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Euro F-5 double build, 1/72.


mirageiv

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Thanks for the encouragement guys :).

I know only its barely worth an update but I probably won't get any time to do much until christmas now so might as well show the olive green applied. I had intended to use a pot of Xtracolor Gelboliv only to find it had gone off so I mixed some greens accordingly. The colours are not coming through too right in the photo but you get the general idea.

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Love the simple lines of this jet!

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I have a question though if anyone can lend a hand. What colour should the Aim-9 rails be? I cannot find a photo where I can tell but I assume (well I painted them) Basaltgrau on top with the white aluminium below.

Cheers,

David.

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Glad you are enjoying the thread guys, probably some of the most fun models I have built in a while :).

I ploughed on as I might actually try and get them done for the close of the week, there is not too much left to do now (optimistic as always).

I painted the underside of the NF-5A, the difficult white aluminium colour that fades/weathers to a light metallic grey. I decided to try and paint in this way starting with Revell 91 which gives a good metallic white silver base. Then I mixed some with Silbergrau and went around randomly to fade the paint into the grey, further toning and shades added. I could only find one picture from the period of the undersides to work with, here; https://www.flickr.com/photos/gerrit_kok_collection/7685758130/. Further weathering will be done after decals. I am happy with the result as it looks grey, yet metallic-ish in various lighting, adding a matter coat in the end should blend it better.

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Then a gloss coat was added for decals. It has already toned down the shading a lot.

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This picture shows the intake, I am happy with the tricky masking here,

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You know when you decide to build a model, you have an image of how it will look in the end. Well the RF-5A was not living up to what I wanted so I re-painted it, yet again :mental: . Ideally I am going for a very freshly applied paint, maybe even a near new delivery aircraft, just love the sleek looking silver jet! So I sprayed a much more uniform top coat, it will be weathered after the decals but not much. I guess something like this photo; http://www.airliners.net/photo/Norway---Air/Northrop-F-5B-Freedom/1896439/L/&sid=c442233cac6de9c4bfdd50caa523e64a.

The photo below is exaggerating the shine but it looks like this now with the black anti glare areas too,

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Overall,

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The BL755s are in the paint shop too and should be ready for the next update. I hit a snag with trying to make a new exhaust, in that I have not been able to make a decent one :winkgrin: , so for the time being only one pair of engines will be painted and interchanged on the jets until I get another kit, or maybe pic up a cheap Airfix kit and pinch those :).

Cheers,

David.

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59North, Rich-Thank you :), I'll hopefully have them decalled by tomorrow evening, just sitting down now for a marathon! The old model decals for the RF-5 are blooming thick and I guess will require all the decal film cutting away...I love doing that on metal finishes :doh:

Craig- For the gloss I initially sprayed Mr.Hobby Clear, which seemed really 'grainy' so I sprayed over it with Tamiya clear then with pure thinner, Mr.Color Leveling thinner, hoping it would 'melt' it all away into a smooth coat and it kinda worked! I think I got lucky but will use it again now, it is not a perfect shine but it is good for decals. I agree on the Norwegian stuff, most of the time they seem to be really crisp, clean and quite classy in my opinion. Even an F-16 in the most 'boring' grey to me looks good, http://www.f-16.net/g3/f-16-photos/album37/album09/adr. Which I might build next :)

Cheers,

David.

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Hi folks, another update!

Here are the weapons for the NF-5A. I was hoping to use some decals for the BL-755s but they were too old and past it (from old Airfix Nato weapon set) so painted them fro masking off,

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Then the various colours of the bomb were painted and masks removed and some random weapon stencils applied after looking at photos,

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Overall with the AIM-9's, still need some washes yet,

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The decals are now done. Special thank you to Giorgio here for kindly supplying some important markings for me to do the NF-5, thanks Giorgio :)!

I added extra stencils from the spares after going around the airframe from the various online walkarounds to give it some more detail.

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The old Modeldecals for the RF-5 worked very well in the end, almost no carrier film (i cut off most of it though!) was visible on the aluminium which is a rare thing from my experience. Only one slight problem that the roundels on the intakes are too small, but I cannot find any aftermarket decals atm so will have to do until I can replace them, but I can live with them for now. The jet is from the early seventies, just after they removed the codes from the nose. I still need to paint the main fuel tanks olive green.

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I have applied another clear coat ready for weathering. Trying to finish them this weekend is looking way too optimistic now however :winkgrin: .

Cheers,

David.

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Thanks for the kind words folks, much appreciated :)

Smashedglass- The pilots were borrowed from a Hasegawa F-16B. They are ok but much better are available though!

I have weathered them and given final matt/satin coats. Basically only final assembly is left and taking care of a few details such as gun barrels, ariels etc...Should be finished in the next few days.

cheers,

David.

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Hello,

Here is the last WIP update.

All main constructions are completed, painted and weathered, just final details left to do, the dreaded tiny bits!

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The underside of the NF-5 was made pretty dirty after looking at some photos, like wise for the tanks. The NF-5 awaiting its little bits. The exhausts are painted and canopy seals added. An overall satin coat was applied, depending on the aircraft they ranged from glossy to semi gloss. Given this is more weathered I went for the latter.

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The RF-5 likewise. I made the main wing tanks green for contrast, seemed to be a standard thing in the early seventies. Also the candy stick pitot probe. It got an overall very thin matt coat just to reduce the shine a little.

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The weathering consisted of a light grey panel wash and then various panels shaded with super thinned grey paint to just slightly dirty the aluminium, it is really subtle and probably is not showing on the photo but it is what I wanted to see in real life.

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Will get them done tonight probably and then photos next few days :).

Cheers,

David.

Edited by mirageiv
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