Matt B Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 My entry for the group build will be Revell's 1/48 F-84E, and as the title suggests, the markings I decided on are the colorful markings for Col. Robert Scott's thunderjet he flew when he took command of the 36th Fighter Bomber Wing in Furstenfeldbruck, Germany in 1951. Scott gained fame as the highest scoring ace of the CBI theater in WWII with 10 kills. As the commander of the brand new 23rd FG, he flew hand-me-down AVG P-40s adorned with leftover Flying Tiger decals, so when he was assigned F-84E-10-RE 49-2299 as his personal aircraft with the 36th FBW, he figured it appropriate to pay homage to his WWII days and applied several Flying Tiger motifs to the aircraft. Decals are from an excellent Cutting Edge sheet, although the national insignia and stenciling will need to come from elsewhere, likely a newer boxing of a Revell F-84G in the stash since the decals in the E box have started to yellow. The only AM I plan to add at the moment is a resin seat from Quickboost. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Great choice Matt, welcome to the GB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Nice looking decals indeed 👍 Have fun with the build 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Excellent! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LorenSharp Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 A nice choice Matt. Definitely Ding Hao! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Nice project! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 (edited) Spruecutting has commenced! I got a start with all the cockpit components and it looks like the 'pit will build up nicely. I glued up the seat and the tops of the side consoles but nothing else yet because I have a decision to make before doing anything else. Even dryfitting shows a nice fit of everything and gives the appropriate "busy" look. As I mentioned above, the decision I have to make is whether to have the canopy open or closed. The way Revell did the rear bulkhead, slight modification will be needed to accurately portray it open. The bulkhead should just follow the curve of the fuselage and the only things above that curve that are stationary are the two vertical seat rails. The armor behind the headrest actually moved with the back decking of the canopy when it open and closed. So, before I glue anything else, I need to decide if I want the canopy open because I would need to remove a little bit of material. Excuse my freehand markup, but it would be roughly the red outlined area with the exception of the seat rails. And then the stuff that is removed would need to be attached to the rear decking. I think I'm leaning towards open because I really like the detail in the cockpit straight out of the box and I think it will look pretty good when painted. And then lastly (for now) I had purchased a Quickboost seat, but I think I'm just going to roll with the kit seat. While the Quickboost seat is no doubt more detailed, it is also narrower since it was designed for the Tamiya kit and not wanting to mess with the fit of the kit pieces, I decided to just pick up some Eduard seatbelts (I know they say F-86 but they'll work fine). Edited January 27 by Matt B 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 (edited) Got some paint on today. Cockpit is still in progress but I like how the wheel wells are turning out. I used Tamiya XF-4 followed by a Mig Ammo dark brown enamel wash. Edited January 29 by Matt B 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Buysse Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Good start.👍 I'll be watching this. I still have to start my thread, but I'll be building the same kit, with Aeromaster decals for the 86th FBG. I spent years looking for a Revell F-84E. I saw plenty of F-84G's, but never an E. I got the impression that the E had mainly been marketed in the USA. In 2023, I finally found one at a modelling festival and acouple of moths later another one in an estate sale. Cheers, Stefan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 On 1/27/2024 at 3:59 PM, Matt B said: The armor behind the headrest actually moved with the back decking of the canopy when it open and closed. That's not something that I knew, Matt. Noted!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 (edited) 3 hours ago, RidgeRunner said: That's not something that I knew, Matt. Noted!!! Minor thing but I kept wondering why things looked slightly off when I was looking at reference photos and then looking at the kit. That said, I decided on a closed canopy. I'm building the earlier version of Scott's plane before the reinforcing strips were added to the canopy, so you'll still be able to see inside. Plus I kinda like the streamlined look with the closed canopy. Edited January 29 by Matt B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 3 hours ago, Stefan Buysse said: Good start.👍 I'll be watching this. I still have to start my thread, but I'll be building the same kit, with Aeromaster decals for the 86th FBG. I spent years looking for a Revell F-84E. I saw plenty of F-84G's, but never an E. I got the impression that the E had mainly been marketed in the USA. In 2023, I finally found one at a modelling festival and acouple of moths later another one in an estate sale. Cheers, Stefan. It shaping up as a great kit so far. Doing some research on the kit, I read some reviews that suggested the E was actually the version Promodeler intended to go for from the start, but then they decided on the G. Then production got delayed a little bit and Tamiya's G came out first. But then it was only a year or two later that Revell did the E boxing. I think the only other release since then was a G boxing in 2009 or so. I ended up picking up another E too. I was browsing ebay looking for decals for my Tamiya G but everything I kept liking turned out to be a E. Then I found a Cutting Edge sheet marked for Gs with a couple options for Korean MiG killers (including a pilot from my home state of Wisconsin) so I bought it, but it turns out those planes too were actually Es. So I just picked up another kit and ended up finding some G decals. I won't be building the Tamiya G, but I may build the other E for this group build too. I'll see how this current one goes first. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 So I'm not alone - building a kit usually leads to buying more of that kit / aircraft type 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 1 hour ago, reini said: So I'm not alone - building a kit usually leads to buying more of that kit / aircraft type 🙂 Nope! Even if I can't immediately justify it, it still finds a way to the stash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Buysse Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Hi, Today, I took the picture for starting my thread. I used the kit I obtained at the modelling festival, but I also looked at the one from the late modeller (Jean-Claude). That one would definitely be below the 25% mark too. All Jean-Claude did on it was paint some parts yellow and remove the bit of plastic in front of the Main Landing Gear well that looks like an external reinforcement strap. I would not have thought of that, but I think Jean-Claude was pretty knowledgeable. It's one of these things that would be near impossible to see on reference pictures. As my subject is a fairly early F-84E, I figure there's good chance the straps were not there yet. Now, I think I'll use Jean-Claude's kit. New pictures tomorrow and I'l try to show the difference between with and without strap. Cheers, Stefan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Looking forward to seeing her! Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 (edited) Cockpit is nearing completion. The gloss is still drying on the instrument faces and I got a couple other little things to clean up, but I think this will work for what can be seen through a closed canopy. The seat got Eduard seatbelts and a cushion made out of milliput. Instead of a decal, I opted to drybrush the instruments with white and then put a drop of Microscale Kristal Klear to simulate the glass. And then a couple books came in the mail too. Not being super familiar with the aircraft or with the "Forgotten War", its been really interesting reading up on how the Thunderjets were operationally used in Korea. Edited January 31 by Matt B 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Starting to take shape. Got the fuselage buttoned up this morning, so I plan to spend this coming week working on seams. I did suffer a casualty, though, with one nose gear door and the pitot tube breaking off. Both should be easy fixes later on. I also picked up another book with unexpectedly contained a photo of the subject I’m building. I had only been able to find a photo of Scott’s plane in the later configuration with black chevrons on the fuselage and reinforcement strips on the canopy but struck finding photos of the earlier version I planned to build. Sure enough there’s a really nice inflight photo of it in the book! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 @Matt B Those instruments look great! Good job. Feels good to find a good reference photo of your chosen subject - nice find 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 We have wings! I lost a little motivation with the build as I looked forward to some other group builds and also because I’ve been putting off rescribing panel lines, particularly around the speed brake since I needed a bit of CA glue and sanding to get it to blend in to the fuselage. But I’m catching a bit of a second wind now. I still have rescribing to do, but went ahead and attached the wings tonight. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Buysse Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 On 3/7/2024 at 4:24 AM, Matt B said: We have wings! I lost a little motivation with the build as I looked forward to some other group builds and also because I’ve been putting off rescribing panel lines, particularly around the speed brake since I needed a bit of CA glue and sanding to get it to blend in to the fuselage. But I’m catching a bit of a second wind now. Yes, I can relate to that. I currently have 3 GB projects running and the P-51 and NATO GB's coming up. Good to see this one moving again. I've just attached the horizontal tail parts to mine because I need to paint the tail white. I was a bit surprised to see the "copyright Rev- MM 1999" in raised letters there. They were still doing that in 1999.🙂 Cheers, Stefan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 (edited) 17 hours ago, Stefan Buysse said: Yes, I can relate to that. I currently have 3 GB projects running and the P-51 and NATO GB's coming up. Good to see this one moving again. I've just attached the horizontal tail parts to mine because I need to paint the tail white. I was a bit surprised to see the "copyright Rev- MM 1999" in raised letters there. They were still doing that in 1999.🙂 Cheers, Stefan. Oh yeah, I think they were still doing that into the 2000s. Every company has their “thing” and I guess that was Revell’s. I’ll have to paint my tail white as well but since I’m going to paint the blue stripes instead of using decals, I think I’m going to leave the stabs off the end. I did a test fit after scraping off the mold seams from the inner mating surface and the fit looks perfect. Edited March 9 by Matt B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 (edited) Continuing with some boring but necessary work. However, I think I finally found a good process for scribing panel lines. I’ve always hated it and never seemed to get good results. I recently purchased a Tamiya scribed but wasn’t getting good results. Even using dymo tape as a guide, I was still slipping and found it a bit hard to control. So I did some reading and decided to give a sewing needle in a pin vise a try, and I don’t know why I never tried this before. I find it so much easier to control and am getting great results both free handing and using dymo tape for a guide. It does leave a slight ridge of plastic but applying extra thin cement takes care of that and I think it will blend right in with a couple swipes of a 2000 grit sanding stick once the cement is dry. Edited March 9 by Matt B 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 nicw pogress!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Nearing the end of the boring stuff. I’m done rescribing panel lines and now am just waiting for cement to dry so I can do some final sanding on them to smooth everything out. Then I just have a little more sanding to do on the top and bottom of the wing roots and I can shoot some primer on the seams and do some final sanding/polishing in preparation for the NMF. I also decided to mix up a blue since I’m opting to paint the trail stripes as opposed to using decals. Vallejo French blue was pretty close but looked a tad too dark, so I added a few drops of insignia white and I think I got it pretty dang close. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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