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1/32 HobbyBoss Republic F-84G Thunderjet


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Looking good Stew 👍

 

Great progress so I assume everything is fitting well, and going to plan 😄

 

I'm looking for to seeing some paint on.

 

Cheers Greg

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I decided to use the metal undercarriage legs, the kit's plastic ones actually looked like they would be up to the job anyway, but since HobbyBoss had gone to the trouble of providing metal ones it seemed rude not to:

 

DSCN0506.jpg

 

So that is pretty much all the remaining bits ready to be primed now, hopefully I'll get that done before the weekend... :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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I packed out the wheel- and airbrake-bays using various means to stop the ingress of paint:

 

DSCN0508.jpg

 

Then I applied the primer. It's a matt, near black as I don't want too glossy a finish on the Alclad:

 

DSCN0511.jpg

 

The model does - just - fit in the spray booth, but I needed to prop it there while I primed the landing gear, wheelbay doors etc.

 

Next will be the Olive Drab spine and nose anti-glare strip, and to try to work out what colour the outer edge of the wingtip tanks actually were, as the box art shows them almost a coppery colour but the painting guide shows them as quite yellow, but does not give any colour in the colour guide at all... :hmmm:

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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On 20/05/2019 at 06:48, Stew Dapple said:

 

I'll take your word for that, but I refer you to this review which states that the reinforcement framing was internal. My framing has remained on the outside anyway, since that is where they are moulded.

 

 

I am prepared to make allowances for English not being your first language, but in the absence of anything to replace them with, please do not presume to tell me what I must do with my model unless you are able to offer a constructive alternative :) 

 

Kind regards,

 

Stew

@Josip is correct (no idea why that linked review is so adamantly wrong either); the application of external framing (fibreglass tape) was initially an in-service modification begun circa late 1950 to address a canopy explosion issue. It was done gradually on aircraft from that date and adopted as standard on production F-84Gs. Simply put, if you apply the tape to the outside of the canopy and brace it to the frame (and glued to the canopy surface) it will work as intended; applied to the inside it would be less effective. I've consulted many a Thunderjet unit's records - and spoken to a few folks who did the job way back then - so there is a lot of corroborating evidence. Incidentally much the same solution was adopted for the Bell XS-1 until they found a way to strengthen the plexiglass. 

 

Here's a photo of an unrestored canopy to show what it should look like:

 

fc1846c902135dd4d3fe5fc3aaef9c1d_652.jpg

 

Nice job on the model by the way! 👍

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8 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Doesn't sound like that big of a deal.

I was at Duxford when this happened to an American P-51B which Nick Gray from The Fighter Collection was offered the proverbial keys to:

 

He was on the PA with the show commentators later and described it as a loud bang and suddenly he was flying a convertible. It was all "terribly exciting", he said, but he felt really awful that he'd broken someone else's aeroplane!

 

On the still for the video above you can see the lack of Malcolm Hood canopy, plus associated dents in the leading edges of the fin and tailplane. It remained in TFC's hangar for quite a while after that minus its empennage!

 

39580027150_b4b0c5de8f_b.jpg

 

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That would give you a scare for sure! A friend had that happen at a 100 knots in a Bell 212, the greenhouse window blew... Not only did it give him a fright, it was bloody cold as well, below -30C in a inhospitable area of the Canadian Arctic...

 

But on to the model, sweet looking, and I may have to get one myself!

 

Cheers

Harald

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Thanks gents :) 

 

I made up the undercarriage units; you can see the tractor tyres on the main wheels:

 

DSCN0512.jpg

 

... and painted the wingtip tanks - I went for RAF Yellow in the end, it looked about right for the illustrations and the only other colour pictures I had seen of these tanks were of other people's models but they too seemed to indicate something approximating this colour...

