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


chuck540z3

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21 minutes ago, Smokey said:

Chuck,  The canopy looks outstanding.  Thanks for the Photography Tutorial.  Like all your builds it is a never ending learning experience from you.  Taking lots of notes on the cockpit and the canopy since I have this in the pile. 

All thou the tiger stripe on is really sharp looking, I vote for the black MiG-28.  :) 

Chuck have you had a chance to look at the exhaust on this thing?  Looking for your magic here.


Dan 

 

Thanks Dan.  Yes, I have seen the exhausts and I'm very unimpressed.  You would think a resin replacement for the kit plastic parts would be an improvement, but it really isn't at all, other than it's seamless.  It's also out of round and rough, but you can't sand it for fear of removing the raised rivet detail, which is too high and looks like it's from an A10 Warthog.

 

The solution, I think, is to use the Hasegawa exhausts, which are seamless,smooth and about the same size.  A good couple of rows of Archer raised decal rivets, which are more to correct scale, should do the trick, although I need to figure out how to create that double lip of metal at the back.   Thank goodness I have this old Hasegawa kit, though crappy, has some good replacement parts like the AOA vane as well, which the KH kit is missing.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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10 hours ago, Durangokid said:

Great work as always!  Can you tell me what scribing tool you use?  Your lines always come out so clean looking.

 

Bryan

 

Thanks.  I think I own every scribing tool ever made and as a result, I've tried them all.  Through much trial and error, these are my go-to tools below these days, with the UMM one at the top followed by Trumpeter, GSI Creos "chisel" and a scriber that replicates a needle in a pin vice, but the tip is much stronger and sharper than a needle. 

 

The best scriber for most of my work is by far the Trumpeter one, but they wear out quickly.  For most scribing work, you want a scriber that is sharp, but not too sharp.  If it's really sharp, the tip often has a mind of it's own and digs into plastic away from where you want it to go.  If it's too dull, it doesn't work very well, so you want something in between.  Ideally, I have a new Trumpeter scriber for the first cut down a panel line, then I use a slightly worn one to clean out the groove and smooth things out.  Hasegawa makes one that is similar, but I still prefer the Trumpeter version, because I find it easier to use.

 

For curved edges, I use the pin scriber at the bottom, usually within a template like the ones below it.  These templates are the Hasegawa "Tri-Tool" and another version from Lion Roar, but I have about 8 of them so that I have just about every shape imaginable.  This tool is crude, so you want to start off lightly then dig a bit deeper once you have establish a cut line.  Once the groove has been made, I sand the plastic then use the Trumpeter and other scribers to clean up the groove and smooth things out.

 

On just about all panel lines, I now use the GSI Creos chisel set that come with a variety of widths, but only after the groove has been established.  These tips are super sharp and as you can see by the pic, heat treated for hardness.  On their own, they fly all over the place and are hard to control.  Within an established groove, however, they dig a very fine line and actually push some of the plastic to the sides, creating a bit of a narrower panel line that you had to begin with.  I used this extensively on my Eagle build, because most of the panel lines were too wide and although subtle, this tool tightened up most of them.  They are also perfect for creating micro-detail, like the hinge on the panel I created above.  This takes a very steady hand and lots of patience, but with practice you can create detail that other scribers couldn't touch.

 

And last, sometimes you actually want a wide and/or deep groove, in which case the UMM tool is the ticket.  It is very sharp but doesn't wander, but the resultant panel line is usually too wide for most applications.

 

One last "tip".  I always fill gaps and modify detail with CA glue over putty, because it's stronger, won't chip and you can re-scribe it.  I often screw up a panel line when scribing, so I just refill the error with CA glue, hit it with accelerator, sand it, then start all over again. Simple and I don't have to wait for anything to dry.

 

97vlTz.jpg

 

 

Hope this helps,

Chuck

 

Edited by chuck540z3
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Thanks Guys!

 

January 21/19

 

 

 

A bit of an update, with a few caveats (excuses).  I have painted the cockpit, but I still need to do a bit of wiring behind the seat and “weather” the rest, so that it doesn’t look as showroom clean as it does below.  Also, as always, what I see with my naked eye is only about ½ of the detail of these macro pics, so all flaws are magnified.  Now the sequence, because painting a resin cockpit can be a real picky and demanding experience.

 

 

As I always do these days, I first paint everything with gloss black lacquer, to expose flaws and provide some shading depth to subsequent coats of paint.  I then sprayed everything with some X-22 clear acrylic gloss coat, to protect the black from subsequent applications of solvent as I removed paint from where I want the color to remain black.

