Fonderie Miniatures 1/48 Republic F-84F Thunderstreak

[ogre1164]

Title says it all:

Any info appreciated.

See link to GMWS here.

Thanks

Dan

[ThePhantomTwo]

Here is a link to a review:

FM 1/48 F-84F

[Chappie]

I'd rather see Monogram re-issue their kit.

Chappie

[ogre1164]

Thanks Phantom!

[Glidingbob]

Hi all

I had founded much hope in FM F-84F Thunderstreak. Unfortunately, disappointment is at the "rendez-vous".

FM Streak is based on the wrong Heller model: fuselage is a copy of the Heller one with scribed panel lines in a uggly white plastic.This model shows the wrong aft fuselage wich is to "fat" and with dimensions errors.

For the rest the model is the Heller one rather correct for wings and front fuselage (an original Heller fuselage is also provided) except some more detailed cockpit tub with etched brass ( I suspect these are copies of Monogram pieces with some refined details) and white metal gears wich are looking quite like te Monogram ones.

For about 50€ in Belgium, no chance that I buy one certainly as Monogram announced the reissue of their F in 2006 and a Checz manufacturer announces his "F" based on Monogram model.

If you make a Monogram model , please look in the ARC GAllery /Jet aircraft s/F-84f Thunderstreak for the modifications I made to correct Monogram wrong placed airbrakes;article also includes correct drawing for aft fuselage.

FM is to issue the Thunderflash in the coming days, certainly based on Heller Thunderflash.Same way probably as the F but as it is the only RF available in 1/48 , mabe it will be more worth;

PJ Production of Belgium just released his RF-84 Thunderflash in 1/72 wich is areal beauty, following the F who was areal gem! www.pjproduction.net.

Regards and happy new year to all ARC's and Streak freaks;

Bob ;)

[Glidingbob]

Hi all

I had founded much hope in FM F-84F Thunderstreak. Unfortunately, disappointment is at the "rendez-vous".

FM Streak is based on the wrong Heller model: fuselage is a copy of the Heller one with scribed panel lines in a uggly white plastic.This model shows the wrong aft fuselage wich is to "fat" and with dimensions errors.

For the rest the model is the Heller one rather correct for wings and front fuselage (an original Heller fuselage is also provided) except some more detailed cockpit tub with etched brass ( I suspect these are copies of Monogram pieces with some refined details) and white metal gears wich are looking quite like te Monogram ones.

For about 50€ in Belgium, no chance that I buy one certainly as Monogram announced the reissue of their F in 2006 and a Checz manufacturer announces his "F" based on Monogram model.

If you make a Monogram model , please look in the ARC GAllery /Jet aircraft s/F-84f Thunderstreak for the modifications I made to correct Monogram wrong placed airbrakes;article also includes correct drawing for aft fuselage.

FM is to issue the Thunderflash in the coming days, certainly based on Heller Thunderflash.Same way probably as the F but as it is the only RF available in 1/48 , mabe it will be more worth;

PJ Production of Belgium just released his RF-84 Thunderflash in 1/72 wich is areal beauty, following the F who was areal gem! www.pjproduction.net.

Regards and happy new year to all ARC's and Streak freaks;

Bob ;)

[Glidingbob]

Hi all

I had founded much hope in FM F-84F Thunderstreak. Unfortunately, disappointment is at the "rendez-vous".

FM Streak is based on the wrong Heller model: fuselage is a copy of the Heller one with scribed panel lines in a uggly white plastic.This model shows the wrong aft fuselage wich is to "fat" and with dimensions errors.

For the rest the model is the Heller one rather correct for wings and front fuselage (an original Heller fuselage is also provided) except some more detailed cockpit tub with etched brass ( I suspect these are copies of Monogram pieces with some refined details) and white metal gears wich are looking quite like te Monogram ones.

For about 50€ in Belgium, no chance that I buy one certainly as Monogram announced the reissue of their F in 2006 and a Checz manufacturer announces his "F" based on Monogram model.

If you make a Monogram model , please look in the ARC GAllery /Jet aircraft s/F-84f Thunderstreak for the modifications I made to correct Monogram wrong placed airbrakes;article also includes correct drawing for aft fuselage.

