BloorwestSiR

Hi Brady, Thanks Brady, it is good knowing that once done, I'll have a slightly different Spitfire. I'm also working on a PRU pink FR IX and once I sort it out from the other two Spitfire kits it's mixed up with, they'll make an interesting pair. As for J-EJ Jr, I've got the Victory decal sheet for that one too so I may just have to take a crack at it as well. Where did you get the conversion kit for it? I imagine it's just a pair of barrels. Thanks Maru! I really thought this would have been an easy one but it hasn't. At least I'm getting near the end of the build. Mostly though, I'm just glad to be at a work bench again on a regular basis. Last year I could only manage once a month if I was lucky thanks to a new baby and then buying a new home and selling our existing home. Carl

More progress on the Spitfire. I engraved a few panel lines that I had missed as well as sanded down some fish eye marks in the paint. I then gave it a light post shading on the upper wings and top of the fuselage. This is the first time I've tried something like this. It doesn't show too well in the pics probably because of the lighting but it's there. After unmasking the invasion stripes, i noticed a slight omission: Yup, no black stripes So, out with a bunch of masking tape: And a quick spray of Tamiya XF-1 later: Now to let things dry a bit. Carl

So, more progress on this build. I installed the intake and MLG bay and ran into my first snag. Because I had glued the intake sections together, it wouldn't go in even after cutting off the mounting pegs on the underside of the gear bay. Unfortunately, I managed to break the intake along the join which allowed me to install everything correctly but left me with the seam i was trying to avoid. At least the outside is gap free... I also attached the upper wing halves to the upper fuselage section as suggested on here. The instructions don't mention attaching the rear canopy fairing or bulkhead but i figure they're kind of needed. Now off to fill ejector pin holes in the landing gear and finish the cockpit so I can close the fuselage up. Carl

I was checking this online store for something else and noticed they show a G in stock: http://www.rc-supplier.com/shop/trumpeter/02202/republic/f105g/wild/weasel-p-90014508.html They seem to have some harder to find kits in stock. I picked up a Tamiya F-16 T-bird kit from them last year for $125 which I thought was a deal. Carl

Thanks! Except for the cockpit painting issues, this has been going a bit easier that the Spitfire build. The only real problem is having the parts in two different homes. I started the kit at my folks' place but in moving it, I accidentally let bits behind. I don't remember what they are until I need them. So far it's been three trips back and forth but I think i have everything now. Carl

I checked both LHS near me and one has two F-105D kits in. The one in the Trumpeter box is $99.95 Cdn and in the Hobbycraft box, it's $130 Cdn. Go figure. I know your looking for the G but if that helps out, let me know. Carl

Everything I read says the Freightdog ones are the correct size and the Matchbox ones are too small and the wrong shape as well. And Kev is right, glue the wing roots to the fuselage and not the wings, it makes a big difference. Carl

So earlier tonight, I started by masking the invasion stripes. I sprayed the areas flat white first and then used 1mm tape around the curves and 5mm tape along the straight sections. I then fill in the large gaps with green painters tape. This helps to cut down on using the kabuki tape unnecessarily. I forgot to mention that I re-oriented the wing vent tubes. Thanks to Kagemusha for pointing out their correct orientation. Here's the topside with the cockpit opening masked off. And a first coat of paint: There are a couple places that need some work including scribing some panel lines I missed. I have to say I'm definitely feeling better about this build now that i seem to have clear the biggest hurdles. Carl

So,I've managed to get some more work done on the Spitfire over the last couple of days. As I mentioned earlier, the canopy is not a great fit. This is with me holding the rear corners tight to the fuselage. With some downward force, you can close the gap a bit but not enough to eliminate it. As well,both of my copies are not very clear. I tried polishing it but it didn't make a difference. I sanded off the panels just in front of the cockpit opening hoping it owuld improve things. I also carefully chamfered the edges slightly and that helped a lot. I primed it with interior green to check my progress. It still needed some filler around the front edge but to me, it is a major improvement. After a unexpected visit from our cat Fursnake (long story on how she got her name), I decided to call it a night.

