Republic F-105D Thunderchief

FROG F269 Republic F-105D Thunderchief, ROVEX tri-ang, 1969

Hasegawa JS-014:200 No.3 Republic F-105D Thunderchief, 1967

UPC 5087-100 Republic F-105D Thunderchief,

amt A-656:130 Republic F-105D Thunderchief,

Monogram Republic F-105 Thunderchief,

NEW AND IN VIEW
MONOGRAM.
Republic F-105 Thunderchief, 1/72 scale and Douglas AC-47, 1/90 scale. Price $1.50 each (USA).

These are re-issues of very old models, and show their age to some degree in somewhat heavy rivet and panel detail. Their special feature is that they are pre-painted; pressed in sandy-brown plastic, patches of camouflage green are sprayed on, simulating part of the camouflage pattern currently used by the U.S.A.F. in Vietnam. The lower halves of the F-105's wings are pressed in light grey plastic, thus carrying the pre-finishing process aistage further.

The pre-painting seems to be a fairly pointless exercise. Not only does another colour (a very dark green) have to be added to the camouflage pattern, but light grey undersides have to painted on the AC-47, and on the fuselage of the F-105. In addition, these kits suffer from the standard disadvantage of all pre-finished models in that it is impossible to clean up the joints without damaging the finish, thus rendering complete painting necessary. There seems little advantage to be gained in paying 50% more for these models as compared with the price of the original versions, apart, of course, from the inclusion of the three G-E Miniguns in the AC-47 kit and of the bombs and drop bombs in the F-105 kit. In the case of the latter, the rotary bomb door and operating ejection seat of the original version have been deleted, so the gain is even less. These are a pair of disappointing kits.

The IPMS magazine, Vol.4 No.2, FEBRUARY 1967

MODELLING
W R MATTHEWS
NEW KITS FROM MONOGRAM

Two other recent Monogram releases sadly do not measure up to the offerings from this company reviewed above, these being reissues of their old C-47 and F-105 kits, pre-painted in part of the current scheme used by USAF aircraft in SE Asia. The 1/90th scale C-47 is intended to represent an AC-47 "Dragon Ship", and the F-105 Thunderchief is provided with an assortment of bombs and napalm tanks, the original rotary bomb-bay and ejection seat (!) having been deleted. Factory-applied finishes to plastic kits are, by nature, unsatisfactory, as they render the cleaning-up of the joints impossible without spoiling the finish. The Monogram finishes are, moreover, incomplete. One colour, the dark foliage green, must be added to both the AC-47 and the F-105, while the light grey must be applied to the entire undersurfaces of the former and to the fuselage underside of the latter (the F-105's wings being pressed in light grey plastic). The whole approach to these re-issues seems a fairly pointless exercise, and particularly so as the prices of the kits at $1.50 each have escalated 50 per cent since issue in their original forms.

RAF Flying Review June, 1967, Vol. 22, No. 10

IMC F-105 Thunderchief, 1968

NEW AND IN VIEW - New Aircraft Kits
I.M.C. (Industro-Motive Corporation) "I.M.C. 72nd Combat Group". 1/72 (or near) scale aircraft kits. Price $1.00 each (U.S.A.)

This new series of aircraft kits have been given much advance publicity, the optional Battle Damage moulded parts being the big sales feature. Unfortunately this is the only 'different1 feature in what are otherwise below average quality kits. Four types are covered in this series, the RF-4B Phantom, which is perhaps the best of the four, the Republic F-105D Thunderchief, the F-100D Sabre and the A-1H Skyraider.

Each kit is moulded in a blue-tinged silvery plastic of commercial quality and each contains optional Battle Damaged parts (including certain parts in both "Battle Damaged" and serviceable forms, including canopies). The fit and accuracy of the mouldings are only fair; in the case of the Skyraider the single-seat configuation seems to have been arrived at by placing a bubble type canopy on a two-seater airframe. The undercarriage legs and wheels in each kit are very poor, and all in all these models do not do credit to a company whose car kits are acclaimed as among the World's finest.

Even the decals are below acceptable standards, suffering as they do from offset printing, poor colouring and too thick a film of varnish. We cannot recommend these kits, though the fuselage of the RF-4D might be mated to Revell or Airfix wings and fittings to make a neat photo-recce variant of the type. As for the "Battle Damage", the artist undertaking the box-art must have had his tongue in his cheek when doing it, as without exception it is so overdone that such battle damage inflicted in the air would result in an enemy 'confirmed'.

The IPMS magazine, Vol.5 No.7, JULY 1968

Aurora F-105 Thunderchief, 1960

MODEL TALK By GEOFFREY NORRIS
Aurora show that modern aircraft are not uninteresting

There seems to be a strong body of opinion among modellers that modern aircraft are uninteresting to make. World War One and Two types, they say, have more interesting shapes and a better " texture." I sometimes, perhaps unfairly, suspect that the reason for this is that you can get away with a little careless finish on a rather rickety biplane, whereas every flaw of workmanship is shown up on a sleek modern job. Nor do I agree that modern shapes are uninteresting. Admittedly, aviation did go through a rather unexciting stage when jets first came along, but now that normal streamlining has given way to the more stringent demands of hypersonic flight, the interest is back.

For example I cite two recent issues by Aurora, the Avro CF-105 Arrow and the Republic F-105 Thunderchief. Both of these have exciting shapes typical of modem high-performance fighters, both are very neat kits which are a pleasure to build, and both present a challenge to the modeller to get as clean a finish as possible.

Aurora's decision to build the Arrow was obviously taken some time ago and it is a pity that they have been thwarted by the Canadian government's decision to abandon this very potent aeroplane. Maybe it will never get into squadron service but it remains an extremely interesting kit for modellers. Its 71-inch wingspan gives it a scale of 1/80 and it costs 7s, 11d. Because it is moulded in white plastic you can get away with the minimum of painting, but my advice is, if you are confident of getting a smooth finish, to paint it. Bare plastic can look a little too smooth at times.

The Thunderchief sells for 6s. 11d. and works out to a scale of 1/78 and can therefore be displayed alongside the Arrow with few misgivings. It is a pity, though, that Aurora could not have made the very slight adjustments needed to bring these two kits exactly into line regarding scale before manufacturing the kits. The colour chosen for the Thunderchief plastic is a quite realistic natural metal tone, but an attempt to paint in the different tones of metal by hand will work wonders for this model.

My criticisms of these two kits are minor ones: in the first place I would have liked to have seen a little more attention given to the moulding of the canopies which 'are not quite up to the standard of the rest of the kits. The second is a point which has been mentioned before in these pages—Aurora's transfers leave an awful lot to be desired.

RAF Flying Review October, 1960, Vol. XVI, No. 2