Airfix & Sword F-84F-30-RE - 1/72 - 27feb23 nearly there :)

[Courageous]

10 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said:

Speedbrakes "scabbed on"

Counter intuitive when you think about keeping things streamlined and stuff but hey, you can't argue with the experts.

 

Stuart

[RidgeRunner]

1 minute ago, Courageous said:

Counter intuitive when you think about keeping things streamlined and stuff but hey, you can't argue with the experts.

 

Stuart

You're right but on reflection and looking at many photos I now realise these were like this. I guess the F-84F, like many Kartveli designs were built for robustness! 

[Terry1954]

39 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said:

They'll sit in the decal file until either Arma Hobby brings out the D or I lose patience! ;). They took a LOT of drawing by Mika and I commend him for his work

 

 

So we can look forward to a Uruguayan Mustang soon? 

 

Terry

[RidgeRunner]

On 10/5/2022 at 10:04 AM, Terry1954 said:

 

So we can look forward to a Uruguayan Mustang soon? 

 

Terry

Well, yes and no - Yes, a second build of my earlier attempt and No as soon probably isnt an accurate statement! It'll be built in parallel the Starfighter project.  I want to build it again to honour the generous donation of a book that @Ignacio sent me a few years back on the FAU Mustangs. There will also be an FAU AT-33A once I get a slot in my self-imposed schedule . Again, Ignacio kindly sent me loads of photos and information about them :).

[RidgeRunner]

and finally for today - more paint. First of all a bit more masking - tail pipe area, wing shoulders, nose gun area - and then I got a mix together of Humbrol 27002 Polished Aluminium and Humbrol Satin White. This was for two panels on the nose surround and the rear fuselage. It was more to get matt areas or a slightly lighter shade rather than a defined "white aluminium". I trialed it and it looked ok so I set about getting it on the model! :). It needs buffing once dry and before the next round of masking. I will have to go back and give the speedbrakes a blast of Humbrol 191 Chrome Steel (Stainless Steel) too.  

 

 

 

Back again soon. 

 

Martin

 

[Ignacio]

This is looking  pretty good my friend!

Looking forward to see it finished

 

Always a pleasure to contribute whenever I can.

 

saludos!

 

 

Ignacio

[RidgeRunner]

Hi Frank! @bentwaters81tfw As you are my “real time” reference  do you know if the wing leading edges and flaps & ailerons were different metals to the central panels? I imagine they were. I’m considering the paint variations.
 

  Thanks a lot. Martin

[bentwaters81tfw]

Hi Martin. As ours is painted, it's visually impossible to tell. If I get chance tomorrow, I will inspect them more closely. I do know the wing and tail spars are steel, but they are overskinned. I suspect they are Alu, as only the load bearing components and actuators are steel.  

 

[Wez]

2 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Hi Martin. As ours is painted, it's visually impossible to tell. If I get chance tomorrow, I will inspect them more closely. I do know the wing and tail spars are steel, but they are overskinned. I suspect they are Alu, as only the load bearing components and actuators are steel.  

 

 

Frank,

 

Do you have the structural repair guide for the aircraft?  That will tell you what materials the aircraft was skinned in although it's just likely to be various gauges of aluminium (e.g. 2024-Tx or 7075-Tx where x is the temper and I'm not saying this is what it was made of, just using examples of metal specs to look for).  Unfortunately, most of these metals have a fairly uniform finish especially if the metal is clad.  There may be the odd bit where it's prone to wear where it may be skinned with nickel or stainless steel based metal but those would be in the odd place here or there.

[bentwaters81tfw]

No, we don't. Documentation and all components are made from Unobtanium. We do have a parts list and component drawings. Fortunately all we are short of are some fairing skins, and those we can manufacture.

 

[RidgeRunner]

The masks for the fin flash and the decals for the code and serial arrived yesterday. I am indebted to, Giorgio @Giorgio N as always. These decals are based on the Tauro set but they are redrawn because the Tauro offering is rather rough. I will work on the masks tomorrow, getting them installed and then I will continue with the application of the metallic paints.

 

Martin

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

On 10/8/2022 at 8:53 AM, bentwaters81tfw said:

Hi Martin. As ours is painted, it's visually impossible to tell. If I get chance tomorrow, I will inspect them more closely. I do know the wing and tail spars are steel, but they are overskinned. I suspect they are Alu, as only the load bearing components and actuators are steel.  

 

Thanks, as always, Frank. I think I will go with a slightly darker panel to represent the metal covering of the steel wing spars unless anything pops up to the contrary in the meantime

 

Martin

[Zephyr91]

Hi Martin. 

 

Hope you don't mind a newbie adding a comment. 

 

I haven't built anything for 30+ years and am playing catch-up.  I've been exploring threads such as yours which I have to say are invaluable to me because of the descriptions and examples of cutting, sticking, filling, filing, scribing etc..  Wow! Have I got some catching up to do!   Having said that, I just want to say thanks for the explanantions and photos.

 

Following with interest

 

regards,   Rob

 

PS: I find really interesting the experimental types developed from the F-84 such as the turbo-prop with contra-props and the reverse tapering wing variant (root chord smaller than tip chord).  Has anyone ever modelled these?

 

[bentwaters81tfw]

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/anigrand-craftswork-aa-2059-republic-xf-84h-thunderscreech--166869

 

Available in 1/72 and 1/48, but these are resin kits.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/lindberg-539-republic-xf-91-thunderceptor--192486

 

Ancient and basic but the only game in town. 1/48

[RidgeRunner]

7 minutes ago, Zephyr91 said:

Hope you don't mind a newbie adding a comment. 

