Trumpeter 1:32 F-105G Wild Weasel Build Thread

Yes... I've looked at some images and it does appear to be bottom color (light gray). Made a milestone today... got the front fuze halves joined. Before getting to that I added just one wiring detail to the nose wheel. The brake lines are already molded onto the G-force brass nose gear casting so I left it alone. If it was styrene, I might have scraped it off and added 3D detailing. But I had no desire to remove any brass. The line is the wiring harness going to the landing lights and Glide Slope Antenna. I just put on one wine bottle foil clamp to stabilize the wire.



Before gluing anything together, I needed to final fit the cockpit to the right fuze half. There was a large gap behind the bullet proof bulkhead behind the pilot's position, and, more importantly, there was a huge gap just in front of the cockpit.



You can see that the cockpit side panels are in close contact with the fuselage, so the cockpit is actually located correctly. But when sighting down inside the nose I saw that the rectangular lugs were impinging on the curved fuze sides as a result of the raising the cockpit height 1/8". I took it apart (held with masking tape and rubber bands), and flled the tops off the cockpit tub's lugs to chamfer them and have then nestle closer to the fuselage. This resulted in closing the gap about half the distance.



This gap was manageable and, furthermore, didn't put the windscreen too out of position. With this problem sort of solved, I glued the tub to the right side holding it in the right position with masking tape. I then added the nose gear. The tub was held with medium CA and the nose well with Testor's tube cement.



The tricky part was to get the tub lugs on this exposed side to drop on top of the sockets in the left fuze half. I practiced doing this before any gluing was attempted and before the nose wheel was in place so I could visualize what was going on. I put thick CA on the tub and plastic cement on the wheel well and put the two halves together. When possible I put liquid cement on the inside of the joint, but otherwise, I used a fine brush to apply it on the junction from the outside. Had a couple of drips that are okay as long as you don't touch them befor they cure.

I used thick CA and then Bondic to attempt close up the front gap.



During filing the plug came out, so I went to plan B, fill with styrene. Notice on the image below that I opened the sheet metal holes in the gun compartment. There will be some wiring coming out of those too.



After dinner I went down and trimmed the filler piece. Still needs some work but it will be fine.



That's where I ended today. I want it to dry completely before doing any other filling and trimming. It is one BIG airplane.



I also did some photo research and found that the yellow gasketing on F-105G cockpits appears to be hit or miss. This pic shows basically no gasketing.



And on this one, it shows gasketing on the windscreen and front cockpit, but none on the rear.



So whether I put gasketing on all, one or none of the glazing is my choice and I guess based upon the actual plane that I'm modeling. I have the yellow tape to do the job and will start with the windscreen. If it works okay, then I decide on whether to do the rest.

Good work. Shame about the gap but looks like you tamed it.

Looking good though.

Good work so far!

Yes! The gap is timed. It does make the windscreen a tiny bit narrow with some edge of fuze sticking out beyond. I may end up treating that with filler. We'll see.

Should have had a longer session today, but it ended at 3:30 so I could pick up grandson at a friend's. I got all the fuze seams sanded and then added filler to only a few places. I'll have to re-scribe some panel lines what roll over the seam curves. I also glued on the tail cone using tube cement to fill any gaps.



I then assembled and added the tailhook. It just get's painted bottom color. There's a hydraulic piston buried underneath that will hard to chrome (and hard to see).



Lastly, while the filler was drying, I started on the main wings with installing the speed breaks. Since they were separate parts, Trumpeter suggested you can have them extended 15° or flat. I decided that the plane had just landed the speed breaks would be up and besides, it's more interesting. I then assembled the flaps which also can be actually movable. It has that silly metal bar Trumpeter hinging which I find dubious at best. The left flap had its edges filed smoothe, the right one will be finished next session.



Next session, I'll finish up the fuze surfacing and get back on the wings.

Great work so far!

