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Euro F-5 double build, 1/72.


mirageiv

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New update for this week's progress.

The RF-5 nose section is now pretty much completed.

After cutting out the windows, clear plastic (from an Eduard Brassin pack) was cut and super glued in, then filled/sanded smooth with some surfacer. The windows were cut slightly larger than they should be so the final masks applied will be smaller than the small line of filler surrounding the frames, all in aim to make a seamless, clear window. They still need a good polish up after other seams have been taken care of in that area. The nose on Norwegian jets is really quite different than the Canadian supplied so some window positions were changed and the nose re-profiled in areas after studying a lot of pictures.

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Then I made some tiny cameras, on the Norwegian jets they were a grey, black lens surrounds and yellow lenses. To get the shiny lens surface I painted the face with Humbrol polished aluminium with Tamiya clear orange/yellow on top. It looks a little stark in open light but buried deep in the nose behind (too thick) glass windows they look ok in real life, they just 'catch the eye' at certain angles to show there are lenses peeping at you :).

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They were mounted inside, quite ugly in there but nothing is seen bar the camera faces on the outside.

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Finally I added some self adhesive foil to seal the rear opening of the nose, having learnt before, to stop any tiny bits of dust fouling the camera faces which you can never remove once it is all buttoned up.

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Some general views of the nose. The second picture is more like what you see with the naked eye, not too strong a lens.The windows will be polished up later.

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Here you can see the 'wonky'/facetted profiles of the nose, they need some refining but there are odd profiles/shapes there on the real thing. http://www.museumplanes.com/plane.php?plane_ID=188&pic_nr=19

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This is how the RF-5 is sitting overall. The wings are just dry fitted, they also needed a good sanding on top like others have found. I have to say the nose assembly portions did not fit very well and the correct curvature profile has to be sanded into the jet, still needs some work yet. You can also see the ugly pin mark in the cockpit that I was too lazy to remove! I think I'll add some sidewall detail now as it is too noticeable through the canopy.

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Like others here I also added the tip tanks lights with clear spruce, still a WIP. Ideally I would have done the same as Rich's build with clear red/blue spruce but I didn't have any so Tamiya clear will be used on these at the end.

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This is how the pair are atm. The RF-5 will be basically a flying fuel tank with a camera :D, the NF-5 has been a little neglected (bar filling the chaff/flare units with surfacer as they are flush) until I get the RF-5 up to the same point.

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Maybe they will be ready for paint next weekend (probably not though :winkgrin: ) , just hope my compressor can deal with the temperatures!

Thanks for looking,

David.

Edit, the decals arrived also, the old modeldecal sheet that are a little yellow and tired. Hopefully we will have some unlikely winter sunlight to help solve this.

L1020566_zpsxjxm7f6h.jpg

Edited by mirageiv
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Wow! That's some very good work on the camera nose David, makes a real difference from what is supplied in the kit. A very good idea to make the clear plastic parts bigger than they need to be and then masking the smaller window sizes, should make it look very convincing.

The lights on the tip-tanks look good too, I'm sure they will look even better with the coloured Tamiya clear coats on them.

The old Modeldecal sheet looks to be quite comprehensive with the stencils etc that it has, good luck with the sunshine for removing the yellowing! I think we would all like a bit more sun rather than the rain we have at the minute, mind you its a good excuse for staying in and modelling!

Craig.

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Very nicely done indeed, those camera lens look great!

I hunted for ages to find some clear sprue the right colour until I remembered I had the Daco F-104 improvement set. They have a nice range of coloured sprue just right. But The Tamiya clear is just as good as option and it certainly does look good when done!

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The old Modeldecal sheet looks to be quite comprehensive with the stencils etc that it has, good luck with the sunshine for removing the yellowing! I think we would all like a bit more sun rather than the rain we have at the minute, mind you its a good excuse for staying in and modelling!

Thanks Craig! The decals do look very well researched, maybe more an issue than the yellow-white is how thick they are. Hopefully with a few clear coats over the top they will be less noticeable, they will be used regardless! :)

I surprised myself lurking at some Esci's F-5s on eBay these days.

Your fault, I suppose.

Do it, enter one! :D

Thanks chaps!

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I sorted out the seams/sink marks and with a spray can 'pre-primer' layer to identify what panels need a rescribe,

L1020569_zpsusoljlap.jpg

Entirely due to me, the underside wing joins and LERXs needed a good amount of attention to get the right contours in the area using this picture,

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Netherlands---Air/Northrop-(Canadair)-NF-5A/2704357/L/&sid=d72403c4b9c889a1cfccbfad8a82cd1e (quite a good one for getting overall details of the undersides)

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As I will be using Alclad for the aluminium paint the surface really needs to be super smooth so the final primer layer will be polished up surfacer 1200 to probably 12000 micromesh after all the rescribing is done.

The fuel tanks are sorted, only thing of note is the centre line tank is too blunt oob, the nearest is my sharpened one and the next, the oob version.

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Attention is slowly turning back to the cockpits now. Here are the pilots with a little surgery ready for paint and the rear bulkhead insert that covers all the rear wall detail ( quite conveniently :)) when the canopy is down.

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Here it is roughly placed inside to show what will (or won't) be seen after all is closed.

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I also tinted the canopies after looking at photos, the front certainly has a orange/smoke look to it. The lighting is making them look rather F-16 dark but it is less strong in natural light.

'NF-5A'-http://www.ipms.nl/images/foto-specials/WA_vliegtuigen/f-5/nf5b-fb/northrop-nf5b-fb18.jpg

RF-5A-http://www.luftkrigsskolen.no/AirForcePhotos/DesktopModules/Repository/MakeThumbnail.aspx?tabid=53&id=192

And finally the sleek shapes of these jets are taking form,

L1020575_zpschdug7tr.jpg

Holding off the urge to build a F-5E as well now! Maybe in January sometime :)

:cheers:

David.

