extras, I would at the very least
upgrade the seat. Unfortunately,
I could not find an F-84 seat in
this scale, but I did manage to
source one for an F-86 Sabre from
Quickboost, and I thought that it
was similar enough to get away
with it in the Thunderjet. With
a little adjustment it fits well
and certainly looked the part.
Moulded-on belts can look
amazing if painted well; using
them made a change from the
usual photo-etch and I was very
pleased with the end result. I
did, however, use a lot of Eduard
photo etch in the cockpit! The
cockpit ended up looking very
busy after adding the extra brass
and I think it adds a lot of extra
viewing interest on the finished
model, as the cockpit area is very
visible on the finished product.
There’s also a radio electronics
deck behind the pilot, which
inserts into the canopy. This also
benefits from a few wires here
and there. I did my best to be
accurate, but if I’m being honest,
this became a little generic!
HobbyBoss also supply a fairly
detailed engine, although only
the exhaust pipe is visible once
the fuselage is closed up. Youalso have the option to have the
forward gun bay open, which is
fine straight from the box, but is
aching for a little bit more detail.
Having seen some online photos of
the bay, I obliged with some clear
plastic piping and fuse wire, which
lifted the appearance noticeably.
So the model wouldn’t be a tail
sitter, I added the two weights
supplied with the kit (cleverly
shaped to fit the fuselage) before
closing up the interior, one
underneath the gun bay and one
under the ammunition housing.THE DANGLY BITS
As you would (hopefully) expect
in this scale the control surfaces –
ailerons, the horizontal stabilizers,
and rudder – are moulded
separately. Flaps are kitted down.
HobbyBoss supply a choice ofeither plastic or metal landing gear
struts. I can’t see why you wouldn’t
use the metal struts, as the plastic
ones are not strong enough (the
model is quite a chunky, heavy
beast when finished). The detail
on the metal parts is excellent;
however, there is no torque link
supplied for the nose gear, but this
is corrected by Eduard’s detail set.
There is a choice of wing tip
tanks or conventional wingtips
without tanks. I originally thought
that she wouldn’t look quite right
without wing tanks, but I left
them off in the end, primarily so
my model looks a bit different to
everyone else’s, but also because
I had a picture of the aircraft I
was modelling without them.
Now with these stages
complete I could move on to
the fun part – painting!FULL METAL JACKET
I do love metal finishes, and they
have been made so much easier
these days with the emergence of
some excellent metal paints. My
own weapon of choice is the Alclad
range; they spray beautifully and
dry almost as soon as they hit the
surface. The only requirement is
that the finish must be as flawless
as possible, without any hint of
glue or scratches on the surface.
Those will all be highlighted,
somewhat cruelly, by the paints.
First up though is a smooth,
durable black primer. The
smoother, the better, as this is
absolutely critical for the finish.
I like black as it complements
the paints and it gives an added
depth and lustre to the ”metal”.
I decided to try a new product
to me, Vallejo Black Primer. This
primer sprayed very nicely indeed16 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
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