I opened my F-84 Thunderbird kit and it is beautifully aluminum plated. The problem is that the f-84 panel lines, on the fuselage and the wings, would necessitate painting most of the wings and all of the fuselage.
In the building process the aluminum finish is going to be affected by the liquid glue and/or and sanding and filling process. I cannot see any way around this. So. the aluminum plating is a waisted effort, and an unnecessary expense if you want to build the model. Most, if not all, of it will have to be painted NMF.
The decals are beautiful and Tamiya decals usually fit and lay down nicely.
Another problem is that the inboard wing pylon is molded to the wing. To do a flight demo T-bird would require removal of the pylon anbd therefore major surgery to the wing. The pylon would have to be cut away, the wing reinforced with sheet plastic, and the hole filled.
I’m looking at using the Revell F-84 wings in order to avoid the surgery and repairs. The problem with this is that the Tamiya wings have seperate flaps that are nicely done. I would have to sacrifice the Revell kit.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have purchased a Standard F-84 kit and not pay the extra amount for the T-Bird kit. Does anyone know if the non-plated F-84 by Tamiya has the wing pylons molded to the wing? I would assume that it does.
It looks like the Revell kit with a NMF and AM decals is the way to go for an F-84 T-Bird. Does anyone know if there are AM T-bird decals for the F-84? I’m still searching for them.
The kit is pretty, but NOT worth the substantial extra costs, IMHO. The aluminum plating is useless if you want to build the kit, so why pay extra for the plating? rangerj
I’ve been wanting someone to start a thread on the Tamiya F-84. As I described on our current “modeling disasters” thread, I just had my ProModeller F-84G smashed to pieces, and I’ve always wanted to build another anyway. The Monogram kit is excellent, and I assume the E model the put out is the same as the Pro-Modeler G without the superfluous PE boarding ladder and speed brake which added $12 to the price of the kit. And I assume the E has a different canopy and hopefully the other little changes.
But could someone offer up a comparison of the Tamiya and Revelogram kits? I love this airplane, it is from the era I most like to model (the 50s) and I was thrilled when it finally appeared in 1/48. And does the Tamiya T-Birds kit have molded-in pylons? I’ve never seen any airplane where the pylons fit so flush there is no visible gap, even on the newest aircraft. This is beneath Tamiya, given how much we pay them.
TOM
The non-plated Tamiya kit is identical to the plated version except for the obvious difference in the plating & decals. The inboards pylons are molded in place. The plated kit is mostly for collectors, not builders.
I’ve got the Tamiya kit in the “to do” pile. You can always “touch up” that plated kit with Alclad or SNJ, another option would be Bare Metal Foil to hide those blemishes. I remember back in the 70’s that (HObbycraft?) some company relaesed a series of plated kits, P-51,P47 etc. I remember building them all, I think I would like to try one today.
Tom, the Revell F-84 E(echo) has both canopies. in fact, the decals provided are for one E and one G model of the F-84. The kit is “todays” technology, that is it has scribed panel lines (not raised).
The test fitting I have done so far indicates it is going to fit without much, if any filling. For the cost of one Tamiya kit you can get the Revell kit, Aires detailed wheel wells, an Aires cockpit, and AM decals. This assumes that you get the Revell kit “on sale”.
Upon closer inspection of the Revell kit I found out that the flaps are also seperate and can be displayed in the down position. The speed brake can be posed in the open position, JATO bottles are included, and fuell tanks are provided for the inner pylons. The kit includes rockets for armament as well as iron bombs.
The kit looks like it would be OK built OOB without AM parts. The red colors in the decals does not look quit right. It looks a little on the dark side, but I could live with it if I decided to do that particular aircraft. However, I’m still thinking T-Bird if I can find AM T-Bird decals. Sorry to hear about your losses.
I thought we were done with the moves, but now that the kids are out of the house the little woman wants to move into a condo. If it does not have a modeling room I’m not moving! (period) Well, at least not until she tells me we’re ready!!! Cheers, rangerj
After Market decals for the Tamiya F-84G. A company called Airway International Graphics did a sheet for the T-Birds. My set is dated 1999 and is sheet No. AGM8-001. I think I picked these up at a model swap meet not long after the Tamiya kit came out, long before the plated Tamiya version came out. There is a full sheet and a half sheet of decals. The markings are for the F-84G that was used in the 1953 and the 1954 air show seasons. The decals are flawless, clean, crisp and in full register. Some of the best decals I’ve ever seen. The full color instruction sheet gives you hints and tips for building the kit and a step-by -step how to on applying the decals. I don’t know exactly where or when I picked these up, I’ve had them in the stash for a while. I don’t know if they are still available either.The early jets are some of my favorite. By the way, HAWK models did some of their kits back in the 1960"s in a plated versions. I remember building their P-51 and the F-80 plated kits. Back then all I had was tube plastic model glue,man did it do a job on the finish. Hope this helps your project. D.M.
