Twobobs Aviation Graphics

1/72 F-105D Wrap-Around Thuds

Sheet Number: 72-079

Reviewed by  Mike Hinderliter, IPMS# 45124

MSRP: $12.00 Web site: www.twobobs.net The AIRCRAFT I first saw an F-105 at Hill AFB at Ogden, Utah in 1981. The Texas ANG was there, and my AFROTC flight got to walk around and kick the tires. My flight leader won the raffle to get the orientation flight. I may forgive him some day. Maybe. But I still remember the noise, and this is a BIG airplane. You don't realize how big until you walk under the wing, and there's still head clearance. The F-105 was retired in 1984, but before that, the guys at Hill AFB played around with several very interesting camouflage schemes. Three of these, which appeared in mid-1983, are the subject of this decal sheet. The instructions recommend either the Hasegawa F-105D or the new Trumpeter F-105D. I happened to have a Hasegawa Thud in my stash. A friend in the model club was willing to build the Revell F-105D, given the incentive of free decals. The DECALS The decals cover 3 F-105Ds from Hill, in the wraparound schemes that were tried there. Twobobs has gone to a lot of trouble to get good photos of the aircraft, and they somehow managed to find the guys who were familiar with these particular planes. So what you get is a very nicely done, detailed set of markings.

The decals are "proudly printed by MicroScale". They're thin, they're on register, and they go onto the aircraft and stay where you put them. They're also very thin. I had the "Desert Fox" decal curl up into a wad as I tried to get it in there under the intake. It's a tribute to the toughness of the decal film that it still went on the plane and stayed there after I got it straightened out. The problem here was that I wasn't aware that this one decal was 100% film, clear out to the edge of the paper. This did screw me up pretty good for a few minutes, but I got it straightened out. The instructions were very good. We had some trouble getting those wrap-around paint jobs on the planes, because the side views are on one side of the instruction page, and the top/bottom views were on the other side. If you're planning to do 299, the "Desert Fox" in the brown/brown/brown scheme, be prepared to mix a couple of colors. The reddish brown is 30091, and no one sells that color. Same for 30140, the medium brown. You luck out on 30219. It's nice that Twobobs tells you if the paint is available from Testors/MM, Humbrol, Gunze and Xtracolor. Too bad it's N/A for all those guys for the first 2 colors. We did find that Compucolor made 30140. Too bad they've been out of business for several years. Another point of interest is that the Revell kit's raised panel lines were closer to the diagrams in the instructions than the recommended Hasegawa kit's panels. Since I haven't seen a Trumpeter 105, I can't comment, but their panel lines are probably better than Hasegawa's. OVERALL ASSESSMENT Highly recommended. These decals were a real confidence builder. I had been afraid to spend much on after market decals, as I wasn't sure the money would be well spent. They look great, have good subject choices and apply very well. This project prompted me to go to the Twobobs web site and actually plan to buy more of their decals. The 105s brought back some good memories, and this gives me a push to do some more projects. Thanks to Bob Sanchez and Twobobs for providing the decal sheet, and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build two Thuds.

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