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Fight's on! F-5N VFC-13 Adversary. Finished 29/08.


DaveJL

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11 hours ago, Sam said:

How about the exhaust pipes? They are available in Resin. Worth it?

 

1 hour ago, Robert Stuart said:

Dave did replace the kit's AIM-9 and ACMI pod too.

I suppose it depends on personal preference, I don't see much point with replacement exhausts in this case as they are very small and basic on the real aircraft so you're not going to see much at all on a 1/48 version.

The AIM-9's and ACMI pod are a bit chunky and not as good as aftermarket replacements but they aren't bad.

 

🇺🇦

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20 hours ago, Sam said:

How about the exhaust pipes? They are available in Resin. Worth it?

 

10 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Dave did replace the kit's AIM-9 and ACMI pod too.

 

9 hours ago, modelling minion said:

 

I suppose it depends on personal preference, I don't see much point with replacement exhausts in this case as they are very small and basic on the real aircraft so you're not going to see much at all on a 1/48 version.

The AIM-9's and ACMI pod are a bit chunky and not as good as aftermarket replacements but they aren't bad.

 

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I'm with Craig here, I'm not sure the exhausts would be worth the expense. The kit ones look OK to me! The AIM-9s in the kit are the 'P' variant and I required an 'L' or 'M' variant so that's why it was changed over. I found the kit ACMI pod to be a little bland and thick.

 

Anyhoo, managed to get the cockpit painted. The 'hood' at the rear is just tacked on to get an idea of fit.

 

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Ejection seat painted. A must have for the kit!

 

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I had, like others it seems, an issue with the fit of the forward fuselage panels. Some trimming and sanding was required.

 

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Closed up. The fit is pretty good I have to say!

 

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Sorry for the photos, don't know what was going on today! I'm hoping to get both parts of the fuselage attached tomorrow.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

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  • DaveJL changed the title to Fight's on! F-5E VFC-13 Adversary. Update 30/07.
51 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Really nice work Dave.

The painting of the cockpit, instrument panel and seat are particularly good.

You did a good job on getting the nose section together, the fit isn't perfect but its easily sorted.

 

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Cheers Craig! You're right, it didn't take too long to get it sorted, I just trimmed off the 'shelf', for want of a better word, on the fuselage and then lightly sanded the edges of the panels. 

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50 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said:

That 'pit looks good Dave.  You had trouble with the gun panels too?

Cheers Robert! I wouldn't say trouble, they just weren't the best fitting parts. Not really sure why they're included as separate parts as there's nothing in behind 🤔

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More done. Looks like an F-5 now! Fuselage halves joined first off, very good fit here I must say! Had to dab a little filler on a seam line on the forward section aft of the cockpit and just in front of the front undercarriage well. Other than that, centre pylon on along with a few other odds and sods:

 

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A lovely little kit I must say. Not much more to do before it's ready for primer. Meanwhile, here's a nice video of a couple of VFC-13 jets at Fallon.

 

 

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

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  • DaveJL changed the title to Fight's on! F-5E VFC-13 Adversary. Update 31/07.

What can you say for a kit like this that has so nicely depicted external details!

 

I'm in the process of remodelling the radome of an old Monogram F-5F (along with the LERXs) and believe me just when I think I got it right, I need to do some refilling to bring it back to shape.

 

Nice work so far Dave. Tempting question...: do you plan to build another F-5?

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On 7/30/2022 at 12:23 AM, Sam said:

How about the exhaust pipes? They are available in Resin. Worth it?

Maybe for one kit, but if you plan to build more than one (as in my case!), it doesn't really worth it.

 

Just my two cents.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

Looking very good Dave, very close to the primer stage.

 

🇺🇦

Cheers Craig!

1 hour ago, Robert Stuart said:

Nice one Dave, and pleasing to keep the filler to a few dabs.

Cheers Robert! Makes it easy being overall gloss black too!

59 minutes ago, Shalako said:

What can you say for a kit like this that has so nicely depicted external details!

 

I'm in the process of remodelling the radome of an old Monogram F-5F (along with the LERXs) and believe me just when I think I got it right, I need to do some refilling to bring it back to shape.

 

Nice work so far Dave. Tempting question...: do you plan to build another F-5?

Thanks mate. Quite possibly, I would be tempted by a 2 seat Aggressor or possibly a Chilean Air Force example.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back to this one over the last couple of days. Firstly, the coaming was sprayed,  HUD fitted before the windscreen was attached. Once all that had cured I masked the lot off, including the delicate canopy actuators; probably should have left these off until later on. Oh well!

 

I was doing some more research and found the below walkarounds:

 

http://nabe3saviation.web.fc2.com/waF5N.html

 

Looks like, when parked up, the inner main undercarriage doors and forward front undercarriage doors are retracted so I modified the front door while AFV club provide two main U/C doors specifically to be 'closed' which helped. They did require a little sanding to get a snug fit.

 

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Finally for now, I decided to replace the kit decals as they seemed to have a little too much carrier film along with not being overly sharp. Luckily, Two Bobs have just the ticket:

 

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So I now have an F-5N BuNo 761578. Luckily I'd already added the specific F-5N bumps on both the front and rear fuselage. Almost like it was made for it 😀.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

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  • DaveJL changed the title to Fight's on! F-5N VFC-13 Adversary. Update 31/07.
9 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Coming along very nicely Dave.

She's going to look so good in the black scheme.👍

 

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Cheers Craig. Shouldn't be long in coming together - no pre-shading, no panel wash and no flat coat needed here!

2 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said:

Looking good, Dave.
Thanks for linking the F-5N walk-rounds, some good info there (wonder what happened to the pitot on the third aircraft there?)

Thanks Robert. Looks like a cover?

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  • DaveJL changed the title to Fight's on! F-5N VFC-13 Adversary. Update 09/08.
  • 2 weeks later...

Some meaningful progress on this one over the last few days. Firstly, the AIM-9 CATM (Captive Air Training Missile) was painted in the distinctive blue, with decals added to the fins from the Two Bobs sheet. The Hasegawa ACMI (Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation) pod was then sprayed in the even more distinctive orange (I think current pods are grey but orange will contrast nicely with the black airframe).

 

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Exhausts and FOD covers:

 

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And so, without further ado, the airframe itself:

 

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Three coats of MRP black did the job nicely. Once dry, I sprayed the rear metallic area and added the colours to the nav lights. Pretty happy with how it has turned out as I've found that spraying black sometimes can give a bit of a 'patchy look. I'm fairly busy with work for the next week but I'll aim to get a couple of coats of gloss and and hopefully get an hour or so after work on a few days to get the decals on.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

 

 

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  • DaveJL changed the title to Fight's on! F-5N VFC-13 Adversary. Update 19/08.

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