Building a 1/72 Scale Thunderbirds History
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Background
A year after the creation of the Blue Angels in 1946, their friendly
rival for new pilot recruits – the “Army Air Forces” – ceased
to exist when the American military was reorganized pursuant to the National
Security Act of 1947. Its replacement, an entirely new service – the “United
States Air Force” – was created at the dawn of the “Cold
War” and understandably had other organizational priorities than
creating a flight demonstration team to compete with the Navy. Accordingly,
during this period various individual Air Force squadrons and Air National
Guard units formed their own teams such as “The Red Devils“ and “Sabre
Dancers.” However, in 1949 the Air Force got around to recognizing
the preexisting“Acrojets” team (not to be confused with the
1950’s group by the same name created by American airmen serving
in Germany) as its first official demonstration team, but it was quickly
disbanded the next year when the Korean War started. Also in 1949, American
airmen serving in Europe independently formed the “Skyblazers” which
the Air Force in 1951 recognized as its official European demonstration
team. In 1952, however, the Skyblazers lost a pilot in an accident and
the team was temporarily disbanded and its members transferred.
Finally, in May 1953 the Air Force ordered the creation of the “3600th
United States Air Force Air Demonstration Unit” at Luke Air Force Base
Arizona. The team would be headed by the base’s training commander Major
Dick Catledge who had been a P-38 fighter pilot during the Second World War.
Within a month, Catledge not only had formed the team but led it in its first
performance at a Phoenix Arizona air show. Like the Blue Angels, the Air Force
team flew first and was only named later. A contest had been held at Luke to
help name the team and though most suggested “Thunderbirds,” Catledge
rejected it because he said “everything was named Thunderbird in Phoenix.” Rather,
they wanted to be named the “Stardusters” -- suspiciously similar
to the then disbanded “Skyblazers” from whose ex-members Catledge
had recruited his two wingmen Captains Buck and Bill Pattillo (yes, they were
distantly related … they were identical twins). However, Catledge’s
superior overruled him and decreed that the team’s name was the “Thunderbirds.” This
name reflected not only the native culture of its Southwestern home base, but
the mission of the Air Force during the cold war -- in Native American folklore
the Thunderbird had the power to give victory to warriors over the forces of
evil.
The kits
 I
began this project with the assumption that all I had to do to assemble
the required models was purchase the old out of production Hasegawa “Thunderbird
History Set” and then up date it by buying that company’s T-Bird
F-16A kit. I was sadly and seriously mistaken. The Hasegawa set not only
lacked that team’s first two mounts, but its T-33 kit -- included
in the box as one of its five “Thunderbird” aircraft -- was
actually a model of the team’s first Public Relations officer’s
plane. Worse yet, the instructions for the Hasegawa set were all in JAPANESE
(the first clue should have been the smaller case print on the box that
did not show up in the eBay auction picture). Further, the decals for
these complex color schemes included only the appropriate insignia and
tail paint job -- NOT the colorful red, white and blue scalloped nose
and wing tips nor the belly bird-silhouette! What follows is a brief
description of my overall approach to building the team planes, a summary
history of the team’s use of each plane and the construction and
challenges -- some met better than others – each kit posed.
The Thunderbird Models
I decided I would depict each team commander’s plane as it looked
the first season each type of aircraft was flown by the Thunderbirds
(with one notable exception indicated below). This however required some
detailed research that my resources simply did not give -- such as: what
was the serial number of commander Catledge’s F-84G and that of
its second commander, Major Jack Broughton’s F-84F? Help came from
the gracious e-mails of the Thunderbird Alumni Association’s Historian,
Carol Knotts. Her answer, respectively: 51-16723 (but the aircraft tail
carried the number “116723“) and 56-771 (with a tail number “6771“).
Sure, it is this sort of thing that causes my high school age son to
call me a “nerd” … but he comes to me when its time to
check his history papers.
