BlackAck Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 (edited) Hello fellow Britmodellers, What with life and my other build in the the Maritime Patrol and Coastal Command GB, this one almost ran away from me, but not quite. Ladies and Gents I give you my entry: Some of the more mature modellers on this forum may remember building this kit in their youth. By today's standards of exacting manufacturing tolerances and delicious aftermarket goodies, this kit has long since been surpassed. But that means it's now inexpensive, I picked this one up for pennies. With a little TLC, I think I can make it look reasonably like a Thunderflash. First up, the office. I enlisted an airfix pilot from my spares box, who was younger and more detailed than the chap from the kit. Next came the ejection seat. The kit piece is very basic, and the aftermarket market very limited for Martin Baker Mk 5 seats in 1:72, but after studying some reference photographs, I used some scrap sheet styrene to create a more chair-like chair and added a splash of colour to brighten things up. Edited February 11, 2019 by BlackAck 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Taking my seat The Thunderflash is my favorite version of the F-84. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Nice start with the seat and pilot. That box art is rather good by the way, don't think I've seen it before, certainly caught my attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 Despite my drama with my other group build, I have made some progress today on the Flash: One of the drop tanks supplied with the kit, I'm not sure about the scale, looks wonky to me: Just in case you weren't sure where this kit was made: I've added a sheet styrene plate to prevent you from seeing all the way through the model: Flicker seems to be having a problem at the moment, so I will upload more later. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 6 minutes ago, BlackAck said: One of the drop tanks supplied with the kit, I'm not sure about the scale, looks wonky to me: Looks ok to my eyes. Theyre pretty long narrow tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 Lots of progress today First up, the photo recon nose: The instructions are very 70s and vague, but after about 20 minutes I got the job done. Before I closed up the halves, I hadded about 2.5g of micro fishing weights throughout the fuselage to prevent tail sitting. I glued the whole thing together with CA glue and are leaving it to set overnight. Lastly, I took the opportunity to mask off the cockpit side windows in preparation for painting. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 You look to be making solid progress there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 So, I've decided on a scheme. Thanks to the internet, I've found fabulous colour photographs from the 1950s of Belgian RF-84Fs in service. The site also has photos & serials of every 'Flash in Belgian service from the introduction of the type in the 1950s to scrapping in the 1970s. This all means I might get to use some of the kit decals, but they are old, so my fingers are firmly crossed. Looking at the photographs, I noticed that the Belgian Thunderflash's of the 1950s tended to have a Shiny NMF and be fairly detail free. By comparison, the kit has a lot of raised exterior detail and visible panel lines. I suppose that was the fashion among plastic-bashers of the 1970s. Any alternatives to sanding? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 I'd say go with a light sanding to leave a hint of the panel lines and thus break up the uniformaty of the surface. What size are the roundels? I've a couple spare sets from the Revell Hunter kits if they might be of use to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 Great minds think alike, that's what I thought too. As for the roundals they're about 12mm in diameter. Does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 6 hours ago, BlackAck said: Great minds think alike, that's what I thought too. As for the roundals they're about 12mm in diameter. Does that help? There's a pair of 12mm diameter roundels with a black rim on each of the Hunter sheets and I've plenty spares so can easily send you a few Unfortunately the fin flashes and codes are different though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 That's really nice of you to offer. I'd like to try the kit roundals out first and see if they work. If not, I may take you up on that. I've got spare black USAF code letters that area nice match for the particular airframe I want to build, so I'm less worried about the letters. There are some gorgeous colour photographs of Belgian Thunderflashes in storage at the end of their service lives with very battered SEA camouflage. I'd love to model one of them, but a scheme like that really deserves the new tooling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 8 hours ago, BlackAck said: That's really nice of you to offer. I'd like to try the kit roundals out first and see if they work. If not, I may take you up on that. I've got spare black USAF code letters that area nice match for the particular airframe I want to build, so I'm less worried about the letters. There are some gorgeous colour photographs of Belgian Thunderflashes in storage at the end of their service lives with very battered SEA camouflage. I'd love to model one of them, but a scheme like that really deserves the new tooling. No problem at all, my pleasure, hopefully the kit decals do work for you. The old and worn SEA camouflage does make for a rather cool subject and would look great next to your silver one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted February 26, 2019 Author Share Posted February 26, 2019 Now comes the part of the build that both excites me and unnerves me: painting; especially when the painting guide is this: Old School indeed. My intended scheme is NMF with Belgian codes, so it's a combination of the two. Fortunately, thanks to the interwebs, I have colour photographs from the period that add lots of clarity. So, in the grand tradition of Blue Peter, "Here's one I made earlier..." All of the decals are from the original sheet, applied with lashings of TLC. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 That looks to be going well for you despite the 'help' of the painting and decalling guide. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 So, I made a bit of a miscalculation. The NATO black codes I planned to use from my stash were actually 1:48 scale. So, I made my own instead. Fortunately, the scheme isn't too complex. I'm going to let everything dry and then seal it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Nice save ... at least it wasn't to hard to fix the code situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 She's done!! More photos in the gallery 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Well done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 It's nice to see another nation represented . We seem to be getting quite a mix in this GB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackAck Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 Thanks, I enjoyed the build. The kit is vintage by today's manufacturing standards, but it looks like a Thunderflash in the end and looks good on my display shelf. I made a few mistakes, but learnt some new skills. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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