Taming the Thud - Trumpeter's 1/32 F-105

By Mark McAllister

Trumpeter F-105 finally completed! This started as the D model which I have had in the stash since 2002 (or 03?). I built the G last year and wanted to do this one in NMF. I saw the Thunderbirds decals and figured, well, I have the F-16, did the F-100 last year, plan to do the F-4, and I also have the F-84G and a T-33 in the stash. Why not? When eventually an F-84F and a T-38 come out in 1/32 I'll have the entire line-up!

Typical Trumpeter build, fit not too bad, I used the BB cockpit (which fit much better than the G!), SAC main gear, otherwise OOB. All went well until paint. I'm still not sure what exactly went wrong but I had major paint lifting on just about all the colors. I had to sand off the red on the nose and redo it once, spot repair some of the rest. I used Testors primer decanted from the rattle can - I think that was the culprit - it was still too heavy after decanting so I thinned it with MM airbrush thinner. Probably should have used lacquer thinner but I was afraid of it crazing the plastic. Gonna do some experimenting before the next build to find a solution there.

Decals were superb (just insignia, used the provided masks for all the colors) and multiple brushed Future coats for the gloss coat.

Before getting to the pics, a warning: 105 experts may have a conniption - it's only a quasi -B conversion. The B nose is not available anymore so I had to wing it. I did as many of the B mods as I could. I removed the antenna on the fin, deleted the afterburner cooling scoops, removed the dorsal spine and moved the pitot tube to the wing. I tried my best to reshape the nose, it's up to you guys to decide if I got it right. It looks pretty close to me. In retrospect I should have moved the gun - didn't think it would make that much difference but it does. Too late! And the cockpit is a D with all the built-in mistakes.

Taming the Thud - Trumpeter's 1/32 F-105

By Mark McAllister

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