ghodges Posted April 2, 2023 Report Share Posted April 2, 2023 Just finished the HobbyBoss 1/32 F-84G. This is a nice kit that went together very well over all. I built it OOTB, and the only real problem was closing up the top nose gun panel. The kit comes with a complete gun bay that's obviously meant to be displayed open. It takes some putty and elbow grease to close it up. Otherwise, all the other panels and the kit parts fit quite well. Though this is the F-84G, the parts layout (separate side nose fuselage intake vents and separate wingtips) suggests that HB could easily release an earlier F-84E with a few different parts and a non-braced earlier canopy. The kit has metal gear, but I used the plastic gear, which are slightly better detailed. The kit rubber tires are very good and fit their hubs well, unlike the 1/32 HB B-24D. The kit has both the early and later style ejection seats, and markings for the Korean War or a later French Air Force Thunderjet. The kit also has a very nice selection of drop tanks, bombs, and missiles. I chose to simply hang a pair of 500lb bombs underneath. Another nice touch is HB supplies 3 nose weights that are cleverly designed to fit under parts inside the nose gun bay. I added a couple of extra weights since I closed that area up. No masks are supplied, which would have been a great help in masking off the canopy, and especially the round pressure seal on it. The model was primed with Tamiya rattle can gloss black. The overall NMF was AK Extreme Metallics Aluminum, with Alclad Airframe Aluminum used for the varying panels. The kit decals work very well, and tighten down into the subdued surface detailing nicely. They release from the paper pretty quickly (30secs or so), and seem to work best when applied as soon as they're loose. They seem to get a bit more fragile the longer they sit wet and not applied. The multicolor striping did need some touch up with paint on the edges, as they fit well, but not perfectly. Overall, this was a very pleasurable build experience that gives me the most used fighter bomber of the Korean War. Comments, critiques, and questions welcome as always! Gil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bell Posted April 3, 2023 Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 Your NMF always amaze me. Didn't you do an F-84 in 1/48 a while (long while) back? Would be interesting to see a comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdedig Posted April 3, 2023 Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 Very Nice work Gil...Natural Metal was great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted April 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2023 Thanks for the kind words! Yes, I've built several straight winged 1/48 F-84s, including a Tamiya F-84G in those same exact markings! I have a soft spot for nifty-50 subjects, and especially the older straight wing jets! 1/48 Hawk kit 1/48 Battle Axe kit 1/48 Tamiya kit 1/48 Promodeler/Revell kit and the 1/32 ID vacuform F-84G I built back in the 80s..... Gil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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