Really had a blast building the Revell 1/48 F-105G Thunderchief “Wild Weasel”. The first time I saw the lines of the Wild Weasel variant of the F-105G Thunderchief, it was love at first sight. It was a testament to the United States way of building their military aircraft up from World War II to that era, a large frame to fit a powerful engine.
I experienced only a few hiccups in building this kit, but all were easily solved. Some of the flaws I saw in the kit were the rather weak rear landing gears, lack of stiffness in those posts made them easily flex when the model was made to rest on its landing gears. The front nose antenna also was bent out of shape, rather than try to straighten that out I just went to replace that with a toothpick I whittled out a bit. There were some of your typical gaps in the frame, but these were easily solved by using some putty.
Materials used to accomplish this build are your typical fare for me. For the paints I used Pylox Cabinet Grey for the underside and the drop tanks. Bosny Olive Green for the dark green camouflage, Bosny White for the missiles, Bosny Silver for the exhaust parts and landing gears. Bosny Flat Black for the nose cone and tires. For the beige part of the camouflage I mixed some Bosny Mahogany with some Pylox Beige till I got my desired shade then applied it by means of my trusty Badger 250-2 airbrush connected to an external tank. For the light green part of the camouflage, I decanted some Pylox Lazer refrigerator green and added a little Bosny flat black to that then also applied it with an airbrush. For masking the canopy and other parts, nothing works better than some Tamiya Masking tape for that fine clean and crisp lines.
Prior to painting I first washed the runners with some water and dishwashing liquid in order to get rid of the release agent that could probably have been left over from the mold. Then I sanded it with a 1000 grit sand paper in order to create some micro holes that the paint can cling on to. After washing the plastic dust off and let it dry, I applied some TOA/Wins plastic primer on to the parts to be painted.
In the middle of this build I ran out of air for the standalone air tank that I use to paint with my airbrush. I ran to a couple of gasoline stations in the hopes of getting it re-charged but they were having problems of their own with their air compressors. Just wasn't my week to have my air tank re-charged. Rather than wait I decided to just solve the problem another way. For the dark green color that still had to be painted, I made do with the Bosny Olive green in a spray can. In applying Future Floor polish, prior to decaling, I just made do with hand painting the Future on.
After the paint was applied, I brushed on the Future floor polish. When that dried I proceeded to apply the decals. I'm never applying decals on again without any floor polish on. The smooth surface given by the polish makes positioning the decal easier. Took me about 3 days to finish applying all the decals. That's just how much they were.
I waited for a day for the decals to dry before trying out an experiment that I read about online on how to soften decals cheaply without buying the commercially branded decal solutions. It was by means of white vinegar, frankly I couldn't see a huge difference so I couldn't really conclude if the white vinegar worked or not. There is a certain acidity to the vinegar that can dissolve the decals just a tad. My problem with this was that I couldn't get the vinegar to stick on the decal, it kept sliding off.
After the decals were applied I coated it with some Bosny Dull Lacquer to give it a matte look as well as to protect the decals. With the rough finish of the Dull Lacquer the next step was the apply some weathering.
For weathering I just used some left over eye shadow makeup from my wife. Some of the panel lines of the Thunderchief aren't recessed but I was able to make them "come out" by using a flat soft brush and wiping some black eye shadow over the surface. Since this was a weathered build, I didn't have to worry about the make-up leaving a dirty surface on the model. The eye shadow also worked well for filling in the recessed panel lines and other crevices in the model kit.
For creating a post shading effect on the panel lines of the model kit, I also used the eye shadow, but this time I used a round brush and gently traced the outlines. To correct any mistakes during the weathering process, I just used an ordinary rubber eraser to quickly remove the eye shadow. After I got the look that I wanted, I sealed that in again with a coat of Bosny Dull Lacquer.
Forgot to mention, that in order to create the camouflage pattern I used some blu-tack and some masking tape. I first applied on the light green color, then the beige color then last was the dark green color. The order of application was based on the amount of tape that would be needed to cover it up. The lesser amount would be the first to be applied.
Definitely a fulfilling build for me, as well as a not so stressful build as the kit came together easily with only a few minor seam lines that had to be filled in. I always cringe with the thought of having to apply a ton of decals, but after a while it was actually starting to be fun. The key in making it bearable was to take regular breaks to rest your eyes and hands.
Time for this to go in my display case and to hunt for the next kit to build.
