For
the start of their 1964 season, the USAF Thunderbirds (T-birds) traded
their North American F-100C Super Sabres ("Huns") for
Republic F-105B Thunderchiefs ("Thuds") which would be the
shortest-serving of all the T-birds many different aircraft. If
you saw the T-birds showcasing the F-105 in their gorgeous
red/white/blue markings, you are truly one lucky individual, for they
only flew six airshows with this machine before tragedy struck. In
the early evening of May 9, 1964, the T-birds had just arrived at
Hamilton AFB, California, having just finished their sixth airshow of
the season at McChord AFB, Washington. The team flew an
abbreviated show sequence at Hamilton to get acquainted with the
surrounding area before concluding with a formation flight down the
runway and a sequential pitch-up by each individual aircraft for
landing. Captain Eugene Devlin was T-bird 2, the left wing pilot
of the T-birds diamond formation. Devlin was the 2nd to initiate
his pitch-up maneuver when his Thud (57-5801) suffered a catastrophic
structural failure above the weapons bay in the spine of the aircraft
and disintegrated (fatally), with the bulk of the airframe coming down
on Hamilton's main runway.
Unknown
to the T-birds at the time, it was later disclosed during a post-crash
investigation that this particular aircraft (before being chosen and modified to
serve the T-birds) had been involved in an air-to-air refueling incident where a
tanker drogue basket had been pounded against the spine of the aircraft by
turbulence. The resulting damage was repaired and there was no evidence
linking this mishap to Captain Devlin's fatal crash, but it leaves one to wonder
if it was a contributing factor. The crash resulted in the entire
USAF Thud fleet being grounded for a short period and instead of canceling the
rest of their 1964 airshow season, the T-birds switched back to the North
American F-100 in favor of the newer D-model Hun instead of the C's that the
T-birds had originally flown. The plan was to transition back to the Thuds
once suitable modifications had been made, but supposedly due to priorities
stemming from the coming storm that was to be the Vietnam War... the Thuds would
never fly in T-bird markings again and the team would retain their Huns for
another four more years before starting their 1969 show season with the F-4E
Phantom II. Ironically, the B-model Thuds that the T-birds had flown,
would never see combat in Vietnam... with only the later D, F & G-model
Thuds being used. Why the T-birds could not have transitioned back to the
B-model Thuds in light of this is an interesting question. It is believed
that the powers that be had lost faith in the Thud as an aerobatic performer and
did not want to risk another tragic crash... and it would take the Vietnam War
for the Thud-series to gain the legendary status that it has come to be known
for.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
Thud has always been my most favored of all the T-birds aircraft and in my
opinion was the prettiest of the T-birds line. In the book titled
"Diamond In The Sky" about the T-birds, authors Carol
Knotts & Pete Moore start the Thud chapter with the following quote:
"If I cannot influence the Gods, I shall set all Hell in motion"
- Aeneid VII, 312 Vergil. This is a very fitting statement in
regards to the F-105 Thunderchief, considering its awesome size and
power... and it is a crying shame that more people were not able to
experience a T-bird show with these aircraft as I have always heard that
the later shows with the F-4E Phantoms were some of the loudest and most
spectacular shows in all of the T-birds history, but I have a feeling that
the Thud had to have eclipsed the Phantom in this respect.
As not
only was the Thunderchief plenty loud, but aesthetically speaking, the
Thud was a much prettier aircraft in it's shiny natural metal finish.
I have always abhorred the T-birds switch to the over-all white paint
scheme as the natural metal/silver just had such a classic look to it, but
I have been informed that the white paint scheme makes the aircraft easier
to track by spectators at airshows. Can only imagine what the F-4E,
T-38 and F-16 would have looked like in an overall silver paint
scheme. It could have been a possibility considering the weight that
the already applied white paint must add to the airframe, so why not
silver paint? Oh well, unfortunately we will never know.
Building
of this kit had been rattling around in my brain for many years, at least ever
since I came across one of Hasegawa's history sets on the T-birds that included
their B-model Thud, but I was never impressed with the quality of the decals in
the kit (and lack thereof of the main markings in this kit... although later
separate kits from Hasegawa provided more substantial markings on the decal
sheet, but I cannot comment on their quality). I also have never been
impressed by the Hasegawa F-105B/D kits. They are a product of their
typical 1970's ancestry and are not very well detailed and not very accurate.
Later, I happened into a stash of a bunch of Revell's 1/72 Thunderchief
kits (much superior to Hasegawa) at a rediculously cheap price in a local
flea-market/surplus/salvage-shop as they were part of the remnants of a train
derailment. They were not in the best of shape with many broken and
missing pieces due to the boxes having been mangled in the accident, but
amazingly enough after a nice letter explaining the story and detailing the
specific pieces needed, Revell/Monogram were gracious enough to replace ALL
the missing/broken pieces for FREE!... Which I am assuming
these pieces must have been pulled from their F/G-Thud kits since the
D-model had been long out of production by the time this had taken place in the
early-mid 1990's. Luckily, none of the D-model specific pieces had
been broken/lost, but here is a big public thanks to Revell/Monogram for their
help!
