Building Trumpeter's 1/32 F-105D Thunderchief By Will Riepl

Overview

When Trumpeter announced that they would have an F 105 in 1/32 scale I think a lot of people said it is about time that we see the F 105 in that scale. At that time, all that was out there was a vac-uform kit, with just the general shape of the aircraft. There was no interior and you had to make just about everything from scratch. Even in 1/48 scale the F-105 is big. Well, in 1/32 scale it is huge, so you better find a place to put it when you are done.

The Kit

At my first look at all the 500+ parts you would think you would have everything you need to do the kit of an F-105. But there are some things that you might want to do and add to the kit. You could do it right out of the box, but there are a lot of things that you could do to make the model better.

I did not use any of the after market resin parts in my F 105. So you could say it is right out of the box. One thing that you will want to do is look at all the pictures and references of the aircraft that you want to do. The kit is late F-105D. So there are things that you will have to take off if you want to back date it to an early F-105. These are the things that I corrected on the kit:

1. The cockpit
2. The landing gear
3. The intakes
4. The bottom fin

For a really nice looking interior you should see about getting the Black Box Interior for the F-105. You will get a new seat and tub. There is also a new instrument board. This was not available when I started on my kit, but is available now. I think it would save some time and look better.

The Cockpit

I used the kit parts for the instrument panel. I did not use the back part J 34. Instead I used some white plastic. When I dry fitted the cockpit to the fuselage, it looked like the instrument panel was sitting too high. I found a good picture of the instrument panel to see how it should look and adjusted it accordingly. I cut off a ¼” off the bottom of the panel (H 13). This matched up with the picture. When I fit the instrument panel into the spot indicated, I found the rudder pedals would put the pilot’s knees in his face! So I cut about ¼” off the sides of the tub and moved the panel aft. This put the panel closer to the stick and moved the rudder pedals to the correct position.

The instrument panel hood (J 52) needs to be replaced because it is too tall. Black Box has a beautiful one and I wish I had it when I built this. I cut some paper and formed it over the panel. When I got the right shape, I coated it with super glue to hold the shape. I added some wires, and assorted little parts and the gun sights. I found an old resin Martin Baker seat for an F 4 Phantom and I cut the seat bottom out and put it in the 105 seat. It had all the bells and whistles and looks good. Black Box also has a nice seat that will save you a lot of work.

The Landing Gear

The landing gear is the weakest point of the kit. As you can see by the pictures, there will be a weak spot where it attaches to the wing. I came up with an easy fix for the problem. First, remove the brace on the strut so the tubing will slide up and down on the strut. Then when you glue the strut to the wing, slide the tubing down around the wing joint, letting super glue flow down inside the aluminum tubing around the strut. This gives you good support, but it is still not as strong as I would like. I made some new hydraulic actuators. This will help out a lot. I made a new brace and glued it on in place of the original.

Intakes & Fin

We have an F-105 on display out at Fairchild AFB. From the pictures, you can see that the ramp on the inside of the intake is not like the kit. As you can see, there is very easy fix to this also. You can do the same with the 1/48 scale kit. All that I did was cut ramps into the right shape, and then add the nose section to it. I used some 10-thou plastic to make the nose part. I rolled it around so it would mate up with where I cut out the kit intake.

This will fit into the wings and give the right look. I then made the track for the intake ramp and you will glue it in place when you put the wings on the fuselage. I did make a box for the inside of the intake on the fuselage to give it a better look when you look in. This is a very easy fix. Now if you do not want to do all that work you can make some intake covers and put them on.

Next is the ventral fin. You can see from the pictures that the front part is only ¾” thick, then widens as it goes back to the tail hook. I cut off the front of the fin and made the new front part out of some plastic. I filed in the taper and glued it in and sanded it down.

Final Assembly & Painting

The rest of the kit went together very well. I did not use the movable parts. I do think that they could leave all this out. It would be a lot of work just to get it to work. I did not put the entire engine in the kit. You could just put the tail pipe in and that would enough. I did want to have the drag chute door open. However, if you do you will have to box it in. If not you will be able to see the engine. Another easy fix.

I made some new landing gear doors. The ones in the Kit just did not have any detail on them and needed a little work. I did some work on the canopy. I added some plastic around the inside of the canopy and the windscreen to make them thicker. I made a rear view mirror and then made an RTV mold and a resin copy for the second mirror. I added Bare Metal Foil on the mirrors. I also added some straps around the bomb bay doors. I made them out of some 10-thou plastic and covered them with Bare Metal Foil.

Time to paint. The only thing that I had trouble with was the size. You need to plan ahead so you know just where you are going to hold it and where you are going to start. I used Poly Scale paints and an oil wash.

Markings

I looked at pictures of the F 105 and came up with the Grim Reaper. I found a nice in air picture and some good color pictures of the Grim Reaper in Vietnam. Chris said that he would do up the artwork and have the decal made. We did the call numbers, the RM tail code, the name of the pilot, and the grim reaper. We made two sets just in case one did not work. With all the decals on and the flat coat on, I started the wash of oils. I use burnt umber and black. The last thing that you will want to do is put all the antennas on and the pedot tube on. If you were to have them on I know I would break them off when I was painting the kit. I then add the bombs and ECM pods and wing tanks.

Conclusion

Well at last it is done. Almost a year’s worth of work, but worth it. There are several things that Trumpeter could have done to make the kit less work, like not having all the moving parts and gimmicks. The new kits are getting better; I just hope the FW 200 will be better yet. If you want a Big F 105, and want to take your time to build it, yes it is worth it.

P.S. I hope you have a lot of room for it!