armament square in black pencil under the front canopy--thoughts? To anyone following--highly recommend you check out Martin's F-105 @RidgeRunner build below--it is eye watering--I may drive you all nuts w/ the questions, but I am not sure I have the courage to go all the way with the wash as Martin did--simply amazing!

Martin--This Thud is awesome! The paint job is awesome & I really appreciate the work that went into back dating this model. One part of the model which stood out to me was NMF on the petals--what did you use? Also missed how you scratched centerline MER--my apologies if I overlooked it on this thread--one thing I know is that this model has been researched fully--again well done!

Thanks Martin--one last re-attack--what is the block underneath gas port vents/above nose wheel well--I am now super curious, I think you mentioned in Voodoo build you had the opportunity to see a few of these birds up close, so your thoughts are great for crushing my curiosity--thank you for the help... best, Red Sox Fan

Spadgent--Awesome! My lack of emoji prowess limits my ability to communicate how much I am enjoying this build Seriously, this Wildcat is turning out fantastic--really appreciate the time you took to capture the fine steps of your airbrush work--nice touch! Red Sox Fan

Simply stunning--had to do a double take on the scale--you nailed this!

This is coming together really well--look fwd to the next update!

Simply stunning & jaw dropping--I don't know cool emjois , so I will say as a guy who prefers tactical schemes, you changed my mind--my only regret is I didn't have the work in progress on my dash board as you built this--thank you for making the time to post! Red Sox Fan

Martin--will be following this w/ interest! Never hear dof the Voodoo be called the 'Doo--but then again '79 would make me about 4 do I will take an alibis --if I remember correctly, the side by side Thud is your Mr Toad build--correct? It will be interesting to see what you come up w/ wheel well colors--it is always interests me how non-standard the well colors were in the late 1950s - 1960s before the USAF/USN standardized to white wells--this will be a great build! Best--Red Sox Fan

Question for the forum regarding the "Armament" square stencil on Honey Pot--I believe it appears to be under the gun gas ports aft of the muzzle housing in the picture, but then I saw what appeared to be an additional square under the windscreen roughly where the data plate appears--tracking that prominent stencil was also aft of the gun ports, so research is required to determine appropriate placement for your subject, but I am not tracking that the "Armament" square stencil was ever just under the wind screen on a SEA came F-105--any thoughts on what this is? Reference photo kindly provided by @RidgeRunner below--thank you all for the great insights--I really feel these Thuds are coming out better than I hoped--its more a credit to everyone on this forum... best to all

Mark--an awesome Jag and a great A-6--you got it going on man! This build is coming together extremely well--will be watching from the other side of the pond!

Terry, ironically I think Britmodeller is the place to be if you build a Thud (I originally joined because of a Hufficane/Spitfire/Lancaster/B-57 builds)--Martin & Bill are full of great info--the info in my thread is simply the results of great inputs from them and other awesome modelers--the community is very friendly & informative--I can honestly say mistakes on this F-105 project are due to my limitations vice bad info--yes, the pic above is M-117 low drag weapons--my current thud will have extenders & a Mk-82s on the Wing--enjoy will look through your threads--like the F-86 on your profile already! Best, Erwin

Martin, top photo is the one I referenced in my thread--sorry about not being able to directly link--best Erwin

Thanks Martin--you are da man! I bet "Mr Toad" will beat these to the finish line... really enjoying your WIP--believe photo below from your informative research in "Reverse painted SEA camouflage, I'm curious ;)" thread is from the same unit (357th TFS, 355th TFW) based on front landing gear ILS reflector color--will paint my MER the same—underside color/aluminum--Cheers, Erwin

This is a great build & an inspiration--motivated me to start mine once I am done with my Thud--I really enjoyed the linked WIP--sorry I missed racking was you built this... I am enthused to start mine--any advice on references? Your thread is already one of them

This is a great build & you are doing an awesome job with this kit--I appreciate the Tamiya paint references--nice touch!

Really enjoyed this--some of these older kits build up really well & you made it happen

Awesome work!

This is one PHABULOUS Phantom! I really enjoyed the run down on the engines and the multiple washes--well done!

Looking great! Like what you did with the engines & cockpit