Albatros Modelworks Decals 1/48
Thud Alley
(F-105 Thunderchief)

This sheet represents a short-lived period of nose art during the Vietnam airwar, where a few pilots in the F-105 community decided to take nose art to a new and interesting level. As soon as the commanders heard about it, however, the nose art was quickly stripped off the aircraft. Fortunately, not before a few of them were spotted and photographed.

F-105 noseart was somewhat standardized during the Vietnam airwar (and afterwards) - the aircraft name usually appeared on the sides of the intakes, and any graphic art was beneath the canopy or under the intake(s). Three variations of this 'standard' are included in this sheet and were certainly responsible for lighting up the PACAF command phone lines when they were discovered on the subject aircraft.

You see, these three variations shared a common approach, a bare lady laying atop the nose of the Thud, ahead of the windscreen and strategically placed in relation to the in-flight refueling receptacle. It no-doubt assisted the war-weary refueling boom operators in getting a rapid and accurate hook-up of these particular aircraft (and certainly caused a sudden evacuation of the KC-135's flight deck as the crew ran back to the boomer's pod to check out what the boomer was laughing at).

This decal sheet provides beautifully clear and spot-on in-register markings for seven (7!) F-105Ds:

• F-105D-10-RE, 60-0504, 'Memphis Belle II'
• F-105D-25-RE, 62-4229, 'Jeanie II'
• F-105D-5-RE, 58-1172, 'Daisy Mae'
• F-105D-31-RE, 62-4357, 'Pussy Galore' (nose art)
• F-105D-31-RE, 62-4364, 'Pussy Galore II' (nose art)
• F-105D-15-RE, 61-0069, 'Cherry Girl' (nose art)
• F-105D-17-RE, 62-4377, 'Pussy Galore' (w/o nose art)

As you can see in the photos, the 'nose art' was blurred to prevent any spontaneous anatomy lessons from our younger readers, but the decals are beautifully done. The instructions recommend the Monogram 1/72 F-105D kit or the Monogram 1/48 F-105D kit for this set. Given the current availability of the 1/48 example, as well as the recent release of the 'Rolling Thunder' weapons set from Cobra Company, I feel a few F-105D projects coming on.

For more information about this set and the other releases from Albatros Modelworks, visit their website at http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/albatros/.