Republic F-84G Thunderjet: 1953-1955
 The
Republic F-84G “Thunderjet” was chosen as the T-Birds’ first
mount because it represented an Air Force front line combat aircraft
(it had more than proven its worth as an attack bomber in Korea), was
stable enough for formation flying, strong enough for aerobatic maneuvers
and reliable enough to be maintained “on the road” during the
team’s busy air show season. Being a product of its 1950’s
origins, Catledge wanted the planes painted in patriotic red, white and
blue and with stars and stripes. The team’s spare pilot, Captain
Bob McCormick, took home a small model of the F-84 and came back with
both a paint scheme and emblem that have been the team’s trademarks
for over 50 years. After their first season, the Thunderbirds started
a tradition of being their nation’s “Ambassadors in Blue” by
touring 12 Central and South American countries. Thereafter, their F-84G’s
-- and all subsequent T-Birds’ planes -- would carry a decal under
the cockpit showing the flags of the various countries in which they
had performed.
 Because
Hasegawa’s “Thunderbird History” set did not include
the F-84G, I chose Tamiya’s Thunderjet kit to fill this gap. Ironically,
the model of this oldest of Thunderbird planes was also the newest
engineered kit (i.e. 2001) of those I built as part of the project.
And a beautiful kit it is! Being already molded with a “plated” surface,
such allowed me to slowly ease into the early T-Bird “natural
bare metal” finish without having to figure out “Metalizer” --
I would have no choice later. (I did give it serious consideration
for the Thunderjet in order to get that “mixed metal“ look,
but the model already looked so good without it that I did not want
to risk messing it up: “If its not broke, don’t fix it.”)
The cockpit was wonderfully and refreshingly detailed for this scale
(even to the point of including rudder pedals), the recessed panels
allowed me to continue my slowly developing “post-shading” skills
and the model’s designers even gave the wheel wells attention.
As if aware of my plan of duplicating the appearance of each aircraft
when they first began being used  by the T-Birds, Tamiya kindly included
an option to make the F-84F either in the markings for the 1953 season
(before the first overseas tour and before adopting their famous Thunderbird
emblem) or the more familiar scheme first used in the 1954 season (with
the aforementioned flags and two emblem
decals that would come in handy for the models later). The decals also
included wonderfully detailed warning and instruction stencils for
the fuselage and undercarriage -- a nice surprise for 1/72 scale. In
short, the Tamiya kit turned out the best model of the project.
Republic F-84F Thunderstreak: 1955-1956
 By
the end of the 1940’s, the swept wing F-86 Sabre indicated it would
significantly outperform the Thunderjet as a fighter and spurred Republic
to redesign its F-84 attack jet as a swept wing fighter with a more powerful
engine. Though still considered a variant of the F-84, only 60% of the “Thunderstreak‘s” airframe
was actually similar to its straight winged predecessor. However, because
of production delays on the new “Thunderstreak,” Republic continued
to improve the straight wing Thunderjet as the interim “G” variant.
Hence, the more advanced swept wing “F” variant actually began
production after the more conventional straight wing “G.” However,
the initial poor handling characteristics of the F-84F precluded it from
being used by the Thunderbirds until the addition of a “flying wing” horizontal
stabilizer corrected the problem in 1954. It was only then that the T-Birds
transitioned to Thunderstreaks in 1955. That this fix worked is reflected
by the fact the F-84F continued to serve with NATO air forces even into
the mid-1960’s.
