After the successful F-104 group build created by George @gblair to finish the year 2024, George followed up, to finish 2025, with another wonderful group build. This time, based on the Republic F-84. George sent an amazing gift, the F-84F Thunderstreak by Kinetic in 1/48, to me to build it in Dutch livery. This kit includes decals for aircraft P-248 which was used among different squadrons, one of them was 311 squadron at AFB Volkel near my hometown. During my youth, 311 squadron was my favorite mainly because of the eagle squadron sign at the tail, so this is definitely the aircraft I'm going for. Alfred @alfred, has a post where he build this exact same aircraft except with the sign of 314 squadron, an excellent result that I will try to achieve as close as possible.

This is how the original aircraft looked like, a nice reference picture found on the internet.

The kit gifted by George to me is the Kinetic K48068 in 1/48 scale.


The sprues contain very detailed parts so that definitely looks promising.




The instructions do look very clear and informative. Also the decals by Cartograf look really nice.

To give the interior even more details, I bought PE sets specifically for this kit.
Masks were ordered as well to make painting the transparent parts a bit easier.

Thanks a lot George for this wonderful gift and inviting me to participate in this excellent group build.

Looking forward to this one John!

@vicbalshaw, thank you, Vic. It's always nice to have another model in Dutch livery next to the others.

@davem, will do my best to make it as realistic as possible, David.

@lgardner, indeed, a wonderful gift by George @gblair, Louis. Glad to see you entered this group as well.

Wonderful entry and really lovely scheme chosen, my friend @johnb! Great extras!
Looking forward to the build!

Great choice, John. The Dutch F-84Fs did look very sharp and clean. I’m a fan of clean airplanes. It looks like PRU blue undersides. I think these early NATO camo schemes were based on British standard colors and were glossy.

Looks very promising. If this continues, I will also buy the F-84.

As always, my start is way behind the rest of you guys. Nevertheless, I did start preparation of the internal parts.

First I need to modify the seat and the IP with some PE.

That's what I like to see, a kick start with some PE.