trietmcam

If you don't mind lacquer, Model Master flat clear or Testor flat coat is the way to go. It will never frost and will give a dead flat finish. It also work on your decal a little like setting solution by slightly melting it into the surface. It's a little thick so you will need to thin with lacquer thinner. I find all acrylic flats are crap shoots. Polly scale, for all the touting, works great - when it's a good batch. And it's shelf life is limited. If you don't use it after awhile, it becomes kind of stringy and gummy. HTH TCam

That is one SUPER built Phantom!!!! TMC

Killer Tweet hunting.

Old Tweets from Da Nang, 1969.

I have another one. Sorry, the quality isn't very good. After the American left, informations wasnt so easily available. Any ideas when the decals will come out? There have been all kinds of decals for the E's except this one.

Here are some from my old collection, some are very old. They're all F-5Es. I don't know if the VNAF ever received any F-5F. Rumour was, there were 2 F-5F received in 1974. Word was, these four were the only E model that carried the black/yellow checker band. They were received in 1972 right out of Northrop production line as part of the package (along with a bunch of other military aide) to get the S Vietnamese to accept the Peace accord. I could be wrong on this. All the rest of the E's did not carry any checkered bands. You can find more pics at the site mentioned above. Regards T

Exhaust shields. TCam

HTH.

Here's the side by side, real vs. Monogram. You decide. It does seems a bit small to me. Plus the real cowl had a slight bulge at center, whereas the kit cowl is straight out.

Those with fins are BLU-27 750 pounders. F-5A usually carried them. Skyraiders, and Counter Invaders could carry them also.

The BLU-23 500 lbs. finless were common on the Skyraider load out in Vietnam - usually 6 to 8 across as shown here on the VNAF A-1H

There is the Testor/Hawk kit, check this build out : http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/us/jacksonf8f.htm I think you can only do the -2 version though. It does required some work though to get a decent Bearcat. The HobbyCraft/Academy kit according the experts, suffered mishaps nose ring, wheel wells and vertical fin. Cutting Edge have the nose replacement. Not sure about the whell well though.

Rick We had a VietNam group build completed recently. The forum is in the 2006 completed group build. Now is probably a good time to contact the moderators for a write up. Regards Triet

Man! That is nice. It looks like the weather in IndoChina beat the paint surface pretty severe. Take care Triet

Looks like you're on your way to a good recovery Kace. I think it's salvageable with a little bondo and elbow grease. What I do about the dihedral angle problem is just sand off the top wing root a little. This creates a gap between the wing and fuselage. When you close in the gap, the wing angle will bend up, giving you a proper dihedral. Regards Triet

OOhhh, very wicked! I like it. :D

The paint job looks real nice from here Trent. The demarcation lines are very well uniform. What paint you used? The tri-tone resembled pretty close matched to the actual birds I remembered. Do you have any more pics? Regards

Sure there is, how about this? and this and this

I agree. It was oftened dropped for downed flyers in the event of long awaiting pick up time.

I believe they do. Here is one A-1E with both tanks. Another with fin tank HTH

Hector I'd go for interior green on the seats and floor as well. Make sense to keep them consistant if you were painting the real thing doesn't it?

Well Kace, if you want to stick with the SEA camo, the USAF decals are more easily available than the VNAF decals. Aeromasters did a bunch of VN war Skyraiders with USAF markings. Cutting Edge did a sheet with VNAF markings. I used this in the past, and it is accurate. But I found the decals tends to crack easily if you are not careful.

I also had to shave off the kit side walls to make the details fit. Personally, if I had to do it over, I'd leave the side wall details off because it is nearly impossible to see there once the fuselage glued in. I'd stay away from that vnaf marking - due to the inaccuracies. First off is the dragon head logo on the fuselage - one of them is facing the wrong way, I think the left side. Plus, they're way too small. Regards

I think you did it right sir. It's just that the Airfix kit had many shape problems, this being the biggest problem. In anycase, you can try to sand it down into shape, but I think you'll find that may not solve the shape inaccuracy of the nose. But I think you are doing an excellent job with what you have. Certainly got further than I did. Cheers

Wow, you're one brave guy Ivan. I bought this kit 6 years ago. I opened and looked at it once and put it right back and never touched it again. Good luck on your build. Did the package arrive? Hopefully there's enough useful parts for you to use. T.