 

I haven't built anything for 30+ years and am playing catch-up.  I've been exploring threads such as yours which I have to say are invaluable to me because of the descriptions and examples of cutting, sticking, filling, filing, scribing etc..  Wow! Have I got some catching up to do!   Having said that, I just want to say thanks for the explanantions and photos.

Firstly, not at all. All comments are welcome!

 

i’m very pleased that you find my ramblings to be of interest, Rob. I dont regard myself as any kind of expert but I do like to find make-do ways of getting things done. In addition I am constantly learning and this is the best gathering of modellers that you will find for that.

 

Martin

[Zephyr91]

33 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/anigrand-craftswork-aa-2059-republic-xf-84h-thunderscreech--166869

 

Available in 1/72 and 1/48, but these are resin kits.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/lindberg-539-republic-xf-91-thunderceptor--192486

 

Ancient and basic but the only game in town. 1/48

Aha!  Thanks for the links.   Maybe one day ..........

[RidgeRunner]

More paint today. Some areas were a "white" aluminium and others were simply Aluminium. I used Humbrol Polished Aluminium (27002) and also H27002 plus Humbrol Satin White mix for these. There are Stainless Steel areas too, and some slightly darker metallic shades. For these I used Humbrol 191 Stainless (Chrome) Steel and a mix of H27002 and Steel (27003). So, she's been masked gradually and has now had all the metals applied. You can also see the beautifully crafted fin flash mask. Thanks Giorgio! @Giorgio N 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin

[Paul J]

A bit of a mammoth rask you  have taken on. A definite lie down when finished.

 Re the Otaleri kit  my thoughts about the cockpit glazing is one of thinking it's a little too big or wide.And the Airfix  one looking a bit skinny. What are your thoughts  on this?

[RidgeRunner]

I agree, Paul. The Airfix canopy is far too narrow. The cockpit area is also narrow. The Italeri is closer to being accurate. Sadly, though, it fails on the detail front. I am hoping that my merging of the Airfix, with its better dimensions, and the Sword RF with its better detail, will turn out okay

[RidgeRunner]

And the reveal!!!!!!

 

 

You can see that after a bit of internal wrangling of the brain cells, and having found as many top shots of metal 'streaks as I could, I decided the wings and tailplanes were pretty much the same shade of metals throughout. However, the fuselage has had some variantion based on photos I have. The nose area generally shows a lighter aluminium on some panels, while some photos show a similar rear end. For variety and in the absence of a clear image of "11795" I opted to painted the back end that way too. The cannon area, wing shoulders, speedbrakes and jet pipe had a blast of Stainless Steel (Chrome Steel) and the lower nose and drag chute clamshell had a slightly darker shade of aluminium. As I said before, I used Humbrol enamels throughout - generally 27002 Polished Aluminium, a Satin white and 27002 mix for the light areas, 27003 and 27003 Steel mix for the darker areas, and 191 for the Stainless areas.  As yet I havent buffed anything and I havent gone around touching up any under-runs and over-runs. I also need to paint some of the detail - the sway braces and piping, the undercarriage legs, tyres, HVARs, HVAR "posts", Pitot, etc. I need to also make and paint the blanks to go in the cannon holes. These will be plastic rod and painted metallic (silver/bronze) alhugh the photo below shows them as green(?) .  

 

Here is a similar machine to illustrate the variation. Mine isnt perfect!

 

 

Today I gave the 450gal tanks a blast of 27002 and 27003 mix for some panels. A very slight variation! Other bits have also had metals applied now :).

 

 

She'll slow up a bit now as I am awaiting some replacement roundels from Arctic.

 

Back soon

 

Martin

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Nice and subtle variation there.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[RidgeRunner]

Thanks Adrian. I tried not to be too heavy handed with it. 

 

One area where I have deviated from the original is in the red used for the wing and tailplane tips. The aircraft had a red that was closer to scarlet. However, the decals from Tauro are in an Insignia Red variation and so I have tried to match that. Many of the photos from the time showing these aircraft show a deeper red so I hope I'll get away with it. By the way, the anti-glare panel is lighter and more olive on the model. I used Colourcoats ACUS15 WW2 Olive Green/Drab.

[RidgeRunner]

I'm still fiddling about with the tidying up of the paintwork as well as attending to some of the oter items awaiting paint. Meanwhile I found this image, which illustrates, I believe, the longer warhead on the 5" HVAR (see the sole warhead on the ground). 

 

Credit: "Keflavik69" on www.fightercontrol.com (public domain)

[RidgeRunner]

I got some of the fiddly bits of painting done today, including:

 

• Stainless Steel on the undercarriage leg shafts, a repair to the cannon area on the nose
• Olive Drab, Dark Grey and Polished Aluminium on the HVARs
• Steel and 27002 mix on the sway braces, fuel pipes on the tanks
• The mirror installed and Dark Gull Grey on the inside of the canopy
• 27002 on the remaining undercarriage doors and canopy rear strut
• Light grey on the seatbelts plus some red on the seat headrest and arms
• Dark Olive drab on the bombs
• Some blanks installed on two of the cannon ports, and painted chestnut to represent bronzed metal
• Nav lights painted green and red

and a few things I've forgotten!

 

Here is the collection of bits ready for assembly once the new roundel decals arrive. In the meantime she will be placed on the shelf with all the bits and I will get back to finishing the Flogger - finally!

 

 

Martin

 

Edit: I'm still debating the bomb and AUW thing. I really want to have her loaded but my keeness for accuracy tells me I cant have it all :(. I've painted the 500kg bombs just in case

[Lightningboy2000]

Looking fantastic at this stage Martin.

It all looks very organized! 

can't wait to see her with the decals on. Just a thought, did you make up the JATO pack for it? If you are planning on having her fully loaded, she might need an extra long runway to take off with all that on. I know it might mean more scratch building!

Also looking forward to seeing those rockets attached.

 

Martin