Monogram 1/48 F-84F Thunderstreak

[Kurt H.]

Part I

 

Preface

 

The future of Revell is still uncertain. We do not know the future of the older monogram tooling.  My goal is to  celebrate Monogram, and the contributions of Monogram to the hobby of plastic modeling.  I believe the 70s through the early 90s were the peak years for Monogram. They released so many great kits in that era.  The Century Series kits, most of the big bombers, and other 1/48th kits of aircraft, not to mention all the car kits.  Growing up in the 80s, model kits were available just about everywhere.  Gift shops at Museums had very good selections, Toy stores had kits ... especially Toys R Us , which had a very long aisle dedicated to kits back in 80s, and that aisle was practically a hobby store. Just about any store with a toy section had model kits.   You could even  frequently find a small selection of kits in drug stores.

 

I always thought Monogram kits were the coolest. They had the best boxes with striking paintings on the top, and pictures of the finished model on the side. Boxes of this era bring back happy memories, of proudly walking out of Toys R Us with a big kit, such as the 1/72 B-36 ... or opening a present of a Monogram kit on a birthday or Christmas.    It is these happy times I want to celebrate with this group build.  

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by Kurt H.

[Kurt H.]

I present the Monogram F-84F. This is the original issue, modled in Monogram Olive Drab plastic. This color of plastic is not ideal to work with, but like I stated before this build is about the nostalgia, and few things remind me of the old days like OD plastic.

 

 

I love this generation of boxes. Look at these cool pictures:

 

 

So let us look at the parts

 

 

Great ... most of the parts fell off the sprue

 

here are the parts that fell off

 

 

I did notice this kit has been started. One fuel tank has been assembled, and it looks like it was glued together fairly cleanly.

 

I have a lot of tidying up to do in my model shop, and at least one model which is almost done I want to finish first. Hopefully in a day or two I can start painting parts.

 

 

[Kurt H.]

And I made a video

 

If this adds to the GB I can continue making them.  Keep in mind this is the first time I have tried this, but I think it came out ok. 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by Kurt H.

[phantom]

Good stuff, Not only is Kurt a moderator but he is getting right at this GB ! 

[Don]

My opinion only of course, but to me Monogram had some of the best box art this hobby has ever seen. I have this same kit down in the stash so I will be following along. Good luck !

 

Regards.

[RKic]

Best of luck Kurt. 

I'll be following closely and taking notes, as I have this kit too. 

What did you use to shoot the video? 

[Kurt H.]

Thank you for all the kind comments. I shot the video with my Nikon D5500.  I used it to shoot the still pictures as well. 

[bashace]

Great video Kurt! I've wanted to build this kit since I first saw it back in the day, looks really cool in SEA camo with those large fuel tanks.

[Kurt H.]

It seems each kit in this build has a story. This one does for me. When I was in 9th grade, we had a subscription to FSM and I really wanted to step up my modeling game from my childhood sloppy builds. I decided I wanted to build a monogram F-86. This was 1989, so the Monogram F-86 was out of production and I knew it might not be easy to find. I finally got my parents to take me to the hobby store during a weekend shopping excursion. I looked around Arlington Hobby Crafters on Wilson Boulevard and they did not have an F-86. I found this same kit, in the same box. It was a plane I had never heard of, and even at that point I was pretty well educated on aircraft types used by the United States. It looked cool, and was similar in  general arrangement and era to the F-86 so I decided to buy it.  I remember building it wheels up and hanging it on the wall. I brush painted everything, and my dad airbrushed the model with Testors Metalizers. I do not remember too much about the build, I recall it was a pretty easy build. I do not think I used much if any putty.   I Tossed all the models from that era of my life when my parents sold that house and moved. 

 

Any way, fast forward nearly 30 years and I can revisit this kit with better skills, tools and patience. 

 

I got away from the computer for enough time to get started. My first step with an aircraft model is typically to paint parts. This build is no different, so I spent some time airbrushing

 

 

 

In the picture above, you can see a sample of the parts I painted. The Cockpit and seat sides are Ammo of Mig FS26321. This was sprayed unthinned at about 20 psi. It covered pretty well. The inside of the gear doors is Testors MM interior green  which I thinned a little over 50% with Testors airbrush thinner. This was a little bit too thin, but I was able to build it up in light coats at about 15 psi. The seat cushion is Tamiya Olive Drab, which was also not thinned, I just put 2 drops of paint in my airbrush since it was the only part to be painted that color. I think the pressure was 20 or 25. finally, the Instrument panel was painted black. I looked at a few pictures of F-84F cockpits, and most were gray, I saw one with a green cockpit. I like the Gray better. Some instrument panels were all black, and others were gray with black instruments.  Since trying to paint a black and gray panel is something I really struggle with, I decided on all black. The paint used was Ammo if Mig satin black, unthinned at around 20 PSI. I just put 1 or 2 drops in the airbrush.

