1/48 Kinetic F-5B Freedom Fighter

[doogsatx/]

I'm plowing through this one with gritted teeth.



See...this is the problem when manufacturers try to get all cute with the construction, but lack the fit tolerances of a Tamiya or a Wingnut to pull it off. You end up with a mid-fuselge mess with multiple parts coming together in ways that just don't really work all that well.

Thankfully solvents and expletives go a long way.

[wbill76]

I bet it looked good on the CAD screens though when they laid it all out!

[doogsatx/]

Wrapped up the majority of the topside construction last night. Still have a few things to address down below, and then so much sanding, filling, and more sanding. Yay.



At least the clear parts fit and align pretty well...

[doogsatx/]

Alright. On to the fun stuff.



Got a good deal of the sanding and filling done last night, but the mid-fuselage stuff is going to take a few passes I think. I got the steps as minimized as I could in construction, but they're still gnarly in places.

[JimD]

Oh man. That's a lot of red. It'll look great when done, but you're going to work for it.

[deafpanzer]

Catching up... looking real good as usual! Have fun sanding that red stuff off!

[wbill76]

Bondo's your copilot on this build by the looks of it!

[JimD]

I'm gonna ask this here since you'll likely see it. I was reading through your Skyhawk thread to get a sense of the kit since I ordered the Eduard one....anyway. I missed the thing with Tamiya clear oversprayed with lacquer for a gloss. Holy cow it looks amazing...have you replicated it since? And are we talking X-22?

[doogsatx/]

Yep, X-22! I don't have a pic of it, but I did the same approach with the AH-1Z. It works really well.

[doogsatx/]

Same crap, different day. More filling, more sanding, more smoothing.



You can see from the amount of red how awesome some of these steps are. I'm really not looking forward to rescribing.

[JimD]

Aug 7, 2015 9:37:36 GMT -5 doogsatx/ said:

Yep, X-22! I don't have a pic of it, but I did the same approach with the AH-1Z. It works really well.

Well I'm totally going to test this later. I don't know who thought of it, but it sure did look great on the Scooter.

As for the F-5...yeah...I'm totally going to skip this one it looks like. Just more than I care to deal with.

[doogsatx/]

Aug 7, 2015 11:34:52 GMT -5 JimD said:

As for the F-5...yeah...I'm totally going to skip this one it looks like. Just more than I care to deal with.

I can understand that. Overall it's a pretty good kit with some really thoughtful bits, BUT the mid fuselage is a construction nightmare and there are few other frustrating elements (way the engine nacelles are treated, thick leading edge of the stabs). If it weren't a magazine build I might have set it aside already.

[Rick]

Way to stay with it Doogs. No question these kinetics build up nice but take a lot of effort to get them there as you've clearly shown. Ive stayed away from them so far as my mojo level has really bottomed out these last few months and available bench time has been minimal.
Love to see your touch bring these to life though.

Rick

[doogsatx/]

More filling and sanding...hoping to get past this stage and maybe throw some primer down before I head out on vacation next Thursday.

[JimD]

You'll need a vacation after this. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I have no shame in admitting I don't like laboring through the construction phase. Sprue Bros recently got the Wolfpack SEA boxing and I almost ordered it...then saw this. Really want to do an F-5, but man this is hurting me to watch.

[doogsatx/]

So last night I put down some Mr Surfacer 1500 to see how well the filling work has been coming along. Good news is that the mid-fuselage looks pretty good.



Unfortunately, the nose seam that looked solid needs some attention.

[JimD]

Looks to be getting close. I almost always find some nasty surprise after primer. Amazing how it can look perfect when still naked and so off with primer. At least that's an easy fix.

[doogsatx/]

Things (fingers crossed) fixed. Wing tanks and control surfaces glued in place. I have a feeling I'll be masking clear parts most of tonight. The cockpit divider is going to be the real PITA, especially since no one ever bothered to make a mask set for this one (the F-5A mask can cover the windscreen and one of the canopies, at least).

[Deleted]

Ohhh... so that's what no seams looks like. I've been doing it wrong! Great job on this, looking forward to the next update.

[deafpanzer]

Looking sexy already... can't wait to see your magic on it soon. You and your painting always leave me speechless! No it is not because I am deaf. LOL

[JimD]

Looks like it's getting close. This one and my frustration with black paint last night made me finally break down and stop waiting for SB to restock the black Mr. Finishing Surfacer....ordered a case from China.

And I tried the X-22/lacquer thinner thing last night....amazeballs.

[doogsatx/]

The slog continues. At this point I feel like I really need to get this one into paint, because the prep work is taking me to really negative places.

The clear parts...masked (no thanks to Eduard, who doesn't do an F-5B mask and whose F-5A mask doesn't fit)...



The mayo-like substance is just liquid frisket. Handy for lazy masking.

Here's another fun bit. The kit's wing tanks don't include clear bits for the nav lights at their tips. So I'm subbing in some MV lenses...but making them fit just so is going to be another exercise in frustration. Especially because 1.6mm is just about to that point where my pin vise can't take the bit (and because the lens is so small that I just know I will lose a lot of them to the garage floor)

[John Everett]

Show that kits who's boss!

[wbill76]

I can understand your frustration with this one, don't launch it prematurely! If you can get those MV lenses to work, it will definitely add to the detail on this one. Kind of surprised that they went the easy route on the wing tip lights...wouldn't be that hard to provide a clear option considering.

[doogsatx/]

Made some more strides last night...got initial paint and primer down onto the canopy, got more primer onto the aircraft itself, and installed the MV lenses in the wing tanks.



I really need to figure out what I want to do with the intakes. On some of the Greek -Bs, they're just painted in camo along with the rest of the aircraft. On others, there's a red border. On others, there's a red border and the intakes (out to the splitter) are painted white. And on a few, there's a red border and the splitters are also painted red. I'm leaning toward the first because laziness.

[deafpanzer]

Looks perfect... free of seam lines! Looking forward to see your magic paint job on it soon...

[doogsatx/]

So I broke down and got the Icarus decal sheet - figure I may want to do an F-5A at some point as well, OR I could always turn the extra markings over to a WIF of the F-16XL or something.

One of the schemes is this particular ship, #89092, which runs the gamut from clean to, well, not.





Apart from the rather faded paint and...interesting touchups (with what looks like the overall blue they used on some F-5As and other stuff like Mirage F.1s), note the mismatched wing tank and what looks like a replaced pilot's canopy.

Suddenly I'm starting to get a bit more excited again. This could be a really fun paint scheme. Except for the candy cane treatment on the pitot tube. That'll just suck.

[wbill76]

That's the trouble with inspiration photographs! The 2nd one definitely will be more interesting for the kind of patchwork elements it has going for it.

[JimD]

Wow. The prospects of painting that will certainly make up for the meh-ness of the kit. Do you have a pic of the other side, or are you going to have to wing it?

[doogsatx/]

Aug 20, 2015 12:15:41 GMT -5 JimD said:

Wow. The prospects of painting that will certainly make up for the meh-ness of the kit. Do you have a pic of the other side, or are you going to have to wing it?

The other side. I think this one's been HDR'd or something since it looks a little bit fake. The canopies look of similar color so I'm not sure it's the exact same time period, but the blue spinal section is still there so it's at least ballpark.