1/48 Kinetic F-5B Freedom Fighter

[doogsatx/]

Here we go! I'm tackling Kinetic's F-5B for Model Aircraft magazine - that means I'll be holding back certain bits of photography, particularly the finished shots. But I also won't be playing totally coy and hiding the whole build. Because I'd go insane.

So...Kinetic's kit is pretty good. Surface detail is excellent for the most part and the only thing that really rankles, detail-wise, is the failure to include clear bits for the nav lights on the wingtip "coke bottle" tanks. The other thing that rankles is the layout. The fuselages is broken up six ways from Sunday - side to side, front to back, and top to bottom. I can see myself using some internal tabs and such to make sure that everything aligns the way it should.

Aftermarket. I'm trying to keep it light for the sake of speed (and there just not being much), but I'm planning to use the Kinetic/Eduard PE set for the cockpit, and replace the poor kit seats with KASL resin ones. The pitot will also be replaced with metal. And...that's it. Probably no aftermarket decals, since the ones in the kit are Cartograf printed and cover 19 different scheme options. I have no idea what I'm going to go for yet, but I'm leaning toward either Greek, Canadian, or Dutch. Which, with all the schemes, is still like 7 options.

Progress started last night with clearing away the cockpit detail to make room for the PE, and prepping the KASL seats, which are a massive improvement on the kit plastic.





Much more to come...

[JimD]

Looking forward to it. Want to get an F-5 in the stash, but I have been going back and forth between this and the AFV.

Also interested in seeing how you outline this without encroaching on the article. You're absolutely right about going crazy. I've built 3 now without doing WIPs and it drives me nuts not sharing it.

[doogsatx/]

Jul 14, 2015 11:37:44 GMT -5 JimD said:

Looking forward to it. Want to get an F-5 in the stash, but I have been going back and forth between this and the AFV.

Also interested in seeing how you outline this without encroaching on the article. You're absolutely right about going crazy. I've built 3 now without doing WIPs and it drives me nuts not sharing it.

I've got an AFV Club F-5F in the stash and it looks really nice...both have very similar layouts, too. I guess the thinking was "let's make F-5's overly complicated to build!".

As for not encroaching, I'm thinking of holding back most of the photo table shots for the magazine, and going with more cell phone bench photos for this thread. There'll still be a few of the "good" photos, but will be saving the bulk of those for the article.

[wbill76]

Looks like a good start, pulling up a chair for what you are able to share.

[doogsatx/]

Last night was interesting. Work and a cranky kid cut into bench time, but I did manage to shave down the back of the rear seat to make it fit with the kit's ejection rails and canopy support.

Some of the kit's...attributes are starting to become apparent. The join between the forward and aft fuselage is awkward, to say the least. I don't know if I'll ever understand the way model companies think when they design kits this way. I mean, IF you have to do it this way, make the things fit perfectly.

The engine setup is weird, too. There's sort of an aft bulkhead piece, and one of the nozzles is loose, but the other is molded right to it. I don't get it. Why not just leave both separate?

Oh well. Morning grumps. I should get a start on painting the cockpit tonight.

[doogsatx/]

The canopy mounts are kind of cool, kind of frustrating. The aft one will be a cinch, the canopy just glues onto a very large curved mount. The forward one settles down onto two "prongs" for lack of a better word, which extend up behind the pilot's seat. They have to be canted outward, or else they are too narrow to fit. So I used a snipped up toothpick to do the fitting.



Also got to prime the cockpit elements last night. They'll be getting real paint and probably PE tonight ahead of some light weathering (and detail painting on the seats).



I still haven't settled on a scheme, but I'll need to soon so I can at least get some color on the bits that will be hard to reach once the intakes are installed.

[JimD]

Those seats are a slight improvements. Really interesting canopy mechanism. Hopefully not too much of a distraction sticking out of the cockpit as you complete the build.

[doogsatx/]

So I've made a decision. I'm going to build two of these suckers.

[JimD]

Two of this kit? Or you going to side by side with the AFV?

[doogsatx/]

Jul 16, 2015 23:04:50 GMT -5 JimD said:

Two of this kit? Or you going to side by side with the AFV?

Two of this kit. Thinking Dutch gray-on-gray and a Greek in the ghost scheme.

[JimD]

Coolness. Is the kit just that much fun or you just really want to do two schemes? All the schemes are pretty cool. I can see it being hard to pick just one.

[Wes]

Two kits equals twice the eye candy Doogs. Bring it on bro. Cant wait.