Edited by mirageiv
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Thanks chaps! :)

Craig-Yeah the panel luckily hides a lot of things that are too small for me to make :winkgrin: Hmm I don't know about the kit, maybe I will see what the timeline is like then decide. i have only built one 1/48 kit and it took me months because there are so many more parts on these new ones compared to 1/72. If I do 1/48 it probably will be an F-5F like your lovely kit, in Swiss markings to make it different though. Will see what happens at Christmas :)

Skids-Thanks, the cameras sure hurt my eyes!

59North-Thanks again, what I do is only copied from what I have seen going on here the last few years! :D Just like those tip lights :whistle:

I gave them a final primer coat of Mr.Sufacer last night and will rub it down this evening, may even get the lids closed ready for a good painting session this weekend. For a little 'simple' kit I'm sure making hard work of it!

Cheers folks,

David.

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Hi folks, annoyingly I am having some camera troubles atm so I have not been able to take photos of detail (HUD, heater etc..) I added to the front cockpit coaming and a few other things but hopefully I'll get some through the canopy later on.

The pilots/seats are finished and installed now, not my best work (well I can never paint a decent pilot anyways) but not too much should be seen below the canopy, especially since I tinted them. The seats got a little wash and dry brush only. They are pretty ugly twins :winkgrin:, still more human looking than the Hobbyboss one though!

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After rescribing I sprayed some Surfacer 1200 then polished up with micro mesh, some areas still require a little attention yet. I am hoping to just spray the Alclad over this as it is probably a smoother surface than even a gloss paint layer. Although spraying gloss black first, it could be masked off for anti-glare panels etc..then Alclad on top, hmm not sure which way to do it yet.

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So this is the final construction update, I guess the next one will be the painted models :).

Till next time,

David.

Edited by mirageiv
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Yet more nice work David.

That really is a superb finish you have achieved, I have recently started to micromesh my paint and am surprised by how much difference it makes. I can't advise about the Alclad use as I have never used it, I just use Revell Aluminium for my undercoat/metallic finishes (just applied some to my F-5F but it needs micromeshing before I post some pictures).

I think your pilots look great, especially for 1/72 scale.

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wow you have got a lovely surface to work with there!! Those joins are invisible!

I'm still not brave enough to use Alclad yet or even do a NMF for that matter!

I'll have my sunglasses ready for the next update!

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Thanks for the kind words folks!

Craig-Yes this is a test really to have a proper go at mircromeshing paint as I have never really tried to do it before, so will see how it goes. If you have any advice on particular things about it don't be shy :)! I use Alclad for any metal finish whether painted aluminium or natural metal as mainly normal enamel etc. metallics always seem to block my airbrush for whatever reason and that the various Alclad shades can be mixed to get any metallic you want, these should be quite dull paint looking in the end (hopefully).

Rich- You should try Alclad, it really isn't that hard to use, seems to be a lot of people always talking about the hard work involved but in all honesty all you have to do is get a good smooth undercoat layer, the rest is easy and imho a testament to how good Alclad is. (I don't work for Alclad :D) Sunglasses shouldn't be nesscaasry as it was painted aluminium and not high shine, I am hoping to put the decals on tp with no gloss layer hence why I have been so keen on getting the surface super smooth.

I know I said the last one was the final update before paint but the camera was sorted so I took a photo of the coaming detail. I added I think a windscreen heater, and other bits copied from photos, maybe you can see them maybe not. I saw over on ARC a guy using this 'holographic' plastic to represent 'turned on' HUDs and gunsights so I copied the idea here with them. They change appearance as they capture different light angles and look pretty cool through the cockpit. You can see the effects below.

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The canopies have now been filled with superglue and polished up again to get the glass like surface. Now it is paint time, finally :thumbsup:

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Best regards,

David.

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Thanks guys, Craig yes I usually paint the interior colour first. However this time I will add the white rubber seals with decals I think as masking both canopies 3 times each I could not bare! :)

I was determined to get some paint on this weekend so I got some of the main colours on today. Final thing before paint was to mask the camera windows,

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Usually I do the standard post shading on the paint, then think it is too stark and make it more subtle, only to find after the gloss/matt varnishes have been applied it has just disappeared :winkgrin: . So for these I have left the weathering looking overdone, as a trial, to see if this amount does not disappear in the end.

And here is the RF-5A. Painted with various Alclad shades and weathered somewhat with thinned greys. As ever I find it hard to take photos of Alclad paints, it never shows the true hues properly. Once this is cured, Ill pick of some repainted panels with some more shades for contrast.

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The real aircraft have a very matt/grey aluminium finish which I hope will be achieved by the final matt coat, making it a more grey/silver. We will see......

The NF-5A only got the grey on,

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I do hope to mircomesh this paint to match the Xtracolor I'll use for the olive green.

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The NF-5A weapons are good to go,

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Thanks for looking :)

David.

Edit, After looking in natural light at the NF-5A grey, I mixed up another shade and redid it. This time it is lighter and more blue though it really is not coming through on the photo, better match of Basaltgrau to my eye anyways. I also wanted it looking a bit newer and will weather it later after the decals are on.

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I did a little tweak on the RF-5 too. After looking at some more photos they were really more uniform matt grey/silver so I added some Alclad dull aluminium,

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It doesn't look as good as before imho but looks closer to the photos :winkgrin:, I'll weather it again after the decals are on.

Edited by mirageiv
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