ALF18 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Hello dear reader I decided to try something different this time. I'll be doing a side-by side build of two CF-5Ds (in Canada, we have multiple ways of referring to the Freedom Fighter). Officially, they are CF-116s; I use the CF-5 appellation and either A for single seat or D for Dual (a Canadianism, eh...). A great ARCer (Emvar) sent me the small kit plus the resin seats and centreline fuel tank as part of a trade. I had picked up the Classic Airframes F-5B model ages ago, and this is a good time to finally build it. These two will be warm-ups to my 1/32 CF-5A; I will be using the Hasegawa F-5E with Belcher Bits conversion to CF-5A. But that won't happen for a while - I need to get back into F-5 mode before trying to do a decent job on the big one. The CF-5 is one of my favourite aircraft of all time. It just looks sexy sitting still on the ramp, and it has played a part in my life for several years. This picture was taken on the ramp at Portage la Prairie Manitoba, when a CF-5D came to visit in the summer. I was on my basic flying course (flying the mighty Beechcraft Musketeer), and the F-5 was definitely impressive next to the little yellow peril. Here is one of my coursemates dreaming... he never did get to fly fighters, but went on to enjoy his career doing other things. My buddy took a hero shot of me, as I imagined myself flying this machine. To tell the truth, at the time I found the prospect quite daunting. It was scary enough knowing that 50% of the students on my Musketeer course would wash out of training - I thankfully kept myself focused on that one step. Seeing this jet with its hard aluminun skin and multiple switches was very scary! Never in a million years could I conceive of being able to operate it myself... My father was an instructor on the CF-5 at 419 Squadron in Cold Lake, from 1977 to 1981. He came to visit me in Moose Jaw in 1981 in a CF-5D. Here he is strapping in for his trip back to Cold Lake. It was a chilly day; he had to close the canopy quickly after getting in. During the summer of 1978, I flew 4 times in the back of a CF-5 with my father. Here we are lining up for a trip to Jimmy Lake, the academic weapons range. We're in a silver dual - that's what I'll be doing for the 1/48 kit. The wingman was happy to get copies of these pics I took of him. Bob went on to fly Hornets after his CF-5 tour, and we crossed paths often. I took this picture several years later - October 1985, when I finally got onto the CF-5 course in Cold Lake. The 1/72 kit has decals to do this very aircraft. And here is my favourite CF-5 hero shot. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Now onto the plastic... The small kit is a rarity - with Canadian box art. Thanks again, my friend! The resin seats and centreline fuel tank will be great additions. The Timmies coffee certainly helps... The Classic Airframes kit gathered a bit of dust in the garage. I have a love/hate relationship with this set of kits. The resin parts are fantastic, but the fit of some of the parts, coupled with lack of locating pins, etc, make them a challenge to build. I will be using the Belcher Bits decals. This is an excellent sheet! Here are the small seats in the rudimentary Esci cockpit. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 I'm getting better at chopping off the casting blocks. Here are the main cockpit bits - detail is very nice. In this case, the drag chute housing door was present. On previous Classic Airframes kits, I have had resin with it absent. I had to scratch-build covers, which was a real pain. Painting has commenced on the cockpits. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sean Bratton Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 (edited) Looking forward to seeing these two, Alf. The ESCI F-5's are little gems and are one of my favorite kits. Cheers, Sean Edited April 15, 2011 by Sean Bratton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Looking Good Afl will be following this one i have that same Classic airframes kit in my stash to build as the Top Gun M-28 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Middleton Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 neat projects ALF - looking forward to seeing them come to life Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Excellent Alf, really like the photos of your Dad. Mine flew a desk. Would you like a shot of my finished 1/32 CF-5A? Something to look forward too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 ALF, Just don't forget to remove that middle fin on the tank for your mini build. Looking forward to your builds my friend. :P Emil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 This should be another fine build, both of em actually. I built the Esci CF-5A kit many years ago, hand painted in the aggressor scheme, it may have been red 07 also. Id love to get my hands on a C/A F-5B some day, always been one of my favorite aircraft, very nice clean lines. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Looking forward to seeing these two, Alf. The ESCI F-5's are little gems and are one of my favorite kits.Cheers, Sean Sean Yup, this is the second one I build. The surface detail is quite surprising. Another thing I can't get over is how tiny the little jet is - the F-5 is small, but in 1/72 it is really striking. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Looking Good Afl will be following this one i have that same Classic airframes kit in my stash to build as the Top Gun M-28 Neo Cool! It looks really neat in that overall black scheme. Do you think your girlfriend would allow you to keep that one at home? ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 neat projects ALF - looking forward to seeing them come to life Thanks for stopping by, Ken! Hopefully you'll like the results. Excellent Alf, really like the photos of your Dad. Mine flew a desk.Would you like a shot of my finished 1/32 CF-5A? Something to look forward too. Phantom - yes, please post your big beauty. It just might be what it takes to motivate me to attack the kit after these two. Struggling with the resin on the Classic Airframes is a bit of a pain - I expect the big jet will be even more of a challenge. Thanks for the comments about my father's photos. They're all I have left of him... In a way, building models of aircraft he knew and loved keeps him active in my memories. ALF ALF,Just don't forget to remove that middle fin on the tank for your mini build. Looking forward to your builds my friend. Emil Emil Thanks for the reminder. I'll spend some time scrutinizing refs for it. This should be another fine build, both of em actually. I built the Esci CF-5A kit many years ago, hand painted in the aggressor scheme, it may have been red 07 also. Id love to get my hands on a C/A F-5B some day, always been one of my favorite aircraft, very nice clean lines. Thanks Charlie! I'm thinking of hand-painting this one, but not sure yet. It is so tiny - masking would be a bit tedious. I also have to find the right colours in Tamiya acrylics (which is my main source of paints). Anyone have any suggestions, hopefully minimizing the mixing? ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Painting is pretty much done on the cockpits. I used Tamiya XF-19 for the base colour. The little kit comes with decals for the panels. I used Future to glue them in place, because these kinds of decals are always falling off when I use them in cockpits. I also had to chop the right side panel decals, given that the clear band was too wide to sit down nicely along the map case on the console. There was an incredible amount of trimming required on the INSIDE of the tail on the big model. That large lump (looks like a clump of gum) prevented the tail from closing up, believe it or not! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 The CA cockpit comes in two separate pieces. There were several things to worry about here. First of all, the resin on the back of the front instrument panel needed to be trimmed down to fit under the thick plastic of the front instrument cover on the forward fuselage. I couldn't do it easily when the panel was loose, but after it was glued in place (and had set), I carefully sawed it down and trimmed enough to make it fit under the instrument coaming. I did a lot of dry fitting for the cockpits. The resin is a bit wide in places. Also, it is critical to make sure that the two portions of the cockpit are glued in place at the right angle. On first try, I found that I had managed to get the angles slightly off, and viewed from the front the two seats were at different angles. I broke the glue seams and redid them. What doesn't show here is that I had to trim the sides a bit as well - the fuselage halves were not coming closed properly. Back to the Esci kit. The leading edge flaps have tiny notches on them, which led to a bit of a gap when dry fitted onto the front of the wings. On the F-5, there is absolutely no gap here. The LE flaps seat tightly in position. When parked, they are usually fully up. Here is the fuselage and wing assembly, drying. The two side by side. The little guy is definitely going to come together more quickly. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Barneydhc82 Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 ALF: On the CA CF-116D canopy you will be pulling your hair out if you want the canopies closed...they don't fit even close! The resin canopy support arms are very tiny and the rear canopy in the open position is a disaster waiting to happen. The windscreen looks like it was made for the "A" and not the "D" I just finished mine and it was a real PITA project. There is no arrestor hook and no underside scoops in the CA kit Barney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 ALF: On the CA CF-116D canopy you will be pulling your hair out if you want the canopies closed...they don't fit even close! The resin canopy support arms are very tiny and the rear canopy in the open position is a disaster waiting to happen. The windscreen looks like it was made for the "A" and not the "D"I just finished mine and it was a real PITA project. There is no arrestor hook and no underside scoops in the CA kit Barney Barney That's kinda what I was afraid of... The canopies on the real thing (as you probably know) are disasters waiting to happen as well! Sitting in the back, taxiing, it's better not to look up and see them jiggle and twist on their supports with every bump in the taxiway. I will be posing the canopies open - and they'll get attached at the last possible minute. I seem to remember the single seat version (where the rear canopy is of course identical to the only canopy on the single) being a real pain to get posed open as well. What kind of paint did you use for the silver finish? Yours looks pretty close to the aluminum-coloured paint I intend to do mine in. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 NeoCool! It looks really neat in that overall black scheme. Do you think your girlfriend would allow you to keep that one at home? ALF LoL Well actually i bought a new house and moving in on the 25th of June So im going to have LOTS of place in my new man cave to display my planes And might i say Great progress :) Btw coming down to Chicoutimi for easter Friday sat & sun. If i manage some free time ill give you a ring to go and drink a cold one if you have time Take care Neo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Barneydhc82 Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 ALF: I used Alclad II "Aluminum" and Model Master "Guards Red". Barney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GRAIL007 Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Looking good ALF, those kits are coming together quickly! cheers Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Snowbird3a Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Looking Good Afl will be following this one i have that same Classic airframes kit in my stash to build as the Top Gun M-28 IIRC, those MiGs in the movie were F5Fs (or single seat Es), different airplane altogether. Tony Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 (edited) IIRC, those MiGs in the movie were F5Fs (or single seat Es), different airplane altogether.Tony I know but that the closet i found at the time in 1/48 at a very decent price. Im sure Paramout wont be mad at me !! Plus the F-14 that also going in the dio is probably the wrong model too(and most likely wrong marking as they dont exist) but its more for the concept than accuracy. But thank for the info Sorry for the thread hijack Alf Cheers Neo Edited April 16, 2011 by Neo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 T Phantom - yes, please post your big beauty. It just might be what it takes to motivate me to attack the kit after these two. Struggling with the resin on the Classic Airframes is a bit of a pain - I expect the big jet will be even more of a challenge. Thanks for the comments about my father's photos. They're all I have left of him... In a way, building models of aircraft he knew and loved keeps him active in my memories. ALF OK here it is. I am debating starting a 1/48 419 squadron A with a big red maple leaf on the bottom. My CF-5B turned out awful. I don't think I ever took a photo of that one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Middleton Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 looking good ALF - I like them both, especially the little guy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Middleton Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Barney and Shawn - great work on yours! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 17, 2011 Author Share Posted April 17, 2011 ALF: I used Alclad II "Aluminum" and Model Master "Guards Red".Barney Thanks Barney - I was thinking of using Alclad White Aluminum. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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