 

DSCN0515.jpg

 

Then I started painting in earnest, the landing gear doors and airbrake in Alclad Duralumin:

 

DSCN0517.jpg

 

... and the same colour for the main airframe:

 

DSCN0518.jpg

 

I then fitted the landing gear, and despite the amount of weight provided plus the weight I added, I was still relieved to see it sit on its nosewheel rather than its tail:

 

DSCN0520.jpg

 

Finally I masked and sprayed the Olive Drab anti-glare strips; this involved some fairly complex masking at the tail end in particular:

 

DSCN0526.jpg

 

... and that's where we are now. I still have to mask and spray a black stripe on each wing - transfers are provided for this and it was initially my intention to use them until I noticed that the transfer is a one-piece to cover both the wing and the aileron, I just didn't have the confidence that it would settle in to the gap between the parts effectively. Plus masking and painting a monocolour stripe is about as easy as it gets so I couldn't really justify not doing it :D 

 

After that it will be transfers...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

 

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Wax on wax off... :D 

 

DSCN0528.jpg

 

DSCN0530.jpg

 

I had to use RAF Night for the wing-bands, it turns out I don't have any actual black in my paint store, so I'm hoping the black transfers for the wing tanks and ID-codes will not look too glaringly different to the wing-bands once all is applied and varnished... anyway, hopefully I can start applying the transfers tonight and if so I am reasonably hopeful, barring any disasters, of getting this finished at the weekend... :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Thanks Steve :) 

 

I'm having trouble with the transfers, they are very brittle and most of them appear to have been splashed with something like varnish or glue, which stops them detaching from the backing paper so that they just crack up:

 

DSCN0531.jpg

 

I'm not sure if this is normal for HobbyBoss, I haven't read any complaints elsewhere, but whatever happened to them must have occurred at the factory, as the decal sheets were individually sealed in plastic bags in the box. 

 

I managed to get most of the aircraft's individual markings on, albeit by piecing some of them together like a jigsaw:

 

DSCN0533.jpg

 

... and I've ordered the Berna Decals sheet for the F-84, from which I hope I can use the tank markings, the cockades and tail-stripes, a number '4' missing from the tail-code on the starboard side*, and the stencilling, which I believe will be in French rather than just using the US stencils as HobbyBoss would have you do. I noticed that the Berna cockades are considerably smaller than those provided with the kit too; also that the kit's ones are noticeably larger than as shown in it's own painting and marking guide. Not sure if the kit cockades are too large, or if the Armee de l'Air repainted them smaller at some point. All the pictures I have found on the internets, which isn't many, show much smaller ones than given in the kit decals :hmmm:

 

Anyway, in short, probably won't be finished this weekend now. 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* to replace the kit one, still stuck to it's backing paper and showing no sign of dislodging despite being left in water all night!

 

 

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Hi Stew,

 

Just caught up with your progress, which has been swift to say the least. 

 

Excellent results all round apart from the transfers, which is a real pity. I always dread putting these on as they can make it break a perfectly good model. 

 

Hopefully you will prevail with the replacements.

 

Looking good 👍👍

 

Cheers Greg

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Thanks John, a couple more teasers first though :D 

 

The transfers arrived from Hannants, sometimes it is worth paying the extra for first class post B) These have been applied, the model has been varnished and the last remaining touches done...

 

The wingtip tanks have built-in navigation lights; the instructions suggest you paint the clear parts in clear red and clear green, but in reality the bulbs appear to have been coloured and the light covers themselves clear. I drilled a hole in the tip of each tank, and inserted a piece of clear sprue painted with Tamiya clear red or green to simulate the bulb:

 

DSCN0558.jpg

 

DSCN0559.jpg

 

... and once that was done I added the covers. I was pleased to note that the 'bulbs' are still visible beneath:

 

DSCN0560.jpg

 

DSCN0561.jpg

 

... and that's it finished. I'll take some glamour pics when it gets a bit brighter, and post up the RFI later :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Thanks gents :) 

 

Well, we are where we are:

 

DSCN0576.jpg

 

So that was my first HobbyBoss kit. It was quite a pleasurable experience, most of it went together with no stresses on my part, and those I did have were, I believe, down to me rather than any intrinsic failing in the design of the kit. It was a shame about the transfers, if I had known they were going to act up I would have got some aftermarket ones in the first place but at least I managed to cobble together enough of the originals plus the Berna decals to make up a reasonable approximation of the box-art. In fact, if the cocardes as supplied were too big I might even have ended up with a slightly more accurate model as a result; either that or a less accurate one, but I think it's an attractive model nonetheless.

 

The RFI is here. Thanks for your company gents :cheers: 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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