F-105 Thud - Hobby Model - Part identification

[PICARDIE]

Originally Posted by CMDRTED

Dear Lord it was Donald J Kutyna! Sorry memory is not serving as once before!

Definitely you are right. This plane was Maj. Don Kutyna's one and it was nicknamed "The Polish Glider" as shown on the attached pic (Website source). Actually, till your comments on this specific F-105, I thought that Don Kutyna was a fictious pilot name. Thanks for the clarification.

[PICARDIE]

Originally Posted by CMDRTED

Dear Lord it was Donald J Kutyna! Sorry memory is not serving as once before!

Definitely you are right. This plane is Maj. Don Kutyna's one and it was nicknamed "The Polish Glider" as shown on the attached pic (Website source). Actually, till your comments on this specific F-105 and its pilot, I thought that Don Kutyna was a fictious pilot name. Thanx for the clarification.

[Isaac]

I think the actual plane is now in the Polish aviation museum in Krakow

Isaac

[Getter 1]

Here's a thread where I was building a B&W re-draw of the HObby Model F-105,

F-105 Re-draw

G1

[Isaac]

Jim

The reality is that this is a very old model design. Hobby Model did not attempt to correct it. The colors are off not only due to the printing issue, but are part of the original design.

If Hobby Model was smart, they would have repainted the same kit before it was reprinted, and give it a new kit number.

I think that today, both the CAD and the rendering software as well as printing is so advanced, that it does not take that much effort to make the kit look better.

Isaac

[PICARDIE]

Hi all,

First, a few reflections on our hobby. Fortunately there is no concept of profitability in our business. It's just a good way to waste time and having fun. I'm not a beginner in this hobby (a dozen models built to date) and I think I have a little know-how, but it took me about 150 hours or so to complete this F-105 (Old H.M. kit).
The build of this model was a nightmare. I intended to create a thread to report the progress of the build, but I had to give up quickly considering the many backward steps I had to do. Putting together the sheets I had to reprint, I think I could have built four or five F-105 models. Nothing fits well. When the belly seals are aligned then the camouflage patterns and rivets lines between sections do not match. When the lines of rivets are aligned, then seals and camouflage patterns do not match and so on. For an acceptable result, you must make compromises at every steps. Fortunately, the weathering and worn look help in concealing more or less these defects. Same kind of misalignment with the spars of the wings and of the stabilizer : the holes for the spars in the fuselage are not at the right places. As a consequence the wings do not connect where they should with the fuselage and the stabilizer is not at the right angle (90°) with the rudder. The kind of problem you discover too late and you can only fix reprinting new parts and restarting from zero. Moreover it was necessary to correct technical details that would have made the real aircraft look ridiculous: main landing gears mounted on cubes !?, fulcrums of the afterburner nozzle petals mounted on the hatch of the drag chute. Can someone explain how this device can work !!? Without mentioning color errors on some parts (Sand color fairing on green camo patch) . Ultimately, the nose gear and main gear were completely reworked using parts from models of planes of the same 60's era.

I could carry on listing the problems but enough is enough.

Once completed this model is hot stuff as the real F-105 was. I am a lover of the Century's series planes and I wanted have it in my private museum. This is why I did not give up and got to the end of the build. But gosh, it was a long way to go.

A few other comments to fuel further discussions:

I am also a fanatic of Spitfire, P-51, FW-190, Me-109 etc. There are many many models of them with different dressings. Similarly, I think it would be nice having also more models available for the Korea War era and for the Vietnam War era. For instance there were many F-86 Sabre displaying different nose arts. From a specific F-86 model, it would be nice having different repainted schemes.

In the course of my searches to find technical pieces of information on the F-105, I read that nine modified F-105 (No armament and with smoke oil dispensers) had been operated by the Thunderbirds aerobatic team. They flew only six shows in 1964 when one of the F-105 broke apart during flight (fuselage structural failure). You, US guys, are absolutely incredible … nine F-105 looping the loop ...what a show ! And what a noise of “Thunderbirds”, of course! Let me raise now a silly question : never thought of having the Thunderbirds flying nine B-52 or B-2 ?

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers.

[elliott]

Well I'd say that you have a most excellent model, 'specially in light of the problems you faced and overcame. Hope you are proud of the work you have done because you should be.

[chaparral2d]

I second Elliot's comments. This is a beautiful piece of work!

Dave

[YOAVHOZMI]

very beautiful work on the model, the outcome looks great.

YOAV