Again, Hasegawa’s “History” set also left out the Thunderbird’s
second mount. This time, however, deciding what kit would supply the missing
Thunderstreak was not as easy as it had been for the Thunderjet. Though several
companies have offered F-84F kits, none appear to even approach the quality
of Tamiya’s Thunderjet. The Testors kit does not even look like  a
Thunderstreak, the MPC product was primitive (now I was becoming a model
snob) [Editor's note: the Testors kit represents a YF-96 prototype and the
MPC kit is a reboxing of Airfix's] , so the choice was down to the Italeri
and Airfix offerings. Because Airfix had the more elaborate cockpit -- such
as it was -- it was my choice (I learned later that Revell apparently also
made a F-84F kit [1/54 scale - ed] and cannot opine as to it). Even then,
though the canopy of the Airfix kit may have been molded in two pieces to
allow for it to be build in an open position it did not include the unique
braces that allowed it to be so positioned. However some were easily scratch
built from spare sprue. The decals were also a problem -- I could not obtain
a set of the Micro Scale Decal Sheet for the T-Bird Thunderstreak (#72-150),
so I spent months waiting for an MPC kit to be offered on eBay because it
came with the appropriate decals. When my patience was finally rewarded,
BIG DISAPPOINTMENT -- the decals were so old they practically disintegrated
upon being removed from the paper and if able to be placed they did not fit
the Airfix kit (serious overlap and wrinkling). Somehow, with the aid of
the matching Model Master “Italian Red” paint
(#2719), the markings were made to work. Nevertheless, they did include decals
with the serial number and stencil for the Thunderbird Commander (Captain Jack
Broughton), while the unused Tamiya decals for the 1954 Thunderjet season provided
both the correct Thunderbird  emblem noting that “Luke” AFB was their
home field and at least 11 of the flags of countries they had visited in 1954
while still flying the “G“ variant (but not the 12th -- Guatemala
-- which
had come at the end of the 1954 season). Though this 1954 decal did at least
have the required number of twelve flags for the F-84F (the 12th being that
of the United States) -- and few will either know or care that one of the
flags is wrongly substituted for the 1956 season -- its still one of those
little inaccuracies that nags at me. Perhaps I’ll go back someday and try to
make my own 1/72 miniature flag decal by computer, but what did Guatemala’s
flag look like in 1954 anyway?
North American F-100C Super Sabre: 1956-1963 (later F-100D: 1964-1969)
 Unlike
the seemingly micromanaged Blue Angels, new aircraft procurement for
the Thunderbirds apparently occurred without the intrusion of upper management.
When then T-Bird Leader Major Jack Broughton was casually asked by his
commanding General in 1956 how things were going, Broughton told him
he was “just trying to paste things together and get home for maintenance” and
that “I want to go supersonic, and the sooner the better.” The
General on the spot offered him the new F-100C Super Sabre and, as Broughton
later recalled: “Done deal, 1956 style.” Because Luke AFB could
not support the “Huns“, the transition required moving the
team to Nellis AFB where the T-Birds remain stationed to this day. That
same year, with the Blue Angels in attendance at an air show, the Air
Force’s team was given permission by its National Air Show Coordinator
to fly the last exhibition there without “performance restrictions” since
the General already “had submitted his retirement papers.” Naturally,
the final routine of the show featured a T-Bird Super Sabre passing at
Mach 1.1 -- breaking all the windows in both the control tower and a
nearby shopping center but also making the crowd go wild (As a child
in the 1960’s I remember the thrill of hearing a boom and the house
suddenly rattle as I quickly realized that someone had just gone supersonic
over Seattle). While flying the the F-100, the team would not only add
the flags of still more Central and South American countries to their
fuselages after performing there, but also those of Canada, five Pacific
nations, several European and four Far Eastern countries (the Philippines,
Formosa, Japan and Korea). Though during these eight years there were
three fatal accidents in the F-100C, killing 1st Lieutenant Bob Rutte,
Captain Charles Salmon and Captain Dick Crane during separate practice
sessions (a fourth, Captain Jack Thurman, was killed years later after
the transition to the F-100D), the T-Birds during this period lost far
more personnel in two separate crashes of their C-123B transport support
planes.
When I finally got to building the first real T-Bird in the Hasegawa “History” set,
I was presented with several unexpected problems. The Hun kit’s cockpit
lacked a joy stick and the canopy was molded in the closed position necessitating
the hot X-acto treatment to allow for an open display.  Further,
the F-100 provided was the “D” variant that the T-Birds actually
began using in 1964 (see explanation below) -- rather than the “C” version
that was required by my plan to build each type of aircraft as it appeared
when it first flew with the Thunderbirds. In that the only apparent outward
difference between the “C” and “D” was that the latter
had a higher tail fin, a wider wing root area and a refueling probe, the deletion
of the probe was the best I could do to dress the F-100 “retro” [Actually,
as I'm sure Dan is aware by now, the C had a different fin fairing, no flaps,
and a different speed brake but was otherwise very similar to the D - ed] Next,
I now had to deal with “metalizing.” Foolishly in my first effort
I attempted different finishes on different panels so as to get that realistic “mixed
metal” look. Not a good idea for someone still learning how to airbrush
and mask -- after several failures I airbrushed it in an overall single shade
(Model Master Non-Buffing Aluminum Metalizer) and regrettably gave up on
a more complicated metal surface. Last, and most painful, were the decal
problems.
