The Thunderjet became the Air Force's primary strike aircraft during the Korean War. More than 7500 Thunderjets were produced and many supplied to NATO countries because of the Cold War. It was also the first jet aircraft to fly with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team. The USAF Strategic Air Command had F-84 Thunderjets in service from 1948 through 1957.

In plastic modelling various kits appeared, and in 1/72 scale these models are presented: 

Academy 1/72 kit
Heller 1/72 kit
Hobbyboss 1/72 kit
Tamiya 1/72 kit [on Page 2..]

 


The decals look fine.

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The details are so fine that I used the airbrush to first spray the smaller parts while they are in their sprues. Later on, I sprayed the entire model Humbrol metal 27002 aluminum and take care as not to handle the model with your hands as you will get fingerprints. I depicted some panels in another metal colour, than airbrushed a few coats of Johnson Future/ Klear as varnish. 

The decalsheets are excellent although you will need to cut in the decal of the rounded nose band. I also overpainted it later on in the same colour and also painted the wingtip tanks fins orange.

The model took a very small amount of time and the result is a neat very fine model! Recommended!

Here the parts are seen:



The Thunderjet was issued by Heller in 1/72 scale way back (see bottom of this page.) in the seventies. The decals were often wrongly colour printed and off center. The decal sheet shown above therefor has the "dots" as separate decals. 

The markings on this model were made from scratch. The kit has raised panellines but the shape is good. I retained the raised panellines. 

   This Heller 1/72 kit, made way back in 1985

HobbyBoss also issued a very nice 1/72 kit in 2010 of the F-84G Thunderjet, with several marking options. This kit appears at first impression a very simple snap together kit with only a few parts, but looking more closely you will discover it is very detailed and accurate. This 1/72 model was purchased for less than 4 EURO! 

Panellines are finely recessed and the fit is good.

(NOTE: HobbyBoss mid july 2011 also came up with a 1/32 scale Thunderjet F-84E, a very good kit). 

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The schemes provided include a F-84G of the 58 FBG used in Korea in 1953 and a very nice USAF Thunderbirds scheme. 

The decal sheet is wel printed.

An impression of the assemby is seen in the instructions picture, and this is a very good and straight forward build indeed.

Two separate panels are there in the lower front fuselage, probably to issue another variant like the F-84E later. 
The F-84G has a couple of intakes at these panels, and the rear fuselage end at the exhaust pipe is slightly shorter for the F-84G, being a straight line on the F-84G with the rudder trailing edge, whereas on the F-84E this exhaust pipe protrudes a tiny bit. 
(Very early F-84E also less canopy frames. Also, the F-84E had no refuelling equipment such as the intake at the wing leading edge and the tank booms on the tip tanks).

Assembly was straight forward and quick with very minor filling in some places. After assembly and surface polishing, a grey base coat was added with Revell 75 enamel. 

NOTE: later it turned out that the THUNDERBIRDS Thunderjets did not have the refuellling booms! So remove these!

In the bays, adequate moulded details are provided.

After the grey base coat, the model received a coat of gloss black and, when dry, a coat of Johnson Future to ensure that a very smooth finish is there. Next, a couple of coats of ALCLAD II gloss Aluminium were applied with the airbrush.

The decals are very thin, ensure to position each decal in the correct place at once as much as possible to avoid cracking the decal. Although I used ample amounts of decal setting of DACO , the wing tip tank decals did not fit 100%, so some retouching was needed with gloss red paint. Also, the "blue" had to be painted in many places. 
Note that several paint manufacturers have the special Thunderbird colours in their range. 

The canopy has framing and this was made from aluminium foil strips cut from BARE METAL FOIL with a very sharp scalp. Note also the circular shape.

Adding the rest of the details like the gears and antenna's was no problem and so the model was completed quickly. In the cockpit, some details were added like seat straps to the seat which is nicely done in the model parts.
For the Thunderbird jet, obviously no armament was installed. 

The result was a very nice USAF Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team Thunderjet model in 1/72 scale! 

References:

Web:
- IPMS Nederland KLu F-84 Walkaround
- IPMS Nederland KLu F-84 information pages...

Books: 
- F-84 Thunderjet in KLu service, Dutch Profile, (Dutch with English summaries)

- F-84 Thunderjet in action,  Squadron Signal publications
- US fighters of the Fifties, Squadron signal
- Squadrons van de Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), Willem Helfferich, Uitgeverij Wijt, 1994 (in Dutch)
- Aerobatic teams internet site