F-105G Wild Weasel Thud

[zebra]

Time to make a start on my shark mouth GB entry - the F-105G from Trumpeter in 1/48. I have a Caracal sheet which includes a few shark mouth options - not decided which one yet but that can come later - I'm torn between one with a bigger shark mouth in standard SEA camo, or one with wraparound camo (which I think looks great on the Thud) and a smaller shark mouth. 

 

Here's the box shot:

 

I'll be putting an Aires cockpit in it, so I've started today by playing around with the cockpit and thinking about how I'll fit it, and how much plastic I'll need to remove from the fuselage. I'll make a proper start tomorrow.

 

cheers

Julian

[whiskey]

Now we're talking!

[Basilisk]

Yep, The F-105G is a must in a Sharkmouth GB. And your build has some nice resin stuff as well

 

Cheers, Peter

[Nikolay Polyakov]

I’ll take a seat!

[Biggles87]

Me too, if I'm not too late.

[zebra]

5 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

if I'm not too late

Far from it, you've not missed anything! I've been unable to tear myself away from the Voodoo in the Specialists GB, but will get on with this soon - maybe tomorrow.

[zebra]

Time to crack on with this, starting with the cockpit. I don't have a lot of experience with Aires cockpits but have learned from a lot of others' experience that they are rarely a drop-in replacement for the kit part! So the first job was to work out how it was going to fit and do whatever adjustments are needed before I get into properly assembling and painting it.

 

It seemed likely that the top of the nose wheel well was going to get in the way so I assembled and installed the wheel well first. Trumpeter would have you assemble the complete nose gear and install it before assembling the fuselage but that's asking for a broken undercarriage. But the two parts that connect to the wheel well can be inserted without glueing so I've done that for now. Aside from those two bits of the nose gear the wheel well itself is made up of 5 parts - what happened to the days when it would have only been 1? - but they located pretty positively against each other.

 

Sure enough the wheel well conflicted with the bottom of the resin cockpit tub - had to go a bit further than just removing the casting block at the front and file off a bit more, but not too much, of the resin, and also filed down the top of the wheel well. After removing the detail from the kit's side walls and the locating lugs for the kit's cockpit I made a cut-out in each fuselage half to accept the Aires IP coaming. Then assembled the basic cockpit parts and test fitted them - here's how it looks:

 

 

 

 

Pretty happy with that. Feels like I've got past a significant hurdle.

 

thanks for looking

Julian

[Basilisk]

Looks great. Aires resin parts do need a fair amount of work to make them fit, but the end result is normally worth it.

Cheers, Peter

[zebra]

I've been neglecting this one, but now that the Voodoo is done and I'm back from my holiday it's time this one moved on. So I've got on with painting the cockpit - not something I'm great at to be honest (hence I often use pre-painted PE - but not this time). Here's how it looks so far:

 

 

[zebra]

A day off work and an opportunity to get a bit of modelling done today, so divided my time between the F-104J and this. Got quite a lot done - painted and attached the PE instrument panels, finished painting the side consoles, nearly ready to call this cockpit done. Also got the engine assembled - I won't be displaying it so just built up enough to be able to get it into the fuselage - and started painting the exhaust.

 

Here are the two instrument panels:

 

 

Apologies for the poor picture quality - took them on my phone and they've been heavily cropped.

 

And here's the cockpit (instrument panels just resting in place for now:

 

 

Have to say I'm pretty pleased with how this is turning out!

 

thanks for looking

Julian

 

 

[Jabba]

A good start on the cockpit. As others have already said the Aires detail sets seem to be more work than they should be. As an aside I would do this in the wrap around scheme, as you said it suits this aircraft.

[zebra]

15 hours ago, Jabba said:

A good start on the cockpit. As others have already said the Aires detail sets seem to be more work than they should be. As an aside I would do this in the wrap around scheme, as you said it suits this aircraft.

Definitely more work than it should be! I have very mixed feelings about this set - the detail is nice, it's nicely cast, the PE is nice and thin and easier than Eduard PE to work with. But getting it to fit in the kit is hard work!

 

Speaking of which, I've been wrestling with it today. Fairly happy with the fit I've ended up with although there's a bit of a gap behind the rear cockpit. But I've got the fuselage together now. I have a feeling getting to the painting stage is going to be pretty straightforward from here.

 

 

 

thanks for looking

Julian

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I had read that somewhere before about this set. Good to see you beat it into submission. 

 

Dennis

[Basilisk]

Always a great mile stone in a build to have the fuselage together with a detailed cockpit within

Cheers, Peter

[zebra]

Now that I've got the F-104J finished, time to crack on with the Thud. Progressed pretty quickly and got the airframe complete and into the paint shop - here it is with a coat of black primer:

 

https://flic.kr/p/2gPzNtR

 

It's not small! It's also a bit more fiddly in places than it needs to be - getting the nose cone on was a bit more hassle than it should have been. But it's done now. Will get some paint on it soon - this is going to be in the wrap around SEA camo.

[zebra]

Camouflaged!

 

 

[CaracalModels]

Looks great! Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

[exdraken]

Csmo colirs look spot on! What did you use?

[zebra]

4 hours ago, CaracalModels said:

Looks great! Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with it - only my second time trying freehand airbrushing, not perfect but I’m improving 

1 hour ago, exdraken said:

Csmo colirs look spot on! What did you use?

Thanks! I used Mr Paint which is fast becoming my go-to brand.

[zebra]

Busy day with the Thud today. Got a gloss coat on, decals on and would have got a matt coat on but rain has prevented me getting it out to the garage!

 

@CaracalModels the decals were superb!

 

 

[exdraken]

great! Caracal decals are a gem usually!

[CaracalModels]

Excellent progress - the wraparound camouflage and this particular type of sharkmouth look great together. Can't wait to see it finished, and many thanks for your votes of confidence.

[zebra]

Undercarriage is on and I've got a few of the smaller details done today. Getting close to finished now - a few things left to do, but it'll be finished by the end of the GB.

 

 

[exdraken]

Very nice!

Close to the finish line!

 

[zebra]

Finished! This weekend I've painted and attached the seats (not all that impressed with the Aires seats - should have got some Eduard seatbelts for a start), windscreen and canopies, stores, and miscellaneous small bits.

 

Working out what stores to fit was a little tricky - I couldn't find a lot of photos of this particular aircraft, none of which gave a really good sense of what to put under the wings, but did find an online reference saying a typical combat load would be, from left to right, an ALQ-71 ECM pod, AGM-78 Standard ARM, centre line fuel tank, wing-mounted fuel tank, and AGM-45 Shrike. A couple of online photos showed this aircraft with an MER on the centre line station, but as there isn't one in the kit and I don't have one in the spares box that wasn't an option. One thing I did find online was that this aircraft often seems to have had quite a worn-looking drop tank under the right wing, with paint worn down to the bare metal and an unpainted centre section, so I tried to replicate that.

 

Anyway here it is - more photos in the gallery.

 

 

thanks for looking

Julian