First, and most obvious, none of the included decals included the
famous red, white and blue scallops for the aircraft nose cones. This forced
me to buy a AMT/Ertl “Thunderbirds” set which contained models at least of
the team’s F-100D (paint scheme vintage 1966 of course), the F-4E and
F-16A. However, even then, the AMT/Ertl decals contained a hue of red that
was far darker than the proper “Thunderbird Red” actually used. Accordingly,
even with the new decals, the red had to be painted over with Model Master’s “Italian
Red” to match. The second decal problem was that up until 1958, the T-Bird’s
Super Sabres displayed large serial numbers on their fuselages and both of
the decal sets were for later versions. Luckily, decals for one of the later
T-Bird aircraft in the Hasegawa set included the team plane tail numbers which
they would subsequently add to their paint scheme -- and they coincidentally
were similar in size to the early F-100C fuselage serial numbers. I only needed
the number “1” when I built that other T-Bird plane (i.e. the commander’s
plane), while the serial number of the commander at the time of the T-Bird’s
first use of the Super Sabres did not include the number “1.” Accordingly,
I was able to cannibalize enough number decals to cobble together the right
serial numbers for the leader’s F-100C (though I had to paint the single
number that repeated -- don’t look too closely at one of the number “2”s
on my Super Sabre.) Finally, the flag decal continued to be a problem.
Before transitioning to the Super Sabre, the T-Birds had flown a show in
Puerto Rico and their first scheme for the F-100C would have included that
13th flag. The decals that came with the set, of course, instead included
dozens of flags because it was intended for the Super Sabre as it appeared
in the 1960s after numerous foreign deployments. Again to the  rescue, sort
of, came the Tamiya F-84G decals -- it had also included a second 12 flag
decal without the red edged box around
the flags that was used on the 1953 Thunderjet version that I had chosen
to build. Accordingly, my 1956 Thunderbird F-100 almost has the right number
of flags -- and one of the flags it does have is wrong for that year. Again,
not a glaring inaccuracy but a nagging one.
Republic F-105B Thunderchief: 1963-1964
 Intended
to be a successor to its F-84, the “Thud” was designed by Republic
as an all weather supersonic aircraft capable of carrying both nuclear
and conventional bombs. Starting in 1963, the Thunderchief conducted
more than 75 percent of the Air Force’s assault missions in Vietnam
and in doing so sustained horrific losses -- over 333 F-105‘s were
lost in the three years between 1965 and 1968 and its pilots had only
a 50 percent chance of surviving a tour without being shot down. Indeed,
after flying the Thunderchief in only its sixth show at McChord AFB in
Washington State, in May of 1964 one of the T-Birds Thuds during landing
maneuvers at the next site broke in two due to a manufacturing error
that caused a structural failure resulting in the fiery death of Captain
Gene Devlin. All Air Force F-105Bs were grounded and the spin doctors
used the incident to assert that the legendary Thuds were “not well
suited to the air demonstration mission.” However, the Thunderbird
Commander at the time -- Major Paul Kauttu -- has since argued that the
F-105 was not only “an outstanding fighter aircraft“ but also “an
excellent demonstration aircraft” and that “Gene Devlin’s
accident and the high combat casualty rate experienced by the Thud are
in no way characteristic of an inferior aircraft. One was an isolated
case of defective manufacturing, and the other was caused by poor strategy
from  Washington.” Nevertheless,
immediately in need of new aircraft, the Thunderbirds converted to the
F-100D Super Sabre which they continued to fly until 1969. This next
Thunderbird in the Hasegawa “History” set was even less detailed
than its F-100 kit. The Thunderchief cockpit consisted of a nondescript
seat molded onto the floor intended to be covered by a molded shut canopy.
