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Hei, that was my most productive year so far. 7 models, 4 of them done within the year from start to finish thanking to my participation in couple groupbuilds. Okay - here we go. All models are 1/72. First three models were the family of ThunderRepublicFighters two of which were completed within the relevant STGB. Tamiya Thunderjet F-84G in the colours of Yugoslavian Air Force. Special Hobby Thunderstreak F-84F - a French machine hiding behind Stars of David during Suez Crisis. And lastly a Sword Thunderflash RF-84F in Italian colours. This one took longer time and I only finished it around September much after the STGB finish line. Also have not yet posted it to RFI section. Group shot of the family of course!!! Now some models that I started before 2024 and gradually finished last year. Bristol Sycamore HR.14 by S&M in yellow rescue colours as operated in Malaya Emergency. Then I had Airfix Supermarine Swift FR.5 finished in early December. And AccsGB (MikroMir) DH Venom FB.4 finished literally in the last hours of the year. With Suez stripes. And lastly another model which I also managed within a GB (Made in Ukraine) - Dora Wings Pilatus Turbo Porter in the colours of Japanese National Institute of Polar Research. So not a bad year! And I hope 2025 shall be not worse All the seven models in one shot now Cheers, Dennis

Interesting kit, the part count is very simple but the exterior detailing is very nice. The only weak points were the landing gear that didn't want to fit (but that might have been me slopping on paint too heavily 😜), and the lack of exhaust interior. The decals respond well to Micro Set, but they have a lot of extra film you have to trim off. The big USAF that goes around the landing bay was a particular offender and almost self-destructed a couple of times before more or less settling into place.

These brush-painted bare-metal jets appeared nicer than they had under their dust layers. At least the F-84F Thunderstreak (on second thought this might have been a Monogram kit?) has found a space in my display area, the RF-84F Thunderflash has more flaws and will stay only as long its space is not needed otherwise. The decals are not from the kits, I cannot recall who was their manufacturer. Marcus

After dusting and wiping, their colours jumped into the face: A Thunderbird F-84 Thunderjet (kit manufacturer unknown, very simple, Heller? Matchbox?), a Blue Angel F-9F Tiger (Hasegawa), and a Patrouille de France Mystère (Revell). Except the Tiger crude and simple kits that justify their survival by their gaudy paint schemes. If I really keep them will depend on the display space, once the stash has been eliminated. Marcus

I'll be up front: I don't think this will be my best build, and that's OK. It started as a father/son build with my 6-year-old until I discovered the terrible fit of the fuselage: When I held the tail and the tip of the nose together, the two halves of the fuselage bowed so badly that there was about a 1/8" gap in the seam in the middle (above the wings)!! No Kidding!!! I had a hard time holding it together just dry-fitting it and I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to glue it. At that point, my son decided he was more interested in starting his 1/48 Bf-109. I decided it would be a good model to try out some new Alclad techniques on. I've been using the wings for testing different Alclad finish ideas for my CF-104 build documented here: I was able to glue it after all, but I had to start at one end and exert a lot of force with my fingers while I used my "instant set" super glue. Usually I use a "glue looper", which is a photo etched loop to apply small amounts of super glue and have capillary action pull it into the seam. This was so bad, I had to just use the super glue bottle to apply enough to keep things together. I was able to clean up the super glue that ran, and then sanded the seams: The dark gap along the spine is a very wide gap in the seam filled with super-glue. Here's the bottom: I was able to sand it pretty smooth, but the raised detail was sanded off in the process. If I was serious about this model, I would re-scribe the panel lines, and sand the whole body smooth. But, the detail in this kit is terrible and the fuselage is warped, so it's not worth the effort. Here's how the fuselage lines up, which illustrates how badly the plastic was warped: I can't say whether this was a defective kit, or if it was age or what. I bought the kit in 1997, and never dry fit it until now, so I don't know if it was always like this. It's been kept indoors in a closet, so I don't think environment has anything to do with it. I discovered as I was sanding it that the strain on the plastic from forcing it into shape caused some stress cracks, which I filled with super glue: I wasn't really impressed with this kit because of its low detail and heavy-handed raised panel lines. The warped fuselage makes it even worse. Still though, with a good coat of alclad and the really great after-market decals I got, I think it will look pretty good, and certainly good enough to join my son's squadron of models hanging from his ceiling!

