Thunder Chief - does what it says on the tin. An impressive looking aircraft, I'm sure the model will be as equally impressive.
Yaks ‘Century series’ in 1/48 part 5 - the Republic f-105 Thunderchief
- Thread starter yak face
- Start date
Got cracking with the cockpit yesterday , the tub just had a paint job but the seat was jazzed up a bit with some PE buckles /straps from the spares box and some guitar string and wire for the oxygen pipe , g suit inflation pipe and radio lead ( plus another pipe that i dont know the purpose of !) The instrument panel just had a careful paint job too , studying photos of the real thing showed virtually every knob and dial was represented and in the right place , top work monogram!. The aforementioned alterations to the airframe have started too, the main one being removal of the lumps and bumps on the rear fuselage ,tail and wings. The bumps on the rear fuselage have been filled and sanded , luckily for me the loss of detail wont be noticed as this area is covered by the large stars and bars insignia . The cannon cooling louvres were also not present on early Ds so these have been filled also.
boatman
SMF Supporter
COR Tony that seat look fab an the pit also very well done on that looks real lets have more pics please as i was at RAF COLTISHALL in the 70's at a crashgate nr the runway an with a mate we see 5 of these planes came down the runway at low level an they beat up the airfeild really brilliant an they was in camaflarge though an they dint just do it once was about three times if i remember rightly an made a fantastic show an severall people all just stopped their cars to watch what fanstatic days they were an we then dint realise how lucky we were to see this as the airfield is now closed down an is now a prison more to my diappointment
chris
chris
Brilliant , i would have loved to have seen that chris ! Im hoping to do another one of these but in the camo next time, cheers tony
Now the pit is done i can start with the corrections to the airframe . The wings were first to be addressed , shaving off the underside of the inner intake ducting and sanding about 1.5 mm off the top wing where it joins the fuselage . The kit supplied wing spar has also been cut in half and sanded . This has lifted the wing about 9 mm and it looks correct now ,( see photo, the port wing ( right hand as you look from in front) is yet to be altered , the starboard has the correct anhedral ) 
The strengthening plates on the fuselage sides , tail and wings are getting carefully sanded flush and the cooling slots for the cannon filled in . Another area that will need seeing to is the dorsal spine , the later D depicted in the kit had this running from the canopy to the tail ,but the early Ds didnt , the spine stopping just aft of the canopy .
The strengthening plates on the fuselage sides , tail and wings are getting carefully sanded flush and the cooling slots for the cannon filled in . Another area that will need seeing to is the dorsal spine , the later D depicted in the kit had this running from the canopy to the tail ,but the early Ds didnt , the spine stopping just aft of the canopy .
All the strengthening plates / antennae lumps and bumps have now been sanded off and the panel lines re instated ( just marking with a sharp scalpel blade causes enough of a raised line to match the originals) . Ive filled a few areas too and sanded then polished the parts that have seen some attention as its going to get a NMF, so the base coat has to be smooth as possible .A couple of other parts that needed alteration were the nose cone and the fuselage spine. The kit nose cone has a straight line profile to the pitot whereas the real one has a curve ( ogival ?) so how to fix this ? Out with the power tools !! I superglued a cocktail stick into the nose cone and mounted this in the drill , then on slowish speed used a coarse sanding stick to reprofile the part , lathe style . The fuselage spine is representative of the later blocks of the D and wasnt full length on the early NMF 105Ds so I masked up either side and attacked this with the coarse sanding stick again . Next is getting the wings on , sorting the cockpit coaming and fixing the canopies
Good work going into this one Tony.
Archetype
FAA plane builder
Been very slack recently and keep meaning to leave a post...
All great work going on Tony. Love the cockpit and the accuracy mods.
Also got to commend your bravery knowing this is going to be natural metal...I’d be a bag of nerves and would be massively overthinking the prep!
Keep up the ever inspiring work!
All great work going on Tony. Love the cockpit and the accuracy mods.
Also got to commend your bravery knowing this is going to be natural metal...I’d be a bag of nerves and would be massively overthinking the prep!
Keep up the ever inspiring work!
Great modelling Tony. But all that surgery followed by a nmf. You clearly have patience by the bucket load.
All lumps and bumps now removed and filled / sanded / polished . The wings have now been fitted and the anhedral looks a lot better . Next step before priming is to get the canopies on so the cockpit coaming and HUD / gunsight need to be sorted. The coaming on the kit doesnt quite meet the rear of the instrument panel but this area on the real thing is covered by a canvas shroud anyway so i made this from some microporous surgical tape , cut to shape and stuck on with a few creases for the canvas effect . The HUD / gunsight supplied is just a clear part to be stuck on the coaming but im going to scratch some mounting brackets and replace the glass and projector lens with holographic confetti .
HUD now fitted ,this and the projector lens were cut from holographic confetti and the arms from the spares box. Ive masked the canopies and fitted them , the rear only temporarily as its going to be open . The fit in the closed position isnt brilliant so its just as well im having it open , i still had to seal the gaps all round to prevent any overspray getting into the cockpit . Next up is a light coat of Halfords finest grey to see what final touches the airframe needs before the gloss black UMP primer goes on . 
Cheers chris , its been a bit of a slow burner , been so busy at work lately that i only really get chance to do a bit sunday mornings , cheers tony
Archetype
FAA plane builder
Sounds familiar!
scottie3158
SMF Supporter
Tony,
Great work so far.
Great work so far.
Just caught up Tony, some cracking work so far, It's certainly keeping you busy.