Hi Jeff, It's definitely a challenging one. Mine is part done sitting in a drawer next to my workbench. There is a WiP on here that covers as far as I got on the build. Thierry also has some recommendations he made on it that might help you out as well. I hope you get yours completed. It might just give me the push to finish mine. PS- Just to show how crazy I am, I picked up a second conversion set and donor kit second hand. Maybe I'll do a Mk21 Carl

Nice progress Mark! I like the dusty look to the interior. I was interested in seeing this kit go together so I'm glad someone is. I built the Tamiya M2 years ago and the "full" interior it had is nothing compared to the Meng kit. Carl

Hi Andy, Nice review. I have to agree with most of your comments. Interesting that on your set the long intake con cowl is bigger as they're a much better fit in both my sets compared to the short one I'm using. The canopy is definitely on the thick side. Plus the fit is a challenge as I will highlight in my next update. Carl

Hobbycraft was/is a Canadian distributer that had several Trumpeter kits reboxed for them. This included both the F-105D and G kits. Besides the boxes, the decal sheets were the only differences. They come up from time to time so you may want to add them to your search. Carl

I think the ZM ones are made for them by G-factor. At least I recall reading that somewhere. Carl

Considering that most of the conversion is easily within the realm of most modelers, it's a very valid question. If you start with the MkVIII kit, the hardest part would be the one piece canopy in place of the standard fighter one. Next would be the under wing fairings for the fuel pumps in getting a symmetrical pair. And then I guess markings. Otherwise, most is fairly straight forward. As you can see from my build, I've ended up having to modify some kit parts for one reason or another. For what on first impression should be a"plug and play" conversion, a lot of work is needed finessing the various bits. But that could be me. Carl

Although they don't have a price listed, you can pre-order the Hawk on Hannant's website and get 10% off the price at the moment. Look under future releases. I did this with my HpH Me-410. Carl

Here are some pics of where I am at the moment on this build. I received the Eduard PE set for the cockpit from Hannants and noticed that the side panels are not a single panel but are broken down into many separate panels joined together. As a result, I decided to cut them apart carefully with my Xacto and attach select panels onto the finished side consoles. I also completed the intake trunking and made it into one assembly.

After doing a bit of , I decided to try cutting off the ports from the backing plates and mounting them into the drilled holes: The tubes are quite thin so this was a bit nerve wracking but I was able to separate both ports from the backing plates. They were then mounted as flush to the fuselage surface as I could following the contours as best as possible. The instructions tell you to drill holes near the wing tips and attach some 1.0mm diameter tubing to depict the fuel vent tubes. After taking out some 1.0mm tubing, it looked too large to me so I used 0.8mm instead. This is from Albion Alloys and is hollow so no need to drill the end out. The deeper chin cowl on my set didn't fit very well and no matter how much coaxing, I could not get to fit decently. I'm not sure if this was due to operator error or something with the part. One thing I have noticed is that all the bits that are direct replacement for kit parts or are based on kit parts seem to be ever so slightly larger. I was under the impression that resin tends to shrink and therefore, they should have been smaller. After fighting with it for several nights, I finally decided to try and modify the kit one. I used CA and baby powder. It may not be pretty, but it worked: After some wet sanding and a final coat of Mr Surfacer 500, here's my version: The profile is close enough to the resin one that I'm happy with it. And it fits a lot better too. It's still not perfect so it probably was operator error but I'm much happier.

So here's an illustrated update as promised. After joining the wings and fuselage together, I went to drill the ventral camera ports. And ran into a bit of a problem. Here's the photo from the instruction sheet for the conversion. It shows the wing and fuselage together so that you use the joint between the two as a reference point to mark out the camera ports. So looking at that and not really thinking about it at first, I joined the two together, marked out the holes and drilled them out using a stepped drill bit I have: Everything looks good until I come to the point where I have to install the backing plates and trim for the ports: And since my fuselage and wing are now one piece, there's no way to get them in.

Thanks Rainer, I've learned to brace my hand against something when I brush paint. It has really helped but my new workbench is a lot lower than my other one so it's a bit harder to do so. Mike, you're correct in that it's not 100% accurate but I can live with the differences. I though about grafting in the gear from the Tamiya T-bird kit but it's a bit too complicated. I'm still plugging away at the kit and hope to have it finished before the deadline. We'll see on that one. I'll have some more pics up tomorrow, just haven't had a chance to upload them. Carl

Thanks Haken, Doug and Maru for checking it out. I've made some more progress as well as running into a couple problems, one of which is my fault. I'll try to get some pics posted tomorrow but overall, it's moving nicely towards the finish line. Carl

Two Bobs does/did a decal sheet with those markings on it. They have a bit more behind the history of those markings as well. Apparently they lasted for only a couple days. Carl

An FGR 1? Carl

Great work there Derek. I guess I'd better hold off on building my Revell Hawk then. Not like I don't have anything else to build/finish Carl

Certainly not a common plane. The reason it popped into mind was I was going thru Wings of Fame 5 for an article on PR Spitfires and there was one on the Skoshi Tigers as well. Carl