1/32 Trumpeter F-105G Thunderchief

“Wild Weasel”

by John McCormick

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This is my latest project, Trumpeter’s F-105G Thunderchief  “Wild Weasel” in 1/32 scale.  Let me just start by saying that you’ll need a lot of shelf space for this beast!  The final length including pitot tube is over 26 inches, and it builds up to be an impressive kit. 

I was quite pleased with the model overall.  It has nice recessed panel lines, the armament is both abundant and accurate, and the decals by Two Bobs are outstanding.  However, as with all kits, it has a few issues that need to be addressed.  The vertical stabilizer is misshapen, and I replaced the kit fin with Cutting Edge’s replacement set.  The shape of the nose is not accurate either (it’s shaped somewhat like a golf tee), and Cutting Edge has a set available to correct this as well.  However, I elected to correct this myself using putty.

The kit cockpit leaves a lot to be desired, so I bought Verlinden’s replacement set.  The Verlinden set is a big disappointment, and I can honestly say that I would not recommend using it.  By the looks of things, the Black Box set is the way to go.  In any event, I made the best of it and accentuated the Verlinden set with various details such as wiring, oxygen hoses, and other scratch built items.

 

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The kit is designed to have moveable control surfaces, but I elected to glue them in one position.  Each wing has 5 individual spoilers that can be glued in either the open or closed position, but since these were never open while the plane was parked, I glued them in the closed position.  The fit of these parts is not good, and there was a lot of subsequent sanding and rescribing involved.

 

The main landing gear is VERY weak, so I replaced them with a white metal set from Scale Aircraft Conversions.  The landing gear and wheel wells were spruced up with various bits of plumbing and brake lines. 

The afterburner section of the engine is an absolute horror show!  Not only is it made out of 4 pieces creating 4 ugly seams, but it’s riddled with ejector pin marks.  To resolve this, I created an Excel spread sheet, used black outlines with gray fill in the cells, and printed it out on photo paper.  I then oversprayed the sheet with a light coat of Model Master’s metallic Burnt Metal, cut it to the correct circumference, rolled it, and inserted it into the engine with the one seam at the top.  The end result is much more pleasing to the eye, if I do say so myself. 

 

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All in all, the kit went together very quickly.  I used MM enamels and airbrushed the camouflage free hand.  After allowing the paint to dry several days, a coat of Future was applied to gloss things up.  As I mentioned earlier, the decals are outstanding, and they went on with no trouble at all.  After sealing the decals with another coat of Future, the model was given a black wash.  A coat of Dull Cote was airbrushed on the kit to finish off the painting.  For final details, I scratch built boarding ladders and FOD covers, and the RBF tags are from my color printer.

John

Special thanks to Scott Craig and his website www.craigcentral.com for invaluable info and photos.  Please check it out!

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Photos and text © by John McCormick