In the post WW2 years the Norwegian Military forces was in
desparate need for a buildup and a desparte need to modernize. Norway was handed over the remaining Spitfires from NO 331 and 332 Sqds
as well as some DH Mosquito and various other WW2 type aircraft. The jet era was in its’ infancy and Norway decided to purchase the DH Vampire. As the 1950’s and then the “cold war” came to be Norway became a member of NATO in the late 40’s and due to the countrys strategic position in Europe and massive coastline it was decided that a
strenghtening of the armed forces was needed. Norway and several other countries was
offered military help by the US and thus received a number of F-84E and G’s from 1951. The first six aircraft
were F-84E’s and were assigned to 334th sqd. In the following years the RNoAF receved a further 203 aircraft, these where F-84G and
equipped a total of 7 squadrons. (No 330,331,332,334,336,338 and 717th
squadrons). The –E model was retired in 1956 and the G-s continued to fly
until the last was retired in the early 60’s when it was replaced by the F-86 Sabre.
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This model is the Hobbyboss offering and is with a few
exceptions built out of the box. I’ve added some seatbelts from Eduard that I found in my stash, the decals are some from the box, some from Vingtor
(www.vingtor.net) and some are custom made. The
model was painted using Tamiya primer, the BMF is Humbrol Metalcote and Citadel. and the zinc
chromate is from Gunze. The flag on the tail was masked off and painted using Tamiya
acrylics, same with the blue on the nose and wingtanks.
The fit of the Hobbyboss kit is really good and I was surprised how easy the kit went together. Some filler was needed on the spine and belly, but this was after a blunder I did not matching up the sides
properly. I have used a substantial amount of weight to make this model sit on its landing gear and not on the tail. I used a total of 15,230 grain 45 calibre FMJ bullets (just the lead bullet, not the completed round
of course). In hindsight this was way to much.. and here is where I made my second blunder.. I did spend over an hour to get the weight to sit.. and after all was glued in and secured, the panels closed up and all looked good.. I found that HB has included a proper amount of counterweight in the box.. DOOOOOOOH.. and I sat in my chair feeling like a complete idiot..
Now the
biggest blunder I did was to initially use Vallejo primer.. now that crap
does not work if you intend to do any masking what so ever.. I had d one the BMF and masked off the
darkened metal area as well as the spine.
Once painted I pulled of the masking tape.. the BMF and primer along with
it.. Needless to say I was a little P’’’ed off.. so I
basically
had to strip down the model and start over.. this time using my
trusty Tamiya primer all worked out fine
To sum up, I
really enjoyed this project, it was a relatively quick build for it’s
size, working 2-4 hours a day it took about three weeks to complete. I
have done a F-84 before, but that was the Tamiya model and in ‘48th.
(also posted in the gallery).
Sten Arne
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