Phew! I finished my Kinetic 1/48 F-84F tonight! This one was fort he Cold War GB…check it out.
I read a pretty bad review of the kit on another website. While I’ve personally never built the Monogram or Heller kits, I can;t imagine this being much nicer. Being my first Kinetic kit, I’d rate it very highly…right up there with the better Academy stuff. The engineering of the kit and detail is phenominal, especially for the price. From my experience, I cannot recommend this kit enough.
The only real issues I had with the kit was the pebbly surface that needed sanding before spraying a NMF. The most trouble I had was with the canopy, but it was purley user error. I was in a hurry and kept making mistakes and had to redo several areas.
One thing I like about this build is I used more than 2 shades of Alclad on for the exterior; four to be exact. I like the contrast of the panels and wing tanks. I’ve made a mental note to order more shades of Alclad for my next build, as it was really fun.
I took the pics with and without pics for different effects. The “with Flash” pics show the NMF nicley. As always, the camera unveiled some previously unnoticed flaws…Of the several gaffs, I noticed the Pitot tube and the front landing gear door have some overspray. They were touched up afterwards.
Outstanding build Charles! I like the NMF effects, well done! I may have to get one of these as I do not have one in my collection. Thanks for sharing! [tup]
Charles, that’s a great job! I have that same kit in my stash. What parts have that “pebbly” surface? I only ask because I plan to attempt the same kind of paint job that you’ve mastered here.
My kit had a pebbly texture on the fuselage and wings…basically the exterior pieces. This was an early complaint and may have been fixed on later releases. Hopefully you’ve got a newer one. Other than that, I thought the kit was a tremendous value.
That is some beautiful work on your F-84F. You have certainly mastered the Alclad painting. I have built two of the Monogram F-84Fs and used Model Master paints. Yours came out much better.
How did you find the Monogram kit? The review of the Kinetic kit bashed Kinetic and made it sound like the MOnogram kit was one of the better ones they’ve released. Any pics of yours?
Charles, very nice job and an outstanding finish on it. It’s one of my favourite planes an need to get a 1/48 scale version. Sounds like this is one you would reccomend. Great job.
I found the Monogram kits to be quite good, overall. Monogram released the kit in two versions, one with a NMF box artwork and a MK-7 Nuclear Weapon included + two iron bombs while the box with Viet Nam camo artwork is the exact same airplane without the MK-7. The two kits have different decals but both sheets are useless. They are typical, older Monogram decals that look like they were printed on a plexiglass sheet. The Revell of Germany kit is a rebox of the Monogram, but with an EXCELLENT decal sheet. It gives several very colorful options, including the Belgian Demonstration team with a bunch of orange color.
The Kinetic kit is nearly identical to the Monogram version except it has the open gun compartment in the nose and recessed panel lines, (a few of which are incorrect). Some people claim that the side speed boards on the Monogram are about 1/8" to far back. Others claim they are correct. Either way it is an awful trivial item for most modelers. The Kinetic supposedly corrected this problem by moving the panels slightly forward.
Here is a picture of my pair of Thundersleds.
The decals are Aeromaster. More photos can be viewed at:
