Anybody know where I can get some 1/48 scale decals for my THUD?
The originals sat in the box too long and have deteriorated badly.
Ive checked TwoBobs and Meteor and a few other places, with no luck.
Any ideas?
Hey cj95,
You should check out Aero Master decals. They had a series of Thud decals and if I am not mistaken, in the last few months they had brought out the “Best Of” of theThuds. Something on that order.
At the moment my Thud decals are not at my disposal. Heres a link to the Decals that I mentioned. A few are OOP. I think the first three are…
http://www.eaglestrikeproductions.com/cgi-bin/amddecals.pl?scale=48&setid=676&dbs=aeromaster&pgs=2&currpg=1&dclimg=ad48676
Good hunting…
Flaps up, Mike
You will find several different decals for the F-105. Some decals, while absolutely historically correct, may not be appropriate for all audiences. An example is the “Cherry Girl”. Here, a naked lady was painted on the fuselage near the refueling port. This practice was not unusual over in Thailand and other overseas bases during the Vietnam era. By all means, celebrate the great F-105 with your model, just be aware of what you’re buying.
Respectfully,
Brian
What is the version of the Thud you’ll plan to built (D,F,G)?.
I have in my deca box one sheet (Microscale 48-142).This decal sheet is made for three
plane (two with SEA camo and one aluminium finish)from 128 TFS inDobbins AFB,561 TFS in Korat AFB,(no details about the “Alu finish”).If interested please let me know
Best regards P Medard
oh and be ware some of the decal instructions indicate that you have to make some modifications on the F-105 if in doubt ask Yardbird he is the Thud expert
As mentioned about “Cherry Girl” not being appropriate for all audiences , why dont you check out “Pussy Galore”… You decide my friend.
BUT, if you want to build a historical a/c, 9-10 times you will find nose art that is not appropriate at all… Its HISTORY…
Its up to you on what you want to use. Either it my be mild or wild, you have to be happy in your choice…[;)]
Flaps up, Mike
Hey they were 105 pilots flying into the most intense triple aaa and sam country in the history of modern warfare, so yeah they may have been the somewhat explicit type ! check out cam decals they may have some good 105 decals. good luck with the iron canary.
I was just making the fellow aware that the racy decals were out there, not making a moral judgement of them.
Right now, I’m building the Monogran kit of the F-105D. I will be entering it in a contest at the Albuquerque Scale Modelers. This awesome model club is very successful at attracting young people to the hobby, so I chose the tame version of the decals for my model.
Zap yeah you are right they are a bit racy and most likely not the best decals for a young person or for a child to see in the LHS.
Hey have fun with the 105 build.
Yes, the Cherry Girl and P _ _ _ _ Galore decals are R rated at least if not X rated, but there are also more traditional decals on these same sheets. The decals from Cutting Edge have as they say, “been bikini waxed”, to make them more acceptable to women and children. There is a separate small decal that can be used to return the figure to “pre-waxing” condition. If cj95 or anyone else has specific questions about the full scale F-105 or the various models, fire away, and I will attempt to answer them. I have built the Monogram 1/48 scale D model with Cherry Girl decals, the F/G model with Joltin’ Josie decals and the plain silver thud with red/white rudder & wing tips that is on the same decal sheet. If you would like to see photos of them, check out:
www.bellevillercflyers.com/gallery/album32 . I also just completed a 1/72 and a 1/48 scale of F-105F “Peach 91”, the last F-105 to fly for the Air National Guard. I will post some pictures of those soon.
The full scale thuds with the Cherry Girl and P _ _ _ _ Galore art work were very rare and only lasted a few days before the high ranking brass ordered their removal. Many Thuds carried artwork on the fuselage that featured scantily clad women, but the really raw artwork of CG and PG was pretty rare. F-105D # 61-0069, that originally carried the Cherry Girl nose art, survived the Viet Nam War and eventually wound up serving with the USAF Reserves at Hill AFB, Utah. When all the Thuds were retired in 1983, she went to the museum at Norton AFB, San Bernadino, California. She was fully restored and repainted, including the famous nose art. Once again, politically correct brass demanded the immediate removal of the art work. She spent several years at Norton, then about a year ago, was disassembled and trucked to the SAC museum at Ashland, Nebraska. She was again stripped of all paint, given some corrosion protection work, reassembled and repainted. Unfortunately, she still sits outside in the harsh Nebraska weather, so her appearance will undoubtedly go downhill again.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Yardbird78: Question on the SEA camo pattern on the Thuds. The bottom of the fuselage was painted a light gray, but it looks more of an off-white in pics. Was this due to fading? I’ve seen some light grays on Navy and Marine aircraft with grays that fade a bit but nothing to an off-white color. Thanks!
I have also seen pictures of Thuds and other SEA aircraft where the bottom looked more white than gray. The official color for the bottom is FS 36622 gray, which is pretty light in itself. The variations in color are due in some part to fading & weathering, but most of it is due to the photo itself. The chemicals used in color film in those days were not the most accurate and definately tended to “shift” their position somewhat in the color spectrum as they aged. Kodachrome film for slides was very popular in the 60s and 70s and tended to produce pictures that were heavy on the red part of the spectrum. Ektachrome film, also for slides, tended to emphasize the blues and greens. Kodacolor and Ektacolor films produced postive prints and tended towards the same reds and blue/greens as their slide cousins.
Kodak also had a program in place during much of the SEA conflict where they took outdated film from the US and sold it in the BX’s in SEA for 25 cents per role, including processing. Some of this film was still good and some of it had suffered from heat and age, so the colors in personal pictures could be off by quite a margin.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Yardbird: Thanks for the update. Kind of interesting that it was the type of film used that produced that effect in the photos/prints. [:)] There’s an angle to every story if you dig deep enough.[:)]