Airfix 1/72 F-84F Thunderstreak FINISHED

[bianfuxia]

I'm going to give this one a crack.

 

This is not my start photo - I can't begin until tomorrow night. But it shows everything I think I will need plus my clock with which I'll measure the time.

 

I think I am doing the Sidekick Option for this one. I'll do what I can on Sunday night and then have a sleep, then the rest within 12 hours on Monday.

 

We'll see how it goes!

 

 

I bought that NATO green for this build - cost me more than the kit did (got it in a cheap bundle on eBay back in the States before I moved home). 

Edited December 29, 2020 by bianfuxia

[bianfuxia]

Well, it's SuperHero option for me as I didn't get a chance to start last night after all.

 

Here is my start pic, with the watch showing London time and the clock set to 0 to measure elapsed time.

 

 

 

First I did all the black including a square of white card because I was moving so fast I didn't notice the kit actually has a piece to blank off the exhaust pipe:

 

While doing the black I realised my watch doesn't show the date when set to world time mode. So here for the record it is:

 

By 35m ET (elapsed time) I had also done all the silver with Tamiya XF-16. You can move fast with Vallejo because it is touch dry in no time.

 

 

 

Around an hour in and I'd also done the cockpit, including some old decals for the side panels I found in my decal stash:

 

 

 

[bianfuxia]

An hour and 20 minutes in and I'd glued all the sub-assemblies like tanks and wings:

 

Here's an Airfix cockpit from 1974:

 

About an hour and 45 in, I'd done all this:

 

And in just under 2 hours ET I had glued the fuselage together. I will leave it for a while, so it has a hope of drying properly, and then it's on to painting after maybe a mild sanding.

 

Painting a two-tone grey green with a third tone underneath all in however much time remains is going to be the trick. 

 

Still I have at least 19 hours to go!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I have this one mind if I watch, i plan on building it later this year ? 

[bianfuxia]

1 minute ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I have this one mind if I watch, i plan on building it later this year ? 

of course! It's turning out to be a fantastic little kit. So far the fit has been great. I feel like the mid-70s was the height of Old Airfix quality.

[KevinK]

1 hour ago, bianfuxia said:

of course! It's turning out to be a fantastic little kit. So far the fit has been great. I feel like the mid-70s was the height of Old Airfix quality.

 

Agree completely! It's one of their very best from that era.

[Learstang]

I have this kit also, that I plan on doing in French (or Israeli) Suez markings. It does look to be a nice kit, especially for the time frame (1970s). Good luck on yours!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[JeroenS]

3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I have this one mind if I watch, i plan on building it later this year ? 

You mean today Dennis? 🙂 

 

From the looks of it it's entirely possible, just sayin' 😉 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

You mean today Dennis? 🙂 

 

From the looks of it it's entirely possible, just sayin' 😉 

No missing the bits I need to build the loadout I need. 
Until I can get the Hasegawa weapons set#4 I cant build my plane. 

[bianfuxia]

My next instalment was a few hours ago - I'm about to do my third as soon as I post this.

 

I can switch the clock on and off with the silver knob at bottom right, so after the end of my first session i stopped the clock, then started it again to at the beginning of the second to continue measuring elapsed time. The digital watch shows the actual time (in London).

 

 

Side note, I bought that MiG clock from a dude on the streets of Berlin. Cliche, I know, but in some ways that's the only way to do it, right? The other one is the polar opposite - a solar powered G-Shock with 6 band global radio time signal reception - works pretty much everywhere but here, hahaha.

 

It didn't take much effort to stick on the wings and tails.

 

 

Then a quick masking job:

 

 

And though you can't really see it in this last photo, the whole bottom now has two coats of Vallejo Green Grey which is the nearest I have to Light Aircraft Grey which is what the instructions ask for. I guess it will do.

 

 

I may come back to that seam if I have time, almost certainly I will have to on the rear part at least. But for now, it's on to the topside paint job.

 

Everything in this post took 30 minutes.

 

You do a group build like this and you realize how much time you waste on other builds...

[bianfuxia]

I just wrapped up another two + hour session on this F-84F. 

 

Started at 10:24 London time, 2h 28m elapsed time:

 

First thing I did was look at the ugly seam on the bottom:

 

Then I summonsed up the energy to proceed:

 

Did a SuperHero GB quicky job on the bottom:

 

And a better effort on the top, especially the nose. I'm all about putting the budget up on screen - if it's hard to see then it gets less work:

 

Elapsed time 2h45m:

 

Half an hour later I'd done the top grey camo. It's Vallejo Dark Sea Grey, the best match I have:

 

Half an hour after that I'd done the green. This is Tamiya NATO green. I can't say I love the scheme but I copied it from the Airfix painting guide. 

 

It'll probably look better with the canopy on and the decals. I will smooth out some of the demarcation lines with some grey next session.

 

I did a wheels down test and it sits nose-down on its own. 

 

So, 4h20m into the build I am looking at this:

 

What remains?

 

Repaint the underside seam and a few bits I scratched, plus any that peels off when I remove the yellow tape.

Put the pilot and seat in and put the canopy on. 

Paint the canopy

Do the decals

Do the undercarriage

Add the underwing tanks

Have a look for any paint touch-ups.

 

I'd say it's another 90 minutes. It's nearly midnight here but there are 11h20m left so I can probably find time to finish it.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

5 hours ago, bianfuxia said:

Repaint the underside seam and a few bits I scratched, plus any that peels off when I remove the yellow tape.

Take a fresh #11 blade and lightly score along the paint/tape seam. That should take care of or eliminate most of the paint lift issues. 

[bianfuxia]

4 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Take a fresh #11 blade and lightly score along the paint/tape seam. That should take care of or eliminate most of the paint lift issues. 

Nice tip - which I read after I peeled the tape off! Luckily there was no peel-back.

 

This morning I got up early (by my Christmas-NYE week standards anyway) and had another speed session.

 

Started just before 8pm UK time, starting my clock at elapsed time of about 4h 25m. 

 

A reminder first of where I am up to:

Time for some main wheels, after the tape peeled off with no issues. Also, Praise the Modelling Gods! The ancient Airfix decals work. Not only that, THEY'RE IN REGISTER!

 

 

 

 

Less than 45 minutes later the decals were basically finished. I've left the red fuselage lines off because I put those yellow markings in the wrong spot - they're too far back. 

 

Time for the pilot to saddle up. It's scramble time...almost.

 

This was entirely predictable due to those little raised bumps. I will touch that up freehand later.

 

I also added the fuel tanks, after some sanding and cutting to get the pylons to fit. I was really confused for a bit with those inboard pylons. I mostly model more recent planes which all have pylons that point forwards (ie the slope is such that the lower part of the pylon is forward of the higher part, like the outboard pylons on this one). Perhaps it was the early hour but I really stared at these for a while before I committed to putting them on. I will come back to touch up the poor paint job on those silver tanks (they're just sitting there snap-fit, not glued, so I can maybe do a better job later).

 

So, with about three hours to go until the deadline and just under six hours elapsed time, I am basically done. 

 

I still need to:

 

. touch up the paint on the airbrakes and instal them (in the open position, because as I predicted they don't fit neatly in their little cavity or bay)

. paint the exhaust pipe area under the tail

. do the little clear part on the spine

. paint the top of the tail in the same grey as the underside

. run a brush with the light grey over the underside to clean up that mess (this I am leaving to last because I can photograph the model while that is still wet).

. maybe if there is time paint a black patch on the spine 

 

I have a few family commitments now for an hour or so, but I think I can come back to this then and finish it up.

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by bianfuxia

[bianfuxia]

Made it! 

 

Here is my wrap of my last quick session:

 

Started at 23:18 London time, just short of 6 hours elapsed time.

 

 

 

Did the airbrake paint touch up, the underside touch up, the tail fin touch up and the airbrake installation. Finished it at 23:39:59:

 

 

Then I remembered I hadn't painted the tailpipe area. I had to freehand that using Tamiya XF-16 because that was the most reliable metal paint I've got and time was...short.

 

So I quickly did that.

 

And then it was fully complete at 23:45:

 

 

Then I raced outside to get some completed pics. Some are in the gallery but here are a few for completeness.

 

 

 

(The ground crew are in no doubt about what year this thing was assembled!)

 

 

Here it is with my other 50s jets:

 

Back row L to R is the old Heller F-86, the HobbyBoss F-86 and the Fujimi RF-86, and the HobbyBoss Seahawk

Front row L to R is the Airfix Mig-15, the HobbyBoss Mig-15UTI and, without enough room to line up properly, my new Airfix F-84F.

 

And just to prove I made it by the deadline:

 

 

I enjoyed this build a lot. In around six hours of work I got another build on my shelf. I think if I'd taken two more hours this would look really good. But the thing is, I enjoyed this as much or more as I enjoyed building those models on the shelf next to it, even though objectively they are all better models (leaving aside the age of this kit). 

 

With the extra time I would have done a better job of the fuel tanks, but that's about it really. It's a nice kit, especially for its age, and it fits together amazingly well. Although the pilot and seat are a bit old-school, I have to say the cockpit is not far behind a contemporary Hasegawa cockpit - basically a tub with a panel and some decals. The bombs in this kit were pretty crappy, which is one reason I went for all tanks (the other reason is because it looks insanely cool).

 

Anyway, thanks for looking! I'll now go and look through the other build threads. 

 

 

 

 

[jackroadkill]

I’m really glad this one made it in time!  What a cracking-looking model. I really like what you’ve done with it. 

[bianfuxia]

7 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

I’m really glad this one made it in time!  What a cracking-looking model. I really like what you’ve done with it. 

thank you! Lucky it had four fuel tanks...landed on vapours with seconds to spare!

Edited December 29, 2020 by bianfuxia

[AdrianMF]

Nice. And there was me wondering where you found daylight for your photos at nearly midnight. The strange tribulations of international modelling forums!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[bianfuxia]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Nice. And there was me wondering where you found daylight for your photos at nearly midnight. The strange tribulations of international modelling forums!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

Haha, the sun never sets on the British Empire...or something!