Though I did my best to whittle the chair down to something that looked
sort of like the real ejection seat and made the canopy in the open position
for consistency sake, it was a far cry from the heady days of building
the Tamiya F-84G. Similarly, the air intakes were nowhere near flush
with the wing and because this was a big airplane-- indeed, it was the
most powerful and largest single engine fighter at the time -- the spindly
little styrene plastic landing gear could hardly support the model’s
weight. Further, Hasegawa’s failure to provide red, white and blue
nose scallops and belly bird motif decals could not be cured by the AMT/Ertl “Thunderbird” set
because it did not include an F-105 model, much less its decals. Accordingly,
with trepidation I masked and airbrushed the nose cone and then touched
it up with a hand held brush. For the bird outline on the undercarriage,
I had to paint it completely by hand (because I did not trust my slowly
evolving airbrush skills -- I was amazed I had been able to passably
air brush the far more  simple nose cone, I certainly wasn‘t ready
to paint an actual design!) To the extent decals were provided, they
were accurate and conveniently allowed for construction of that
flown by Commander Kauttu. At least this time there was no flag decal
problem because the kit’s set included one that was of the correct
period -- the T-Bird’s use of the Thunderchief did not last long
enough for it to be deployed overseas and therefore it never had the
opportunity to wear more than one set of flags.
McDonnell-Douglas F-4E Phantom: 1969-1973
 After
the 1969 death of a T-Bird pilot in an aging F-100 (see above) and then
a midair explosion that same year, the Air Force agreed to supply the
team with new F-4Es. This would be the only period in which both the
Thunderbirds and Blue Angels would fly the same aircraft. However, the
Phantoms supplied to the T-Birds had originally been painted camouflage
green and therefore had to be painted over in white with the traditional
team markings on top of that. Though this extra paint added an additional
800 pounds to an already 20 ton monster, it established a new paint scheme
which all later T-Bird aircraft would follow. The added weight had little
effect on flying the Phantom because, as Thunderbird Crew Chief Mike
Jacobssen would later write: “[N]o airplane in Thunderbird history
has the hair-on- the-chest brutality of the F-4. Like the B-52, the F-4
was not a machine called ’she.’” However, this power came
at a high cost -- in fuel. Accordingly, when the fuel crisis came in
the early 1970s and the Blue Angels simultaneously had several accidents
in their Phantoms, “[w]e were guilty by association” according
to T-Bird Maintenance Supervisor Roger Hemme. Because five T-38 Talons
could fly on the fuel used by a single F-4E -- and because for political
purposes the military had to show it was “conserving” energy
like everyone else -- the Thunderbirds transitioned to the Talon in 1974.
 The
Phantom was the Thunderbird of my childhood and the aircraft I most
associated with the Vietnam War that was ever present while I was growing
up. Hence, in building it I felt in some strange way that I was building
a part of my own vicarious history. It therefore deserved better than
the treatment the Hasegawa “History” set gave it -- again
little cockpit detail, a single molded shut canopy and incomplete decals.
However, in refreshing and satisfying contrast, the AMT/Ertl Thunderbird
set (which I originally had bought just to get the F-100 decals and
the F-16 model to complete the project) supplied a Phantom that was
wonderfully detailed and had a full set of appropriate T-Bird decals
-- even if they were the wrong shade of red. Indeed, the AMT/Ertl F-4E
cockpit not only had more realistic ejection seats, a canopy that was
intended to be positioned open, dual joy sticks and front and rear
instrument panels with good decals for the gauges, but even had some
(ever-so-difficult-to-paint) ejection handles for the seats! The choice
of which model to build this all important part of T-Bird (and my vicarious)
history was a no-brainer. With a little “Italian Red,” the
decals worked marvelously and saved me the anxiety of trying to hand
paint the impressive bird motif on the plane’s  underbelly.