Some
may wonder why I did not wait for the forthcoming Trumpeter Thud kits in this
scale and honestly, other than recessed panel lines and a little better fitment
of parts, I am not so certain that the Trumpeter kit is going to provide much
improvement over the Revell/Monogram kits and certainly will be much more
expensive. The Revell/Monogram kits are a much cheaper alternative as God
knows I would not be able to replace my Thud stash without a substantial hit to
the pocket book... and considering the number of Thuds I hope to build in my
lifetime, the Trumpeter kit loses this economic battle!... that is unless I get
lucky again and come across the remnants of another train derailment?... but
what is it they say about lightning striking twice? :)
This
kit started out like so many others in my past... I initially just started
tinkering with it with no intention of completing it anytime soon, as I had no
really good aftermarket decals to see the kit through to total completion.
But the thoughts are always there of "what if I try this?" and
"what if I try that?"... and one thing leads to another... blah, blah,
blah. It was also somewhat further inspired by seeing Ed Kinney's 1/32
scale version at the Kansas City 2006 IPMS Nationals: http://www.hsgalleries.com/gallery04/f105bek_1.htm ...
and also the 1/48 version done by local modeling compadre (and fellow ARC'er)
Darren Roberts: http://www.arcair.com/Gal1/501-600/gal525_Thunderbirds_Roberts/gal525.htm
So
thanks for the inspiration guys!
The
bulk of the conversion of this kit situated around using the nose off of the
Hasegawa B-model and grafting it onto the nose of the Revell D-model.
There were no existing panel lines to use for reference on either kit, so I
free-hand penciled in the line about where I thought it should be on both kits
and proceeded to cut, leaving a little extra to work with on the respective
parts. If I recall correctly, I think I vertically cut the Hasegawa B
immediately behind the front wall of the gear bay and sanded it right up to the
front wall. I then cut the Revell D about 2-3 mm forward of the front wall
of the gear bay. A little bit of filing/sanding and these pieces matched
up almost perfectly. Cyanoacrylate was used on the inside of the joint to
strengthen it and on the outside to fill the joint and I was off and running.
I held this up to the 1/72 plans for the B-model nose in Detail & Scale and
it was a near dead-on match (provided the D&S drawings are accurate?)... but
the finished model looks close, so I'm not complaining.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Other
mods included back-dating of the Revell airframe by removing the small spine
fairing forward of the vertical stabilizer, enlarging the intake at the base of
the vertical stabilizer, removing the reinforcing plates on the tops/bottoms of
the wings & sides of the rear fuselage, filling in many different
vents/openings that did not appear in photos of early B-models, drilling out two
vents below and forward of the windscreen on the right side of the fuselage,
removing of the antennas towards the top and back of the vertical stabilizer,
removing the the Wild Weasel specific antennas on the ends of the wing-tips and
the Wild Weasel specific lights that protrude from the fronts of the wings near
the wing-tips. I also had to use wire to replicate the pitot tube on the
left wing-tip and bent Evergreen styrene rod to replicate the smoke oil tubing
system under the rear fuselage/exhaust-petals. The rest of the kit build
went pretty fast as there's not too much to this kit really, but it did require
a little bit of filling and sanding around the wing joints as these are not too
great of a fit. The entire airframe was then sanded to remove almost all
of the raised panel detail and then the airframe was painted with Floquil's
Bright Silver railroad enamel.
Now,
onto the markings. Besides the national insignias and the red turbine
stage warning stripes on the rear fuselage, EVERYTHING else was
either 1. Masked/painted... 2. Tediously cut from white decal film
(underside white striping)... 3. Hand painted (white stripe on the belly below
the canopy and touch-up around some of the wing/tail feathers of the bird
motif... or 4. Created and printed on my color lazer printer using Tango
Papa clear/white decal film. Naturally, given my penchant for replicating
unique and historical subjects, I chose to immortalize Captain
Devlin's 57-5801.
To
say that this was the most ambitious markings project I have ever set upon would
be an understatement, but it was well worth it as the finished model is very
impressive. I am not so certain that this will ever be a contest entry
though, as there were a few minor painting mistakes made that had to be
'repaired' and are visible if one gets too close to the model, so it's a
definite '2-3 foot model,' but I am happy with the way it turned out.
The
Thud bug has definitely bitten hard and by the time you are reading this
article, I will probably be putting the finishing touches on my Project
Northscope/Ryan's Raiders F-105F which will be the subject of a future article,
so stay tuned.
J.C.
P.S.
- I was just putting the finishing touches on this article when I heard of the
tragic passing of fellow modeler Al Superczynski on 1/23/2007. Al was one
of several guys I had done some collaboration with via e-mail on this
project within the past few months and this news was certainly a shock to
hear and a very sad loss to the modeling world at large! The least I
could do is to dedicate this article to his memory. Take care
Al, you will be missed.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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