CF-5A Freedom Fighter Kitbashed 1/48 Monogram F-5E

[Vic Balshaw]

Shame about the SAM magazine Andy, I get mine airmailed in direct from the UK, subscribed when the $ was doing good against the £. The mag had a three page spread 1/48 scale plan drawing and some good profile detail. I can try and scan it and see how I go, if it works, I just yell.

As for your build, what can I say, it's just coming along dandy mate.

 

[B-17engineer]

Awesome Andy!!

 

[Matt308]

Wow. Wondeerful effort!

 

[T Bolt]

Looking good Andy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Vic, I may take you up on that, thanks, but will try again at my local Chapters store. They had an older issue of SAM but the July was not yet in.

 

[Airframes]

Looking good there Andy. The Monogram cockpit tub is actually quite good, and the instrument panel supplied is better than the Esci, which was plain with a decal.

 

[Crimea_River]

A little bit of an update today. Compare the cockpit tub in post 59 with the pic below and you'll see that I've carved a lot of crap off the Monogram tub and added some scratch built areas especially around the seat. I chucked the whole assembly behind the seat and will scratch build this area.The backrest on the seat is plastic card and the seat cushion is a folded tissue. Both will be painted an olive drab colour prior to adding belts. Curved plastic card pieces near the armrests were added and further butchery on the oversized headrest was done. Ejection seat extensions are also added and the ejection seat hand pull actuators also made and glued in at the end of the arm rest. Finally, the slots for the throttle levers were added with a razor saw and bits of plastic card added for the levers. Hand knobs yet to be added.

Work continues on my wing tank blank and I will post some shots of this most likely tomorrow. Thanks for watching, tune in next episode!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

That looks good Andy, am just about to do the same to my Sabre seat.

 

[B-17engineer]

Looks great Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Vic, didn't know you had a Sabre on the go. Will need to look for that.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks guys. Vic, didn't know you had a Sabre on the go. Will need to look for that.

Sure have Andy, it's my third entry to GB6.......thought it a good chance to get some of my long awaited stash kits on the go. Not sure if I will finish this one in time though, but I'll give it a good shot.

 

[vikingBerserker]

That is some nice scratch-building there my friend!

 

[T Bolt]

Very nice improvements to the seat Andy

 

[Wayne Little]

Good work there Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

 

[Wurger]

Looking good so far.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy. The canopy actuators, behind the seat, should be a nice challenge!

 

[Wayne Little]

Guess we will find out soon enough...

 

[Crimea_River]

Maybe not so soon. I'll be going on vacation as of Saturday so nothing will be done after this week til August. Good chance I won't finish this one in time.

As promised, first two pics are of the scratch built wing tank master from which two resin casts will be made. The wood has been final shaped and the band around the narrow portion added using scotch tape. Comparing the two photos shows the complex curve as seen form the side and top, respectively. At least 6 tries of shape/putty/sand/paint has gotten me to this point. One final bit of patching and light sanding of the overall piece to get it completely smooth should do it.

Once sanded smooth, I'll scribe in some of the removable panels that can be seen on the real thing in the pic below. Anything that is unique to the left or right tank will be left off the master and scribed onto the appropriate resin pieces.

Below is some work done on one of the wings as compared with the kit-supplied piece on the left. The piece on the right has had the raised panel lines removed and new lines scribed in. The leading edge slat has been cut and moved to a lowered position as most commonly seen on CF-5's on the ground. Also, I wanted to give some riveting a try. A real CF-5 is mounted on a monument not far from my home and the rivets, although flush, are quite noticeable. To achieve this, I used a ponce wheel donated by my mother who used to outline sewing patterns with it. The spacing on the rivets was achieved by running the wheel twice along a straight edge, with the second pass starting with the teeth offset to contact the surface exactly half way between the first set of points. Although difficult to see in this pic, the effect is pretty good and will show better after a coat of primer is applied.

That's it for today. Thanks again for looking in and for your comments. Remember, criticism and tips are always welcome!

 

[T Bolt]

Great job on that tank master Andy!