EricF Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Hi Chuck As always all your builds are a reference for the modeler community. Excellent job! Cheers Eric chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Not a jet guy but your builds are always a treat! Love the step-by-step commentary... so informative. And the photography is the best! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F`s are my favs Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Ooooh, that's goooorgeous! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squizzy 78 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Your work is looking amazing as usual Chuck! Enjoy your time in Hawaii Chuck, I'll be heading over there as well in two weeks, have a great holiday, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your F-5 after you've been defrosted! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Great show, Bro'! Sincerely, Mark chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Looking awesome, Chuck! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 Thank you very much Gentlemen! I was asked in the other forum a couple of questions that some may be interested in, so I share them here as well: Two questions if I may please: 1. What do you use to re-punch the rivets? 2. How do you apply the Tamiya Accent Colour? 1. Sewing Needle in a pin vice. Choose a needle that's sharp, but also a bit fat not too far from the tip so that you can modulate the depth and width of each rivet hole. 2. The Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color (TPLAC) product comes in the exact same bottle as their Extra Thin Cement, complete with the same application brush. Shake the bottle, then apply the wash sparingly, using capillary action to suck the dark wash along panel lines. When it dries for at least 10 minutes, use a paper towel or rag with just a little plain paint solvent (not lacquer thinner!) to wipe the excess wash off. Too much thinner and you remove too much wash. Too little and it won't come off at all, so you will discover what that fine line is with a little practice. One note on the TPLAC washes. The label says that it it might harm bare plastic, but used sparingly I have never had that problem. The tiny stress cracks above are 90% new scribing and rivet detail and about 10% TPLAC making it a bit worse, like any solvent would. Cheers, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwrench Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 What solvent do you use to wipe the wash with? Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 1 hour ago, Hawkwrench said: What solvent do you use to wipe the wash with? Tim Ordinary paint thinner you can buy at a hardware store. ie: Varsol or equivalent. Cheers, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwrench Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 Thanks Chuck! Tim chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Looking at the progress here.. almost want to build a CF F5A .. Really nice detail work Chuck. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark M Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 just caught up with this as i was thinking about buying this kit, this is epic and one i will follow chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) March 20/19 Back again after a few weeks on a cruise to Hawaii and back, where my wife and I were able to meet Scott Wilson and his wife, who helped me so much on my long F-4E build. As mentioned in my first post, Scott sent me the 1/32 Hasegawa version of the F-5E and the now very coveted Black Box cockpit, which has been instrumental in “kicking up a notch” the cockpit of this Kitty Hawk kit instead. Scott and his wife Lei took us on a full tour of Volcano National Park on the Big Island and we learned many things about the recent volcanic eruptions and how they affected his community. Scott now flies an air ambulance in a Beechcraft King Air, so he has hundreds of photos of the eruptions from the air that he shared with us. Very cool- as was our all day island tour. I hope to return the favor if he and Lei ever make it to my neck of the woods in Calgary/Banff, so thanks again Scott! Obviously, I haven’t had much time for modeling lately, but I did manage to get the main fuselage assembled this week, complete with my hack seamless intakes made out of PVC plastic pipe. Since the pipe is so thick and hard to sand, my plan is to create a bit of an optical illusion within the intakes, so that all you see at the join with the front portion of the intakes is white and if you’re lucky with a flashlight, the front of the engine fan. After heating and bending the plastic pipe to fit, I cemented it in with lots of thick CA glue, much as I did the resin cockpit. To fill the remaining gaps, I used good old Poly Instafill, primarily used to fill cracks in drywall. This worked really well, because the filler dried quickly, was easy to sand smooth and more importantly, I didn’t have to paint it white. Although really hard to photograph, here’s what the intakes look like inside and if you squint, you can see the front fans. These pics also show the challenge of creating seamless intakes for this kit, because they must flex up and over the landing gear wells. While the prototype Phase Hanger Resin intakes appear to do this, an email exchange with Gary of GT Resin indicates that he may try to incorporate the gear wells in his F-5 intakes as kit replacements to reduce this arch, much like his F-15 seamless intakes that I used on my Aggressor last year. In any event, any new seamless intakes will be better than my plastic pipes and, in the meantime, until they actually become available, plastic pipes are better than nothing! Elsewhere, the fit of the top fuselage to the bottom half was quite bad in many areas and not so bad in others. The panel line and rivet detail isn’t bad, but using several references I did make some changes. The seam line from the rear to the horizontal stab pin is real and should be retained, but forward of that it should be filled completely, as shown in purple below. Other vertical panel lines should be deleted, also in purple, while adding the two blue panel lines instead. And here’s the same pic without all those colored lines for reference. Unfortunately, the dark wash I used earlier can still be found in “ghost panel lines” that I have filled with clear CA glue. For the rear, I used both kit and Eduard PE parts. For some reason only the left of the 4 holes at the top is open, which I found in many different reference pics. This hole was drilled out, along with the loop in the middle from the top. FYI, the wing will cover most of the seam line along the front, so repairs to this area are mostly unnecessary. Before attaching the front intake parts, the front and rear fuselage halves should be cemented together into one unit. This join is poor and weak, so I used the old styrene strip trick to reinforce the junction, fusing the two parts together solidly. From the top, the panel lines line up fairly well, albeit a bit lumpy and no, this join line should not be there as a panel line, as I’ve seen with a few builds of this kit. Edited March 21, 2019 by chuck540z3 johncrow, blackbetty, Coneheadff and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) From the sides, however, the front panel lines are lower than the rear on both sides… While the bottom fit is quite bad. This may have been created by the insertion of my plastic pipe intakes, but I don’t think so, because the fit was not forced. In any case, sanding all this down while retaining the fine detail will be very tough. After a LOT of sanding and rescribing, I think I have the join licked. Again, ghost panel line detail can still be seen under clear CA glue filler. As expected, this bottom join was a bear to fill and re-scribe, but it turned out pretty good after all. With that out of the way, it was time to attend to the front intake parts. As you can see, there are 6 moon crater pin marks on each side and a lip at the rear. The curved cutout may be there so that you can see the engine fans from the front of the intake, although with nothing but plastic junk inside, why bother? That rear lip, I assume, may be for future or failed intake parts, that never made it in the current kit? The pin marks were filled with CA glue and sanded smooth, while the rear of the intake was filled with sheet styrene, to smooth out the intake and create a thicker join to my pipe intakes. A view from the rear, showing how the styrene parts are interlocking, much like the rest of the intake parts. My plan is to not paint the white styrene, but paint the forward portion gloss black as found on my subject. That way your eye will see a sharp demarcation from black to white, with nothing but white found behind in the plastic pipes. To get a good and smooth paint finish, I am going to paint the intakes before assembly both front and back. I will also paint the sides of the fuselage where the intakes attach, again for the same reason. This needle-like jet is now really looking a bit menacing and mean. I love it! Cheers, Chuck Edited March 21, 2019 by chuck540z3 Anthony in NZ, F`s are my favs, Squizzy 78 and 24 others 27 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squizzy 78 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Looking great Chuck! Blending those fuselage sections together must have been a PITA! But the results you're getting must be very rewarding. Great work. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now