1/32 Trumpeter F-105D

"Built in 7 days"

Gallery Article by Uncle Rick Chin of Uncle Bill's Hobby on Nov 7 2003

 

Sept.9th--
  Just another day of waiting for new shipment.  Ahha, four huge boxes!
Thank you Mr. Postman.
  "Yes thank you, Mr. Wayne Wren, I like to build one of them, I have both a F-105D and a F-105G waiting for you, see you later."

Sept.10th---
  "Ok, WW, The credit card charge went through, build it in a week?
Hmmm! I will take a look, just leave me the "D"."

Sept.11th
  Nice Cockpit, detailed gun and gun bay, dry fitting very good overall, landing gear may be a problem, the engine is very detailed and nice, lots of weapons!

 

Click on images below to see larger images

Sept.12th---
  The only weight for the model: fill the ammo. drum with tiny ball bearings (from Jim-Model Citizen-Penhale), cockpit, gun, engine, bomb bay all in, selection of 2 wing tanks, six bombs, ecm pod, and the Shrike all done, canopy masked with Gunze liquid mask.
  I guess I will put the fuselage together later, too bad about hiding the nice engine. have to find a way to put in the tail section without gluing them to the main body.
  Glue all the Spoilers to the top of the wing halves, the flaps and slats are a bit easier than I thought.
  The landing gears are shaky, glue them with superglue all the way to the doors.

Sept.13th---
  No work, out to supper on wife's order.

Sept.14th
  Glue the finished wings to the fuselage halves, a bit of thick super glue will do it fast and easy. No putty needed. The two halves of the main body fit together like a dream. Doors for refueling probe, gun, bomb bay all snapped into place.
  Cut off the rectangular "tail lock" at the top of the main body, the tail section can be removed or put in now, good idea. 
  Wife called at 10:00 PM, yes I will be late for supper! Hands are dirty, these damn Pollyscale paints dry too fast, but went on nice.

Sept.15th---
  These Two Bobs decals are very nice to work with! Gunze decal softener is a good help too. All decals films disappeared after the Pollyscale gloss and flat finish.
  Both landing gears snapped off! Be careful. the "lubber tires" sure look good!

Sept.16th---
  Time to unmasked the canopy, put on all the small parts like lights, antenna, etc., give it a bit of "thinned down wash", paint the metal parts with metalizer..

Sept.17th---
  Get the pilot from the Academy F-18 kit, it sure look like Jack after some minor work.
 
  The kit is a joy to build, very little cleaning needed, very good fit, no putty needed, good detail overall, all movable control surfaces work and look good without the "toy look"
  It can use more detail in the cockpit area, yet it is quite good as is. The landing gears should be made stronger with metal inserts and nicer with some wirings. They should provide the bulkhead or firewall or whatever you call for the tail and the fuselage so the engine can be displayed in open position, it is a shame to have to hide the detailed
engine, so does the gun.
  Mr. Wang Please take note: I still have a box full of weapons that I think is a waste, (4 trees!) the price of the kit can be cut to about half , may be about $60.00 if the extra weapons are not included!
Trumpeter can sell a few more kits if they market it my way!

  Now, what is this rumour that Trumpeter will re-release the Century Series in 1/48?  

Uncle (built in 7 days) Rick

Click on images below to see larger images

 

      

Photos and text © by Uncle Rick Chin