Here is my latest in my series of Century Series builds, the F-105D Thunderchief. The kit is from Hobby Boss, a manufacturer that I have only built from a time or two in the past (I did a F4F-4 Wildcat a few years ago, and a few of their 1/72nd easy kits).
I have a couple of things to get off my chest regarding this kit and Hobby Boss - this kit is a fantastic rendition of the Thunderchief, fits great … and comes with absolute dog dookey instructions and paint callouts. I do think Hobby Boss probably over-engineered this kit, but given how little difficulty I had in getting all those parts into place, I’m not complaining about that. But oh those instructions … pure garbage. Some parts were difficult to determine the proper placement, and many parts are not given any painting guidelines whatsoever.
This kit comes with two markings options, with one an obvious choice. That choice was from the 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron and the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing based in Takhli, Thailand. The pilot was Captain Victor “Vic” Vizcarra, who I incidentally just saw had produced a feature on the F-100 that is currently available for viewing on Amazon Prime (good show, by the way). Vizcarra’s F-105 was famous for its nose art, which was a naked lady positioned in quite a provacative position right by the refueling receptacle. To keep this post Rated PG, I will refrain from posting the picture I took of the nose art.
This particular nose art was inspired by the James Bond movie, Goldfinger, with a character portrayed by the actress Honor Blackman (who just passed away at age 96 or so). Vizcarra’s aircraft was popular among the crews of the refueling aircraft, but not so much with his commanding officer. And the one that I have built represents Vizcarra’s second -105 to bear this nose art, the first being lost in combat in 1967 with a different pilot at the controls.
Paints for my build came largely from the Vallejo set, USAF Colors “Vietnam War” Scheme SEA - USAF Brown, US Forest Green, Green, and USAAF Light Gray. Other paints came from Model Master Metalizers line, including Aluminum, Dark Anadonic Gray, Exhaust, and Titanium. Model Master Enamel light gray, Tamiya Khaki, Tamiya NATO Green, Tamiya Olive Green, Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black, Vallejo Chrome Yellow, Vallejo White, Vallejo Tire Black, Vallejo Black, and Vallejo Red. Weathering came via ground-up pastels and MiG washes.
Here she is …
The Hobby Boss kit came with ordinance that was not correct per photos I found of Vizcarra’s F-105D, so I raided one of my spare incomplete Monogram kits to replace Hobby Boss’ centerline fuel tank with a rack of bombs, and replaced the Hobby Boss rockets with bombs from the Monogram kit. The Monogram bombs are bigger than the Hobby Boss bombs, so I really don’t know if they are entirely accurate either, but they did provide a nice canvas to do something fun with them. Often times, ground crews would paint messages on the bombs … I couldn’t find anything specific to Vietnam, but knowing that US soldiers referred to the NVA as “Charlie”, I thought of the slogan from Starkist tuna, Sorry Charlie, which per my research originated during the 1960s. So out came my finest point brush and some chrome silver paint …
Next up … Monogram’s F-106A Delta Dart in the Revell boxing.
