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Lightweight Fighter - Korean F-5E - FINISHED


Chrisj2003

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Second coat of light compass gray just on topside now; dark compass gray then radome etc; could be on decals next weekend. With weathering and dangly bits be hard pushed to make 07-Mar; so @Col.

 any chance of an extension?

 

(In artificial light with phone second coat looks the same as first, so no photo.)

 

At least this build looks to be unique to this GB; as 4th Scorpion turns up. 😀

 

Chris

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Scanned and enlarged the decal / painting guide to full model size, and cut out as masks, and loosely held with Tamiya tape; left and right:

 

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..then Dark Compass Gray dry brushed around edges, and some infill. Another coat needed, and touch-up. Hoping for soft edges.

 

Chris

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With a bit of touching up got the desired soft edges. Just done first coat at front and rear. Happy that paper masks worked. Extent of gray underside is a guess; very few photos and they show different demarcation between paint and NMF, kit instructions don't match any photos I can find.

 

Chris

 

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2 hours ago, Col. said:

Does this bring you close to the end of the painting stage now Chris?

@Col. yes, nose needs a second coat of black, and maybe the NMF rear too, and I can add cannon at same time. Then another ~24 hours before painting the blobs next to the radome - are they RWR? So with a fair wind (ie no touch-ups) stickers on Sunday; varnishing Monday night, weathering will tie the two grays together the following evenings and dangly bits after (wheels, u/c, drop tank and 'winders are painted). Getting finished on 7 March would rely on the current masking being good and weather allowing varnishing twice next week (may still happen).

 

The week extension compensates for when I lost a week when the HUD didn't fit and needed filling, filing and painting.

 

Chris   

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Progress; rear is fine; realised after first coat of Humbrol 27002 there are blobs on the rear not called off on instructions, but obvious on the sprue (2 x part 37) and on all photos of Korean F-5E, so there are 1 1/2 coats of NMF on rear. Polishing and weathering to follow once nozzles on, post-varnishing. I did try dry-brushing the nice interior detail on inside of nozzles but too dark and small a space. Front: cannons on/in, I'm painting the blobs freehand and that's going to need another go and a touch-up of the dark gray.

 

Chris

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Decals started; a lot of tiny ones to do, will take some time; and the decal sheet is of the see-how-much-I-can-cram-onto-a-small-sheet variety. The two tigers heads is what attracted me to the scheme.

 

Chris

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Good to see you approaching short finals with this one Chris. Hope all the decals are behaving themselves.

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@Col. decals are very nice; need very little water to start moving, they don't fold, none have shattered, and they seem to stick nicely without slivering; my difficulties are how closely together they are printed and time required to place between adjacent very small decals to stop them moving. There are some very nice parts to this kit.

 

Chris

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On wheels now. And only the second ill fitting, as opposed to hard to fit, piece, the main u/c jacks are too long, so legs on and drying before jacks trimmed to suit, then doors and missiles. Delicate Master Model probe to paint. Bit of remedial painting on canopy frame which came off when I removed my masking.

 

Chris

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Ok calling this done; not my best effort. Will get some daylight shots tomorrow.

 

Generally liked the kit:

  • Very fine flying surfaces
  • Clever join lines
  • Great decals; settled brilliantly with no setting solution; the black on the tail hook is one decal which just wrapped around very nicely
  • Decals for 8 different schemes

But:

  • No canopy lifting mechanism
  • HUD not fitting messed up cockpit
  • Lots of intentional nubs made for a lot of cleaning up and two broken parts
  • Not enough alignment tabs
  • Thin wings meant pylon holes had to be filled
  • Blobs for cannon
  • Instructions omit where both PE goes and blobs on rear fuselage go
  • Unclear what parts not required (and there are a lot left)
  • Decal sheet so tightly packed it required a lot of sharp blade work
  • The serial number of this Korean plane is 50-460; not 05-460; reversing the tiny 5's and 0's was hard. Real thing at: https://www.planespotters.net/photo/1053848/50-460-republic-of-korea-air-force-rokaf-northrop-f-5e-tiger-ii (this one is very clean but there are a lot of similar serial planes that are dirty.)

What I should have done:

  • Fit front and rear fuselage; and then intakes; I was worried about flexing the LERX, so did all together and got a bit of a gap.
  • Added tabs to align rear fuselage parts.
  • Over sized the holes for AM cannon, so I could align better.
  • Better canopy masking.
  • Avoided scratch on inside of windscreen.
  • Lightened the darker gray, so the decals are visible; the upper wing roundel can only be seen in sunlight.
  • Checked the effect of Flory wash on varnish from a new can of Humbrol varnish; last kit I struggled to get the wash to stay, this stuck and the effect is too dirty.

All lessons for the next kit; pleased I didn't break any of the aerials, pleased with the feather edging between the brush painted grays and pleased with painting the tiny anti-collision lights on the wings. The second boxing of the kit, F-5F, landed in UK last week, I have not ordered it because I don't fancy any of the 4 schemes, but I can see me getting other boxings; from the parts there's late E and RF to come as a minimum.

 

Thanks to @Col. for hosting the group and to him and others for all the advice and encouragement; 2 interceptors done, need to pick up speed on my Gulf War Rhino now.

 

All comments welcome.

 

Chris

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  • Chrisj2003 changed the title to Lightweight Fighter - Korean F-5E - FINISHED

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