F-5E aggressor

[Jens]

I received my first 1/48 AFV Club F-5E in mid-March, and upon looking at the kit contens I just knew I had to build it right away. After a week the model was ready for paint (that's way too fast for me ).

The first sub-assembly I put together was the aft fuselage:

Note that I have not attached the horizontal tailplanes. I decided to cut the axle in half, thereby allowing me to attach the tailplanes after painting. That also makes it easier to clean up the joint line.

While the aft fuselage assembly was drying I started working on the front fuselage and cockpit. I think the level of detail in the cockpit is adequate for me as my main goal is to show off the various colour schemes instead of going AMS on it! Seat belts would have been nice though.

Unlike the Tamiya F-16 this kit has only four ejector pin marks, all placed inside the intakes. Speaking of intakes, I decided to blank off the intake right in front of parts P12 and P13 to avoid the hollow fuselage see-through effect (another place where AFV Club could have done better). The fit of the intakes was almost perfect and I used no filler here whatsoever. Unfortunately the normal length nose gear leg was a short shot so the front actuator was missing. No worries though, I have taken the leg from another F-5E (which is going to have the extended leg anyway).

Except for the standard FS 36231 cockpit colour the cockpit was painted and inserted into the front fuselage in one evening:

This was another place where I deviated from the instructions. I chose to glue the nose of the front fuselage together before adding the cockpit. I did this to ensure the fit was ok (which it probably would have been anyway). Inserting the cockpit was that easy so I might just follow the instructions when I build F-5E nos. 4, 5 and 6 (2 and 3 have had the fuselage glued together already).

Dry-fitting of the front and aft fuselage halves looked good:

...and was good! Later on I added the intakes and LERX (leading edge root extensions):

More to follow...

Regards,

Jens

Edited April 8, 2010 by Jens

[Jens]

Enter the painting stage.

I sprayed the first colour Tuesday evening:

Had a two-hour painting session Wednesday evening:

And another two-hour session tonight. This is what it looks like right now:

I have used Xtracolour btw. Next step is to touch up the two first colours, making sure the demarcation lines are ok and painting the areas I missed with the first colour. :shithappens:

Regards,

Jens

[Jens]

I forgot to mention that when the painting stage is over, all I have to do is wait for Afterburner to release their F-5E sheet.

This one will be '57'.

Regards,

Jens

[Mentalguru]

Wibble....

[shark 64]

Very cool. Nice work. I have that plane in 1/32 scale. I did not know it was available in 1/48 too.

Oliver

[Simon G]

Vedy nice. Is that a home made extractor unit in the back ground?

Si.

[Uncle Tadhg]

Outstanding! I especially like the cockpit, it really doesn't need any aftermarket, it's so well painted. One of my favourite aeroplanes, I can't wait to see it finished.

[Tigerausfb]

Nice! When I was much younger we used to cycle up to the rear gates at RAF Alconbury and watch the real thing.

Andy

[Jens]

Very cool. Nice work. I have that plane in 1/32 scale. I did not know it was available in 1/48 too.

Oliver

Thanks Oliver. If you want to know a bit more about this very nice kit Mike's preview here on BM is worth reading.

Vedy nice. Is that a home made extractor unit in the back ground?

Si.

Thanks Simon. Yes, the rear end of my homemade spray booth is from an ordinary hood, fitted with the metal filter and a carbon filter.

Outstanding! I especially like the cockpit, it really doesn't need any aftermarket, it's so well painted. One of my favourite aeroplanes, I can't wait to see it finished.

Thank you. The cockpit is rather nice and easy to paint, but seatbelts would have been nice too.

Nice! When I was much younger we used to cycle up to the rear gates at RAF Alconbury and watch the real thing.

Andy

Thank Andy. I don't remember having seen the aggressor F-5s but I know there have been to Denmark more than once.

Regards,

Jens

[atdb27]

Hi Jens,

That looks rather nice & yummy!

Are the Aggressor options the only one's in the kit?

Do like this a/c.

Adrian

[Jens]

Thanks Adrian.

The kit contains decals for four schemes. As Mike mentioned in his review here on BM, the options are:

•Royal Malaysian Air Force 12 Squadron (silver with black anti-glare panel)

•Singapore Air Force No 144 Squadron (3 shades of grey camo)

•US Navy VFC-13 (desert pink/earth red tiger stripe)

•US Air Force 64th FWS 57th FWW (desert yellow & earth camo)

I am not building any of those though.

Regards,

Jens

[atdb27]

Thanks Adrian.

The kit contains decals for four schemes. As Mike mentioned in his review here on BM, the options are:

•Royal Malaysian Air Force 12 Squadron (silver with black anti-glare panel)

•Singapore Air Force No 144 Squadron (3 shades of grey camo)

•US Navy VFC-13 (desert pink/earth red tiger stripe)

•US Air Force 64th FWS 57th FWW (desert yellow & earth camo)

I am not building any of those though.

Regards,

Jens

Thanks for that Jens.

Missed Mikes review btw

Do fancy the first 2 options!

Adrian

[Jens]

Non-US F-5s are on my list too, but I guess the first one will be the RF-5E. An F-5F with both Saudi and US national markings would be rather cool too.

Regards,

Jens

[ollieholmes]

I wonder how long its going to be before we see a conversion to make it a 2 seater? Id be sorely tempted to do a two seat machine. Who kits it in 1:32?

[SPerx]

I wonder how long its going to be before we see a conversion to make it a 2 seater? Id be sorely tempted to do a two seat machine. Who kits it in 1:32?

The F5E was done by Hasegawa in the early 1980s - I still see them around at shows but don't know if it is an in production model.

AFAIK nobody did the two-seater F5F in 1:32nd - but I may well be corrected on that.

Should get my hands on my first AFV Club 1:48th kit in the next day or two ( thanks Relish ) - I feel the decision between a Swiss Air Force one or an Alconbury Aggressor will be difficult. Somewhere in the stash I have a 1:48th version of the F5E and RF5E from "Kiddyland" of Taiwan. Basically a Monogram/Revell clone BUT with additional parts for :-

i) Swiss LERX extensions, and

ii) Swiss shark-nose

I feel a mould making session coming on............

Edited April 15, 2010 by SPerx

[TRUSKY1965]

A really fantastic job with this cockpit! It seems the real cockpit! The paint scheme is very nice too. I hope to see it finished soon! Congratulations for this amazing work!

Regards. TRUSKY1965.

[Jens]

I think it's safe to say that it's been a while...

Anyway, these pictures show the decal application in progress. This one has Afterburner Decals, and while the decals are good the instructions are somewhat generic. Armed with a couple of books and loads of pictures I think I have managed to get a reasonably correct F-5E.

I finished applying the decals to it tonight but this is what it looked like the other day:

Jens

[Jens]

The remaining decals have now been applied, and this is what the model looks like right now:

Jens

Edited December 19, 2010 by Jens