F-105D Billy Sparks - Every Man A Tiger FINISHED

[TheMongoose]

There’s a new museum experience in Kentucky at the Aviation Heritage Park - the future home of the River Rat Museum. This is the commission I’m doing, Billy Sparks’ F-105D. “Sparky” flew 145 combat missions out of Takhli in 1965 with 23TFW, 563TFS and in ‘67 with 355TFW, 357TFS flying the Wild Weasel. He was a Top Gun grad, fighter weapons school instructor and chief of F-105 academics. He retired in ‘77 as a Lt. Col. with 4000 hours in the F-100, F-105, F-104, and the F-4. It’s been pretty cool reading his bio and going over his missions. There’s actually a few recordings of actual mission radio traffic that was something new to me. 
For the build I’m using the classic Trumpeter F-105D kit, upscaling the Microscale decal sheet for “Hazel” although I’ll be painting quite a bit of the graphics, GT Resin canopy rails, and then adding some personal touches from styrene. 
Lots done on these before and I’ve found quite a few builds to review, plus the notes from Larry Davis on Hazel specifically to help modify Trumpy’s bird to the real deal. Going to drop in with updates as I finish up subassemblies so if you’ve got any questions on how I got to the final product just let me know as I’ll have plenty of photos in the background that I can add.
For my 1st update I’ve got the cockpit completed. Been on the road for work but have been driving rather than flying. Which is great because I’ve thrown the box in the car and worked in the hotel every nite. Lots done so far but the rest is putting pieces together so I’ll show those as they are completed.







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worst part is that the IP is 3mm too tall for the cockpit! Impossible for our pilot to even see where he’s going, flying on instruments perpetually! Adjustment made and moving ahead at Mach 1.5

[jeaton01]

That's a lot of missions in the 105!

[cbaltrin]

Great looking cockpit. You're off to a good start!

[Stikpusher]

I do love the Thud! Looking forward to see what is gonna happen here. Is this gonna be a 1965 Thud in aluminum lacquer?

[TheMongoose]

Yep sure is!
That will be the test for me. Have not used Alclad before. I like the vallejo metals i have but also have had no success masking them. Definitely some practice time in my future.

[TheMongoose]

That's a lot of missions in the 105!

He was going for 200. Crazy guy. There are some definite theories out there about the guys who signed up again after getting to their 1st 100 when which was the end of duty number. Oh, and they didn’t count any missions that went over Laos/Thailand.

[Medicman71]

Nice work on the cockpit! Can't wait to see more.

[Stikpusher]

I do love the Thud! Looking forward to see what is gonna happen here. Is this gonna be a 1965 Thud in aluminum lacquer?

Yep sure is!
That will be the test for me. Have not used Alclad before. I like the vallejo metals i have but also have had no success masking them. Definitely some practice time in my future.

You’re gonna have some backdating to do. Lots of vents, lumps and bumps that were added later in the F-105s service life will need to be removed. No need to worry about a bare metal panel effect. The aircraft were in a lacquer finish by the time that they went to war due to corrosion and moisture seepage.
Can’t wait to see this one!

[TheMongoose]

So far the tail seems the hardest. For 3 days I’ve added a little black CA into the radar warning projections

I’ve seen another build where they cut these out and it leaves 2 huge holes that in this scale would be hard to fill without leaving telltale lines. So i hope this helps me hide the construction work then i have to “nip the tip” (say it like Mel Brooks would lol) and take 3mm off the tip of the tail.
Fortunately there aren’t any stiffener plates on top of the wings or tail stabilators to remove. 1 stiffener on either side of the rear fuselage where the cooling ducts were on later D’s. And then the spine needs about 2” of plastic removed and tapered on both ends. Edit, forgot have to fill all the gun vents on both sides, Ok, yeah that’s a lot

[Stikpusher]

Does the Trumpeter kits have the radar warning receivers on the wingtips or nose aft of the radome? The fuselage spine was for an emergency hydraulic system retrofitted, after it was learned that the primary and secondary hydraulic systems located next to each other was susceptible to battle damage from the same hit.