Thanks.!
Today started with sanding and finishing all the fuze filled gaps and then using the razor saw and a 0.021" drill to re-engrave the panel lines obliterated from the filling/sanding and open up the rivets. I then built the leading edge slats, and in typical Trumpeter fashion, they were a pain the butt to build.

Trumpeter uses some thin PE hinge bodies and steel rods to form the moving flight surface side of the connection. I find it impossible to build these without first gluing the rods in place on one half of the surface using medium CA and accelerator. I then joined the surfaces together. Because of the hollow shape of the slats, it was annoying to hold the leading edge together and get the glue to hold. After I took these pictures I cleaned up the leading edge so the seam was no longer visible.





The alierons also had the steel pin and PE hinge, but in this case, it did not want to engage with the wing proper so I eventually glued both in place in the neutral position. I placed the slats in place in their slots on the wing and fastened the hinge PE to the wing with CA. The flaps' axle just sits in an elongated track on the wing extensions waiting for the upper wing to be glued in. I used tube cement to hold the wings together, and then went around with solvent cement applied from both the inside—where I could access it with a long brush—or carefully on the outside and let the cement wick into the joint.

After it cured a bit, I started to sand the edges and add some filler where needed (not much), and then added some CA into the big joint on the leading edge near the intake scoop, cured with accelerator and then sanded again.

The tabs that hold the flap hinges needed some extra care since they were a bit springy. I used solvent cement held with some tweezers and even used some med CA to keep it together. If this opened the flap would fall off the airplane.



There's some interior green touchup needed in the wheel wells. The leading edge slats are movable (sort of), but the flaps work very well. Considering the size and weight of this plane, those were really small wings!

The last thing I did was build the elevons. These are just two-piece affairs that went together without complications. They will snap into their respective holes in the fuze, but I'll do that after the main wings go one... which, BTW: is the next step.



But, work will have to stop until Friday. A very old, and dear friend passed away suddenly on Sunday morning. They live in Portland, OR, having moved there (like us) to be near grandkids. It's an all day trip to go from Louisville to Portland, so it travel tomorrow, funeral Wednesday, and travel Thursday.

Sorry for your loss.

Sorry to hear of your loss. I know it's tuff to loose a good friend.

I'm very sorry for your loss. Condolences to the family there.

Looks great so far!

Thank you for your kind thoughts. It is greatly appreciated.

Going from Louisville KY to Portland OR would be about 3 hours if I had a private jet. By Southwest Airlines, it's most of a day. We went through Phoenix, AZ on both outbound and return. The outbound trip was very nice especially since we arrived at gate D-2 in Phoenix and departed to Portland at gate D-1. Unfortunately, coming home today wasn't as hassle free. The plane was a hour late getting out of Portland. It had experienced a bird strike when arriving that night before, and of course they didn't decide to inspect it until we were fully loaded and waiting for takeoff. That got us on the ground in Phoenix (not at the gate) at 10:15 when the plane was boarding at 10:05 and of course, this time we land at D-2 and are departing to L'ville at C-13 which is almost a half mile away. I was dragging the roll around stack so my wife motored ahead and told them that I was pulling up the rear. I was the second to last person on the flight. There was one other flyer on that Portland flight that made the same connection. I asked the attendant if there was any overhead space for the bags and they said yes. I got the bags into the overhead at row 20, but the only seat open was a center seat in row 8. So it was an exercise in logistics management to get back to that row before the aisles filled with people blocking my path. We were exhausted.

Tomorrow, I'll be back building the Thud.

Back to work...

First up was finishing up the main wheel wells in preparation for joining wings to fuze. Instead of using the AK "real metal" cream on a finger tip contained in a surgical glove, becuase of the angle, I just brush painted chrome silver, black and white to pick out the details. I then added some Tamiya Black Panel Accent to dirty up the wells a bit.



I airbrushed Vallejo Air White the insides of the air intakes on the wings themselves and the triangular trunks that lead into the plane on the fuze.

