themongoose

Really great work. Love seeing another original F-5A conversion. I especially dig the flaps and slats! How tough was it to get the main fuselage joint together? The connection doesn’t look very deep on the one i have and I've been wondering how to mke it strong given how much the poece weighs.

I got a lesson on how to straighten wire when I was working on the nose gear bay. Here’s how the main bays are turning out. Tomorrow I’ll primer and add some details plus a few colored wires. I superglued some piano wire behind the diagonal gear support arm to add some strength. I plan to pin the connection point with the piano wire too in hopes of keeping it all together.

Looks like a good start. Those decals should really blend in nice for the look you want!

Lots of pieces parts together so far but not one complete section yet. Guess I’ll post an update and share my progress. It definitely helps with the motivation Feels like everything I touch is a custom piece lol while the front fuselage was drying I put in the saddle and drilled a 15 degree hole in the bottom for the mount. These landing gear won’t hold the model let alone any resin and a nose weight I’m betting! then on the opposite end I had to cut 2.5mm out of each nozzle and close them up in order to match it to the exhaust exit of the Hasegawa kit. Tricky, can't tell in the pic but you cut out a triangle shape so the exit staays the same diameter otherwise the inner nozzle won’t fit right. I used cement to melt the joint and you can hardly tell it’s there. Primered all the weapons...ther’s 2 different SEAD stores here. A little teaser for the finale’ - I picked up some mini neodinium magnets and am going to try nd set up interchangable ordnance Last on the list was a test fit to setup my pilot’s personality...the arm ihad with my Navy pilot looks a bit like he’s giving the queen’s wave lol. Surprisingly after bashing 3 different sets together here he fits without hitting anything!

The base really brings it all together. This is a great project!

Love it! And I’m enjoying the tips as you go along as well.

T-38 conversion - Ive been looking at it for the last week thinking about whether i can use my Belcher bits F-5A conversion on it instead of my Haz kit. Will have to verify the fuselage still goes together in the same place. At the very least I’m waiting till it comes out and buying the clear sprue for my canopies.

Wish i could dry brush like that. So crisp I thought you bought it!

Wow i love the shadows under the paint on the fuselage. Looking sweet

Super nice, looks like a great addition for your display!

Looking good! I like the comparison of the two kts we’re getting as a bonus

Koralik those pics are just what i needed, thanks a ton for posting those!! I’ll probably be at that stagenext weekend so this is so timely. that automotive clear is the way to go. It’s so much better than anything available in hobby paints. I have some for my car projects so imay experiment with it on my next Thunderbird build.

Super nice! The antenna wire attachment to the canopy really caught my eye. Well done.

Your gloss coat is superb! Did you polish it to get it to shine like that or is it a combination of silver primer and the gloss paints? I’m working on modifying a similar Hasegawa one except doing the low viz scheme. Did you have to fill in the wing area running along the side of the cockpit? If so I’d love to hear how you did it to make it looklike it’s part of the plane. awesome job!

I will definitely take 1