FM is to issue the Thunderflash in the coming days, certainly based on Heller Thunderflash.Same way probably as the F but as it is the only RF available in 1/48 , mabe it will be more worth;

PJ Production of Belgium just released his RF-84 Thunderflash in 1/72 wich is areal beauty, following the F who was areal gem! www.pjproduction.net.

Regards and happy new year to all ARC's and Streak freaks;

Bob ;)

[Glidingbob]

Hi all

I had founded much hope in FM F-84F Thunderstreak. Unfortunately, disappointment is at the "rendez-vous".

FM Streak is based on the wrong Heller model: fuselage is a copy of the Heller one with scribed panel lines in a uggly white plastic.This model shows the wrong aft fuselage wich is to "fat" and with dimensions errors.

For the rest the model is the Heller one rather correct for wings and front fuselage (an original Heller fuselage is also provided) except some more detailed cockpit tub with etched brass ( I suspect these are copies of Monogram pieces with some refined details) and white metal gears wich are looking quite like te Monogram ones.

For about 50€ in Belgium, no chance that I buy one certainly as Monogram announced the reissue of their F in 2006 and a Checz manufacturer announces his "F" based on Monogram model.

If you make a Monogram model , please look in the ARC GAllery /Jet aircraft s/F-84f Thunderstreak for the modifications I made to correct Monogram wrong placed airbrakes;article also includes correct drawing for aft fuselage.

FM is to issue the Thunderflash in the coming days, certainly based on Heller Thunderflash.Same way probably as the F but as it is the only RF available in 1/48 , mabe it will be more worth;

PJ Production of Belgium just released his RF-84 Thunderflash in 1/72 wich is areal beauty, following the F who was areal gem! www.pjproduction.net.

Regards and happy new year to all ARC's and Streak freaks;

Bob ;)

[hatchet]

Wow Bob, quadruple post! :blink:

:D

[Ben Brown]

Wow Bob, quadruple post! :D

Bob feels very strongly about his F-84Fs. :blink:

Thanks for the comments, Bob! I'll be hanging on to my Monogram kits, then.

Cheers!

Ben

[j-basset]

With you on this, Ben!

I just got a Monogram F-84F thru E-bay - looks exquisite, although I can't say anything at all about accuracy, since I know next to nothing about this aircraft.

Jason

[Glidingbob]

Wow, didn't see I had posted 4 times. Heavy finger!

Sorry aboout that!

bob

[ThePhantomTwo]

If you guys like Air National Guard subjects,AeroMaster just came out with two 1/48 F-84F sheets.

MO and ILL ANG F-84F's

IND and ILL ANG F-84F's

[Plankwing]

I bought two of these Fondu kits. First look said they were an improvement, and in some ways their new parts are better than Heller. However, after closer inspection, the fuselage shots were short and infested with small air bubbles. I just yesterday ordered their RF-84F kit to see how it shapes up. The postings on the forum seem to tend toward the RevMon kit being "correct" -- it isn't. The aft fuselage is too shallow in depth. Am working on getting scans of Fondu, Heller, RevMon plus photos of real airdcraft to show the differences. In short, none of the kits are "on the nose."

The forums also reveal that Harold has some detail parts available now for the Fondu and Heller kits. So this is my disclaimer: I've known Harold for about eight years and met him because of my (currently off-line) www.f84thunderjet.com web site. I've been working on masters for "early" (XP through D) T-jets and he has been working on masters for "early" F T-streaks. We have both taken hundreds of photos of F-84s of various versions and blocks in order to have our parts made as accurately as possible.

Our research has also revealed that it is nearly impossible to state that a particular kit or detail is "correct." Why? Because [a] Republic made changes -- many undocumented -- on the production line, many upgrades were retrofitted to earlier blocks at the factory, [c] many upgrades were retrofitted to planes in the field, [d] parts were appropriated from out-of service aircraft to repair/maintain active duty aircraft, and [e] the F-84 series, being first and second generation jets, were used for many test programs.

Want to make an accurate F-84 model? Chose your subject, get as many photos of that plane at a particular point in time and use that info to chose the kit and details. And in doing so, keep in mind that none of the current kits are accurate in all details and dimensions for any F-84.

[j-fever]

Plankwing, I am looking forward to when your F-84 site is back up, IMHO, it was simply the best resource for F-84 stuff. Do you have an ETA on when (or if) it will be running again, it has been a long time?

