reini

Oh no worry about getting wet in northern europe 🤓🇫🇮 Water tends to be quite solid in these temperatures ❄️

Thats a good idea, I think I will do that.

Yeah, sorry about my clunky title. Google translate told me that 'flash' is 'glimt' in norwegian. And yes, I said I'm only gonna start one build per GB - but who am I kidding? This is the kit, Sword RF-84F Thunderflash. Sword makes interesting kits out of interesting subjects - and this is no exception. Plastic parts. The details are there, just bit soft so it will benefit from re-scribing to make the kit look bit sharper. Clear parts and resin seats. It comes with the basic old style seat and the Martin Baker seat that the Norwegians upgraded their Thunderflashes with around 1960. This is good news as I was planning to build 1965 aircraft so no need to source aftermarket seat. Maybe just add some straps. These are the kit decal options - fine choices but I won't be using these... For my Norwegian builds I've come to trust @Vingtor decals This is the scheme I am going for. Nato Dark Grey & Dark Green with aluminium undersurfaces. But I like the detail from this option, tank with PRU blue underside. So I might go with that. I think it's plausible, same unit & same time. I just prefer the big unit symbol instead of multiple smaller ones littered around. Decals look nice and crisp - and all the tiny stencils look correct to scale. Can we start already... pleeeeaaaaaseeee! 😁

One more! This is Tamiya 1/48 F-84G Thunderjet.

Still kinda bummed that I underachieved in a GB that is my probably most favourite modelling theme. But no matter, I shall finish these just behind schedule 🙂 Next up, Zipper! Well it seems I am missing few steps in between, somebody has been lazy taking photos 😁 Dutch Zipper is all painted up and I am just finishing several days worth of work - over 170 individual decals! The big decals are from Xtradecal and all the small maintenance and warning labels from an Armycast decal sheet. That is excellent sheet BTW! All the bigger warning labels around the cockpit for different nationality F-104's and they are in a good size too - not too big as with many kit decals. Too bad it seems to be out of print. https://www.armycast.cz/gb/148-decal-sets/152-ftf-104g-stencils.html 'Special' bomb also required some surgery. The tail is not an 'X' when mounted on a Starfighter, but rather upside down 'T'. I guess it needed more clearance so it wouldn't scratch the runway... I'll let the decals settle down and start working on the smaller bits now.

Now I just need to find a kit for this pretty little cat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_XF10F_Jaguar

Pretty much. Looks a lot like the SH kit to me 🙂👍

@Graham Boak I have not. Like I said, I have no idea of the accuracy of these profile drawings. Not trying to say SH or Warpaint is wrong as such, just pointing out my observation. Having said that, finding out the real dimensions seems to be difficult too - for example length, numbers that I have seen have difference of over 1 meter. The number thay has come up the most is 43 feet 5 inches (13,23m), you reckon that would be the correct number for length?

@RidgeRunner Alright, thank you. So I'm not gonna worry about that anymore and just build the kit 🙂👍

Good choice, Dutch Thunderstreak looks good

Got some reference material. New addition to the bookshelf is the Warpaint book. The Warpaint book comes with drawings and I'm not usually too picky with exact measurements but I was left wondering that the Sword kit was bit shorter and bit more stubbier, especially in the back. Now after laying down the Special Hobby kit on the drawings included in the book, the kit looks bit too long (SH kit comes with a separate nose ring) and the fuselage is bit too 'flat'. The difference is very noticeable in the rear section, its much thinner. These are of course just one set of profile drawings, I'm not certain of their accuracy either. But looking at these, the Sword kit might be bit more accurate? What are your thoughts? Here's the wing, shape looks good against the plans - but just again a tad bit too deep where the wing meets the fuselage, kinda understandable if the kit is slightly longer than the drawings.

Nice to see more Thunderjets! Welcome 😊👍 BTW what was the case with Modeldecal sheets? Several seemingly unrelated aircraft in the same sheet?

Good pile of resin that should make this already good kit even nicer 👍 Interesting to see Yugoslavian Thunderjet 🙂

Looking good @Marlin👍 Nice to see the production line up and running again.

Welcome aboard Martin! 😊👍 Looking forwards to your build.

That is a weird one - I don't think I've ever seen the radar version. My hat is off to you @Enzo the Magnificent - you are a brave man 🎩

It's about time we got a 'Flash! I've got the Sword 1/72 waiting in the stash with Vingtor decals - but it'll have to wait until after I've tackled the Special Hobby 'Streak. I made a decision to start only one build per GB at the same time - as my track record of actually finishing GB kits has been abysmal lately. But we will see what happens when things actually get started... 😁

Yes, lovely kit - just like it's bigger brother

What is this madness?! I like it!

Oh yes, this is nice stuff. I've built two Trumpeter 1/72 Thunderchiefs - D version out of box and G version with some aftermarket & modifications. But I still felt that I could get more out of the kit. And this seems to be the perfect inspiration for that. Will be following!

Is the Academy kit the same as Italeri one? Scalemates seems to suggest so. Nice to see it 'in action' anyways - my stash is looking bit empty of Thunderjets at the moments so checking out possible candidates to fill the empty spaces 😄

@dr_gn The paint choices look good to me - I used the exact same colours on my build You're doing great work BTW! Amazing attention to detail and very skilled work. Keep it up!

Drilling out the... well, I'm not quite sure what this is? Somekind of antenna? It will be under glass just behind canopy. I've seen other Luftwaffe planes with similar contraption, He 219 for example. Gluing down the cockpit side panels with superglue. The fit was good, I just needed to sand out little bit from the cockpit floor so it sits down a little bit lower than initially - then the side panels line up nicely. We can start adding the details. Like these rudder pedals. I mean what. 1/72 scale rudder pedals which you build out of seven parts of resin & folded PE. Yeah I'm gonna do it (try it atleast!) but I have a feeling I'm not gonna like it... That will have to wait until next time, though. This is where I am at. I was kinda hoping to get the primer on but still plenty of PE work to do. Pedals, instrument panel, lots of tiny levers, seatbelts & back seat. Oh, and the machine gun with PE sights and all!

After sanding down the overall look was fine but there were still some minor imperfections so I wanted another round of putty & sanding. I ended up sanding the nose and the plastic strip actually made good work of the seam, only some minor touch ups needed. I tried to preserve the raised glass frames but It didn't quite work out. The underside was pretty much fine, just some small stuff and need to re-scribe the panel lines of course. Putty, round two. Just a thin layer here and there to catch some of the smaller imperfections. And after cleaning up. Vallejo Primer doesn't like to be sanded down, it tends to chip out. But I think it will not show under the future layers of paint. I created panel lines for the framing on the nose, I hope it will create good enough effect. And if not, I will just have to remake the frames from plastic strip. Kinda tempted to do that anyway but we'll see. Main work on the fuselage is done (apart from vacuform clear parts) so time to glue on the horizontal stabilizer. I let it dry and start smoothing it into the fuselage. Fuselage is doing so well so I can start looking at the wings - and the engine nacelles to be more precise. Some cleaning up to do first...

It's a brilliant kit so I think you'll like it if you're looking for a relaxing build. It's too bad the kit doesn't seem to be readily available anymore. Anyways, have fun!