F-100D Thunderbirds SIX Foiled Again

[themongoose 1,558]

Ooooh-hoooo I've somehow ended up with a good bit of aftermarket for this build! That's what brought it to the forefront for my next project. I've just found individual pieces for it cheap over the years and so I decided to go ahead and get the rest that's available for it. Check out the treasure chest I've amassed - 

From Eduard I've got the self-adhesive placards, slats, air brake, undercarriage, and wheel well sets. 

For cockpit choice I've got both the Verlinden and the Aires sets to work from. The Aires set I picked up at Nationals a few years ago. last day, last hour and they had the whole table 50% off. Couldn't pass it up. The aires set has canopy and wheel well upgrades in addition to the engine details. It looks pretty good. Honestly I don't know which cockpit tub I'll go with as they both look crisp. Will have to check accuracy for my bird and make a decision.

Thats a master Pitot tube in there along with the Zacto nose enhancement for a facelift.

Then lastly I was looking at all the Eduard pieces and just didn't like the fuselage PE they had. It all sticks off the surface too much. That's when I remembered seeing an email about Archer Fine Transfers announcing a new sheet. I used their hatches, hinges, and other resin bits on my T-38A and now they have redone the sheet at 1/2 the thickness of the original. This should do perfectly for the access hatches, fuel doors and the like on this AC. I'll post details up on this as soon as possible. I don't think I've seen a review on them yet.

 

There's been alot of these Huns done and I think I have every one of them on a separate tab on my ipad for review as I get going. Given that, I plan to post fewer mid-term updates as most people have seen it all on these. I'll try sticking to the finished assemblies and just post up some details on the new stuff, like the Archer panels and the foiling, especially the Titanium tail and the archetypical bluing and burnt metal look they have!

 

[MikeMaben 5,486]

 

      

 

 

[themongoose 1,558]

Already i need some help   I’ve seen several builds with the resin wheel wells and they look really sweet. I haven’t found one that describes what it takes to get the wing to close up though . Could anyone who’s done this drop a few notes in here about how best to do this? Here’s what i have so far...

can’t be much thinner without going through the resin base

 

then here’s what they look like sandwiched between the wing halves

 

going to post in tips and techniques section as well. I’ve got time on this one so i really want to do this right.

[Zank_Frappa 176]

If I were you I'd try thinning the plastic on the upper wing half down. You could use a grinding head in a dremel, but personally I'd use a #10 or #22 to slowly scrape the plastic away until the resin part sits like it should

[themongoose 1,558]

Thanks Frank. I did just that and used old faithful, #11. 

Well I think this is the best it can be. I sanded the wing surface, and trimmed down the sides of the resin bits. Lost a tad of detail but probably not noticeable. I managed to save 2 hydraulic lines along the side wall so those will provide the extent of the detail on the wall. 

[themongoose 1,558]

Approaching my first real accomplishment on this one. I followed crobinsonh and ericg builds and decided I wanted to make the fuselage changes so the cockpit looked right. Great guidelines in their builds. I had an idea that i think turned out cool and will save some time.

 

when i cut the 2mm off the backside of the ammo panel I did it such that i got a perfect slice

Next i took this piece and switched sides with it. That turned the rivet line around so that it would be facing aft. This replaced the 2mm wide piece of styrene. 

i cut 2mm out of the coming to move the whole cockpit forward. Really this seems to be Aires intent as the side panels don’t fit right unless you do this. Here’s the final result vs the look of the 1:1 Thunderbird

 

getting the IP to sit down and not stand proud witha PITA! would still like it to be 1mm lower but I’m just throughthe floor of the cockpit on the edges and the top of the intake duct is really thinned out so this is the final position. I’ve tested out the canopy and it just barely fits ... but it fits.