F-84F Thunderstreak (SH72395)
US Swept-Wing Thunder
1:72 Special Hobby
The F-48 Thunderjet was a post WWII early jet with straight wings that suffered with some difficult teething problems that took a long time to fix. The F-84F Thunderstreak was a swept-wing design that was intended to match the F-86's performance, and was so different from its origins that it was an almost totally new design, but stayed under the F-84 designation, probably for budgetary reasons. To maximise the performance gains, a British Armstrong Siddeley engine was chosen, which necessitated a deepening of the fuselage cross-section, resulting in the intake having an oval profile. The Sapphire was eventually to be license made as the Wright J65, but flight related problems delayed its introduction into service until 1954, at which time it still needed a long take-off roll, and was prone to unrecoverable spins.
In service it was similarly problematic, and because of the improvements that the F-86 had undergone, was ear-marked for phase-out almost as soon as it arrived with squadrons. The last airframe left the front line in 1958, and was replaced by the F-100 Super Sabre in active service, while in National Guard service it soldiered on until the early 70s. Many were sold-off to NATO countries, where they operated in large numbers for many years. The US fleet was briefly reactivated in 1961 due to tensions in Europe, but after being grounded the year after due to control-linkage problems, it was gone again from front line service by 1964, and wasn’t really missed other than by aviation buffs.
The Kit
This is a brand-new tooling from Special Hobby, and it shows. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box with a painting of the subject matter on the front, and inside are four sprues in grey styrene, plus a single clear sprue, decals in their own bag with protective paper, and an A5 instruction booklet that also has painting and decaling profiles on the rear pages. Detail is excellent, with fine engraved panel lines, a well-appointed co*ckpit and gear bays, plus a selection of weapons to individualise your model to suit your tastes, although many of them won’t be used for this boxing.
Construction begins with the nose gear bay, which has a V-shaped section of intake trunking joined over it, which is then sandwiched between the two intake walls and will fit into the front of the fuselage later. The pilot’s ejection seat is next, building it from base, sides and rear cushion, plus a head cushion that fixes above the seat back. The co*ckpit tub has the side consoles moulded-in, and has the instrument panel with dial decal, gunsight with clear lens inserted into the front, the control column plugged into the floor, and it is boxed off by the rear bulkhead. To close the fuselage, the long exhaust trunk is made from a mid-section that is in two halves, plus a tip section moulded as a cylinder, and the front support that has the rear face of the engine moulded into it, and two supports that will locate into L-shaped sockets in the starboard side of the fuselage along with a fairing at the very rear. The co*ckpit side walls are painted interior green before the halves are closed around the co*ckpit, intake/nose gear bay and exhaust, then has a spine insert and a choice of two fin parts that depend on which decal option you choose. Another insert completes the intake lip at the nose, and that includes a pair of gun troughs in the upper “ears” of the part. The ejection seat is slotted into the co*ckpit with a small additional bulkhead at its back, then the fuselage has a larger fairing added over the moulded-in strake under the tail for one decal option, filling a small depression in it as you work.
The wings are mid-mounted, so each one moulded separately as upper and lower halves that trap the main gear bay walls between them, painting the walls and the bay roof that is moulded into the upper wing an interior green shade during building. They attach to the fuselage by slots and tabs, while the elevators fit on pins near the base of the fin on a moulded-in sway-plate. A pop-up intake on the port wing upper can be depicted retracted by fitting the cover flush, or deployed by adding an additional part at the front of the recess, and putting the door at an angle over it. The canopy is multi-part, and starts with the fixed windscreen over the coaming, plus two fixed side panels on the spine. To model the canopy closed, a single part with a tab moulded into the rear is inserted to fill the remaining space, but to pose it open, a different canopy part is included, which is shown pivoted up and to the rear at a shallow angle to the horizontal due to the folded panel at the rear and two struts at the front, and if you’re not sure how it should look there just Google “F-84F Thunderstreak Canopy”. A small flat clear light inserts into the rear of the spine behind the co*ckpit.
The main gear struts have the lower captive door moulded-in, adding a smaller rectangular door to the upper part of the leg, fitting the one-part wheel to the bottom axle, inserting them into their bays at the outer edge, and fitting a smaller door at the inner edge. The nose gear strut has its retraction jack moulded-in, and the single wheel is secured in position by adding the other half of the yoke, plus a clear landing light on the front of the leg, and fixing another small part to the leg as it is installed in its bay. As mentioned earlier, most weapons on the sprue can be left there, using two-part pylons on the inner wing to carry two long fuel tanks with fins to the rear, and outer wing pylons that are also made from two parts. A table to the right of that instruction step details the weapons that can be mounted for each decal option, referring to them by part numbers rather than the weapon names.
Markings
There are three decal options on the sheet, and as was common at the time, they are all in natural metal finishes with bright markings to differentiate them. From the box you can build one of the following:
- FS-570 (52-6570), 20th Fighter Bomber Wing, flown by Commander Col. A G Salisbury, USAF in Europe, RAF Wethersfield, Essex, UK, 1956
- FS-664 (52-6664), 401st Fighter Bomber Wing, flown by Commander Col. Van Etten, Tactical Aur Command, USAF in Europe, UK, 1956
- FS-454 (52-6454), 511th Fighter Bomber Sqn., 405th Fighter Bomber Wing, Langley AFB, USAF, Louisiana, USA, 1955
The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain.
Conclusion
A brand-new kit of this type in 1:72 has got to be exciting for Cold War jet enthusiasts, and this first boxing with three bright decal options should sell well.
Highly recommended.
Review sample courtesy of
