I finished applying the white decals to the canopy. The circular decal is one of the kit decals for the ADF loop antenna maintenance access panel. The other white strips were my custom decals applied and then cut to length. They represent the fiberglass reinforcing straps that were applied to the canopy. The canopy itself had no framing.
I next installed the nose gear doors with a couple of drops of Plasti-Zap CA glue. That completed almost all the assembly of the model. The only thing left is the landing gear which I’ll attach after I put on all the decals.
To help the remaining decals adhere to the painted surface I sprayed a light clear coat over all areas of the model where decals were to be applied. The stars and bars decal went on nicely and with the Solvaset application it snuggled down into the wing details well.
I was a bit apprehensive about the USAF decal on the right wing. But it went on just fine. Maybe the application of some clear gloss helped. It shows no signs of edge curling like the one on the underside was doing.
I then moved on to the rest of the fuselage. Here is a photo showing the left side of the plane where the pilot name is on the canopy. The early 1953 planes had “UNITED STATES AIR FORCE” on the side in a stencil font. Later they changed to a solid font. You can also see the red stripe at the turbine blade point.
With all the decals applied and dried, I sprayed an overall clear coat to protect the decals. When that had dried I brushed on some Vallejo Matt Varnish to the main gear wells and the anti-glare panel on the nose, since they got hit with some of the clear coat. When that dried I attached the gear and the model was complete.
Here is a gallery of shots of the completed model.
The Tamiya kit was mostly a pleasure to work with. There weren’t really any problems with the parts fit, just some confusion with the instructions. If I were doing it again, I would definitely strip all the pre-applied paint. Otherwise I’m happy with the result. When I do another aircraft model I’ll probably do the Thunderbirds F-84F plane. I’ve looked over the kit I have in my stash and I’m sure the fit will not be as good as this one was. The F-84F is an MPC repop of the old Airfix F-84F.
But that will be in the future. My next build will be back in the space exploration theme. I have an idea of what it might be. Look for the new build to come soon. Thanks for following along on this one.
Luhman-ations 