 

 

Before:

 

 

l11Yp6.jpg

 

JGEiYl.jpg

 

 

After masking off areas that I want to remain black, I sprayed FS36231 Dark Gull Gray to the interior and seat.  Here you can see a bit of overspray on the throttle console, which is easily removed with solvent with the protective X-22 coat behind it.  Normally only the headrest of the F-5 seat is black, but for my Aggressor, I found a very cool looking seat with Soviet red stars on the flanks of the headrest on a black background.  There are no specific decals that I can find for this, so I ordered some Russian decals for a 1/72 SU-27 that should do the trick, all the way from Moscow!

 

 

2UV244.jpg

 

 

After several hours of painting tiny details, here’s what it looks like today before weathering.  Not bad….

 

 

After:

 

 

 

e1zfDr.jpg

 

 

A bit of a “walkaround”.  Too bad most of that detail behind the seat will be covered, like the brass colored ejection seat charge tube.

 

 

Cj96g9.jpg

 

 

With seat installed.

 

 

kA6ljt.jpg

 

 

I need a bit more wiring behind that seat.

 

 

X7Aiga.jpg

 

 

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While detailed, the instrument panel is a bit rough.  The idea is to carefully paint the gray areas between the gauges, then dry brush with silver the dials on the gauges.

 

 

9kD9Pz.jpg

 

 

I tried that and didn’t like the look, but thankfully I have a boat load of Airscale instrument decals and placards from our very own Peter Castle who sent me a bunch a few years ago, when I was struggling with same on my P-38L build.  Since then I have bought a few more sets, including the very useful 1/32 Modern Jets Cockpit Dataplate and Warning Decal set, which has lots of that yellow and black striped warning decals that you can cut to size, like around the red ejection button on the dash.  For the other gauges, I used a variety of decals, both 1/32 and 1/48, from decals sets that looked either identical or similar.  From US Navy jets, to Luftwaffe, RAF and even Soviet decal sets, I was able to find an instrument decals and cockpit placards that matched the real deal fairly closely.  Since you can’t actually read any of them at this tiny scale, who cares?!  The decals covered the raised relief behind with no real issues once they were placed in position and Microsol was applied.  For the green radar screen in the middle, I used the kit IP decal and cut out this screen, then applied a mixture of Pledge/Future and clear green MM acrylic paint.  For the other gauges, I used a small drop of clear P/F to form a glass-like surface.

 

 

If you use these decals, here’s one tip:  The decals react very slowly to Microsol, but they do react and settle down eventually.  This allows you to move the decals around for several minutes, even with Microsol, which is critical on these tiny applications.  This is the opposite of Barracuda decals which I love, but you really only get a few seconds to position the decal before it won’t move any more- and that’s with plain water.  If you know this ahead of time, it’s not a big deal, but I prefer the much longer time windows of airscale.

 

 

Here is the website for Airscale.  Highly recommended for everything within a cockpit.

 

 

airscale High Resolution Cockpit Enhancements

 

 

Note that the upper and lower portions are not one unit, which helps with easy installation in the front fuselage.

 

 

n4AJil.jpg

 

 

 

 

Edited by chuck540z3
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Dry fit in the front fuselage after some trimming, the IP fits perfectly.  I will deal with the HUD later when I’m ready to install the front windscreen, which will protect it.

 

 

6i3AEQ.jpg

 

 

Everything is starting to come together in the front office, including the sidewalls.

 

 

2e8PxY.jpg

 

 

Rb9EHI.jpg

 

 

 

My next update will have the cockpit finished and permanently installed.  With the fit groundwork already achieved, this should be easy. (Fingers crossed).

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Thanks Guys.  As usual, close-up photography has revealed a couple of flaws, like the gap between the PE brass rail and the cockpit sidewall, as seen on the top of the last 2 pics.  Thinned putty to the rescue.  The shine under strong lighting is too much as well, but all that will be fixed in due course.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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A mini-update tonight, which I should have posted along with the pics above. 

 

Ever wonder where to get really small wires for model wiring?  Quite by accident when taking a computer apart a few years ago, I discovered that those big wide belt-like electrical cords are full of not only wires, but lots and lots of TINY wires.  This is the exact scale of wire I need for this F-5E build.

 

3pyaNc.jpg

 

When painted and attached to stuff behind the seat that have this wiring, they look almost identical to the wires molded into the BB resin cockpit.  Most of the electrical wires reside on the starboard side, so I think that’s it for wiring, even though I could add a hundred more if I cared.

 

WsBl3u.jpg

 

 

Something often lost when posting close-up pics is just how small the details are.  This should give you a better idea of scale.  Those IP gauges are minuscule!

 

 

N0ultG.jpg

 

 

After wiring, I had a chance to dirty up the cockpit a bit and spray a dull coat, to knock down the shine.  Much better now….

 

 

WUY6vr.jpg

 

 

6MfUgh.jpg

 

 

QoIoDb.jpg

 

 

 

 

That is all!

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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