Rick,
The model looks great. The red in the AM decals looks RED. The red in the Revell kit looks much darker. Otherwise the decals look good, but I’m not sure about how they will apply. I’ve had a number of bad experience with RMs decals. Thanks for the pix.
Now we need a new technology F-84-F, an F-100-C and D, and T-38, to add to the F-4. T-33, and F-16. then we could do each of the aircraft used by the T-Birds. I am missing any? Do you know if the F-4-E of Hasagawas, repackaged by Revell/Monogram, is the right Echo varient for a T-Bird aircraft? The kit has both the short and long gun port.
Viper50,
Thanks for the info in re the T-bird decals. I’ll start searching for the ones you mentioned and any others that might be out there. I could use the Tamiya decals but I hate to do that. i could always paint the team colors as a last resort, but that is a masking nightmare. cein loi, rangerj
rangerj, For some reason most Revell kits have decals with the red much too dark, almost Maroon. They go on OK, for kit decals, but they just don’t look right.
As noted, my F-84G was the original ProModeler version with the PE parts (which I wound up ruining and tossing, and not missing in the end). I used the kit decals, which were the wing commanders a/c that included the squadron Rick’s fine model came from. Not only were this very expensive (no discount) ProModeler kit’s reds off all around, the blues on the decals were just unacceptable. They used the very dark insignia blue from the national insignia so they wouldn’t have to add another layer to the color. And the pinup girl was done in those awful Ben Day dots which ruin decal nose art. The kit itself however, particularly the cockpit and seat, were outstanding, and the dropped flaps option was nice, as well as the all around fit. I built mind OOB, and should not have used the kit decals. All those stencils, which seem to have stayed with F-84’s through their careers, were nice, but tedious. This is all academic, since the apartment painter, as I said in the other thread, slapped in down like it was a pesky insect, crushing it completely. But I want another, especially after seeing Rick’s. But was the canopy the only visible difference between the E and G. That doesn’t seem right.
TOM
OOOOOO, I have one of these Chrome plated fellas sitting around here somewhere…!!! I was surprised at first but after I thought how cool…[;)]
I really dont mind since I bought this thing at a Rochester show for $15 and yes she was sealed to boot[;)] I guess she’ll be a shelf sitter…LOL
Flaps up, Mike
That would have been the Hawk kits also later released by Testors. I remember the MiG 15, F-100 and T-33 (Is this the only T-33 in 1/48?) but couldn’t remember the others. Monogram was also guilty of plating a kit with one of the releases of their MiG 15. Thanks for the heads up on the Tamiya Thunder Hog as I’ve been drooling, err, looking at one at HL.
A few facts about the straight winged F-84 Thunderjet
1.The G model was the first to have the “braced” canopy. This style canopy was later fitted to all earlier F-84s
2.The underwing weapons pylons near the fuselage were first fitted on modified Ds. These were fixed,but jettisonable, as compared to the previous retractable versions. They were flush fitting with no noticable gap between the upper edge and wing surface.
3. The G models flown by the Thunderbirds had the inner weapons pylons in place. They had the perforated dive brake under the forward fuselage. Later Gs had only 4 rectangular holes.
4. Capt Jacksel “Jack” Broughton flew wing and lead in F-84s for the T-Birds. He was the ONLY Captain to ever lead the T-birds. He was later Vice Commander of the 354 TFW in Thailand flying F-105s and wrote Thud Ridge & Going Downtown
4. The early and late Gs had a major change in ejection seats. These new seats were also retrofitted to many earlier models
5. The G was the first to incorporate the “flying boom” refueling system. The receptacle was in the leading edge of the starboard wing just outbord of the machine gun compartment. The Gs in the Far East Air Force, additionally, still retained the probe and drogue system in the inner edges of each wing tip tank because the KB-29 and KB-50 tankers they had over there only had this system. No KC-97s were available in the Pacific at this time.
6. The G was the first to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons. They were carried on either or both inner wing pylons.
7. All F-84s had 6 .50 calibre machine guns. Two on either side of the nose and one in each wing root.
8. The D model was the first to move the pitot tube from the leading edge of the vertical fin to the splitter plate in the intake. [alien]
9. The E and G had the fuselage lengthened 12" in the cockpit area for pilot comfort
