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This is my second entry in this GB, it is 1 of 3 kits (A-4E Aggressor and F-16A Demonstrator are the other 2) I plan on building to revisit the kits my father built in 1980 for my brothers and myself while he was away doing training for the USAF. Will build it OOB using the supplied decals just as he built it, this was the model that I set as a benchmark in my early modeling career, I would stare at it for ours at all different angles imagining it in combat situations. The F-5 was lost in a move in 1985, a great loss to my collection.

 

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That is a pretty cool story how your Father built this for you and your Brothers. I built this kit within the past few years, it has a pretty interesting weapons load, and it also has the photo recon nose. I just remember the upper to lower fuselage fit was a little challenging. 

Edited by Kurt H.
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Cool kit, am looking forward to the build! My father also built models

for me, as a kid in the late 50's early 60's he built me an F-102 while

at the dining room table. I was watching and running back and forth

from the living room, where Steve Canyon was on TV that night. He got

stuck on painting and asked me what color the inside of the burner can

should be, I immediately answered yellow, he looked at me funny and made

it so, I had just seen Steve go full throttle!. Will yours be an Air Force or

Navy version? Good luck---John---P.S. It was a B&W TV!!!! LOL

Edited by john53
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41 minutes ago, john53 said:

Cool kit, am looking forward to the build! My father also built models

for me, as a kid in the late 50's early 60's he built me an F-102 while

at the dining room table. I was watching and running back and forth

from the living room, where Steve Canyon was on TV that night. He got

stuck on painting and asked me what color the inside of the burner can

should be, I immediately answered yellow, he looked at me funny and made

it so, I had just seen Steve go full throttle!. Will yours be an Air Force or

Navy version? Good luck---John---P.S. It was a B&W TV!!!! LOL

Thanks John, this will be the USAF version. I didn't get the luxury of watching him build these, but he did modify their respective boxes to keep the finished models safe during his trip back home from training.

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59 minutes ago, Kurt H. said:

That is a pretty cool story how your Father built this for you and your Brothers. I built this kit within the past few years, it has a pretty interesting weapons load, and it also has the photo recon nose. I just remember the upper to lower fuselage fit was a little challenging. 

Yeah, the weapons load-out is quite fictitious, but in the hands of a 13 year old, I could fight my way into any target and bomb the hell out of it and fight my way back to base! Back then I wasn't accustomed to seeing too many 1/48 aircraft models, so when he brought these home, our excitement was off the chart! It seems like a "smaller" model today...lol!

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23 minutes ago, phantom said:

Love that kit, built it several times now!

 

In fact I think I still have a couple.

I've actually bought a couple myself over the years, just never got around to cracking them open for fear of all those "modelers" requirements! :can-of-worms:

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While I continue to wait for my F-86D metallic coat to dry, will fill the time with F-5E work. Here again I am using my trusty 3rd BluTac hand to hold pieces together for fitting prior to gluing together.

 

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Had some time today to assemble the upper and lower airframe halves, thankfully I had my quick clamps for R/C Airplane building handy, the wing underside required a little more than tape to hold in place.

 

6M5eTQt.jpg

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10 hours ago, bashace said:

Had some time today to assemble the upper and lower airframe halves, thankfully I had my quick clamps for R/C Airplane building handy, the wing underside required a little more than tape to hold in place.

 

 

 

That looks like it required a fair bit of force to cooperate.  It also looks like you fared much better than I did when with the forward fuselage..

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3 hours ago, Kurt H. said:

 

That looks like it required a fair bit of force to cooperate.  It also looks like you fared much better than I did when with the forward fuselage..

Getting the major parts to align properly to minimize additional finishing work takes a bit of time and patience, especially if you are trying to preserve the raised details.

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7 hours ago, bashace said:

Getting the major parts to align properly to minimize additional finishing work takes a bit of time and patience, especially if you are trying to preserve the raised details.

 

Indeed. It is a skill I have yet to master.  I always have trouble with monogram kits that have upper/lower fuselages.

 

So how did the fuselage end up? 

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Here's what the upper and lower seam looks like, about the same all the way around.

 

UY19VBq.jpg

 

I use a Squadron Scraper to remove only the unwanted areas along the seam, it's curved blade allows for accurate scraping along the seam only, can leave raised areas crossing the seam intact.

 

S7tkJIh.jpg

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Lower wing seam is an abortion, reason for the big clamps. I'm sure if I had a Dremel with a sanding drum I could get the fit to be flush without excessive force. If I had some plastic card I could of closed the gaps in the fit. Bottom line, none of these problems are insurmountable without the right tools/materials and a little effort.

 

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The Tiger got some love today, did a general, light wet-sanding around the airframe. So far the only area that has received some putty is the nose cone to fuselage joint, just to big of a gap to try and work with. Shot a coat of Tamiya White Primer to see what areas may need a little putty, doesn't look like it will need too much (not counting the underside wing gaps).

 

qEaZhdC.jpg

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With these raised panel line kits, it's important to minimize the amount of collateral sanding you have to do, I use the old trick of masking the putty area to preserve the nearby details. Make sure to remove the masking before the putty starts to cure.

 

 8iGj2NB.jpg

 

LfOXSrR.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Work has been cutting into my hobby time, finally was able to sand the seam areas on the topside of airframe. This handy sanding tool really helps keep the sanding to the immediate area, almost a must to sand around the raised panel lines.

 

hVBVEyx.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Dang, I'm all back of the bus and stuff!

 

Finally got some time away from work to get back to the bench, touched up any remaining sanding woes and gave her a coat of Ammo by Mig One Shot Black Primer (great stuff!). I will be trying the Black Basing technique for the first time spraying SEA camo. Too bad I'm not building a black jet!

 

A nice little dust film had settled on the model as it sat waiting for attention, I used a new Hudy brush to remove all the dust, worked perfectly, not just for R/C Buggy cleaning anymore!

 

S7K8MFw.jpg

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