Hi, Finally came round to posting 1/48 Tanmodel RF-84 Thunderflash in the RFI section. A nice kit but not without challenges. Please see also the WIP thread of this model. Airbrushed with AK Xtreme metal polished Aluminium and a flory dark brown dirt wash. Red and black Mr Color paints and some brushed highlights with revell aqua color. Decals by DutchDecal which adhered quite nicely. Despite the kit at times being little fiddly............ I can't wait for Tanmodel's 1/48 buccaneer when hopefully at some point (if ever) it will be on the web-shelves. Hope you like it. Did notice a few glitches myself, so critique is welcome too. Would quite like to do a Belgian or a RNLAF camouflaged version another time. That's all, thanks for watching.

The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was America's second operational jet and while it didn't quite make it as a pure fighter (in competition with the superb MiG-15 when they met over Korea, at least) it proved to be an extremely effective ground-attack aircraft - the USAF claimed that the F-84 was responsible for 60% of all ground targets destroyed in the Korean War - and once the usual initial teething problems were solved it was popular with pilots and groundcrew alike; it was tough, reliable and had excellent range (indeed, the F-84G was the first fighter capable of in-flight refuelling as standard and in 1953 seventeen of them flew non-stop from the United States to the United Kingdom). France operated 335 F-84Gs between 1952 and 1956, one of fourteen countries to use the Thunderjet; the kit provides markings for an Armee De L'Air Thunderjet from 1952 as shown on the rather evocative box-art, and it is this one I shall be building. The lovely @Duncan B at BlackMike Models got hold of the 1/32 HobbyBoss F-84G kit for me in time for the Scottish Nationals show in Perth last month and was too polite to castigate or mock me for dabbling in such a perverted scale, but then as a procurer I suppose it is prudent for him to keep schtumm regarding the peccadilloes of others, and as a 1/48 scale modeller himself he probably shouldn't be throwing stones from inside his glass house anyway Here it is: The box is packed. Here's what you get: In a compartment at one end of the box there are vinyl tyres and metal landing-gear legs and nose-weights: ... painting guide and instructions, of course: ... and two sheets of transfers: My Evil Overlord Jamie @Sovereign Hobbies was kind enough to give me a sample of the Tetra Works USAF seatbelt set which will be ideal for this kit - although the aircraft was fitted with an ejection seat the harness arrangement appears to have been the same as late-WW2 US aircraft. I also got the Eduard canopy mask set because while I am quite capable of masking a canopy myself with Tamiya tape it doesn't mean I actually want to when there is an easier option available: So there we are then. I'm cracking on now... Cheers, Stew

My fifth completion of the year (though the only one in 1/32), the HobbyBoss Republic F-84G Thunderjet in the markings - of which more below - of one of the aircraft supplied to the Armee de l'Air in 1952: The kit was built almost OOB though I did add a TetraWorks US Seat Harness set to the cockpit and used the Eduard canopy mask set designed for this kit. I also added a couple of extra wheel-balancing weights under the cockpit floor but I suspect the metal noseweights provided with the kit would have been enough. The kit was painted in Alclad Duralumin with some areas painted over in Vallejo Metal Colour Dark Aluminium as most colour pictures showed a distinct variation in the shade of metal around the cockpit and the jet-pipe outlet and the rudder. The interior was painted in Colourcoats US Interior Green and Zinc Chromate Green, the wheelbays and airbrake bay were painted in Yellow Zinc Chromate dulled with a little buff colour to 'age' the paint a bit. The wing stripes were painted in RAF Night and the wingtip tanks in RAF Yellow. The aircraft codes, squadron badges and most of the serial numbers on the tail were from the kit transfers, as were a couple of the stencils, but the majority of the kit's transfers were unusable due to having something spilt or splashed on them which rendered them irremovable from the backing sheet. They came in the kit in sealed bags, so this was not something I am prepared to take the rap for, but I don't imagine it is a common problem with HobbyBoss as I have not heard any other complaints about their transfers. The remainder of the markings and stencils were from the Berna Decals set for the F-84G, they were absolutely fine though the roundels/cocardes in the Berna set were significantly smaller than those provided with the kit, and had the yellow outline which the kit ones lacked. I don't know if this means I have a more, or less, accurate kit but all the pictures I have seen on the internet of French F-84s seem to carry the smaller cocardes. Anyway, I enjoyed building it and it's nice to get another notch on 2019's bedpost Cheers, Stew

