PJ Production 1/72 scale F-84F Thunderstreak

Kit: No. 721021
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: PJ Production, Rue A Bodson, 38, 6280 Gerpinnes, Belgium, 32-71-50 44 39, www.pjproduction.net
Price: 39€ (about $48) plus shipping
Comments: Cast resin, 79 parts (9 photoetched, 8 white-metal, 2 vacuum-formed plastic), decals
Pros: Beautiful castings, excellent surface detail, excellent cockpit, good vacuum-formed canopy, beautiful decals
Cons: Aligning vertical stabilizer and wings is tricky, decals easily distorted

It's been decades since a new F-84F has appeared in this scale, so I think you'll appreciate PJ Productions resin Thunderstreak. The quality of resin in PJ's parts is the best I've seen. The smooth and shiny surfaces are nearly bubble-free and have fine recessed panel lines.

The kit comes with photoetched speed brakes, white-metal landing-gear struts and wheels, and a pair of vacuum-formed canopies. An alternate taller vertical stabilizer is provided for the Luftwaffe version, and two under-tail fairings are included. Four underwing tanks and pylons are given. Resin parts are supplied to pose the canopy open, but you'll have to cut the canopy apart to do so. Decals include markings for USAF, French, Italian and German jets.

Each one-piece wing has a detailed wheel bay molded in. The cockpit is well detailed, and you have a choice of three different ejection seats. When you install the instrument panel/coaming, position it so the forward end is even with the edge of the cockpit tub. A lightly engraved rectangle indicates its position, but it's too far forward.

After sanding the mating surfaces, I closed the fuselage halves around the cockpit and nose-wheel well. Everything fits well, but I had to use a little more gap-filling super glue along the seams and sanded them smooth. The vertical stabilizer simply rests on top of the fuselage, so I had to be careful aligning it.

Adding the wings is tricky as each has a 3-degree anhedral that is not built into the wing/fuselage joint. I tacked each wing and eyeballed the alignment, then completed the joint with gap-filling super glue.

The white-metal landing gear needed cleanup, but the parts are well-detailed. The decals are beautifully printed and opaque, but they are thin and easily distorted while placing.

I primed the model with Krylon gloss black decanted into my airbrush, then overcoated that with Alclad II metallics.

The finished "Hog" looks better than the bulbous Italeri and the anemic Airfix kits. I put 23 hours into the model. The cockpit detail and surface engravings are top-notch, and I recommend PJ's Thunderstreak if you've had experience building multimedia kits.

-Paul Boyer