1:48 F-105 (F, G) Thunderchief male pilots on access ladder (2 pcs)

Boarding the cockpit in 1:48 scale

The subject of this set is clearly given. The airmen are not placed simply on the ramp but at the access ladder up which one climbed into the raised cockpit of the Thunderchief. The pose is subordinated to that, including the turn of the torso and the position of the arms. The name gives the detail of two pieces.

A scene that tells a story

A static figure beside an aircraft is nice, but a figure caught in the middle of movement on a ladder gives a scene action. The viewer fills in for himself what will follow. It is exactly this kind of subject that at contests tends to be stronger than the best painted lone model, because it makes the eye travel from the ground right up to the cockpit canopy. The vertical at the same time breaks the usual flatness of an aircraft display case.

How high was the climb, actually

The Thunderchief was a tall machine with a long nose leg, so getting into the cockpit was impossible without an aid. On airfields either steps brought up to it or a ladder hung on the side of the fuselage were used. A model thus gains a natural vertical element that is otherwise missing from an aircraft display case, and a scene gains a second story.

Before you build the scene

• Check that a figure leans against the ladder of your kit with no gap.
• Handle the seating height by packing underneath, not by bending the figure.
• Paint the figure and the ladder separately, and only then join them.
• Make the floor under the scene darker, so that the figure stands out.
• Photograph at the eye level of the figure and the scene will read convincingly.
• Finish the hand gripping the rung last, because it is easily rubbed.