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1/32 Thunderbirds F-100D


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Hot on the heels of my 1/32 F-15I, I am starting this new project: Trumpeter 1/32 F-100D Thunderbirds aka rip off kit of the year. Due to the expecting baby in Feb, this could be the last model I'll build for a while. You guys voted for the Fisher Cutlass in my what-to-build poll, but I really feel like tackling an easier project than a full resin kit.

The Trumpeter decals are crap, so I'll be using the Tbirds 1967 season decals from CAM. Also the Aires cockpit and exhaust will be used.

tbird1.jpg

I'm aiming for a glossy, high shine finish, so I bought some Gunze lacquer because the acrylics that I usually use isn't shiny enough.

tbird3.jpg

Right now I'm working on the least fun part of the project: filling the intake seams. The intake is flat and curved, so filling the seams will be difficult. I can't use latex because I can't paint silver over it. I'm flooding the seams with Mr Surfacer 500, then wrap sand paper around a stick to polish the insides.

tbird2.jpg

More to come.

Terry

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Due to the expecting baby in Feb, this could be the last model I'll build for a while.

Don't worry Buddy, it only took me about 23 years to get back into modeling after my first daughter was born! SWMBO became SWMBO X 2 and all sense of having time to myself to do what I wanted, became a very distant memory. :crying2:

All kidding aside, you should still be able to do a little modeling if you........ ummmm......... ahhhhh. Never mind! You're toast! :lol:

In the mean time, good luck with the Hun. I'm sure it will come out looking just as good as your excellent F-15I.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Quick update.

The task of sanding the intake seams was as difficult as I imagined, but is now complete.

tbird4.jpg

It's not babybutt smooth, but the attributes that make it difficult to sand (ie the flat cross section and curved tube) also make it easy to hide the imperfections.

tbird5.jpg

If a contest judge sticks a pen light deep into the intake, he can see the putty that my sanding stick couldn't quite reach, and he can see the relatively poor coverage of the silver paint because the airbrush can't reach that deep. For judges like that, I can also suggest where else on their anatomy they can stick their pen light into. *evil grin*

Once I assemble the intake tube inside fuselage halves, I'll still need to putty up the intake lips to join with the intake tube, then paint them again. This should be a much easier task, though.

Now I still start focusing on the resin cockpit.

Cheers,

Terry

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  • 2 weeks later...

While you guys are busy stuffing your faces and maxing out your credit cards, I made some good progress on the cockpit.

Here's the tub:

tbird6.jpg

tbird7.jpg

tbird9.jpg

And with the rear deck:

tbird8.jpg

tbird10.jpg

With the front coaming:

tbird11.jpg

And the side walls:

tbird12.jpg

Now I'll start working on the Aires jet exhaust. When that's done, I'll close up the fuselage halves with all the resin inside.

Terry

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I made a lot of progress in the last few days. The cockpit is now installed into the fuselage. The engine assembled. The Aires exhaust is assembled and painted. All the main fuselage parts are glued together.

tbird13.jpg

tbird14.jpg

tbird15.jpg

tbird16.jpg

tbird17.jpg

There are quite a lot of seams to be filled. The next couple of days will be spent on sanding and polishing. This is how it looks now:

tbird18.jpg

Terry

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I last updated. I had a business trip and things got unexpectedly hectic at work, which slowed down my building progress.

The main airframe construction is now complete. All the gaps and sink holes are filled and polished. There were some big gaps on the bottom of the fuselage which needed a couple layers of putty to fill. The wing roots needed a bit of Mr Surfacer 500.

tbird19.jpg

The slats leading edges also needed some filler, and the undersides have huge punch out marks to fill.

tbird20.jpg

I cut off the tip of the refueling probe and replaced it with a metal one from Master Model. I think it looks pretty good.

tbird21.jpg

BTW, here is the resin exhaust of which the linky I screwed up in the last update:

tbrid17.jpg

Next I'll start working on the undercarriage. Starting December 21st, I'll be on holiday for the remainder of the year. I really hope to be able to finish this thing before New Years Eve.

Terry

Edited by loftycomfort
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Wow! Terry, your big scale birds collection grows bigger and bigger! I think you need considering a bigger space to house them. ;) Maybe...moving to a larger apartment? :rolleyes:

Nice progress so far! Than bear metal finish on the nozzle looks terrific!

Cheers and happy modeling!

Alexander

Edited by Eastern
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Do you pick out all the instruments by hand and then drybrush?

The IP is a piece of photo etch by Aires. Each instruction dial is slightly raised, and I picked them out by a brush with black paint. Since they are so slightly raised, it's difficult to not paint over the borders (and impossible to touch up without painting over even more). My solution is to flood the IP background with diluted grey to drown out the black over-paint, similar to the way panel line washes work. The actual dials details within the instruments were just bezel decals from Mike Grant.

I managed to primer'd the airframe last night despite the neighbour complaining about the smell. Today the engine area was given the Alclad treatment. The main colours were steel and jet exhaust. Some aluminum was misted within the panel lines. Then clear blue, clear red, and smoke were sprayed to create the heat stained look. Here are a couple of pics after the panel line wash. The thing actually looks better in person - it really does look like a heat stained hunk of metal.

tbird22.jpg

tbird23.jpg

Tomorrow I'll start painting the main colours.

Cheers,

Terry

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