Agape forum member Gil Hodges posted thius awesome looking F-84 in COL Robert Scott’s marking. Great work Gil!
This is the Monogram/Revell 1/48 F-84G kit, backdated to an E with a retrofitted “G” canopy (couldn’t find the “E” kit!). The kit comes with both canopies, but you have to fill in the air bleed doors on the fuselage sides, cut off the refueling probes from the tip tanks, and remove the refueling boom doors from the upper left wing to backdate the aircraft. The model was built OOTB and Cutting Edge decals supplied the markings for Col. Scott’s Thunderjet. The markings for this late F-84E are basically the same as for his early E, except for the addition of the command stripes on the fuselage, the later canopy, and slightly different lightning bolts on the tip tanks.
I was less than impressed with the some of the engineering on this kit, particularly with the nose gear. It really needs a wire pin for strength. Also, the instructions are very poor for the main gear, failing to show precisely how to fit the scissors links and the gear retraction links. You’ll need close up pics from some reference of the main gear to see how the parts are supposed to fit! Out side of that, the fit of the kit parts is pretty good and the detailing is very nice.
I used Alclad for the NMF and Testors True Blue for the tip tanks (a good match for the decal tail striping!) The tail stripes fit the tail quite well, while the command stripes were a bit fussy (a bit too long). The red nose flash didn’t fit AT ALL, and so it had to be masked and painted. The stars/bars, stencils, and the USAF modex decals are from the kit and went down just as nicely as the Cutting Edge decals.
Overall this was an enjoyable build, and it makes a nice companion to Scott’s C-47 squadron hack (in the same markings) on my shelf! Comments, questions, and critiques welcome, as always! Cheers!
