Jump to content

1/32 Kitty Hawk F-5E Kicked Up A Notch. Oct 3/19. Finished!


chuck540z3

Recommended Posts

April 14/19

 

 

I finally finished the wings, including the control surfaces.  As with everything else, every panel line was re-scribed and every rivet re-punched.  I bet I’ve redone about 2,000+ rivets by now, but after a gloss black paint finish, it will be well worth it.

 

 

The wing to fuselage fit is not very good, but by sanding and dry fitting many times, you can get the fit close enough that you don’t need much in the way of filler.  Here’s how I did it:

 

 

1)  Sand and dry fit the wing to the fuselage to get as close a possible to a perfect fit.

 

2)  Apply Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (TETC) to the main portions of the wing to fuselage, then hold the parts tightly together with your hands until the parts are fused.  This takes about 5 minutes and don’t worry about getting glue to all portions of the join.

 

3)  Apply a good bead of TETC along the entire wing to fuselage join.  This not only adheres the wing, but it makes the plastic swell, helping to close small gaps.  Let it dry for 1 hour, then apply another bead, both top and bottom.  You want to use lots of glue, but not so much that you make the plastic too mushy.  Let it dry for 24 hours.

 

4)  Sand the join smooth with #1000 grit sandpaper, removing any excess glue marks on either side of the seam.  Remove the sanding dust.

 

5)  Apply thin masking tape to either side of the seam, leaving a small gap no bigger than what you need to fill.

 

6)  Thin some Tamiya Basic putty in a small jar with Tamiya lacquer thinner.  Since the putty smells exactly like the thinner, I bet it’s the very same stuff.  With a microbrush, apply the thinned putty along the seam.

 

7)  Using a Q-tip dipped in more Tamiya lacquer thinner, swipe along the seam to push the putty into the gaps and smooth the overall surface.  You want the putty to be slightly raised from the join, because it will shrink.

 

8)  Carefully remove the masking tape, which should leave a straight bead of slightly raised putty.  Let the putty dry for 24 hours.

 

9)  Sand the join smooth.  If you still have small holes and gaps, redo them with more thinned putty.

 

10)  For a final sealing micro-filler coat, paint on a thin bead of Future/Pledge on the seam and let it dry for 24 hours, then sand.  If you want to redo some areas, just apply Windex to a Q-tip or rag and remove it.

 

 

Now some pics.  The flaps and ailerons are just dry fitted and I will paint them separately for ease of handling.

 

 

 YalT3O.jpg

 

 

vdZDNW.jpg

 

 

 

The fit on the bottom turned out pretty good too.  The gear wells were painted before I glued on the wings.

 

 

 

ycMqqF.jpg

 

 

 

Now an often-ignored part of modeling wings.  The trailing edges of wings in most kits are too fat and they should be sanded down to thin them.  The ailerons in this kit do not fit the wings at all, so you need to sand each hinge down about 25% in order to get them to mesh properly.

 

 

 

GxZXyD.jpg

 

 

 

Based upon most reference pics of parked F-5’s, the rear flaps are usually straight while the ailerons are drooped down, while the front flaps can be straight or drooped down just slightly- which is how I’m going to pose them.  As somebody mentioned already, this is starting to look like a jet!

 

 

 

mEgawv.jpg

 

 

 

 

Thanks again for your comments and interest in this build.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dear Chuck

 

Once you have this bird with your famous gloss black finish on your shelf, you might perhaps one day make another one with no painting at all...?

 

This meticulous surface preparation has its own asthetic, very much so! I seem to remember a model from Rodney Williams, where he painted only one half of a Corsair F4U, to show all the scratchbuilding going on on the other side. Of course, this was back in the time, when truly accurate kits were still a rarity and perhaps this kind of concept modelling is not your thing, but the sight of such a model from you would be very "educational" ;-)

 

Thanks for showing your stuff here.

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To help you with the aleirons, They are almost always down, but just a little, not so down as youre's are in the pictures. I live near one FAB air base, so I'm very used to be close to the F-5s.

