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Hey folks! Build number three in this GB. I was inspired by two things: A series of books about flying ops in Vietnam that I have been reading lately (see my F-4 thread for more), and my good buddy Mike Murphy (AX_365) building the same kit.

Recently, with the help of Neo in Montreal, I ordered two Vietnam-era kits from Lucky Model, to take advantage of a large-order discount. Recently, delivered by his lovely wife (whose parents live near us), I picked up the kits.

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Then I saw Mike's thread... and the rest is history, as they say. The history of Vietnam's air war fascinates me. When I was 13, I read "Thud Ridge", and spoke with my father about them (he was a CF-104 pilot at the time in West Germany). My Dad said the F-105 was the only aircraft he knew that could walk away from a 104 at low altitude. Fast, powerful.

Suitably inspired, I opened up the box.

Gorgeous instructions, including full-colour drawings of the camouflage.

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As Mike said, the engine detail is really nice - but will be completely invisible. I am not the kind of guy who displays my models with the tails off to see engines on carts. I like them sort of the way they will be on the flight line, as the pilot comes up to fly it. That's how I like my airplanes - fast, sexy, and ready to go... oops, sorry got sidetracked thinking of other things... :whistle:

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Next step: cockpit.

ALF

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The tub goes together easily, but I did experience the same problem as Mike did. The side panels seem to be a little too long for the tub. At the right of the picture, you can see the little section I trimmed off the back of the left side panel. I used Tamiya XF-83 for the overall medium grey colour, the same as in the CF-104. No idea if it's correct, but it looks good.

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Here I glued the back panel in place before getting too far along.

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As I let the cockpit set for a bit, I installed the afterburner section. The instructions show it being assembled in a tube first, then being glued in position. Don't try that! I simply inserted the tabs into the forward section, then installed the rear section, and finally glued everything with Tamiya extra-thin.

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Taking Mike's advice, I trimmed the decals very closely to the edges. They are slightly oversized, as he said.

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XF-83 painted, and seat painting has started. I lost the little part in the lower front of the seat, but it won't show.

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I used the decals for side panels as well as the MIP.

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Next step will be the fuselage sections.

Thanks for stopping by!

ALF

Edited by ALF18
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Looking good ALF. I'm glad I'm able to help along with way with what to do, and NOT to. Take care when gluing the engine, cockpit tub and landing gear bay in place. As you can see there are slots and tabs on each side of the part and inner fuselage. On mine, I installed the engine into one side of the fuselage, using Tamiya Extra Thin and then mating the fuselage halves together with tape to align the tabs and slot on the other side while the glue was drying. After the glue dried, I took the fuselage halve apart and did the same thing for the cockpit tub. Because the engine tabs and slots were aligned, aligning the cockpit tub tabs and slots was easier. You can poke around through the opening for the nose gear bay and radome to get thing aligned. I found it a LOT easier to install the nose gear bay with the engine and cockpit tub already aligned.

I'll be checking in regularly to see your progress chum.

Watch out for my flub around the canopy glass. Check my thread for the good, the bad and the ugly on that.

Mike

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Looking good ALF. I'm glad I'm able to help along with way with what to do, and NOT to. Take care when gluing the engine, cockpit tub and landing gear bay in place. As you can see there are slots and tabs on each side of the part and inner fuselage. On mine, I installed the engine into one side of the fuselage, using Tamiya Extra Thin and then mating the fuselage halves together with tape to align the tabs and slot on the other side while the glue was drying. After the glue dried, I took the fuselage halve apart and did the same thing for the cockpit tub. Because the engine tabs and slots were aligned, aligning the cockpit tub tabs and slots was easier. You can poke around through the opening for the nose gear bay and radome to get thing aligned. I found it a LOT easier to install the nose gear bay with the engine and cockpit tub already aligned.

I'll be checking in regularly to see your progress chum.

Watch out for my flub around the canopy glass. Check my thread for the good, the bad and the ugly on that.

Mike

Thanks Mike

I am having a heck of a time with the nose wheel well. WAY too many parts! I am glad I didn't wait until everything had set before finishing it up... I will post pics and hints for assembly order soon. For now, though, there is a Grey Cup game to watch!

Go Redblacks! (Just for you, Mike, although I tell my sisters in Alberta I am cheering for the Eskimos). Good thing my sisters don't read these forums!

ALF

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That nose wheel is a bit of a PITA but the actual gear bay assembly sequence is not too bad because of the way the parts are engineered. Just take your time with the gear assembly. Glue one part at a time and let it set. You can glue the two parts that hold the wheel in place together. The vertical part of that assembly (sort of Y shaped) will slide into into the groove created by the other two parts that are glued together.

When it comes time to mount the gear into the well, follow the same practice I alluded to about mounting the engine, etc. Place the tabs on the gear legs into the slots in one of the side walls and then glue the gear attachment point together in the appropriate spot on the main gear leg.

Going to watch the game now. Go Redblacks! And I won't tell your sister you were fibbing.

Will drop a line soon to catch up.

Take care ALF. Best to all.

Mike

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  • 1 month later...

The holidays are finally over, and it's time to post the progress I made over the last month. Better late than never.

I didn't want to show either the gun or the refuelling probe. Here I am installing the panels to close up the probe bay. The gun bay can be seen below it.

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Following the usual great advice from my good friend AX_365, I did not build up the gun as per the instructions. I had a good look at them, and figured out what I needed to use. From this diagram, I used only the part G44 (the end of the barrels), plus another part that holds it in place. It's all that shows when the gun is buttoned up.

