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I'm back, and hopefully not with another kit that ends up on the shelf of doom. This is a bird that I've been interested in for a very long time, having read Termite Hill and Lucky's Bridge by Tom Wilson years ago, both of which focused on the Thud. I've also recently read Hunter Killers by Dan Hampton about the creation of the Wild Weasels, all of which I recommend for some background info on the F-105 and it's uses. So, after nothing was fitting on the T-28C/D Trojan I'd been working on, and the lack of interest in the plane as well, it's ended up boxed at this point, sitting on the shelf for (hopefully) another rematch someday. Now I've got the F-105G, and a bit of aftermarket, to make some winter time building. Now, the first thing.....this thing is HUGE compared to the other 1/32 kits I've built. It'll dwarf my Corsair and Dauntless, whenever it ends up in the display cabinet. I've picked up a few bits of aftermarket, with the Quintas Studio's cockpit the one I'm most interested in trying. I'm going to see what I can do to combine this with the Aires cockpit, Eduard PE and the kit parts. We'll see how well that works! I also have GT Resin's update set for the Wild Weasel, with a new nose, vertical stabilizer, engine, etc. New resin wheels/tires and also a nice turned metal nose probe to top things off. I'll also probably be needing to find some metal landing gear, as all of this is going to get heavy, plus adding additional weight to the nose to keep this from turning into a tail sitter. Special thanks to @Dragon for sending me some decals a while back that will get used in this build! And....finally, I also picked up something for later, Randy Coopers Blade Runner 2049 Spinner. This will be a challenge, as I've never tackled a full resin kit!

This is a build based off of Hasegawa's IdolMaster boxing of the F-16. As with all things, I spent more on all of the additions then the actual model. Fun build, my first Hasegawa kit. The below was added to the kit for this build or used as a resource: · The Scale Viper: A Modeler’s Guide to Building the F-16 – Pete Fleischmann · The Modern Viper Guild, 2nd Edition – Jake Melampy · Decals: Caracal: USAF F-16C “Dark Vipers” part 4 · Royale Resin: antenna Upgrader Set · GT Resin 1/48 ALQ-184 ECM Pod & F-16 Wild Weasel Set · Eduard Sniper Pod As with all things, once the build was done I can find were I need to improve, but it is about the experience and it was fun build. ..an honestly, if I never have to mask and paint another stripe on a missile, I will be fine with that!

Well after collecting photos and dimensions for the EF-4C Camera Pallet for the project Derek and I had started but unfortunately it never progressed due to life's little "pleasures"!. I thought I would take a break from Phantom cockpits and cobbled this together over the last couple of weeks. Composite photo of installation on the EF-4C at the "Mighty Eighth A.F. Museum here in Savannah, GA. It is as dimensionally accurate as possible and fit the Tamiya kit along prototype panel lines and within the fixed points on the kit that correspond to the actual jet. It is and add on designed to fit in and around the left forward missile well. It does wrap over and up the left side behind the left fixed intake ramp. It has a number of shapes that proved a little trouble some to capture but once done the shape and prototype dimensions proved to match the Tamiya kit pretty closely. The pallet/canoe itself is by no means an elongated rectangular shape with triangular shaped fairing on the front and rear. The camera window housing proved especially challenging as it has NO square edges or sides. It is a trapezoidal shape with triangular sides to compensate for the angle that the camera pallet/canoe has when mounted. All the shapes allow the camera window to remain parallel to the horizon when the aircraft wings are level. Starting to take shape; the structural fitting for the forward fairing is sheet brass shaped to fit and the aft is sheet plastic. Barry