Airfix 1/72 Republic F-84F Thunderstreak

AIRFIX 1:72 REPUBLIC F-84F THUNDERSTREAK

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: April 2008

Kit Details:

AIRFIX #03022 1/72 -- REPUBLIC F84F THUNDERSTREAK

Aircraft History:

First known as the F96, the F84F was supposed to be a more powerful, swept wing version of the F84E utilising 55% of the tooling. As it turned out the figure was only 15%. Although the YF84F was delivered in May 1950, many problems were discovered and the J35 engine proved unsuitable. Re engined with the J65, an American built Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, it flew in Feb.1951 but still with many problems and the first of two thousand three hundred and forty eight Thunderstreaks entered service in Jan.1954. The USAF was never very happy with it although it lasted with the Air National Guard till 1971. The F84F became the first fighter bomber with the new (West) German Air Force. Their record was not good, loosing 29% of their four hundred and fifty aircraft, a worse record than with the Starfighter! Other NATO air forces to use the F84F were Holland, Belgium, France, Italy Greece and Turkey. The only ones to see action were the French in the Suez campaign of 1956. The F84F had a span of 10.23m and length of 13.21m and was armed with four .50” machine guns and could carry a variety of bombs, rockets and drop tanks.

The Kit:

This mid 70's kit first started life as a USAF subject and in the 80's was updated to include Italian and Greek markings. Out of production for some time it re-emerged in the mid to late 90's and I still see it on shelves today. There are just under 60 parts in the typical Airfix light grey coming on a few sprue trees in a plastic bag inside the colourful box. The tooling is not too bad considering its age, with barely any flash at all but does have raised panel lines and the plastic is soft, easy to ruin with either glue or a wayward hobby knife. There are also the obligatory ejector pin stubs on some parts and a couple of sink marks but nothing too major. There are also half a dozen rather thick and a little distorted transparencies on a separate sprue, yes floating in with the other parts meaning they were a little scratched.

Instructions:

Two double sided A3 sheets fold up to make an A4 booklet of the instructions. One sheet is devoted to 14 assembly steps which are typical Airfix in being pretty reasonable to follow. Humbrol numbers only are quoted throughout the instructions - thankfully that suits me but I am aware it is not the choice paint of others. The other sheet is devoted to a brief history, modelling information and symbols, and four-view markings/decaling diagrams of the two versions the kit produces, including close up decaling of the underwing ordnance.

Construction:

As this kit has already been reviewed a couple of times, I will just touch on the basics. My last build of the F-84F a few years ago was the Italeri, so like Kevin Ronayne, I have an opportunity to compare the two.

For an Airfix kit, the cockpit fit out is not too bad, and in terms of amount of detail is probably a little superior to the Italeri kit, particularly the fuel tank behind the pilot seat. The tub is attached to front and rear bulkheads, which saves us from being able to see right through the model. The intake has a splitter section within that also houses the nose wheel bay - for once a kit that has a reasonable depth for the intake. A legless pilot figure is provided to be placed upon a reasonable replica of a seat (with good attempt at molded grab handles etc) and a multipart instrument panel with little circles representing dials. Naturally very generic detail and there is no side console, sidewall detail nor control column for the pilot. The interior was painted in the quoted Humbrol Gull Grey and the intake area painted in silver. The instrument panel and details were picked out a little with dry brushing, but with a closed canopy and pilot figure not a lot will be seen later. Keep in mind that the top of the tank behind the pilot becomes top of the fuselage as well (something I had to fix up after positioning the cockpit in the fuselage half).

The fuselages halves go together very well trapping the cockpit sub assembly and the rear tail pipe assembly, something else which I like in the kit (rather than a shallow hole at the back of the plane!). However, emphasis is on doing a test run first and having everything positioned correctly. Unfortunately, sink marks and mold imperfections around the seams, particularly on the underfuselage, needed a smear of filler and a quick sanding to blend into the fuselage.

Moving onto the wings these are upper and lower halves and Airfix thoughtfully provide two sets of doors for the wheel wells, one set for wheels up modellers and the other for those who deploy their undercarriage, so they get the thumbs up from me. What's more is that the closed doors fit very well. The wheel wells are devoid of any detail so we're not missing much. The wings are then affixed to the fuselage, and again, the emphasis is on test fitting first, as I needed to scrape off a bit of flashy plastic. The starboard wing fitted very well with what I consider to be a good angle, but the port wing was an absolute shocker fit, and needed a couple of sessions of vigorous filling and sanding around the wing root to fix a small gap and the resulting step from attaching it to the fuselage.

