Revell/ Monogram
F-105D
modified to an early "D"
Kit No. 5840. 1:48th scale
Revell/ Monogram
F-105D
modified to an early "D"
Kit No. 5840. 1:48th scale
I have biult two versions of the kit already and when Cutting edge decals came out with "fancy girls" I thought I'd start another model for them. The kit is an easy build and as far as I know pretty accurate, the only thing I recommend is the replacement of the long stalky under carriage legs with metal ones from Aeroclub which are so much stronger. Firstly I tried rescribing the panel lines for as nice as this kit is it is many years old and the tooling for recessed lines wasn't in use then. Rescribing this kit is quite complicated and can get boring but I did a bit at a time and eventually it paid off.
Upon reflection I chickened out from using one of the girls, as my models go to many shows, and I didn't want to cause an offence to any of the lady viewers passing by, So I decided to take up the challenge to make an early "D"
This involved removing the antennas around the nose and then removing the stiffener plates on the wings which were a post Vietnam thing, this particular machine did have the late model "D" spine
When I was half way through decaling I realised that there should be no afterburner cooling inlets on the rear fuselage so it was out with the sanding block and get rid of them and the extra panels where they were mounted. Next I found the top of the fin needed altering, just filing away the ECM bits on the fin cap.
This was becoming a whole bunch of mistakes on my part but I was easily able to patch things up as I was using humbrol "polished aluminium" to represent the aluminium finish on the real aircraft, these were not a natural metal finish they had a protective coat containing aluminium.
Eventually I think I got all the mods right and the decals were finaly finished then sealed with a coat of Johnsons Klear (future). I think now, looking at the model, that it was all worth while and I am very pleased with it
From the original Monogram boxes
straight from the box but with decals from 1984 IPMS-USA national convention issue sheet
commemorating the last ANG flight on May 25 1983
Again straight from the box but this time the decals were from IPMS-USA 1986 convention
this airplane bore these colours (yes they are genuine, I have a photo) from 1983
until it retired and was known as "DESERT FOX"
Ted Taylor Nov 2003
