Republic F-105D Thunderchief Vietnam

F-105 Thud is a very special aircraft from the design perspective. It is one of the first supersonic tactical bombers (albeit having "F" designation) that nevertheless retained distinctive design features of Post-WWII jets, like air intakes inside wing roots, landing gear completely inside wings, and long tubular fuselage. I was very much excited to build this weird-looking bird but postponed it before I got enough skills to make a decent model.

Between the classic air interdiction single-seat F-105D and the Wild Weasel F-105F, I've chosen the former, but the latter is also a cool bird. The Trumpeter kit is the only decent choice in 1:72, and there are a lot of aftermarket available for it. Initially I've bought resin wing tips and the ventral fin from Quickboost, but after closely looking at them, I decided that they are not worth efforts. For the nose cone and engine, I decided to stay with the kit options because Reskit products are just too expensive and not so significant for 1:72 scale.

But for the ordnance, you don't have a choice other than go for the aftermarket parts, since Trumpeter included only two Bullpup missiles (used only occasionally) and two MERs with Mk.82 (not typical and not impressive). The most common and effective load for the Thuds based in Thailand was 6 750lb bombs, so I bought the centerline pylon and 6 M117 from Reskit and added a MER from Hasegawa. For the outboard pylons, I had several options, and the most attractive choice was a Sidewinder AIM-9B plus an ECM pod (according to the articles I've read occasionally). Plus vinyl masks that saved many hours of masking, plus rubber wheels, plus the metal front tube... All in all, I spent maybe five times more on the aftermarket than I did on the Trumpeter kit itself.

The decals from Trumpeter are of high quality but historically are not correct, so I've chosen Printscale decals for the Vietnam-era aircraft participating in the Rolling Thunder campaign.

The kit impressed me with the rich surface details (not up to the scale and not crisp but that's the common issue with 1:72) and quite a decent fit - almost no putty was required. The plastic itself is a bit soft but not so much as later Trumpeter kits, so it was quite easy to sand and polish. In general, the overall experience with the plastic was more like with Italeri/Tamiya or HobbyBoss kits - the fit is not perfect but building is simple and rewarding.

For painting, I've chosen Vallejo Model Air paints plus AK's underside paint. I'm a bit disappointed by the fact that Field Green and Dark Green look very much alike in Vallejo range: that's correct that Field is more olive, but it must be darker. In AK range, unfortunately, they are even worse - more bright and green, and completely similar. I tried to make the Dark Green a bit dull with Grey Green mixed in 4:1 ratio but it didn't help - you can see that there are no visible distinction between two greens. Next time I will add a dark Olive Drab paint into the Field Green.

At the end, my model looks like a museum aircraft - clean, unworn paint, but that was the idea, folks.