1/72 Trumpeter F-105D

Gallery Article by Sakis Georgiadis on July 7  2011

 

Hello to all fellow scale modelers.  I have built this model for a group-build about the Vietnam War in the Greek forum Modelclub.gr I like this plane a lot and in the past I have built the G Wild Weasel version from Trumpeter too in SEA camo. This time I wanted to do the full metal version of it. The kit is very good and the only disadvantage is that there are only decals for the cockpit. So I decided to use the photoetched set from Eduard for the cockpit and the resin seat from Pavla. I prefer the resin seat instead of the kit's seat dressed up with the Eduard's parafenalia. The photoetched cockpit is colored and self-adhesive. I also wanted to do the cover they used on the instrument panel as I have seen it in other models on the web. I used Tamiya's epoxy putty for this.

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After the assembly, time for painting!  I wanted to use the Alclad metallic shades for this. I sprayed first Tamiya's gloss black as a base. Then I first sprayed the model white aluminium and then masking and masking and remasking various panels and spraying, aluminium, dark aluminium, mix of aluminium and dark aluminium, and polished aluminium.  I wanted to put bombs in the "belly" of the plane and the fuel tanks under the wings along with two bullpups.  Trumpeter doesn't give this inside the box, although its on the artwork of the box.  It gives a central tank for the "belly".  So I used the MER from a Hasegawa kit along with the M117 bombs, instead the MK82 that are in the Trumpeter kit.  The "carrier" of the MER is from a Fujimi kit.

I used Tamiya's olive drab for the green color.  After the painting, I put the decals, which are forming very well on the surface.  I didn't want to use any gloss or flat clear because I didn't want to affect the finish of the Alclad shades.  This put me in a bit of trouble when I applied the dark wash from Mig Products for that "used" look.  It needed a lot of time to dry properly and allow me to work on it without taking all off.  After, I assembled all the small parts that were left aside and put that beautiful photoetched ladder from Eduard again.  I like this plane a lot as I mentioned before, and I really enjoyed the construction. I hope you will enjoy it too.

Sakis Georgiadis

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Photos and text © by Sakis Georgiadis