Ok here we go... Over the last weekend I got a lot completed on these two F-84's. My goal is to have the one that was flown by Mike Rebo to be completed so that I can post it in the headlines section on November 10th. This is my main self imposed priority. I want to have the article written, and the model photographed so I can post it on the anniversary of Mike's disappearance as a tribute to him and his family.
Meanwhile, I have another Monogram F-84 kit in the stash. I have been looking at it lately, and I decided to drag it down and build it up to the point of the exterior finishing. I was painting these colors and had the air brush loaded, so I decided to pull the trigger on it too. It happened to be the 1/48 Monogram F-84F kit that has a swept wing.
A few weeks ago while surfing the net for various F-84 pictures, I found this one of the US Air Force Thunderbirds.
Then I scored this set of decals from Sprue Brothers. They are designed for the Kinetic kit, but they state with some modifications, they will work on the Monogram version like I have here.
I plan to eventually paint the red, white and blue sections, so these decals should work fine on the Monogram kit. Time will tell. Meanwhile I have painted all of the interior bits and assembled this one. It is now parked, while I completed the work on the other straight wing F-84's.
So far I only needed to add a little bit of filler on the fuselage, just under the nose intake section behind the nose gear doors. This model was marked as being produced at the turn of the century, 2000 year. I was pleasantly surprised as to just how nicely it went together. It was also a very fast build... I had this much done in a few hours of total building and painting time.
Getting back to the original builds, First off I glued the inner walls of the main gear wells in place on the upper wing. Next I have painted the interior sections using "Zinc Chromate Yellow" from the Testors little square bottle of enamel.
Next the inboard main gear doors were installed,
and the upper and lower wing sections were glued permanently. I decided to change it up a little between the "E" and the "G" versions. I will have the flaps deployed, and the pilot installed on the "E". This will make it look as if the plane is taxiing, since I have not found too many pictures showing the flaps deployed while on the ground. Here you can see both sets of flaps and wings have been assembled and are ready to be covered with foil.,
The speed brake is another story... These were most often photographed in the "DOWN" position when the plane was parked. The G model will have the underwing rockets installed, while the E model that Mike Rebo flew will have the 500 pound GP bombs and no other visible ordnance. Thankfully, these areas were molded closed, so the builder has to open the wing in order to install the rockets. This is much easier than having to fill in holes.
The interior of both fuselages were painted, and the cockpits assembled. Before gluing the fuselage halves together, I added modelling clay inside the nose areas, packing the empty voids in the nose to prevent these from being a "tail sitter". If you look very close, you can just make out a little bit of blue clay being visible in the sliding canopy opening just behind the cockpit. The entire nose section was filled with clay...probably a bit of an overkill.
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1. Blue modeling clay used for nose weight.
You can see the main difference here, with the blow in doors augmenting the air intake on the G model. This panel is smooth on the E version.
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1. G model blow in door
2. E model is smooth
The fuselage halves fit together perfectly. No seam work was needed along this joint. Here you can see how nice the joint is. I purposely took these pictures using the light to show how smooth the fit is.
I covered the interior of the nose air intake using "Matt Aluminum" Bare Metal Foil.
The actual nose gear bay was painted using the same Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate, as was the speed brake well.
Previously I mentioned how the nose intake required a little filler. Here I have brushed on some Liquefied Styrene. It was needed on both kits.
Oddly enough, when the tail cone was added, it fit perfectly on the "G" version... Here you can see just how nice it fit.
However when it came to the "E" model, I needed to add a little bit of the LQS. This is likely my fault, and not the kit's.
Here you can see both the E and the G sitting next to each other. The E kit plastic is a lighter gray color than the G model. It only becomes visible once these two are parked side by side.
The landing gear doors and speed brakes were covered using foil. They are ready to install now, once it's time to do so.
The horizontal stabilizers are ready to cover with foil. The Monogram copyright logos have been sanded and the plastic polished smooth.
They will not be added however, until I paint the red and white diagonal stripes on the fin and rudder assembly... which happens to be the next step once the filler has been sanded smooth on the tail cone.
As always, comments are encouraged.
1 additional image. Click to enlarge.