In Dick's review he mentions to do sub assemblies, paint them up and decal them and attach them later. I followed his advice because Airfix provide decals for the underwing ordnance and it is much better to do it this way. So I assembled the drop tanks and painted them and decaled them accordingly. I should also point out that by this time I was finding it a little frustrating working out the part numbers, they are tiny and very hard to read on the sprue. Once the drop tanks were done I affixed them onto the undersides of the wings - again a test run was needed and a little scraping with the hobby knife. I wasn't sure if it was the cheap Chinese glue I was using, engineering of the parts or my ability to hand craft a better fit with a hobby knife, but all the underwing stores fitted very well and once glued in place at the right angle, didn't want to move (normally you have to set up a jig so the pylons will dry at the correct angle).

The tailplanes are not quite correctly positioned, and take note of the numbered parts since their alignment tabs are one forward of the other so they can both go onto the fin together. After doing a test fit I realised that a chunk off one of the alignment tabs needed to removed so the other could fit.

The worst fitting part of the kit was undoubtedly the clear part (#23) meant to replicate the anti collision light housing which goes onto the spine - it needed more carving than a sunday roast before it would fit. Not to mention it was totally oversized as far as accuracy was concerned. The undercarriage is simplistic but allows for moveable parts by glueing the cap to the axle and not cementing the wheel itself.

From here assembly went very quickly to the end. Again, after a test fit and a resulting trim I found the speed brakes - which have their own jack and can be deployed open - actually fitted very well. The canopy was a reasonable fit, but couldn't help having a small gap either at the windscreen front or the rear window. Overall construction was very straight forward and most parts fit very well, but you certainly needed to do a test run of all the major components as usually some sort of a trim was required.

Colour Schemes:

Two examples are the subject of this kit, a colourful Italian Diavoli Rossi (Red Devils) aerobatic team example from 1959 as featured on the boxart, 6 Stormo, Ghedi. The other is a natural metal Greek air force aircraft of No.340 Mira, Souda Bay in 1961. Hmm.. given Whyalla (where I live) is currently hosting a particular bikie gang called the Red Devils, I guess I should have gone for the Italian version. But me being more of a combat aircraft type buff I decided to model the Greek version.

Decals:

The decal sheet is quite large and protected by wax paper and has a plethora of decals and stencils on it. It looks.... well typical Airfix, the colour register is very good in the main but you can see a little bit of a misprint, slight blur and off centre decals without too much trouble. I also agree with Dick's and Kevin's assessment of the Greek roundels being too dark. So in the end I raided my spares and found some Zanchetti Greek roundels and then used the kit decals for the rest of the model. These were quite thin, very prone to curling and tended to initially stick to the model before being gently coaxed into position - then the slightest touch and they were shooting off to other parts of the model! The way around this was just to apply the decals in three sessions with enough time in between to dry. I certainly didn't mind the decals overall but a couple annoyed me, the red/yellow band at the front of the fuselage is nice but when you join them up underneath, the misprint of more yellow on one end and red on the other end is quite noticeable. At the completion I sealed these in with a very careful and delicate application of a satin cote.

Accuracy:

I'll leave you to look at Kevin's review on this kit and the Italeri as he makes some succinct comments. In retrospect I agree and think that accuracy wise this kit is probably a touch better than Italeri, but both have their own vices. For a 70's kit this is dimensionally quite accurate, just a touch underscale in span, and captures the look of the Thunderstreak quite well. I think the tailplanes in particular and the angle of the main wings are probably just not quite right as Kevin pointed out also. Due to mold limitations of the era all of the intakes, ducts and cannon housings could also be claimed as overly simplistic.I also query a little bit the stores supplied in the kit as these are clearly left over from the USAF version - so it is a modellers choice I guess. I couldn't resist putting them on.

Overall Recommendation:

This is an ageing kit but still builds up to a very reasonable replica of the F-84F - not definitive by any means but still a solid build. It's a straight forward build but needs attention throughout (you need to do test runs on everything) so I would only recommend for intermediate and above modellers (which is what the box indicates anyway). The Italeri kit was easier but the Airfix kit is probably very slightly better in accuracy and also has a reasonable interior. It's an older kit and shows it in many ways such as detail and mold imperfections but I enjoyed building it. Recommended, until Tamidemygawa release a state of the art purler!

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