 

I wanted to point out the fine detail in this kit, which is representative  of the detail of this era. 

 

 

 

 

This was the best picture I could get, I would argue detail like this is not in many modern kits. Other manufacturers might have stuff like this but it is simplified. 

 

Any way, this is my start. I probably would have painted the undercarriage parts, but they require some mold line cleanup and i just do not have the energy required for that tonight.

 

see ya next time

 

 

 

 

[tobiK]

Hi Kurt! Good choice! It will give you a nice Streak, I remember the HAF GB, where I built a greek F-84F.

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/289916-revellmono-f-84f/

Maybe there is something that can be useful for you. 

The kit has really good details and the fit is not bad. The modern HB kit falls behind concerning details in cockpit and wheel wells, also has a cockpit size for giant pilots (the bang seat is huge!). Only surface details are nice.

But anyway, the Mono Streak is good. Will you go for USAF markings or do something exotic? Like Belgium, Greece, Germany, Italy, Turkey....?

[Kurt H.]

Hey Tobi, glad to see you are still here. Your F-84F came out very nice.  I think I will refer to that build thread for ideas.

 

This is going to be the 3 color USAF camo on the box top, There is an F-84F at the USAF museum painted that way, and at my last visit I decided I wanted to build one just like it.

 

here is the inspiration, I took this picture

 

 

 

[RKic]

Beautiful from that angle

[Don]

Great start! She's a sweet looking aircraft indeed.

Regards.

[Kurt H.]

I was in Arizona for two weeks, so I was not able to work on this model. I visited my family in the area, and attended the Nats.

 

My goal tonight was to paint silver parts.  I prepared for this by masking the the gear door portion of the main landing gear strut.  The door is molded to the gear leg. At fist this would sound cheesy, but I welcome it, I always have trouble with gear doors

 

 

 

Then I realized the air splitter in the nose is also partially silver. Since this part is partially silver, and in a prominent place, I decided to glue the parts together and fix the seam. Silver will show a seam. A test fit reveals the previous owner started to clean the sprue attachment point up, but was somewhat aggressive, leaving a flat spot

 

 

While the glue sets, I decided to start detail painting the cockpit and seat. The panels were brush painted with thinned Ammo Of Mig satin black. It took time, I used my magnifying visor and painted the panels carefully. I also painted the seat belts. Once I paint the buckles I will experiment with a filter and a wash to blend the colors or make it look less like painted parts and more realistic

 

 

I will pick it up again tomorrow. 

[tobiK]

Nice to see you back on the bench!

[HOLMES]

Hello Kurt..

 

SPLENDID work..

 

Oh I was in Phoenix too for the IPMS NATS ...enjoyed that thoroughly for the one week I was there.

 

[Kurt H.]

I had to spend some time cleaning up my messy work bench, so I lost a night of work. But, now that it is cleaner I was able to get a little more work done

 

I decided to paint some parts which are holding up major assembly. I decided to use Testors Model Master aluminum paint . I have had trouble lately with Alclad and Metalizer,  they spray inconsistently,  as though it causes tip dry, or the metal flakes clog the airbrush until I pull the trigger way back and start hosing it. I never had this problem with paint, but I did tonight. I never could quite get it to spray consistently.

 

Any way, as soon as I sprayed it on the inside of the fuselage, these big ejector pin marks became visible. I did not notice them before.

 

 

 

Nasty. the one on the right has flash too. This will need to be fixed, so I will get another shot at painting this.

 

I also painted the landing gear legs

 

 

and wheels.  The highlight of the night was that it looks like I fixed the seam on the intake splitter

 

 

After I scrubbed the heck out of my airbrush, I decided to dirty it up again with some Mr. Color jet exhaust on the tail pipe halves

 

 

till next time ...

 

[phantom]

Looking right nice.

[Kurt H.]

