History 

The F-84F Thunderstreak swept-wing jet fighter was a development of the Republic F-84G straight wing aircraft. Using a wing with the sweep along with a more powerful jet engine improved the performance to that of the F-86 Sabre. At first, the F-84F experienced several trouble with their power units, manoeuvrability as well as with corrosion. Later, after the outbreak of the Berlin Crisis and subsequent need to make the NATO forces more powerful, the F-84F jets started to equip many NATO air forces, including that of Germany and France, while earlier these planes were used mainly by the USAF and US Guard units. The first combat deployment the F-84F saw was during the Suez Crisis and the only air victories gained by the type were achieved by Turkish machines taking on Iraqi Il-28 bombers violating the Turkish air space.

In the box 

Packed in a top opening box, the F-84F Thunder streak features one of the marking options as the box artwork. The sides show all the marking options available in this boxing.

This is the first release of this kit and it has been released twice since with different markings, one boxing features French and Israeli markings, with the latest being Luftwaffe based. This boxing contains markings for USAF aircraft.

Inside the box you will find four dark grey sprues, one clear sprue in its own bag, and the large decal sheet. A set of colour instructions complete the contents.

The kit comprises of a 115 parts of which 39 are not used. Most of the unused parts are external stores, so handy for the spares box.

External detail for the Thunderstreak is pretty good with recessed panel lines and fasteners adorning the fuselage and wings.

Although they look a little heavy in the pictures, once primer and paint go on they will appear more subtle.

Control surfaces are moulded integral to the wings, tailplanes and rudder and are in the neutral position.

Two tails are supplied and depending on which scheme you do decides which one you use. Both are very similar but one has a couple of extra panels engraved on it.

Interior detail is about average for a 1/72nd scale kit. The bang seat is made up of four parts, but no harness is supplied either as a photo etch part or decals, which is a shame as quite a bit of the cockpit can be seen through the canopy.

The instrument panel has a decal for the dials, and a setting solution for the decal will need to be used as there is raised details on it. The side consoles have raised details so painting these parts will need to be done as no decals for the sides are supplied.

The air inlet is made up of four parts, and the instructions indicate 1 gram of weight should be put into it to stop the model being a tail sitter.

The nose air inlet splitter doubles up as the nose undercarriage bay.

The exhaust is made up of four parts and has a little detail, but your really not going to see much in the tube once its all built up.

The undercarriage bays have a little detail in them in the way of spars which one the main bays are moulded into the underside of the wing.

As already noted the nose gear bay is part of the air intake splitter and has a few lumps and bumps mouour lded into it.

The main undercarriage legs are made up of four parts each, including the wheel and gear door.

Detail is not bad in this scale. The wheels have some nice detail moulded into them for the hubs.

Special Hobby do produce a resin set of wheels if you really want enhance this area.

The nose gear is made up of two parts, with an additional two parts for the gear doors.

The clears parts are crystal clear and have raised framing.

Two canopies are supplied so you can have the choice of closed or open.

Four parts are needed for the closed canopy and seven parts are required for the open canopy.

No masks are supplied but Special Hobby do sell an aftermarket set.

The underwing stores as already mentioned are mostly not used, so the underwing inboard pylons are only used for the large fuel tanks, although the other pylons are supplied and fitted in the build.

Decals, markings and instructions 

The instructions are printed on a folded A4 size paper, and consists of 12 pages, with the last three for the three full colour profiles. The booklet is glossy and in colour for most of the build with internal colours given along the way.

The cover has a short history of the Thunderstreak in English and Czech, followed by the parts tree map. The build takes place over 6 pages and 14 steps.

The build sequence looks easy enough to follow.

The decal sheet is fairly large with quite a few stencils printed on the sheet, along with the insignia's and numbers for the three colourful marking options supplied.

The decals are in register and very nicely printed.

Three marking options are supplied, all are in the metal finish common on aircraft at the time, and all sport colourful unit markings.

The three options are 

1 F84F, FS-570 (52-6570), 20th Fighter Bomber Wing, flown by Commander Col. A G Salisbury, USAF in Europe, RAF Wethersfield, Essex, UK, 1956

2 F84F, FS-664 (52-6664), 401st Fighter Bomber Wing, flown by Commander Col. Van Etten, Tactical Aur Command, USAF in Europe, UK, 1956

3 F84F, FS-454 (52-6454), 511th Fighter Bomber Sqn., 405th Fighter Bomber Wing, Langley AFB, USAF, Louisiana, USA, 1955

Conclusion

Special Hobbies F-84F Thunderstreak looks to be a nice little kit with enough detail to keep most modellers happy, although the cockpit area is a little sparse.

The build looks to be easy enough to follow, and with three colourful marking options it is pretty good value for money.

Mfg. ID - SH72395

Suggested Retail - 21.20 F-84F Thunderstreak

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