Monogram 1/48 F-84F

[keavdog]

Very nice touch on the auxiliary intakes. Quite convincing.

[Stikpusher]

Thanks. It’s a little thing, but a big improvement.

[Gary Brantley]

Gary, your Hog looks great and that is some super work that you put into its' cockpit! Wow! Looks like you added a PE seat harness there... Mine won't have one of those, just paint work.
In a few days...

Thanks my friend! She turned out pretty well, except for the canopy support arms. I could never get them to sit vertical enough. Yeah, the seat harness is Eduard's set for the F-104. I figured close enough. But, they've never looked right to me, they don't lay naturally on the seat. I learned a bit about PE with those. Somehow, I don't remember posting that F-84F here back when it was built, maybe 8 or 9 years now?

I'm looking forward to seeing yours because I've never seen a less than stellar model from you. I expect this "Hog" will be the same!

[Stikpusher]

Thanks fro the vote of confidence Gary. I'll do what I can with this one. I'm planning a NMF Hog, so it will be bright and colorful to some extent. Hopefully I can pull it off well enough with what I have here now.
Regarding the seat on yours, I know what you mean about the PE harness never draping quite properly. I do like the 3-D decals in that regards. There is not much PE out there for this kit, but if you were to do another, from what I've read, the F-84F used a seated harness that was like the seat used on early F-105s (go figure with being Republic products), so you could substitute that harness. BTW, not a bad idea to use a F-104 set.

[cbaltrin]

So you can put Vallejo on top of tamiya? I would have thought Vallejo would be similar to pollyscale, which you can't put on top of tamiya... or is it the other way around?

[Gary Brantley]

See? That's my main issue with acrylic paints; I get quickly confused by compatibility between various brands and what thinner to use with each brand? With good ol' enamel, all I needed was some mineral spirits (jes' paint thinner to us old painters! ) and I was set to go. I'm slowly learning a little about acrylics; Saturday I tried thinning some AK brand paint with distilled water and that was a bust. Obviously, not the way to go...

[Stikpusher]

So you can put Vallejo on top of tamiya? I would have thought Vallejo would be similar to pollyscale, which you can't put on top of tamiya... or is it the other way around?

Well I did with zero ill effects. On Friday afternoon I applied the base coat of Tamiya acrylic thinned with lacquer thinner, essentially as the primer coat, and let it dry overnight. Roughly 24 hours later I airbrushed on the base colors with Vallejo Model Air and it all worked great together. And offhand I don’t recall ever having any problems with using Polly Scale and Tamiya together. At least not beyond the tip dry I occasionally encounter with some Polly Scale paints. The only problems that I’ve ever had was Model Master Acrylic over Gunze Aqueous.

[speedgraflex]

Great photos, Carlos! I’m enjoying your thoughts on what paint formulas work best or play nicely with others. What is the old saying about “proper preparation?” I just ordered from Tamiya and from my local anime supplier Robot4Less I ordered my Mr Colors. I think both like each other pretty well. I’m doing NMF as well using Tamiya. I think for a used airframe, with a variegated finish that will work well. I’m not planning to use primer, though. What are your plans?

[Stikpusher]

Bruce, from what I've seen, the F-84Fs were fairly well maintained during their active duty USAF careers in the mid 50's, so I'm going for a brighter shinier NMF.... with some select panels in different finishes. I have some AK Real Color Aluminum that looks like it will do quite nicely for what I want. But I haven't decided yet if I'm going to base coat underneath with Gloss Black or not. But I've got some time to think before I reach that decision point...

[jeaton01]

I undercoat (when I do) with Model Master Olds Engine Blue. Makes sense to me as a lot of what we see in an aluminum surface is the reflection of the sky. Besides, some years ago I bought out all the paint that a hobby shop had that was going out of business so I have a lot of Olds Engine Blue (and Ford and Chevrolet colors).