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

JH

[Harold]

Hey Plankwing,

My two cents worth. Not only is the Mono/Rev off in profile in the rear area, and is a bit too low under the 'pit area (the reference drawings of the aft and tail incorrect) it is too slab sided near the aft end as well. The Heller/Fonderie is much more accurate in profile, however, it is too wide just before the ejector and the nose tapers too much though... Overall, it IS more accurate in general shape than the Mono/Rev kits. The Mono/Rev is too thick at the wing fillets, Heller is correct. Canopy is more accurate on the Mono/Rev, it's too shallow and small on the Heller/Fonderie. The tail on the Mono/Rev is too tall, even for the tall tail version. Heller/Fonderie is correct for the short tail variant. The Mono/Rev kit has much better detail than the Heller/Fonderie version. Airbrake is in the wrong position on the Mono/Rev and correct on the Heller/Fonderie....whew.

I could go on, but, I think you can see that Plankwing is correct, get your references before you choose to do any F-84F.

Any of the kits available will look good in a display case. However, we...uh, you modelers with AMS will have to choose how far you need to go to get a really accurate "streak".

Plankwing wants a truly accurate early T-jet as well. I think he has AMS.....

Edited July 25, 2017 by Harold

[Plankwing]

Plankwing, I am looking forward to when your F-84 site is back up, IMHO, it was simply the best resource for F-84 stuff. Do you have an ETA on when (or if) it will be running again, it has been a long time?

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

JH

Well, j-fever, it's only money! The site was being downloaded wholesale by web crawlers so the bandwidth went way, way north -- and the cost followed. It is slowly being redesigned for MySQL access, but that requires renaming hundreds of files to fit the database scheme. Plan is for mid-2007 -- if all goes well.

For those who may be interested, I have prepared a Photoshop layered file (meaning psd) with a left profile of the F-84F at Castle Air Museum with overlays for each of the Monogram, Heller, and Fonderie 48th scale kits in "real size" at 300dpi. The features of the kits may be compared to each other and to the real aircraft by switching layers on and off. Generally, it proves that the Monogram kit is way off, Heller is closer, and Fonderie is closest to correct. It is a large file, but if anyone wants it by email, contact me through the email link in this forum. Because of the file size, dial up will be slow to download; broadband definitely desirable.

AMS?! Who, ME?! As my wife says, "Twice, even!"

[Plankwing]

Ouch! File is 37 mb. Takes a while even with broadband!

I resized the file from 300dpi to 72dpi, size is now 3 mb.

Downloads MUCH faster and still tells the tale needed.

I zipped the file, it is now 1.7 mb. Link:

http://www.f84thunderjet.com/f84fkitcompare.zip

So, this link was working when I posted it, now returns "object not found" ... Hmmmm. I've contacted my site host to try to find out why it can't find the file. Meanwhile, if anyone wants the file, just email your request via the forum email link.

And, final "edit" ... maybe ... my host solved the problem of "object not found" which had to do with their redundancy server software routines. File was only on one of the three redundant systems, but that is now corrected and the link is working. Just download the file and unzip it.

Edited January 4, 2007 by Plankwing

[akeller]

Hello!

I'm glad to have found this thread.

I want to scratch a 1/32nd F-84F and was going to scale up the Monogram kit and use enlarged Caruna (spelling?) plans as guidelines.

So, can you guys point me to an accurate set of drawings that could be used for this project.

Any guidance would be GREATLY appreciated.

Al Keller

aw-keller@earthlink.net

[Harold]

Hello!

I'm glad to have found this thread.

I want to scratch a 1/32nd F-84F and was going to scale up the Monogram kit and use enlarged Caruna (spelling?) plans as guidelines.

So, can you guys point me to an accurate set of drawings that could be used for this project.

Any guidance would be GREATLY appreciated.

Al Keller

aw-keller@earthlink.net

What ever you do, do NOT use Carauna's drawings. They are not accurate. One example: he drew in the panel lines above the wing roots that are only on the RF version.

PM me if you want access to my drop box reference library. It is a large file, about 4.9gb of photos, drawings and other material. It includes all the variances from the C through the F/RF's.

Cheers,

Harold

Edited October 6, 2011 by Harold

[Harold]

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76548