1/48 Revell Republic F-105B

Gallery Article by Stefan Gabriel on June 23 2010

 

This is my second plane from the famous century series aircraft in 1/48. I wanted to build an early version of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief. After looking for suitable model kits I found out that neither a F-105B nor a F-105D version in 1/48 was available at local hobby shops, so I decided to convert the F-105G/F from Revell into a F-105B.

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First step was to remove the wing and Fuselage reinforcements and sand off the raised panel lines. The main difference between the B and later D variant was the different shape of the nose. I scratchbuilt the nose from a combination of resin and parts of the kit's front fuselage section. The nose is maybe not 100% in the right shape but I think it is not so bad either. Smaller modifications were the removal of ECM antennas, the shortening of the fuselage to fit the length of a F-105B and the shortening of the tailfin. The air intake at the fin root was modified. Navigation lights were made of clear sprues. The last step was the rescribing of the panel lines (My first try!).

Over the gloss light grey **undercoat I airbrushed Alclad airframe aluminium. Some panels were masked and painted in different shades of Alclad. The anti glare panel, nose tip and green-white stripes were painted with gunze sangyo and Tamiya acrylics. After drying, I airbrushed the aircraft with "Erdal Glaenzer" (a product like Future) and applied homemade decals with the markings of an F-105B from the 4 th TFW at Seymour Johnson Airbase in 1960. After another layer "Glaenzer" the anti glare panel were masked and painted with Gunze clear matte.

Stefan Gabriel

Photos and text © by Stefan Gabriel