Trumpeter F-105

Thanks!  I appreciate that and I'm glad you liked them.  That kit builds pretty easily but it does have a few glitches, like most kits do, and I like to put them on a web page.  All in all though that one is a fun kit to build and goes together pretty well.

I probably wouldn't have bought all the aftermarket stuff for the "D" either, in fact I'm not using all of it (don't really need three different bang seats!), but I'm building it for a man who flew them in Vietnam and he had already purchased everything.  I guess when you flew them for years you tend to notice the little things that are wrong in the kit, things that most of us would not even notice.

He is an absolute wealth of knowledge on the F-105 and I've learned a lot of things since I started on this one.  Minor and major things, to.  For example, the bottom of the aircraft is an off-white color.  Since it was initially designed as a nuclear strike fighter the bottom was painted that color to help reflect the heat from a nuclear blast.  The intake at the bottom of the fin is an engine compartment vent.  Supposedly they added that to vent fuel vapor out of the engine compartment after they had a few "Incidents" with fuel and vapor collecting in an area with lots of flame!  On top of that he's just a helluva nice guy.

Scott, as soon as I got home I looked at your build online. You are the man on that one! Mine will be a straight OOB build. But I will use some of your techniques that are within my range. In fact, when I saw the kits in the store, I was thinking of your online article i.e., "A good deal with online building notes and reference". Boy, did I choke when I read it again after about six months (LOL). I honestly had forgotten how detailed it was. Excellent job as usual.

E

There are two companies I know of that provide these parts:

Scale Aircraft Conversions (available from Meteor Productions) and Aeroclub Models The Scale Aircraft Conversions set contains the main gear only whereas the Aeroclub Models set includes all three gear struts. There may be other companies that provide these parts but these are the only two that I am aware of.

You are wise to use them.  I've built the Trump F-105G and am currently building the Trump F-105D.  I honestly don't know how they expect that heavy monster to stand up with plastic gear.  The weight you have to add to the nose alone weighs more than most 1/48 scale fighter models.