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Here is the little part (G1) that I used, plus the barrel end part.

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Here's how the gun bay looks like with the two parts installed, plus the bay doors.

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The nose gear bay is a bit problematic if you assemble it in the wrong order. It comes in multiple pieces, and you have to install the nose gear strut upper portion before gluing the two sides in place, because they hold it tightly in place.

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Here you see the engine, cockpit, and nose gear bay installed. I almost blew it here, by forgetting to install weights as I dry-fit the fuselage halves together.

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ALF

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Did Mike (AX_365) mention this kit was over-engineered? Holy understatement, Batman!!!! :bandhead2:/> :woot.gif:/>

There are so many unnecessary parts that could have been moulded in one piece, I can't believe it. For example, all the tiny spoilers that will never be posed in the up position. I couldn't find any pics with these things extended, and all they do is add to the potential of having gaps in panels or misaligned parts.

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At this point (foreshadowing!) I should have installed a bunch of weight in the nose area, before sticking the fuselage together. I was so excited after dry-fitting, that I just glued it together right away. The fit wasn't bad at all. You can see a completed wing here as well.

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Around this time I had a bunch of exams to correct. Here is an air regulations exam for my second-year pilot students, 2014 version that I reused this year. The wine is intended to keep me in a good mood while I correct.

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More frustration with the overly complicated assembly. The nose area comes with the radar; no problem. The problem, however, is the hinges and gaps for them that are present. I had to use some filler to cover up these useless holes afterward.

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Wings installed. The rear nozzle area is way too complex as well, and the instructions are very unclear about how they work. Thanks to the internet, I was able to figure out how the parts should be in final assembled positions.

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Wing to fuselage gap is quite acceptable.

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ALF

Edited by ALF18
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:bandhead2:

I realized, too late, I forgot to add weight in the nose. Solution applied. This is why resin wheel well makers get zero dollars from me! :rolleyes:

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Major assemblies in place. Those main gear legs look fragile, and they ARE fragile. Fingers crossed I don't destroy them at some point.

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Top of the tail. Turns out I should have glued the vertical tail halves in place on the rear fuselage before gluing the two halves together. Here is what the bottom of the tail looks like.

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Solution was to chop out the tops of the locating holes here, making U-shapes that the vertical tail can fit into. I probably should have re-read Mike's trials and tribulations before attacking this area, but I have to admit this kit is starting to get my goat. Way too complicated for assembly.

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Here is the step in the instructions that should have made it clear the tail halves went in place either side of the pins on the fuselage top. Oh well. Also, note that part F31's location is very unclear here. My first attempt was incorrect. I chopped it out, and relocated it further aft when I eventually looked at images on the web to see how things went together back there.

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Butchered aft fuselage area. Part F31 at rear, where it belongs; initially I had installed it further forward where you see the scrap plastic still.

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Currently, I am in the painting stage. I applied white primer to the lower fuselage, and light grey primer to the upper fuselage. I painted the bottom in the appropriate FS light grey paint (ModelMaster Acryl, of course), and am masking to apply the upper camouflage colours today.

Happy New Year to all! Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

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Now for the part I like the least, in winter, when my spray area in the garage is quite cold. I also hate masking!

Bottom sprayed gray over top of the white Tamiya primer. All the camo colours I used are the appropriate FS numbers in the Modelmaster Acryl line.

Here the brown is applied, after masking off the bottom part.

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Masking made easy using Mike Murphy's method of brown 3M medical tape cut into thin strips, filled in with masking tape. That Tamiya primer is very tough stuff; the paint does not come off it even under heavy masking.

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The medium green

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And the dark green. For those who are experts on the F-105 camo, you may notice I have deviated somewhat from the instructions for placement of the two greens. The illustration in the kit was pretty, but hard to tell exactly where one green ended and the other began, so I took some artistic licence.

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After masking the nose and painting it with a Tamiya rattle can, here it is. Pretty good results, and only a few touch-ups to be done.

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I hand-painted the green in the wheel bays. From what I can tell, the insides of the gear doors are a silver colour, so I will do those next. Not showing here are the bombs and MERs, along with the Shrike missiles.

Thanks for stopping by!

ALF

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ALF,

I see you discovered all of the same issues I did in regards to over-engineering and vague piece placements. Good recovery. I like the SEA paint job you've done. As long as the colours are applied in the general area that they're supposed to be, I call that close enough for jazz. I've completely stalled on my build. As I alluded to in my last e-mail, life has been getting in the way with retirement, getting ready for our annual Florida pilgrimage, Christmas and New Year's etc. Depending on how things go this week, I may do a bit more before we leave on Saturday.

Good luck with the exams. Hopefully that doesn't (didn't) take too long.

It's looking like a Thud and it will look even more so once the gloss is applied and then the stickies (decals, according to Teri!) are on and the flat coat is done.

Keep up the good work buddy. Will check in later this week for more progress reports.

Ciao for now!

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Final update!

Paint touchups done, decals (or stickies as SWMBOs around the world often call them) being applied.

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And... DONE!

I couldn't resist applying the non politically-correct nose art. Guess I just have to go for that historical accuracy... :rolleyes: or maybe I just liked the drawing. :woot.gif:

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More pics in the finished builds thread. Thanks to all who commented, especially AX_365 for his hints on the complexities of this over-engineered kit.

ALF

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  • 5 months later...

Did you get the decal lined up right? The purpose of the nose art was to help the boom operator of the refueling plane get lined up properly. One of the guys in my modeling cub did an inflight scene of this bird and a KC-135. Rally looked cool. So does yours!

Ken.

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