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Revell 1/48 F-5F, a Sundowners Aggressor FINISHED


jackroadkill

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5 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

 

It's the best filler I've used, but I won't be buying any more (I'm an AK conchie), unfortunately.

What's an AK conchie? Have they done something awful?

 

Also, is it anything like that perfect plastic putty stuff? That stuff wipes away easily enough but is about as brittle as putty can be.

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Right, we're into the meat of the build now.  After it taking many hours, many applications of filler and then many sandings and dissolvings of said filler, the fuselage joint is about as smart as it's ever going to be.  Unless, of course, when I black-base it it looks horrific, in which case it will get a bit more work, however grudgingly that may be.  I could only do a bit at a time, so the majority of today's building has been waiting for filler to dry, so I used the opportunity to dip the canopy of another kit I'm building in Looks Like Glass.  This was, in part, a test run for the F-5's canopy.  Anyway, what does it look like, I her you cry:

 

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Some pretty minor pits, but pits nonetheless, so I think all of that farting about will be worth it in the long run.  At least, it better had be, or this build will go the same way all of those kits went when I was a kid with a gleam in his eye and a Baikal IZH38...

 

Then I moved onto the intakes.  Oh, God, the intakes.  They were different lengths, widths, profiles and thicknesses, but eventually and with much sanding I got them in and in something like symmetrical shapes:

 

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The keen-eyed amongst you will have already noted that there's some filling to be done.  One day, I swear, I'm going to build a nice kit (my jeffing stash is full of nice kits, why don't I ever build them any more?!), but until then I'm leaving this little lot to dry before getting stuck into my *ahem* favourite part of kit-bullying.

 

 

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Those dear keen-eyed souls mentioned above will by now be wondering what was being smoked in the design office at Monogram (hey, it was the 1970's) when they came up with these intakes, as their profile bears absolutely no resemblance to the profile of the ducts they mount onto.  Never mind, I'll get the angle grinder out and gouge away merrily once the trowelful of filler that each side will need is dry.  You never know, one day I might actually have something that could be viewed in a dim light as progress to report.  And, if you're wondering, yes, I did get carried away with the file.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

 

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A wee bit of progress!

 

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Cruddy pictures, I'm afraid, and you can't really tell what they're of!  However, that's a win for me because it means that I must have done a half-decent job of fettling the intakes onto the fuselage, as they really didn't fit.  At all.  No, really.  Annoyingly, in the second picture you can also see where I need to use some more filler to run the LERX into the intake fairing, because the two parts did not want to make any sort of close acquaintance.  Much filing, sanding and fettling was needed to get things anywhere near right.

 

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In this picture you can see that I've also fitted the strakes(?) to the upper surfaces of the wings.  Naturally their profiles don't match those of the wings, so there will need to be a bit of alteration done to make them look like that haven't been fabricated onsite by a drunk in a darkened room using only a hammer and an old oil drum.  Happily, the fin went on without any dramas and the airframe is beginning to take shape now.

 

The next step (well, after the aforementioned fettling) will be to black-base the whole thing and see what sort of shape it looks.  I'm not that confident about the engine fairings at the rear of the fuselage, because the raised panel lines and clumsy rivet detailing, combined with the fact that the fuselage upper is 0.5mm wider than the lower might make for some fun.  Still, you never know, I might be able to pull something out of the bag.  I don't know when this will be, as there's a busy week up ahead.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

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3 hours ago, modelling minion said:

As Robert says you are doing a really good job on knocking this kit into a very good model of the F-5F, hopefully the black base will not show any more filling work is needed.

 

🇺🇦

That would be ideal but I’m not holding my breath!

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After a week which seemed long on work and short of kit-mangling time I finally managed to get a crack at the F-5 this morning and did a quick bit of tidying up and got the black-base sprayed.  I seem to have overcome the airbrush difficulties I was having and the new spray booth system is working very well.

 

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The black coat revealed a few small areas that need touching up, but overall I'm really pleased with how it's coming along.  It's easy to see why the producers of Top Gun went for a black finish for the "MiG 28"; this airframe looks so sexy in a plain black finish.

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On 7/20/2022 at 8:55 PM, jackroadkill said:

 

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I have experienced several times these two problems with the specific kit.

 

I guess it was one of those choices that afterwards Monogram have realised that they should had moulded the parts as right and left parts instead of upper and lower.

 

Looking forward to see this beauty finished !!!!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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47 minutes ago, Shalako said:

I have experienced several times these two problems with the specific kit.

 

I guess it was one of those choices that afterwards Monogram have realised that they should had moulded the parts as right and left parts instead of upper and lower.

 

Looking forward to see this beauty finished !!!!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Thanks Bill, I am, too.  There's been a good deal of fettling needed but I'm happy with the results so far.

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On 31/07/2022 at 12:42, jackroadkill said:

I seem to have overcome the airbrush difficulties I was having

 

Or did I...?

 

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A pretty manky second stage to the black-basing, to be honest.  I subsequently ordered a new needle and nozzle for the airbrush and then dug a surprising amount of cack out of it.  I might have another go at improving the white on the black-basing, especially as I need to paint the entire fin white in any case.

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My problem with black basing is the amount of paint needed to overcome the black, but that is just a personal view.

Provided you haven't allowed too much paint to build up, this should be OK.
A light rub back with fine wet & dry paper should get rid of the worst edges.  After that, you can carry on to your next stage.

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4 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

My problem with black basing is the amount of paint needed to overcome the black, but that is just a personal view.

 

I agree; I've only done one model previously with a black-based finish, so am still coming at this with an experimental approach.  Formerly I've used pre-shading, usually with two or more colours, and so I'm comparing black-basing to that.  Whether I'll decide on one over the other I don't yet know, but we'll see.  Every day's a school day, and all that.

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1 minute ago, Robert Stuart said:

Sounds like an interesting experiment, Jack.
🤞

 

Hopefully I can arrive at a conclusion, even if it's just that both work well.  No more progress on the F-5 today (other things got in the way) but the replacement airbrush parts landed, so we'll be on all cylinders next session.

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Just so that you chaps don't think I've forgotten about this build, here's a picture of the latest small progress:

 

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I've painted the fin an orange-red.  This will be oversprayed with a darker, almost blood red to give an appropriate colour for the Sundowners logo.  Revell provide a huge decal for this but I can't imagine that it will conform well over all the lumps and bumps moulded into the fin's surface, so I'm going to paint it instead, despite the extra work this will entail.  Next job is to choose the lightest of the three grey shades this airframe is painted in, mask the right areas off, and get it sprayed.  Very slowly, we're getting there.

 

 

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