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Bruce Craig
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RF-84F Luftwaffe

January 27, 2015 · in Aviation · · 11 · 3.5K

RF-84F-46-RE 53-7654 Luftwaffe EB-368 with AG 52. Commenced with Fonderie 48th RF-84F (repop of kit) of which kit not much remains.

Any modeler that has inspected the Heller/Fonderie kit is will aware that it is rather bare of details plus has raised panel lines. I wanted to add an RF to my Thunder collection. As it is the only 48th kit of the RF available, and a bare-bones FTB build would not do, my kitbashing gene reared its compulsive head. Fortunately, I have Harold and AMS Resin nearby.

For the external bits, I replaced the cockpit and spine by patching in those parts from a Monogram F-84F kit. As all RFs were "long tail" and the kit tail is too short, I patched in bits from the Monogram kit to model the long tail. I removed all panel lines and lightly scribed them. In general, that took care of the exterior.

The interior details are either deficient or not present. The deficient parts are the nose gear well, the entire cockpit, the main gear wells, the tailpipe, all landing gear, the speed brakes, the spoilers, and the wing fences. The missing parts are the cameras and the intake runners. The nose gear well, the entire cockpit, and the tailpipe masters were commenced by Harold, and the resulting cast parts somehow fell to hand.

On my end, I created the basic masters, later detailed out by Harold, for the intake runners using RenShape; Harold cast those parts for me, and he also added them to his RF-84F upgrade set. The spoilers from an F-84F PE set proved to fit incorrectly, so I created the vector graphics for the spoilers and wing fences and sent them off and had 35 photo-etched sets produced by a commercial shop. I scratch built the cameras and bay using RenShap, tubing, and plastic stock. Monogram landing gear and wheels replaced the kit parts. Harold's resin auxiliary tanks replaced the kit tanks.

National insignia came from a generic Luftwaffe decal sheet. I created the other decal graphics, including the WaSLw 50 badge using PhotoShop and printed them with an Epson ink jet on clear or white decal sheets. All paint is Testors Enamels.

The incorrect main gear wells were replaced with parts from an F-84F resin set

Reader reactions:
7  Awesome

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.


11 responses

  1. nice, to the max.

  2. Nice bit of surgery, and a great result.

  3. Rather than attempt to comment on each and every one of your recent posts (and sound redundant), I shall say this: you, sir, are a modeling fool. You have quite the imagination and the talent(s) to go with it. Your prolific "assembly line" has turned out some stellar workmanship (your photography is well done also).

    • Blush, blush! Thanks. One of my fellow modelers some years ago decided my "nickname" would be Masochist Modeler. I still have all but one of the model cars (32nd scale) I built 1957-1960, and all, including the first one that got melted down under a hot lamp (didn't do THAT again!) are kit bashed builds. I don't have more that a handful of builds that aren't upgraded or bashed. Old habits die hard!

  4. Thanks Bruce for posting all these lovely ladies from the Republic Locomotive Works. These are some of my favouriteCold War jets. Congratson a job well done!

  5. Beautiful workmanship, all your aircraft are exceptional.

  6. I must say, the speed brakes look so much better when you can actually see through them!

  7. Like Craig said, all the F-84s are great.

  8. Nice reece Thudflash..

    P.k

  9. Thanks all for the kind words, much appreciated. I had a day free to post, now back to work for the next five weeks, so no time to post or follow. Frown# See ya'll in five weeks!

  10. Hello Bruce, you made a master model out of all this confusion.

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