Hasegawa F-5E Topgun Tiger

[Dragon]

I'll be joining in this GB with the Hasegawa F-5E.

 

 

The kit had no decals, but luckily Furball Aero Design came out with TOPGUN Tigers decals. So, I have quite a few choices of which scheme to do. I'll leaning towards either one of the No. 40 or No. 42 schemes. Decisions, decisions.....

 

 

After seeing Harv's post about Bombshell Brew paints, I went ahead and order up their Aggressor colors to use on this build. I really like the squeeze bottles they come in.

 

I won't get started on this build for bit as I need to wrap up a couple of other builds and get them off the bench.

 

Looking forward to participating in the GB. I wasn't able to finish the Air War over Korea GB, but better precautions this time should allow me to finish this one.

 

Mike 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Dragon

[Shaka HI]

Neat! And over 40 schemes? Wow...

[LSP_Paul]

Way to Go Mike, should be a knock out! 

 

Best of Luck,

 Paul 

[r0t0rdr1ver]

Another excellent choice! I'm a sucker for that desert scheme myself.

[Stevepd]

This is going to be good.

 

Steve.

[Dragon]

Alright, I'll admit it, I have NO will power! I'm at my bench this weekend trying to finish up a couple of other builds before I start this build, but this new project keeps calling to me. I try ignoring it, don't look at it, but the anticipation is too much. I cave! So, off to the side go the other builds and out comes this build. 

 

I started with cleaning up the main landing gear, cockpit and IP. I assembled the seat:

 

The seat looks meager, so I ordered an AM seat which should be arriving by the end of the week.

 

Next I assembled the wing halves together. One side went together with no issues and the other just didn't seat right. So, sanding and dry fitting and sanding and dry fitting was in order. After several trials, I was able to get the halves to fit better:

 

I still need to fill in the wing pylon attached holes.

 

I also assembled the tail. From my participation in a previous Adversary GB, it's my understanding the early Navy F-5's didn't have the ILS antenna on top of the tail, so off it came:

 

I'll start painting the pit and IP this week while I wait for the AM seat to arrive. 

 

It appears this will be a pretty straight forward build; however, my one concern is how the closing of the gun well access panels will go. Anyone have history on this? Advise?

 

Thanks for looking in,

MIke

[Dandiego]

Go slow on closing up the gun panel. Give yourself extra supports to glue the doors to. Give some internal supports or the panel will bow in when you handle the model or when sanding.If the panel flexes inward it will lead to cracks.

 

Dan

[Dragon]

Happy New Year All!

 

This build is not dead just on the back burner as I clean off the bench of other builds. There were five now I'm down to two, so I should be starting back on this one here shortly.

 

Mike

[LSP_Kevin]

Did you make any progress with this one, Mike?

 

Kev