f5guy

Way to go Dutch! I'll have to order some myself as I'm thinking of starting a Revell Voodoo. Thanks, Fred K.

Thanks Dutch, and also Rob and Jonah for your input! I have a buddy who has a 3D printer, so we're going to get together and make up some radom's for the front and back. I've also decided to do a build thread for it and will post some stuff shortly. It should be a fun build! Fred.

Milliput on....

Pic 3

Pic 2

So here's what I've got so far...... I found an exhaust section from a 48th Hasegawa F-16 in my spares box and cut it down and reversed it. I will use the exhaust tube from the same kit for most of the nose. It looks like there's a slight taper to the fairing that fairs the radar into the fuselage. There also seems to be a very slight step on the empennage leading to the radar. I've got some 22mm resin beads coming for the round part of the nose. So far so good! Fred K.

Hi everyone, I'm currently in the early stages of building BPK's 1/72nd scale T-43A navigational trainer. While searching the internet recently for pics, I came across pics of this beast.... NT-43A 73-1155. It is a highly modified T-43A that was pulled out of the Bone Yard about 15 years ago. It is apparently used as a radar test bed to test the radar signatures of stealth aircraft. It is one of a kind and highly secretive. I have now officially become obsessed with building this jet! I love the lines of the 737, but I also really like these highly modified aircraft with all of the lumps and bumps. I have tried concentrating on building a standard T-43, but my brain has been going for days trying to figure out how to make these additional fairings and radomes on this aircraft. The problem for me is that this kind of scratch building is all a little out of my league. I've been racking my brain thinking about what to use to make the front and rear empennages. The front shouldn't be too hard, but the rear one is another story. The rear in particular would need to be very light, but strong enough to survive normal handling. I'm thinking about using balsa wood for the rear piece and carving/sanding it to form. This would be completely new to me. How do you get the finished balsa shape to look like plastic once the correct shape has been achieved? Some sort of primer and light sanding? Is there some other material that I should consider? I am open to any idea's that anyone has! Thanks, Fred K.

Agreed.... great looking camo! Thanks for the link ;0) Fred K.

Agreed...... Victory & Lotsofmodels on ebay have been great for me as well, and I completely forgot about Hannants. As Mstor mentioned, they have a great selection and generally good prices, but sometimes shipping can be high if you're ordering big stuff (kits) to the US. HTH, Fred K.

I'm another repeat Sprue Brothers customer, and can highly recommend them. Also as thegoodsgt mentioned, ebay can be a great source as well. There's a seller by the name of rebelalpha (Scott Zuieback out in California) who has a great selection and service. I've bought from him for years. You can also find a lot of more obscure items from sellers directly in Russia or the Ukraine on ebay. I have ordered through many of them and not had any problems, but it will often take a package a while to get to you. One word of caution regarding ebay is to watch out for Chinese sellers who are selling kits at insanely low prices. It's usually a scam. The way to tell is to check their feedback, which is usually pretty low (in the 100's, but possibly 1000's), and is real brief like "Good" "Thanks" or "Excellent". Also, the item the feedback is being left for is usually quite low in price, like a dollar or two. It's the old "Too good to be true adage". Not to worry if you do get nailed though.... just file the right claim through ebay and you'll get your money back, as I did. Most of the Chinese sellers are legitimate, but beware of those with really low prices and little feedback. HTH, Fred K.

I didn't even mention the HB kit because its a bad copy of an already underwhelming kit. Hopefully Wolfpack delivers. My fingers are crossed ;0) Fred K.

Great suggestions. Also Tunisia, Morocco, Brazil, Thailand, South Korea, Chile, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan, North Yemen (although Bestfong did do decals of these guys) and how about an Ethiopian Air Force E with six Somali MiG kills on it? Several Iranian E's racked up some Iraqi kills during that war as well. Lots of great Tiger options out there! Which brings me to a minor rant...... I find it hard to believe that it's taken this long to get (hopefully) an up to date kit of such a widely produced and used aircraft! Hasegawa, Academy- who I thought was in a great position to do this kit, and Revell all dropped the ball. Airfix might have eventually done one. Tamiya doesn't even count as they don't do kits of (almost) anything except "teen" fighters and WWII subjects. Meng might have done a nice kit of it as they did a great job with their F-102 and F-106. Thankfully Trumpeter or Hobby Boss hasn't attempted it as given their track record they'd have probably screwed up the nose, canopy and/or intakes. AMK might have done a great job with it too, so hopefully Wolfpack will. Their T-2C is a real beauty! Thanks for listening to me whine ;0) Fred K.

Indeed.... the old Italeri kit is very long in the tooth! As you mentioned, the much older ESCI F-5A/B kits are considerably better. Italeri really dropped the ball on their F-5E/F kits. If Wolfpack's F-5E & F are as good as their 72nd T-2C kit, I for one will be a very happy camper! Fred K.

Lots of great F-5E/F subjects out there! Many different international users, plus literally hundreds of USAF aggressors, and USN and USMC adversaries. While the adversaries have been covered pretty well in 48th and even 32nd scale, there is very little in 72nd scale. Kursad, I have a bunch of VFC-13 Navy adversary walk-arounds that I took myself if you change your mind about doing some. Regards, Fred K.

If it happens, it will be a dream come true for me! I can't believe that it's taken this long to get a new tool kit of one of the most widely produced jets of the Cold War era.... fingers are crossed! Fred K.

Heck... I may have to pick up some more UH-1N kits 😆 Fred K.

Yeah buddy! I'm looking forward to this one in 72nd scale. Thanks Kursad! Fred K.

I'd like to see the NAS Fallon rescue bird in 72nd scale of course! Thankfully Kursad is really good about scaling his 48th sheets down 😃 Fred K.

Hey guys, I muffed up the nose of my 32nd A-6A and am in need of a new nose cone. Does anyone know of anyplace that breaks up kits and sells the parts? I know that trying to get them directly from Trumpeter is a waste of time. I have checked ebay, and there are some parts available, but not the ones that I need. Any help? Thanks, Fred K.

Agreed..... I like this one too! Here's another version. Fred K.

Like this perhaps? ;0) Fred K.

I don't make those kind of videos anymore Paul ;0) Fred K.

You can build a South Vietnamese jet or an aggressor out of this kit. It has all of the parts necessary to do so. What you need to do is figure out which jet that you want to build. The SVAF jets would all be the same configuration. With aggressors though it largely depends on time frame. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is very true with the US aggressors/adversaries! HTH, Fred K.

There's a thread over at LSP about the KH kit and its issues that's nearly 60 pages long! Not that there's 60 pages worth of issues to the kit, it just goes really in depth. HTH, Fred K.

Thanks for the story.... very interesting! All of the F-5E's that returned to the US from the SVAF ended up in aggressor service or with the 425th TFTS at Williams AFB. The jet in this pic, 73-0865, was one of them and served as a USAF aggressor at Nellis for number of years before being passed on to the Navy in the early 90's. It served with VFA-127 then VFC-13 until about 2005 or so before finally being retired. I do believe that it got preserved and is at a museum at Perris, Ca (I think) I'd bet money that its one of the jets pictured on the USS Midway in the pic that Habu posted! Fred K.