Italeri | No. 2703 | 1:48 | Republic F-84F Thunderstreak "i Diavoli Rossi" (WIP)

Bravo! Those Italians know a thing or two about flair and style... Now that IS a display team livery! 

It's also a nice kit. And for once it's not all raised panel lines - which is what I normally have to contend with. 

Making a start on cockpit and adding weight. I do this with fishing weights and then normal household (inert) filler. This kit even has a thoughtfully provided area to do this! 

I (sort of) followed the original colour instructions. 😉 

Cockpit done. Colour scheme is broadly correct. I haven't really weathered it or dry brushed etc. I want this one to be super clean. 

Kit gives the option to remove the nose panel to showcase gun and inner bay. So have painted first. 

Now shown mounted within main body... 

It went together pretty well. This is a bit of overkill really. I removed all clamping more or less as soon as glue had adhered. 

Some post glue fettling with seams and a bit of pretty simple re-scribing. I need to get the levels back down centre. I usually do this with several higher build primer passes and in-between coat rubdowns if the difference isn't too much. 

First pass all over with Vallejo gloss primer. Just to get my eye in and see where more work is needed. 

I'm trying hard to get a nice flat finish so that both the metal and decal finishes look clean. I can't hide behind a load of post build weathering on this one! 

Not bad. 

I'm still fiddling with the central seam. Filling, sanding and re-scribing. 

Touch more Vallejo filler and I'm gonna leave it alone. 

Happy with the top. Paint used is Vallejo gloss black primer. 

Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium being used... 

I'm trying to get a nice flat finish as there's a LOT of decals to place! Removing any high spots of dust/crud with careful use of a blade and a minor wet and dry before retouching paint. Blissfully this kit has recessed panel lines, so that makes this process much easier than the normal kits I build with raised. 

So I left the Vallejo Metal colour a LONG time to fully cure before attempting any masking. All seemed to progress ok on this first pass of red along the spine. Phew! 

There are decals for the top strip, but decided to paint. 

Masking... 

Masking and painting the red... 

Touch-ups 

Going to let this cure for a LONG time... 

Kit comes with a pretty cool decal 'cheat' sheet - though they are pretty thick. 

After a LOT of water + softening solution! The good thing is because they're so thick, they hold up well to softening will eventually conform. This kit has excellent surface detail, so I'd rather some of it was visible even with the decals on! In hindsight I could've masked up the tri colour of green, white and red for the underside. 

Other side... Oops! Minor tear. You can see how thick they are on first application - where have all the recessed panel lines gone underneath the decals?! haha!? 

WORK IN PROGRESS. UPDATED: 8/7/24...
 

Decided to do a bit more underside centre seam touching up, before decal application- metallic finishes are so unforgiving, 

Getting the hang of them a bit now... Though also a bit peeved that I spent forever attaining a smooth metallic finish on this build, only to cover it up by applying their whacking great big plastic decals. I should've painted the underside of the wings and stabilizers in retrospect and just not bothered with decals here. 

The kit decals go to the wingtips; which the kit instructions show as incorrect: The kit paint instructions show that the wingtips should be painted red for the top and underside also - of course this means that the kit decals cover this. So I decided that I'd follow their 'interpretive' instructions and chop the decals I'd already applied about and then repaint the underside wing tips red. However in reality the tri-colour scheme goes to the edge as per original decals! I also did this for rear stabilizers too... Oh well, just made myself a load more work by deciding to follow their incorrect instructions! I will tidy this up (I'll have to be careful now). The build will end up with red wingtips all round. My advice would be, just stick them on as they are and ignore the instructions, much, much easier! 😉