Pete Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Hello, Here's my just finished 1/48 RF-84F. It's the Tanmodel kit, and I used Caracal Decals to do it as one from the 38th TRS, 10th TRW, based at Spangdahlem AB in West Germany between 1955 and 1958. This is part of a little project of mine to build all the different planes and units that were based at Spangdahlem at some point. This is the 5th build for that, after an F-4G, A-10A, F-15C and F-105F. The Tanmodel kit is a lovely model, in my opinion. The panel lines and rivets are a bit deep, and a little inconsistent, and the camera assembly in the nose is a bit tricky to build, but overal it builds up very nice. The decals are a mix of the kit ones, Caracal and the USAF decals on the wings come from an Eagle Strike F-102 sheet. It was painted with Vallejo Metal Color. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it. Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chorse6 Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Excellent! Nice build! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Janissary Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Looks really nice. Did you rescribe any if the shallow lines? I think some lines onthe curved surfaces fade out on the actual kit. Just trying to understand if it was straightforward or involved. Also i am particularly impressed with the metal finish. How did you like the vallejo metals? I assume they are their new line of metallic paints. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 Thanks! The lines do become shallow towards the edges of the fuselage parts. After I had glued the halves together and had them sanded smooth, I did some scribing to get them back. Also, there is some difference between the halves, especially around the camera bay hatches. I really like the Vallejo Metal Color paints. They're the fairly new stuff, yes. They spray easily, they're not grainy looking, they dry quick and are pretty durable once dry. One bottle also goes a long way. And best of all, hardly any smell. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 Lovely job Pete. Awesome paint job. Is the red spiiraling on the pitot tube decaled or painted? I can NEVER get those decals right. Great stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete Posted January 21, 2017 Author Share Posted January 21, 2017 Thanks Andrew. The red spiraling is painted on. The kit comes with two different decals for it, one with vertical red/white lines, and one with diagonal, but I figured I could do a better job painting it. I just used a 1mm strip of masking tape, which I cut with my handy new cutting mat, spiraled around it and sprayed some red paint on it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
balls47 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Hey, You did a very nice job on the Tanmodel kit. I've got one in the stash that's gonna work its way to the top pretty quickly. Any advice? I noticed that the surface is a bit grainy. Did you sand yours down or just go with what was in the box? Thanks ahead of time. Again, great job. I also have Caracal decals. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Beautiful! Gotta love the Thunderflash. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Fantastic work Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) Thanks all! On 25-1-2017 at 6:07 PM, balls47 said: Hey, You did a very nice job on the Tanmodel kit. I've got one in the stash that's gonna work its way to the top pretty quickly. Any advice? I noticed that the surface is a bit grainy. Did you sand yours down or just go with what was in the box? Thanks ahead of time. Again, great job. I also have Caracal decals. Hmm. Take your time with the camera assembly in the nose, it is really fiddly. The windows need to be sanded down a bit to fit, but that's not much work. The window at the underside, near the landinggear, is supposed to be recessed. I've seen at least one online build where the builder didn't notice this and thought it was just poor fitting. The surface is a bit grainy, yes, but after a base coat and some gloss, it was smooth enough for me. You might want to scribe some of the lines on the edges of the fuselage, they are a bit soft there. If you're going for one of the bare metal decal options, note that some planes had the USAF titles and stars 'n bars on the wings in a straight way, and some had it angled. I couldn't find any evidence of a logic behind this, but I suspect that the older serials had it straight, and the newer ones angled. The Caracal decals only give you the USAF title for the straight variety. The angled ones are bigger, so I got mine from a F-102 sheet. You can see the difference on this photo: Edited January 30, 2017 by Pete bolognese Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tobiK Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Very nice!! NMF is not easy with the tanmodel plastic. Having seen the decals from DACO I got tempted for an early belgian Thunderflash in NATO camo with PRU blue underside... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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