Kinetic F-84F Thunderstreak 1:48

The tailplanes can also go on as well as inserting the speed brakes using a small blob of Blu-Tack to temporarily hold in place during spraying. The fit is excellent.

Wheel wells are masked ahead of priming…

There is no doubt in my mind that priming is pretty essential as it provides a strong key for the paint to follow and will minimise any risk of your paint getting pulled up when you remove masking tape and the like. Wipe the model down with some Tamiya Thinner on a clean tissue to remove and hand oil and grease. AK Grey Primer and Microfiller is superb and can be used as a base for any type of paint to follow.

The finish is super smooth and blemish-free and ready to paint straight over the top.

Time for a diversion…

While the primer dried I was looking at reference photos for Luftwaffe F-84Fs and came across one that had a pair of centreline drop tanks painted white. They also had some nice wear and tear and so I sprayed mine Tamiya flat White and weathered with an ordinary HB pencil and some weathering pastels. If you look closely, you may also see that I added some dents using a scalpel before the painting.

Main camo painting…

Hataka Red Line acrylic water-based paints are my go-to range these days, as you may have spotted from previous builds. I order direct usually and they do several sets for Luftwaffe aircraft from WW2 to the present day. Modern Luftwaffe paint Set Vol.1 is used here and has the shades needed for this build: Silver Grey undersides with Basalt Grey and Yellow Olive upper surfaces.

Under surfaces first and as you can hopefully see, the finish is superb. Just a few drops of their own thinner in a mixing cup along with the paint and you are good to go.

Leave overnight to harden fully and then the lower surfaces are masked out using Tamiya masking tape. Thin strips are great for the main demarcation lines.

Basalt Grey overall next (don’t forget the canopies – you don’t want them to look different when the green goes on – my mantra is: whatever you do to the airframe, you do to the canopies).

Read on…