I bought a whole lot of AK Interactive Metal paints, and have used some on projects. I thought I would like to do a kit that is basically all NMF. Any how I got this little gem. Don't be fooled by the toy like box art, this thing looks OK. Box Art and packaging. Instructions. Decals. Parts. And the paints I am going to use, well some of them. Thanks for looking in. Stephen

Hi everyone, this is my latest aircraft diorama. I had an old Academys F-84 thunderjet kit and I didn't want it to throw away and so I decided to make small vignette with it. I was inspired by the new Star wars: The force awakens teaser trailer when I saw the x-wing and the star destroyer in the sand. I started digging into reference if any thunderjet crashed in the desert, pilot was killed in the crash, so that is my interpretation of this event. I hope you guys like it!

So this was posted to the RCAF Facebook page today: "Today in aviation history March 3, 1965 – RCAF Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Abraham Harvey, while flying an F-84F Thunderjet to Edmonton, Alberta, finds his engine vibrating. At length the engine fails. Rather than bail out and leave the aircraft to crash in a populated area, he carries out a safe landing. For this action he is awarded the Air Force Cross." Assuming this is true, has anyone heard about this before? If so, please share any additional information and/or pictures. Regards, ANS

Hi, here is a “walkaround” on my F-84 G Thunderjet from Tamiya, it is a good kit, like almost all Tamiya kits it is free from trouble. My intention was a korean war fighter bomber, the kit decals looked great on the sheet, leave them there ! It is not new, that they are way too thick, i had to learn this on my own. Rescue came from the also very good Revell/Monogram kit, i used the decals for a “G” from the Royal Netherlands Airforce, the aircraft was on inventory by the 311. Sqn. Volkel airbase in july 1953 ( Revell did this research). After all, these markings are a good idea, because most of the “G” models were given to allied airforces. For the paintwork i used Revell and Humbrol colors and a slight polish. Hope you like it Cheers Bernd

Hi all, Here are some pictures of my latest model, Revells excellent 1/48 scale Republic F-84G Thunderjet finished in the markings of the Yugoslav Air Force. This kit is simply excellent and very well detailed out of the box but is often overlooked in favour of the more expensive but less accurate Tamiya model. The Yugoslav's received F-84's from 1953 onwards and some were delivered in the so-called Arctic scheme as shown here. This is the 3rd Yugoslav marked aircraft that I have finished this year, thanks to the encouragement of my very good Serbian friend Sasha who not only supplies me with decals but also all the information I need to finish the models accurately, thank you Sasha. I hope that you all like the photos, and all comments and questions are very welcome. If you want to see her in the flesh as it were she will be on the IPMS Nuneaton/Mercia stand at Telford. Thanks for looking.Craig.

For all of you Britmodellers on Facebook I've a little treat for you. I've loaded up the pics I took in the museum at Gardemoen, Norway 2 years ago. The collection is mostly aircraft used by the Norwegian Air Force but there's a couple of bonus planes in there! There are a Spitfire Mk IXc and PR Mk XI, Junkers Ju52, Heinkel He111P, Vampire single and twin seaters, 2 different F-84's, F-86 Sabres and Sabre Dogs, F-104 Starfighter twin seater, F-5A and B Tigers. Not the biggest collection in the world by any means but well worth a look if your ever near Gardemoen (about 1/2 hour out of Oslo). Handy for me that it's only 15 mins drive from where my sister lives! Please not that I'm not a great photographer but I hope some shots might be interesting or useful (The F-5's gunbay might help some modellers!). http://www.facebook.com/pages/MJW-Models/449805648412274 If you like the pics and want to see more museum/air display pics, please like the page and I'll post some pics from Flying Legends at Duxford too. thanks Mike