The Thunderjet became the Air Force's primary strike aircraft during the Korean War as it became clear it was not a really good day fighter opposing the Soviet MiG-15. Its role changed to fighter bomber. More than 7500 Thunderjets were produced and many supplied to NATO countries because of the Cold War. 

The Thunderjet was also the first jet aircraft to fly with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds aerial aerobatic demonstration team. The USAF Strategic Air Command had F-84 Thunderjets in service from 1948 through 1957.

I wanted to make a model of the famous USAF Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team Thunderjet. No aftermarket decals were found in 1/32 scale. Another model friend also wanted these for his 1/32 kit.  So it was decided to design my own decals and have these custom printed. 

The USAF Thunderbirds aerial aerobatic team was activated May 25, 1953 at Luke AFB in Arizona. For air force promotion and to drive pilot flying skills. The first team aircraft was the F-84G Thunderjet. The team often flew the "diamond four ship" formation and many loops, rolls and climbs for an impressive show. The first official show was flown June 8, 1953. Soon an international tour followed in the region. The national flags were soon added on the special fuselage marking. The Thunderbirds team remained active. After flying the F-84G Thunderjet, in 1955 the F-84F Thunderstreak with swept wing came, than the F-100C Super Sabre, F-105 for a short season, F-4E, T-38 and now flying the F-16. Look for my 1/32 F-16C model here... ... 

For the needed F-84G Thunderbirds decals I used information from various sources but also looked at my 1/72 Hobbyboss kit (seen here... ). 

I first designed a large sheet with the coloured bands as decals. These made the decals sheet very large. But later decided that the colourful bands on the nose and wing tip tanks are better airbrushed as a decal would never follow the curved contours. The exception are the tail markings which are more easy to set but difficult to mask. Other specific markings are also on the sheet and for the stencilling some kit decals are to be used.

I added a few options for the Thunderbirds Thunderjet scheme and made this sketch:

The decals sheet is seen here. Interested in this 1/32 sheet F-84G Thunderbirds AIPD-11 for your model? Look at my decal page here...

The custom made laser printed decals are very thin and well usable. 

The Hobbyboss model will be build 95% out of the box but a few small corrections done for a slightly more accurate 1/32 F-84G:

(a)  the kit trim tabs on the aileron parts seem to have changed. The extended small trim tab at right/starboard aileron (parts #B7+B10) should be repositioned more inboard. And the trim tab at the port aileron (parts #B3+B6) should be removed and a new one re-scibed sitting inboard at the trailing edge. The corrected ailerons are seen here... 

(b) the lower air brake style differed on the later F-84G. It seems that for F-84G-10-RE from aircraft serial 51-1079 onwards the air brake had many perforation holes. Also for the Thunderbirds jets. So new part needs to be made from scrap. 

The wingtip tanks should have no refuelling probes, so as per kit. The inside pylons were usually fitted so will be installed later on.

Same with the "stores" shown in STEPs 14 and 15, these were not carried. 

The kit cockpit interior looks pretty accurate, some smaller bits for extra detail can be added later. The interior paints were also to be applied later on. The nose gear bay is excellent and note the side' air flow tunnels.


The fuselage shows the "holes" to fit the parts with the F-84G blow-in doors.

 


Overall the fit was pretty good.  

For added wing-fuselage joints' strength, I added a metal spar to connect the wing halves running through the fuselage. The spar is a spoke from a bicycle wheel. Holes were drilled.

 

 

    

For airbrushing:  start with white at the nose, tip tanks, rear vertical fin and dorsal edge and both sides of the horizontal stabilizers. A thinned acrylic Revell mat coat 301 white first and a few coats of gloss Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby H1 white acrylic. Also airbrush the wingtip tanks and nose gear doors #D22 and #D23. Let dry. 

The white bands were masked and also the nose gear doors were not forgotten. The drawing and my drawn patterns with scheme were used as guide. Those curved patterns on the wingtip tanks are extremely difficult to mask with all those curves; take your time here. 

Than followed the Thunderbirds red for which Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby red H327 acrylic (FS11136). Red needs a few thin coats to cover good. So on fuselage nose and wingtip tanks. The stabilizers and tail need only masking their leading edges as the red pattern with blue stars are supplied with the custom decals. 

Mask the red again and airbrush the blue with Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby H328 (FS15050) blue acrylic paint. Again, blue is difficult to get even and a few coats are needed. 

The Thunderbird colours were now airbrushed on the model. 

Next step was that all the colourful airbrushed areas of the fuselage and tail were masked. This remainder of the model would get natural metal coats.

(NOTE: later in their service career many NATO and USAF F-84 got anti-corrosion measures with aluminium paints but not in those early years flying with the Thunderbirds).

In the old days I airbrushed ALCLAD metal coats. This is very bad for your health even when wearing good paint respiration face set. So now I try to airbrush acrylic metal paints.

The acrylic metal paints of Vallejo are quite good. Airbrushed were Vallejo aluminium metal 77.701 and some panels in chrome 77.707 applied. I also used a few drops of Vallejo airbrush flow improver 71.262 in the mix. This is a sort of paint retarder to avoid the paint drying too fast in the airbrush nozzle and on "its way to the model surface...". 

The masks and tapes were to be carefully peeled off with tweezers. 

Below the thin red leading edge airbrushed on the tail is seen. (It was also airbrushed on the leading edges of the stabilizers).  

A few tiny repairs were needed that could be done with a very fine paint brush by hand. 

On Thunderbirds Thunderjets photos the gun ports are visible but seem closed up with plugs inside. The open gun ports in the kit nose were closed with white glue and when dried hand painted red. 

 
The gear bays and insides' of gear doors were airbrushed green-chromate. This was done by a mix of 80% Gunze Sangyo H340 green + 20% Gunze Sangyo yellow H34. The surrounding bay areas thus needed again masking and than airbrushing.

The cockpit tub insides' and seat were airbrushed inside with Gunze green H340 (about FS34097) as well as the nose anti-glare panel. All needed a bit masking. (The windshield frame remains metal).  

The cover panel aft of the cockpit tub was airbrushed mat black. 

The wingtip tanks after removing the many masking tapes needed some polishing, scraping off with a tooth pick creeped paint spills and hand painting. 

The Thunderbirds Thunderjet paint scheme is now on the model. Next steps to follow. 

References:

Books:  

- F-84 Thunderjet, Bert Kinzey, Detail & Scale Vol.59 
- F-84 Thunderjet in action, Squadron Signal publications 

Web:
- IPMS Nederland KLu F-84 Walkaround (of my modelling friend Cees Hendriks)
- IPMS U.K. SIG Aerobatic Display teams internet site
- Wikipedia Thunderbirds link....