Back to the F-84F

 

Sanding helped the ejector pins, but they needed filler

 

 

So I tried my best to neatly apply some 3m Acryl blue, but the surface was pretty smooth and the putty would not stick, so what else could I do?  I had to smear it on 

 

 

and most of it was sanded away

 

 

then back to the Testors MM Aluminum paint. This time I had to use a Paasche H to get the paint to flow, even being thinned considerably

 

 

with this part at a stopping point, I assembled all the pylons, fuel tanks, bombs, and the tail pipe. I also glue the speed brakes closed. I can never install open airbrakes cleanly, and they always break

 

 

 

 

see ya next time

 

 

 

[Kurt H.]

Over the past few days I applied clear coat to parts which would receive an enamel wash.

 

I do not have any black wash handy, every one seems to be out of it, but I do have "brown wash for green vehicles" ... sounds like it should work

 

here is the result:

 

not quite what I imagined, but it does serve the purpose to highlight the detail int he parts, and since I probably put too much on the seat, it also  acts like a filter and blends the colors

 

I also puttied and sanded the fuel tanks. I tried just sanding the seams, but they needed putty. I also opted to remove the raised panel lines since the lines which crossed the seam were obliterated. I think it would look better with no panel lines than dissapearing panel lines. The frustrating part was that it seemed to take quite a bit of effort to remove the lines intentionally, but they disappear on a seam with one stroke of sand paper. It took quite a bit of sanding to remove the lines.

any way, my customary over use of putty:

 

 

and after much sanding

 

 

The shiny spot is CA which I sanded after taking this picture. there were small areas too small for the putty to fill.

 

The other thing I did was to paint the upper section of the intake splitter black. It is on mentioned in the instructions, but it is ont he nose art, and in my reference picture. 

 

 

A few drops of ammo satin black in my airbrush were all that was required.

 

I will let me enamel wash mess dry and unless I am forgetting something I think I can assemble most of the airframe next.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by Kurt H.

[Kurt H.]

In between chores I was able to get a few sessions of bench time.

 

First, The cockpit was assembled

 

 

The cockpit, intake splitter/nose gear well was inserted, as well as the tail pipe

 

 

After the glue set for a bit, the fuselage halves were carefully joined

 

 

Hopefully the tape will hold it together while the glue sets, and I do not end up with an offset seam

 

The wings were assembled as well

 

 

Later today/tonight I will join the wings to the fuselage

[Kurt H.]

Once the glue set, I had a rare session where I was able to focus for two hours staight and worked the seams on the fuselage and wings. I was really in a grove so I forgot to take in progress pictures.

 

Any way, The top of the fuselage required minimal sanding but I still removed much of the raised detail on the spine. However, using the method I most recently recall mentioned by Darren Roberts, I Used a scalpel to create a raised line by pushing the blade across the fuselage.  The bottom had a bit of offset, so I had to sand  quite a bit,  and I used gap filling super glue where I needed filler. With accelerator, I was able to sand the glue in just a few minutes, so I did not need to set the model aside to wait on putty to dry.

 

It looks ok, I did not get the lines perfect, but this was after two or three tries

 

 

 

 

I masked the windscreen and rear canopy and cemented them in place. I sanded the seams around the windscreen and it looks good, but only primer will reveal the truth. I just glued the rear canopy part in place, so I think I am going to call it a night and get back to this one tomorrow.  I wanted to glue the wings to the fuselage as well, but it is easier to handle and work the seam without wings.

 

 

 

 

 

edit:

 

After I posted this I realized in my excitement to make progress I forgot nose weight. 🤦‍♂️

 

Maybe I can smoosh clay in the front of the fuselage through the slot for the wings.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by Kurt H.

[phantom]

When I make the no weight mistake I glue both sides of pennies, slid in place and hold the plane nose down till the glue dries.

 

Biggest issue I have now is Canada got rid of the penny a couple years ago. Have to go to the states for some loose change.

[Kurt H.]

The rear glass required a fair bit of work.  The clear part is narrower than the fuselage, so there was a small ledge on either side.  I had to remove a fair bit of plastic, and I had to resort to 220 sand paper. I ended up removing a panel line which I will need to restore, but I am proud of my work. 

 

It was hard to capture with an picture, but here is the best one I got:

 

 

 

I did not have to use pennies to get enough nose weight, I got enough clay through the wing slot. But I will save that idea in case I need it in the future. 

 

I found the picture I took of the F-84F I built back in 89/90. I will post it once I make the time to scan it. 

 

 

[Kurt H.]

I do not feel like typing and pasting in fotki links, so let me just talk to you about the latest updates

 

 

😀