Tan Model’s 1/48 RF-84F Thunderflash
by Bruce Craig
I
t was the year 1996, and I
pulled out my Hawk F-84 kit.
Many of you have been there;
it’s one of the way-back-then kits.
I was pondering how to improve
the kit, so I started to research
Thunderjets. My quest found
several discrepancies and I soon
took advantage of the opportunity
to photograph the F-84C at March
Field, Riverside, and the F-84E
at Planes of Fame, Chino, both in
California. During this research, I
found that many of the established
“facts” were not correct!
At my son’s urging, I posted my
findings on the internet. This led
to two retired Republic employees,
who worked on the Thunderjet
from day one, to contact me and
provide me with a substantial
amount of Republic documentation.
Fortunately, Tamiya and Revell
soon came to my rescue, so the
need to work on the Hawk kit
was gratefully abandoned.
Even so, my interest in the
Thunderjets soon expanded to
the rest of the F-84 series and has
continued unabated since. For
over 20 years, my first focus of
modelling has been the F-84 series;
I think I have acquired every kit,
decal, resin, photo-etch
(PE), etc, that has come
to my attention.
Thus, having
completed 18 various F-84
models, from Thunderjets,
Thunderstreaks,
Thunderflashes and a
Thunderceptor (all in 1/48
scale), I have the habit of
taking notice when anything
new in the world of models
related to the F-84
series comes to my
attention. Ten years
back, I kit-bashed a model of the
Thunderflash in 1/48 by combining
parts from Heller, Fonderie, and
Monogram, plus AMS Resin detail
parts, my own photo-etch, and
a scratch-built camera load.
Then, in the mid-2015, along
came a rumour, which I quickly
verified, that a company new to
the industry was in the process
FLASH GONE
and
it’s
30 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
BY SACCO DE VRIES
RF-84F THUNDERFLASH
BY BRUCE CRAIG
1/48
030-35-FEAT-RF84F-0318.indd 30 09/02/2018 14:29