Some of the Hasegawa decals -- i.e. for the team tail numbers -- did
come in handy however. Unlike the
set included with the AMT/Ertl kit, Hasegawa provided two styles of
numbers -- the early version and the later version -- but apparently
you have to read Japanese in order to know their significance. I figured
it out only when I noticed during my research that the first T-Bird
Phantom paint scheme had a different font style on the tail than the
later planes (I think they were later attempting -- here comes the
heretical speculation -- to duplicate the Blue Angels' team number
style).
Northrop T-38A Talon: 1974-1982
 The
T-38 Talon was the world’s first supersonic trainer and had been
an essential part of training Air Force pilots (and amazingly, still
is). Upon being selected as the replacement to the massive and thirsty
Phantom, team members realized the much sleeker and efficient trainer
was so small that the traditional T-Bird markings could not be seen by
the audience. Accordingly, the paint scheme had to be modified to a more
abstract design while still keeping some of the team’s trademark
features. Thereafter, it was in this plane that the Thunderbirds became
an official Bicentennial organization and were allowed to display the
official Bicentennial logo on their tails even though only military installations
supposedly qualified for such designation. (My research reveals no official
comment from the Blue Angels, though one can imagine many unofficial
comments were made). Likewise, it was in this plane that on July 4, 1976
the T-Birds were awarded the unprecedented privilege of flying over the
Capitol dome during the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Air
and Space Museum in Washington D.C. However, for some it also is this
plane that evokes more emotion than any other plane flown by the Thunderbirds
because it was involved in an unprecedented tragedy that almost resulted
in the disbandment of the team. Though Captain Charlie Carter had been
killed in a 1977 accident while flying a T-Bird Talon, years later several
accidents occurred over a short period of only eight months. In May of
1981 Captain Nick Hauk was killed when his T-38 stalled and crashed,
while four months later in September of 1981 Lieutenant Colonel D.L Smith
was killed when his plane stalled after ingesting seagulls and his ejection
seat’s parachute failed to properly deploy. Then, another four months
later -- after the remainder of the 1981 season had been canceled --
in January of 1982 during training the entire four plane diamond formation
flew their T-38’s straight into a Nevada field killing Major Norm
Lowry, Captain Pete Peterson, Captain Willie Mays and Captain Mark Melancon.
Though there were calls for the team (and perhaps all flight demonstration
teams) to disband, both the executive and legislative branches of the
United States government staunchly supported the continuation of the
T-Birds After a year of rebuilding, the Air Force Thunderbirds flew its
next show in March of 1983 in the new F-16 Fighting Falcon.
My reading revealed that the T-Bird engineers certainly had made significant
modifications to their Talons before they flew them. However, I have found
nothing to indicate those modifications included the shape of the aircraft’s
wing. Though the wing of the Thunderbird’s actual T-38 intersects the
air intake of the engine in a straight line from the wing tip, for some reason
the wing of Hasegawa’s kit adds an intermediate angle just before it joins
with the fuselage. Similarly, though the Thunderbird Talon had a prominent
aerial on the top of the fuselage just behind the canopy, Hasegawa’s model
did not. These details were not at first obvious because the kindly Hasegawa
illustrators drew the plane on the box cover and in the directions as it should
have looked -- not as the model actually would be constructed. Further, unaware
of any other T-Bird decals for the T-38, I was again forced to paint on the
nose scallops and belly motif. This time, at least, the abstract design required
by the Talon’s size included more straight lines and allowed me to use
my primitive airbrushing skills to mask and paint the majority of it (and then
hand paint  by brush from the point where the more complex curvatures began).
However, the Hasegawa decals did provide the option of displaying the T-Bird’s
coup of having the Bicentennial
logo on their vertical stabilizers. This historic privilege (and thumb in
the eye of their rivals the Blue Angels) was just too good to pass up, and
required that I abandon -- for the Talon at least -- my theme of building
the planes of the commanders at the time the particular plane was first flown
by the team.
