1/48 F-105B Thunderbirds

Memorial Display 

by Glenn Cook

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Gene Devlin flew the F-105B Thunderchief with the Thunderbirds early 1964. For details on the team and his fatal crash go here:

 
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Thunderbirds_F-105_crash_site.htm

The F-105 went on to serve in Viet Nam as the Wild Weasle, baiting the SAM's to expose them. For more on that history go here:
http://www.vectorsite.net/avf105.html

The kit - the Monogram/Revell kit was used, molded in dark green, detail was nebulous. Which is ok because the goal was to duplicate the memorial piece received
 from the Air Force in 1964, very smooth surface and no detail. As I am used to extensive research and adding detail this was a real change of pace and somewhat challenging. How do you take detail away and still display the character of the craft? I continually referred to photos of the original display  model as my guide.

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I realized early on that I'd need to do some reinforcing for the rod the plane would be displayed on in flying formation. I took a mold of the inside shape of the fuselage just at the point where the vertical stablilizer joins the body. From this I cut a frame from sheet plastic, and cut a hole in its center. This way the acrylic rod would have two points of support on the plane, the exhaust and this central frame. I cemented the frame in the fuselage and closed it up.  

I started removing detail from the planes surface with my dremel, and moved from coarse to fine sand paper. I used Surfacer in some areas, then more sanding until I had a smooth surface.

I used the same process on the wings, with the gear up, and the gear doors. Finally a coat of primer to highlight any glitches, more sanding and more primer.

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I still had to produce two arrowhead bases to which I'd adhere the acrylic rod. I got a rough measurement of the original and set to carving a master from balsa. One challenge was to make sure I had enough mass in the base to support the plane. I purchased some 1/2" acrylic rod and curved a test piece to see if everything would balance. Fortunately, I had eyeballed everything accurately and it stood up just fine. I added a few lead musket balls to the base just to make sure.

 From the balsa master I made a plaster mold and made two resin bases. I gave them a quick coat of primer to really see how they would appear and proceeded to sand
 away some rough spots, add some gouges, smooth out the sides. Then I had to drill the 1/2" hole in the foot of the arrowhead. In case you haven't done it, resin is odd stuff to drill. the 1/2" hole went fine, but when I inserted the rod and proceeded to drill the
 1/8" hole for the locking pin, I snapped two bits. I guess resin should be drilled at low speed.  But it turned out the drill bit worked fine as the locking pin anyway. 

Back to the planes and finishing the paint. As the original had a simple silver finish, I chose to follow that rather than the high sheen of Natural Metal finish. I was tempted, but kept my focus on the goal, Match the Original. I used real fine stuff to sand down the primer, and gave them a coat of simple Tamiya Silver. I let that dry for a couple days, thinking about how I could polish that surface - I did not have the fancy Tamiya polishing creams. As it turned out, plaster-of-paris and a cotton rag works real well! the damp rag with a touch of the plaster, and adding a bit of water kept it from setting up.

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I let them dry for another day, gave a second coat of the silver. then a couple coats of future and a week of drying. They were ready for the decals. 

This was the most extensive set of decals I had ever applied. As you know, the thunderbirds display lots of coverage, a dark blue, some white control surfaces, lots of stars, basically the Native American Thunderbird pattern on a jet plane. Due to the many  reverse curves, gear doors, etc, the broad surface areas were broken up to absorb all the bulges. Add to that the extreme thin nature of the decals (a good thing) and we had some challenges. Planning, Patience, Persistence. And lots of solvset.

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Glenn

Photos and text © by Glenn Cook