f5guy Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 15 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said: She looks good Fred, LOVE my MM ! Steve Damn Rustoleum 🤬🤬 (Who bought out Model Master paints and then promptly killed it off) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 10 hours ago, Thadeus said: Hey, if You get back at a project it doesn't matter how long it had to take. Great to see You back at it. Thanks Thadeus! I'm really excited to be going on this project again. I forgot how much I enjoy building aggressors and adversaries 😆 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Looking great Fred! I share your love for the Tiger, so it's a pleasure watching your build come together. Back in November, I got to visit TacAir's maintenance facility at Cecil Field. They're putting the former Swiss birds, back together for the USN/USMC. Plus their own jets. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy. -Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 9 hours ago, ST0RM said: Looking great Fred! I share your love for the Tiger, so it's a pleasure watching your build come together. Back in November, I got to visit TacAir's maintenance facility at Cecil Field. They're putting the former Swiss birds, back together for the USN/USMC. Plus their own jets. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy. -Jeff Hi Jeff! Wow... thats SO awesome to see that they're planning on keeping the F-5s going for awhile longer. Thanks for sharing the pics 👍 Are they standing up another unit, or are these going to replace existing Tigers? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 14 hours ago, f5guy said: Hi Jeff! Wow... thats SO awesome to see that they're planning on keeping the F-5s going for awhile longer. Thanks for sharing the pics 👍 Are they standing up another unit, or are these going to replace existing Tigers? Many will go to plus up VMFT-402 at Beaufort and bring up VMFT-401 to it's full numbers. They transferred several Tigers East for -402. And TacAir bought up all of Saudi Arabia's jets (in addition to their Jordanian birds), so the F-5s will be around for quite some time. Cheers! Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 3 hours ago, ST0RM said: Many will go to plus up VMFT-402 at Beaufort and bring up VMFT-401 to it's full numbers. They transferred several Tigers East for -402. And TacAir bought up all of Saudi Arabia's jets (in addition to their Jordanian birds), so the F-5s will be around for quite some time. Cheers! Jeff Apparently I've been out of the loop for a bit.... I didn't know that VMFT-402 had gotten stood up. One can never have enough aggressor squadrons 👍 I have seen TacAir's jets flying around locally out of Hill AFB, and guessed that they were originally Jordanian, so I might have been right there. I had no idea that the Saudis had sold theirs though. Interesting... Thanks for the intel Jeff 😉 Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 Hi everyone, Well I finally had a chance to make some progress on #04. I got the camo masks on. It took a good five hours to do it, and I've got a couple of small things to fix, but the bulk of it is done. I hope to be spraying the dark ghost grey this evening. The masks worked okay, though the material does tend to want to peel off in areas with curves. Also, I had to fill in the gaps with yellow tape in several spots. This is largely due to the differences of applying a two dimensional mask to a three dimensional model. There were also several spots that just did not line up, so a little improvisation was called for. With any luck I'll post a pic of it with the grey sprayed and the masks off in the next day or two. Thanks for looking! Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Best of luck Fred. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 Okay, the dark ghost grey is on, and the masks have been removed. As expected, some delicate touch up will be required. I hope to get to that tomorrow as I wait for the Super Bowl to start 😆 These "tiger" scheme's sure make for a lot of masking, but they really look great once the masks start coming off! All for now, Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Not too shabby Fred, she's looking good. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 56 minutes ago, A-10 LOADER said: Not too shabby Fred, she's looking good. Steve Thanks Steve 😉 A bit of touch up to do, which I hope to get to today. Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lgl007 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 WOW... that's looking amazing! Love that camo... a real looker 🙂 -Greg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 8 hours ago, lgl007 said: WOW... that's looking amazing! Love that camo... a real looker 🙂 -Greg Thanks Greg 😄 I still have an hour or two of paint touch up that needs to be done, but progress is being made. Regards, Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Drifterdon Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 That’s looking amazing Fred. Once again, I can’t get enough of your F-5s. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 (edited) Hello everyone, Over the last week I've been working on this very complicated paint job. While I'm thinking of it, I'll point out that the Gatorzmasks that I used were done referencing the Twobobs instruction sheet, and are thus largely correct for this jet for awhile after it was originally painted in this scheme, which is when I took the pictures that Twobobs used to make the sheet. The Aeromasks masks that I considered using depict this jet at a later date, and the scheme had changed a bit. I made a few minor errors on the paint job, mostly associated with transferring 2D masks to a 3D model, but I'm happy enough with it. So the scheme was finished after much intricate, and time consuming paint touch up. After drying for a few days it was gloss coated again, and I painted the nose black, and the wheel wells white. Later I found out that they should have been silver, but I have photographed VFC-13 jets with both silver or white wells, and occasionally both, so I'm not too worried about it. The decaling started off badly right away. The bort number "04" split into several parts as I tried to slide it off of the decal paper. I tried to salvage it, but no luck, so I used the remaining 04. Thankfully I had the second release of this sheet as well, and used the 04 from it on the opposite side. Later I discovered that the shade of the red between the two sheets was quite a bit different. Luckily, the 04 decal from the second sheet fit right over the 04 from the first sheet, and now both look the same. After that the remaining decals went on as well as one would expect Twobobs decals work. The only issues with the decals are that the static port circles are WAY too big for 48th scale, so I used the ones from the kit decals. Also, the aircrafts serial number is a bit too big too, but I didn't replace it. I have since applied the panel line wash. Tomorrow I hope to get the remaining bits on, and get it flat coated, to wrap this build up. Stay tuned! Edited February 27 by f5guy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Great job on the tedious scheme, Fred. Glad you got your troubles sortied. -Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Good job sticking with her Fred, even with some bumps in the road. She's looking good. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lgl007 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Agreed with Steve... stick with her. She's looking really good from the photos 🙂 I can't wait to see her finished. Just think of it as a labour of love 😉 -Greg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Collin Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 "Stay on Target.....Stay on Target".... Looking forward to seeing this in-flight build when finished!! Cheers Colllin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 Holy... this is NICE!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr.Happy Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 F5 Guy, That is some outstanding aggressor work and I hope you’ll build more. Keep up the great posts, Mr. Happy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 (edited) Thanks for the kind comments everyone! Okay, 04 is done 👍 These are just some quick pictures before I head for work. I'll take some better pics of it on the runway base later this week and get them posted. As you can see, I had some issues with specks of plastic showing up quite noticeably in the sealed cockpit. At some point I'll pop the wind screen off and blow it out, but for now I'm going to keep my aggressor mojo flowing and move on to my next build. Also, regarding the Quickboost auxiliary engine intake doors, the door vanes provided are too short once you cut them from the resin block. I ended up having to make my own out some Evergreen plastic strip. Cutting, painting, and gluing these doors on accounted for several hours of this build, and was quite a chore. And just as a reminder folks, those doors aren't open unless the engines are running, so someone needs to be in the cockpit. Overall I'm quite happy with the build and am now moving on to VFC-13 #05 from the same decal sheet. Then I'll bounce back to the all black #25 and wrap this thread up. I just need a break from those auxiliary intake doors! Fred. Edited March 3 by f5guy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lgl007 Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Oh momma!!! Thant's nice 🙂 -Greg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 20 minutes ago, lgl007 said: Oh momma!!! Thant's nice 🙂 -Greg Agree, great work Fred. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ichitoe Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Great job! This scheme is one of my favorites! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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