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Kinetic NF-5A 314 Sqn KLu


Stefan Buysse

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Hi,

 

Here's my Kinetic NF-5A that I've had in the stash for a while.

Back in 1986, I went to the Klu Air Show at Eindhoven AB. It was a great day out with my dad and a mate from school. Flying displays included a USAF F-111, Spanish F/A-18, RAF Harrier GR3 and the German Navy "Vikings" team with two F-104's.

The Dutch flew large formations of NF-5's and F-16's. 

I'll build this one as one from Eindhoven-based 314 Sqn in the "RAF scheme". The name "RAF scheme" is because it was derived from the scheme that the RAF painted on their Air Defence Phantoms. 

FcblLsq.jpg

 

Cheers, Stefan.

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Hi,

 

Enzo Matrix must have had a very early version of this kit. He mentioned in his thread that there was no starboard tip-tank.

In my boxing (same box-art) there are new parts for another tiptank added to sprue E. As you can see, the drawing in the instructions still shows sprue E without this addition.

 

fuk0giw.jpg

 

Cheers, Stefan.

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Hello Stefan

A belated welcome to the build.

You are right, Enzo does have an earlier edition of the kit, Kinetic added the starboard fuel tank in later copies.
Watch out though, the new fuel tank is narrower than the old port one.
If it is an issue, you can either pad the new tank out with plasticard, or graft the new wing socket into a port tank, and rescribe the panel lines &c.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

 

Over the next week, I hope to make quite a bit of progress on this model.

I did not put a lot of effort into the cockpit. Now I'm glad I didn't, because when I removed the clamps that you see below, the cockpit tub was not exactly where I wanted it to be. Nothing terrible like the ejection seat leaning over to one side, but it's not going to be model where I'll want to look into the cockpit. It's going to be cloes anyway.

 

  SmTmqWM.jpg

 

Cheers, Stefan.

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Think this was one of Kinetic's earlier kits, so it has a few faults; case in point, the fit of the 'pit on this kit isn't the best.
Another detail to look out for, if you are using them, is the coke bottles; the replacements are narrower, in plan, than the originals.  Easy enough to deal with, if you are looking out for it.

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Hi,

 

When I test-fitted the front and rear fuselage together, there were awful gaps.

I had a look at the other Kinetic builds here and I saw that they had also needed some putty in the same places.

After glueing the fuselage together, it looked pretty awful. 

I applied the putty and sanded a bit of the excess away. All of this felt like I was doing a terrible job.

Tonight, I sprayed on this grey coat to see where it should be improved.

The flash photography probably helps, but it turned out better than I expected.

 

ogfv8lg.jpg

 

I had been thinking of building one of these as a Norwegian F-5A for the NATO GB of 2024, but I may well go for an F-104 for that one.

 

Cheers, Stefan. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

With less than a week to go, it's time to get moving.

She's standing on her landing gear now. That was something I liked about this kit: the landing gear goes into place with no doubt about the location and sits there firmly.

 

I did buy a second hand Italeri F-5A at the IPMS Belgium National Convention last week. The one I want to build for the 75 years of NATO GB in 2024 is in NMF and maybe the Italeri one is a better choice for that.

 

eees2si.jpg

 

Cheers, Stefan.

 

  

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Stefan, while it is great to see these finished (having a deadline helps with that), the important thing is to enjoy the participation and process.

 

Having said that, it'd be good to see a Norwegian example in the gallery.  Haven't seen your decal sheet, but both Kinetic F-5s I've got have a good selection of Norwegian decals.

 

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Hi, guys.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I'm still pretty confident that I'll  make the deadline.

 

Robert, this one is going to be a Dutch NF-5. My Norwegian F-5 will be for the NATO GB of 2024. I will indeed be using the Norwegian decals from the Kinetic kit then.

 

Cheers, Stefan.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

 

Here's my finished NF-5A. 

I'm happy to have a 1/48 model of a 314 Sqn NF-5A. I hope that there will be better 1/48 F-5A  some day. Maybe Kinetic will revisit the subject like they're doing with the F-16AM, or maybe AFV club could do one that's as nice as their F-5E...

 

 jes5DRP.jpg

 

Cheers, Stefan.

Edited by Stefan Buysse
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An excellent result Stefan, she looks fantastic and I am very glad that you continued the build and shared a picture of her now that she is finished.

I agree that we could do with a better F-5A/B in 1/48, surprising there aren't more kits of them considering how popular the aircraft are.

Thank you for having taken part in the GB and very well done on creating such a great model.

 

🇺🇦

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