with Cutting Edge decals
8th FBS, US Air Force, Korea 1952
Another beautiful Tamiya kit is this Republic F-84G Thunderjet. Assembly was trouble-free, and even a nose weight was provided in the box. One small engineering glitch is that the nose gear bay has a seam running through the middle of it. When presented with a seam in a location like this, I cut a piece of paper to fit and attach it over the roof of the bay with thin superglue. No aftermarket resin or photo-etch was used but I did add stencil decals from Cutting Edge. This is because the kit stencils are nonsense and the ‘USAF’ logos are supplied in black, rather than dark blue. The main markings were sourced from the kit, and both sets of decals were very nice. I applied them over SNJ natural metal paint and rubbed in the supplied aluminium powder. This was my first ‘serious’ natural metal finish, and it came out ok. Yellow and olive drab markings were applied using Humbrol enamels. I now prefer to use Alclad II for NMF as it’s more durable. I’ve heard the Revell version of this aircraft is just as nice, and I have one of their F-84Es in the stash waiting to be built.
Year bought: 1998 (Wonderland Models, Edinburgh)
Year built: 2000 (Send Marsh, Surrey, UK)
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