Believe me the correct position of the aleirons are like in those pictures, all made by myself.

 

UIc8bdJ.jpg

yPiNP9M.jpg

ewDSF5F.jpg

kd0LEXt.jpg

kA9NOcb.jpg

hqrMIjc.jpg

LbtGSZO.jpg

MQREOTE.jpg

 

I hope that I could help in this wonderful work.

Cheers, Paulo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, tchwrma said:

To help you with the ailerons, They are almost always down, but just a little, not so down as youre's are in the pictures. I live near one FAB air base, so I'm very used to be close to the F-5s.

Believe me the correct position of the aleirons are like in those pictures, all made by myself.

 

 

I hope that I could help in this wonderful work.

Cheers, Paulo.

 

Thank you Paulo!  Although the ailerons are only dry fitted, the kit attachments force them down too far, which I had not noticed until you pointed it out.  Thanks to your input, I will modify them to sit up more naturally.

 

4 hours ago, fishermanivan said:

Also, the main gear doors drop too, just like a P-51. 

 

Not always!  If you look at the pic in my first post, neither the gear doors or speed brakes are in the down position.  Both are tucked up and closed, which is how this particular jet is usually parked, based upon many reference pics I have.  Although I've already painted the gear wells, I'm torn as to whether or not to have the gear doors open.  The speed brakes, I think, will be open, which brings me to a point about landing gear wells:  Unless you can see inside them easily, I no longer detail them with scratch plumbing, etc.  I have spent countless hours on my past builds doing all sorts of gear well detailing, never to see it again, so why bother?  One exception is my P-51D build, where the gear well is large and fairly visible if you peek underneath, even without a mirror, so I would detail the gear well in that model again.  As you can see in the pics above, the kit detail in the gear well isn't too bad, so what you see is what you get.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

Edited by chuck540z3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One more great update, stunning work as usual. Bravo.

 

May I ask something (maybe OT...)?

 

Following your builds, I started using Tamiya X-22 to get a glossy surface, decals friendly.

 

It really works great, much better than Future, IMO, thank you for the great tip :-)

 

But... when using Micro Sol,  or Gunze or Tamiya  decal softners, they  "run" on the very glossy surface, forming a big bubble, which I cannot use to wet the area to be covered by the decal, because the bubble keeps forming, leaving a dry surface behind...

 

What is that I'm getting wrong? Thank you!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rocat said:

Following your builds, I started using Tamiya X-22 to get a glossy surface, decals friendly.

 

It really works great, much better than Future, IMO, thank you for the great tip :-)

 

But... when using Micro Sol,  or Gunze or Tamiya  decal softners, they  "run" on the very glossy surface, forming a big bubble, which I cannot use to wet the area to be covered by the decal, because the bubble keeps forming, leaving a dry surface behind...

 

What is that I'm getting wrong? Thank you!

 

 

Funny, but that hasn't been a problem with me.  I use Microsol and while it does bead up, I can usually smear it around the decal with a soft paint brush to get it to lie flat.  While the surface under the decal is super smooth and might cause beading, the top of the decal is just the decal, so beading shouldn't be a problem.

 

Maybe there's something in my bag of tricks that I wrote about 2 years ago here at LSP that might help:

 

How to Apply Decals

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

April 17/19

 

A quick public service announcement.  Like most of you guys, I use a lot of microbrushes of every description and go through maybe a hundred per model.  Purchased from my local hobby shop, they can cost $0.20/each or more.  I've bought them in bulk from the usual modeling internet sites for about half of that, but that was when I was looking for "Modeling or Hobby Microbrushes".  I discovered by accident a few years ago that if I looked for "Makeup or Dental Microbrushes", I found the very same thing- and more selection- for only $0.02/each!

 

Here's my latest order from ebay (or Amazon).  4 X 400 = 1,600 microbrushes for $31.50, delivered free to my door from China.  At this price, I don't have to worry about keeping any of them clean.

 

KqumrR.jpg

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...