Drew T.

Thanks Dutch and Scooby!

Thanks guys!

Thanks! Just a quick preview of the paint job. I have the red and white sprayed. Paint is Mr. Color GX-1 white and GX-3 red. The F-20 designation on the fin and the serial number are masks. I still need to mask and spray the black pinstriping between the red and white along the fuselage which will be a real pain. This thing looks like a flying billboard for Coca-Cola in bright red and white! 🤣

Thanks!

Thanks as always guys!

Thanks Steve! I’ve made a little more progress on this project. I decided to get the landing gear and gear bays assembled and painted before painting the red and white scheme. The landing gear in the AFV kit is ok, but could definitely use some detailing, especially the nose gear. I’m surprised no one has come out with detailed 3D printed replacements, as the nose gear in particular is pretty complex and the F-5E is a pretty popular subject. I did use the forward fork of the nose gear from the FM kit, but the rest is from AFV. I’m also using Reskit’s wheels. They look great, but beware

Thanks Curt! You're right about the wheel wells and landing gear. These parts are 3D printed parts that had a slightly rough finish. This made the enamel wash I applied difficult to remove and stained some of the surfaces. I had to go back and touch up these areas with the white paint, otherwise, these areas would look too dirty. So I ended up erroring on the side of too clean instead of too dirty.

Thanks! I have an old nearly completed Monogram F-20 as well. Monogram actually got the shape more accurate than Freedom Model, but the detail is not nearly as nice.

I had planned to use the KASL exhaust, as the kit one looks horrible. However, I also happened to have the Wolfpack exhaust as well. I liked the Wolfpack exhaust better, but it didn't include the front section of the exhaust like the KASL set. The OD between the two exhaust sets didn't quite match, but the middle section from the FM kit was a pretty close match. So what I ended up with is the Wolfpack exhaust (blue-gray section), the FM kit middle section of the exhaust (gray section), and the KASL front section of the exhaust (tan section). I also opened up the vent on each side of th

Hi guys, it's time to post an update. I now have this project to the priming stage so I'll go over everything I did to get the main assembly complete. Joining the nose section of the AFV kit to the rear fuselage of the FM kit resulted in a step between the two sections around the area behind the cockpit and above the intakes. I dealt with this by recontouring this area with putty. I don't like to use typical solvent based putty for thick applications like this because it can shrink over time even after it's dry. Instead, I used UV light curing putty from Colad. It cures inst

Thanks JayBee!

Thanks Thadeus!

Thanks guys! Merry Christmas! 🎁

Thanks Janissary and Walt! To answer your question Janissary, usually, the way I open up the areas you're talking about is to first drill out a couple of holes with a small drill bit. But before I start drilling, I first use a sharp pin in my pin vice to make a starter hole. That keeps the drill bit from wondering. After I make 2 or 3 holes, I use a #11 exacto blade to carve out the rest of the material. It's best to not use a fresh blade for this since the tip will probably break doing this kind of work. Hope this helps and Merry Christmas! Drew

Thanks Scooby and Red Dog!