General Dynamics F-16A Falcon: 1983 - present (now the Lockheed-Martin
F-16C)
 When
the Thunderbirds selected their new airplane for the 1983 season, the
world wide energy crisis was no longer in the forefront and the team
could return to its tradition of flying a premier fighter aircraft --
this time General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon. In 1992, the team was
the last Air Force squadron to fly the Falcon’s “A” variant
and therefore transitioned to the more advanced “C” version
now built -- as a result of consolidation in the intervening years of
the military industrial complex -- by Lockheed Martin. Though the “C” is
outwardly similar to the “A,” it has upgraded avionics and
radar systems. In the Gulf War it apparently performed well in actual
air-to-air combat and is the only fighter to win both of the Air Force’s
premier competitions - Gunsmoke, air-to-ground and William Tell, air
superiority.  Indeed,
at least 24 other nations have also chosen to fly the Falcon, and --
having been flown by the Thunderbirds for over 20 years -- it is the
longest serving T-Bird mount in its history.
I had originally separately purchased a Hasegawa Thunderbird F-16A
kit to complete the project, but again it did not match up well against
the AMT/Ertl model. The later again had a more detailed cockpit with
joy stick, extensive instrument decals, a more accurate ejection seat
and a clear piece for the “heads
up“ display. Accordingly, again, the AMT/Ertl kit was used instead. However,
neither kit allowed the canopy to be built in an open position and I did not
feel the hot X-acto treatment would work to duplicate the way in which the
F-16 looked with an open canopy. Accordingly, it was built as engineered by
AMT/Ertl -- closed. The Hasegawa kit this time however did at least provide
the appropriate decals -- including the nose  scallops
(in the appropriate shade of red) and the bird motif for the underside of
the aircraft. Further, unlike the AMT/Ertl kit, the Hasegawa model included
decals for the first F-16A Commander -- Major Jim Latham (the AMT/Ertl set
includes the last F-16A Commander -- Lieutenant Colonel Chuck Simpson).
Conclusion
From having repeatedly lost eBay auctions for Thunderbird models when
the price just got too high, I know there are a lot of modelers who are
planning the same project as I (and if they‘re reading this review:
you may have won, but I got a better price … eventually .. maybe.)
Though I too have a closet where model kits go to die, my recommendation
is not to let this project languish -- it should be built. It was a blast
to research and build because it not only stretched back into the distant
past, but included my own remembered past as well as extended to the
present today. (Indeed, in truth, it will never be finished -- when the
team transitions to a new plane in the future such as perhaps the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter, I’ll be one of the first in line to buy the
model and to order a larger display case for my set!) Though I had usually
build only World War I and II subjects, this effort opened up the joys
of building jets -- especially the earliest versions. Though building
the Hasegawa set had many frustrations, especially when unfavorably compared
to the AMT/Ertl set, it does provide some planes not easily found separately.
On the other hand, the AMT/Ertl set was wonderful -- but it was limited
to just three planes and its decals were the wrong shade. Without a doubt,
the Tamiya kit was the best build of the project -- if that company could
be persuaded to offer a complete T-Bird set, future modelers could avoid
the above frustration while still enjoying the above thrills.
References
Books:
Bob Gore & Carol Knotts, We Rode the Thunder: The Autobiography
of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds (2003)
Larry Davis & David Menard, F-84 Thunderjet In Action (1983)
Bert Kinzey, F-84 Thunderjet in Detail (1999)
United States Air Force Thunderbirds (1987)
Ray Wagner, “The North American F-100 Super Sabre,” Aircraft
in Profile Vol. 2, No. 30 (1965)
Ray Wagner, “The Republic F-84F Thunderstreak,” Aircraft in
Profile Vol. 4, No. 95 (1968)
Theodore W. van Geffen, Jr, “Republic F-105 Thunderchief,” Aircraft
in Profile Vol. 11, No. 226 (1972)
John Darrell Sherwood, Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience
(1999)
Computer Discs:
21st Century Airplane Magic, Flight Demonstration Squadrons: Navy Blue
Angels, Air Force Thunderbirds
Web sites:
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