I joined the wings using tube cement and held them them tight with some strategically place clamps and rubber band.



While the wings were curing, I started building the vertical tail. It too had the last Trumpeter-style PE hinge scheme which went together easily with this part. I then CA'd the PE hinge into the box on the one side of the vertical stab and applied tube cement to the edges to bind the two halves together caputuring the hinge rod in the process. Just then I decided to check "How does the tail get attached to the fuze?" The have to be assembled ON THE FUZE! There's a rectangular open tab on the fuze that is caputured by a corresponding tab on one half of the vertical stab AND THEN YOU GLUE ON THE OTHER HALF. I quickly was able to rip the stab apart and then reassemble it with the fuze attached. It was a close call.

Here's the instruction showing the "sandwich" with the fuselage tab.



Because I never encountered a tail join like this, I had just proceeded gluing it up as I would normally do. Luckily, I looked at that rectangular tab and wondered how it went together and then reviewed the instructions with more concentration.

Here's all the flight surfaces in place.



Some of the joints needed a bit of filler, particularly the vertical stab to fuze joint and a but to tighten up the main wing joints.





While I was sanding the nubs on the vertical stab... I was going to sand them when the stab was glued together, but now that meant sanding them when it was attached to the plane...I broke off one of the elevons. I was dubious about the plastic pins that snapped into the fuze being strong enough to handle and I was proven right.



Because of the way the pin snapped in, the stub was not removabale. I decided to drill it all out to 1/8" and use a piece of brass tubing for the new joint.



This was CA'd into both peices. The joint won't rotate, BUT IT WON'T COME APART EITHER.

The last thing I did was glue the instrument panel cowl in place. The entire forward instrument area will be painted flat black on Monday. The gapping on the left side is more residual difficulty presented by the Eduard "lifting the cockpit" issue. I will fill it with some styrene before painting it. There's a bunch of Eduard PE instruments that go onto the back edge of the instrument cowl.



I had built a Revell model of this plane back in the late 50s, early 60s and never realized just how big it was. The F-105G is 60 feet long!

Looking good

Nice work. It is big for sure. Saw one up close at the FHCAM collection.

Lovely work so far!

Glad you like it!

Today got the cowl front finished with the adding of the HUD, masking and then airbrushing flat black. I'll go back and add some more Eduard stuff that sits on the top of the instrument panel cowl and the lensing for the HUD. They're delicate so they'll wait until I can put them on without wrecking them later. I used a piece of styrene to close that gap on the right side and then used CA and filler to finish it off.



I put the nose cone in place with tube cement. I put in the internal framing, but didn't include any of the radar since the cone is staying closed.



I also glued on the resin jet engine cooling intakes that flank the fuze sides. These scoops were added to the F-105 series later in its life to correct an engine overheating problems. The kit's scoops were two-part affairs with a seam that the resin parts corrected.

I finished all the sanding of the filling so the ship is almost ready for paint...

The kit's wheels hinted at the holes, but they weren't open, so I drilled them all out starting with with a centering mark with the point from a dividers, then a small starter drill and finally a drill size that matched the wheels' openings. I added some Tamiya Panel Accent to give them more depth.

I made the oleo slides with Bare Metal Foil. I still have to add brake lines and electrical wiring that goes to the landing lights that sit on the struts which I have to add also.



So here's the plane sitting on all three wheels. The mains are not glued in. I will have to use epoxy (J-B Weld) since the mains are brass and will be sitting in a styrene socket. I was afraid that the plane may have needed weight in the nose, but by leaving out more than 1/2 the engine and having brass landing gear up front, the plane balanced well forward and no weight was needed.



I have a load of details to add to the fuze before getting ready to paint. So we're moving right along. That is one big-ass plane. It was almost the size of B-17 with 10 less crew and 3X the ordinance.

Beauty. I had the 1:48 kit and it was huge. This must be huger even still.