[doogsatx/]

Jul 16, 2015 23:56:04 GMT -5 JimD said:

Coolness. Is the kit just that much fun or you just really want to do two schemes? All the schemes are pretty cool. I can see it being hard to pick just one.

It's definitely not the kit! Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly good kit, but I wouldn't call it a joy the way I would, say, Tamiya's big Corsair or something.

It's a combination of scheme indecision and an ability to play with different approaches. So...one will have PE and KASL seats. The other will use Wolfpack seats and kit detail for the consoles and IPs. They'll call for different weathering approaches, etc.

Here's the schemes I'm planning on. Not sure they're these exact aircraft, but camo direction at least:

Dutch NF-5B (note the mismatched centerline tank)



Greek F-5B in Ghost wrap scheme

[doogsatx/]

Spun up F-5B #2 last night. The Wolfpack seats are as good as the KASL ones, but a touch too wide for the cockpit, and have to be sanded down slightly.



Primer and Gunze 307 gray on both. Ready for PE on one hand, detail painting on the other.

[JimD]

Great way to play around with different approaches. Both schemes will be fun to do. Of course with the Greek bird you can always go with the heavy weathering if you so choose.

[doogsatx/]

More work last night - mostly fiddling with PE for one of the F-5B cockpits. I also "painted" the intake trunks of one by dumping some Vallejo white into them. They're small intakes, so I think it worked well enough.

Here are the PE panels. I'm trying to swallow my criticisms about PE and just go with it - have a feeling the things that hack me off will be obscured in the final product anyway.



Also got a start on detailing the ejection seats, but just a start. The Wolfpack seats are on the left, KASL on the right.

[doogsatx/]

More work on the F-5Bs...getting into the detail painting fun time!

[JimD]

Moving right along. Looks real good the detail differences start to kind of become less apparent with if all together.

[deafpanzer]

The pit looks fantastic!

[doogsatx/]

Thanks gents - looking forward to getting back to these, but it probably won't be until next week. Once again a major project at work has up and swallowed everything else! Instead of building kits I'm building presentations...

[Leon]

The cockpit detail looks fantastic!

[JimD]

Jul 24, 2015 8:54:01 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

Thanks gents - looking forward to getting back to these, but it probably won't be until next week. Once again a major project at work has up and swallowed everything else! Instead of building kits I'm building presentations...

That sucks. But I guess being busy at work is better than being busy looking for work. Look forward to updates.

[wbill76]

Jul 24, 2015 8:54:01 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

Thanks gents - looking forward to getting back to these, but it probably won't be until next week. Once again a major project at work has up and swallowed everything else! Instead of building kits I'm building presentations...

Death by PowerPoint! The modern Chinese water torture. Hope you can get back to the bench sooner rather than later.

[doogsatx/]

Happy to report that the big presentation went really well - back in Austin again and finally got some time at the bench last night. With work getting in the way of bench time, I think I'm going to abandon my plan of building two of these simultaneously.

Last night I got a bit more detail work done in the cockpit and also got the main fuselage bits (fuselage sides, back bottom plate) glued together. There was some nasty warpage on the tail, but once glued together the warping balanced out into a nice, straight assembly. Go figure.

The nose/cockpit section also slots into the aft fuselage far better than I thought it would!

[JimD]

Well that's shaping up very nicely. Looks like the forward and aft fuselage assemblies didn't get all stupid on you. Thats a good thing.

[doogsatx/]

The wings on this kit are a treat. Just need a little bit of sanding on the interior of the lower wings, and the top wings fit right on.

The control surfaces are pretty novel, as well. Each one has four different tabs - two for posing up, two for posing dropped. Just remove the two you don't need and slot them in.

The wingtip tanks, though, are a bit of a challenge. The locator pins don't align so they have to be removed. After that, careful gluing takes care of the worst of the problems. There is, however, the challenge of the nav lights in the tank tips. I'm honestly not sure how I want to tackle those yet. Making clear styrene "cones" feels like it'd be an absolute nightmare.

[dupes]

Doesn't look like you can go wrong with either of those sets of AM bang seats!

[doogsatx/]

I have just about wrapped the cockpit - washes washed, flat clear applied. Just have a few small details to go and then I'll be closing up the forward fuselage.

[doogsatx/]

A few pics with a real camera!

[doogsatx/]

Well, I hope the cockpit's done, because now it's trapped in the fuselage.

The fore-to-aft join? A futzy mess. I don't really know how to make it less so with the F-5's shape. So Kinetic's doing the best they can I guess?



Here's a closer look at the join. It's going to need some serious (and grudging) attention.