Pavla 1/72 F-105 Thunderchief Sets

With the recent release of the Trumpeter 1/72 F-105 kit, it was not long before we would get aftermarket sets designed for it. Pavla has three sets fresh off the workroom floor: an interior set, an exterior set, and a drop tank set.

Starting with the simplest first, the drop tank set is just that: drop tanks. This set, U72-87, provides two 450-gallon drop tanks as carried under the wings. These have two of the fins molded separately, with one fin molded in place. The surface detailing on the tanks is quite nice, and the fins are very thin (and fragile: be wary of snapping them off!).

The exterior set, E72-88, provides a few small details that offer more detail than the kit parts. Most noticeable are the rear fuselage scoops, which have excellent intake detailing. Also included are all three wheels, all with excellent hub detailing, and new main gear doors, with nice interior and exterior detailing.

For the cockpit set, C72066, this should be a fairly simple set to use, with a one-piece tub replacing the kit piece. A new instrument panel is included, as is a new hood. Together these look quite nice and will really help busy things up under the windscreen. A new ejection seat and detailed control column round out the interior. Aside from a bit of cleanup of the parts, the majority of time on this set will be spent painting it up, so be ready with your references and small paint brushes.

If you have a Trumpeter F-105 and are looking to add some extra zip to it, any one of these sets would do nicely. Similarly, if you have one of the old Monogram or Revell 1/72 F-105 kits lying around, you could probably adapt these to fit that kit as well. My thanks to Pavla for the review samples.