1/48 Heller RF-84F Thunderflash, Hellenic Air Force

Gallery Article by Pantelis Antonoglou on Nov 22 2011

 

Old Heller's product is a hard to find kit, the detail is very poor everywhere but it's a great base for scratchbuilding! The canopy comes along with the windshield and I had to carefully separate them. There are no cameras in the kit (what a shame! hehe!), the whole cockpit doesn't have any relationship with reality, the air intakes are empty, jettison fuel valve is missing and the external tanks have wrong shape... The only good thing is that it has great fit and it's a freaking rare kit, if you find it.....buy it!!!

 

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CONSTRUCTION
The raised panel lines were smoothed down and the whole model was rescribed.  I used a resin cockpit, I added some detail and a new (closer to the reality) scope.  The cameras are made from plastic card according some photos from the internet and from the spares box.  I decided to open the gun bay in the wings and to build this
area from zero.  I removed easily the panels with a scriber and I put intake covers in the air intakes to hide the mess from suspicious eyes...!  After this a lot of sanding and testing the surface took place to make sure that everything is ok and to proceed with the camo.

PAINTING AND MARKINGS
I painted the RF with TAC camo, I like it more than a NATO and NMF in this aircraft. I used Gunze and Tamiya acrylics, I mixed a few drops of white in every color cause they are too dark from my experience... Then I applied gloss varnish and it was time for the decals!  Icarus Decals are great and gives you the squadron emblem, that gives you an extra-ordinary aircraft...! Matt varnish applied and some details were added like opened panels, 0.50 guns, landing gear system,
RBF safety pins and covers, etc... 

CONCLUSION
RF-84F is a beautiful aircraft with a great and secret history carried in it's wings. It was a very difficult construction but it's worth it!!! A great thanks to my friend Dimitris "staticjim" Sotiropoulos who gave me the kit. 

Hope you like it, keep modeling!!

Pantelis Antonoglou

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Photos and text © by Pantelis Antonoglou