Hello my friends :)
today I decide to start a new model kit but this time an airplane in 1/48. It's a Testors' Northrop F-5A "Freedom Fighter" a classic airplane for Hellenic Air Forces (H.A.F).
Few words about H.A.F.'s F-5A...In the late 1960s the H.A.F. acquired new types jet aircraft; One of those was Northrop F-5A; A small but very fast and agile jet plane able to hit any enemies' airplane. It could touch 1.6 mach and 8g 8) 8) Just think that during Greece - Turkey crisis in mid 70s a pair of F-5 fight against a pair of Turkish F-102 and shoot down one of them and after few years from that crisis another Hellenic F-5s pair were hunting a pair of U.S Navy's F-4J south of island Kreta. Almost all F-5s A were at "113 all weather combat wing" here at Thessaloniki. Now days all F-5s A/B are retired and some of them become "Anniversary airplanes" with special marks. H.A.F.'s F-5s had many different camos from Aegean Blue to Jordan's dessert camo ;D ;D ;D Just one (retired) has been painted in F-16's light visible camo.
Now Testors's kit.....it's a nightmare ;D ;D ;D ;D It's very very simplified with just a seat and dashboard for interior >:D That's why I'll use spare parts from others F-5 which I have ;) ;)
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/F-5A.jpg)
to be continued......
Nice choice for your next work,I have the F-5E in 1/72 scale and planing to make it in VNAF markings,so your photos could be helpful.
F-5 is one of my favourite jets so I'll have an close eye on this topic ;)
I plan to build both F-5A (RF-5A actually) and F-5E....
If you need anything that could help you in this build (references for example) please feel free to ask - we will try to help you as much as we can ;)
good luck and please post us photos in progress ;)
regards,
Srdjan
F-5 is very beautiful aircraft. I believe this will be a very good model.
Can you post some photos of the parts? I never saw a Testors' model before.
I heard that in it's designing participated one of our own ExYu men, Veljko Gasic. He later also participated in designing the B-2. How much there is truth in this, I don't know.
Finlay some Greek aircraft from you... ;)
Nice,nice.I can't wait to see it finished
I like Hellenic military aircraft.I was planed to built H.A.F F-16 but there is no decals for it
Quote from: Miljan on 20-12-2008, 00:39:30
Nice,nice.I can't wait to see it finished
I like Hellenic military aircraft.I was planed to built H.A.F F-16 but there is no decals for it
There are but you didn't ask...
What you try to tell me?
here we are ;)
"Hawkeye" my friend anything u need and I can help you just tell me ;)
"Sandman" my friend the best RF-5 & F-5B in 1/48 are Classic Airframes' Now it's difficult to find them but they are the most accurate 8) In 1/72 for RF-5A there is one way Italeri's kit but for F-5B there are PM's Model kit and Italeri's kit. Both they were in H.A.F. service and there were special schemes also....A RF-5A Anniversary "Kronos" (with flames e.t.c.) and many F-5B ex Jordan's Air Forces...we kept same camo and added only new roundels....they were better known like "Soraya" among pilots ;D ;D ;D
"Boki" my friend as you'll see Testors's kit is a nightmare, practically there isn't interior just a seat. Also the plastic width is enormous and maybe out of scale (but it's smooth and easily sanding). Honestly I don't know that fact about the Yugoslavian designer ::) ::)
"milten" ;) ;) ;) I am not aircraft modeler ;D ;D ;D u know I love armor "animals" ;D ;D ;D ;D
"Miljan" my friend when u decide to make a H.A.F. F-16 just tell me to send u a lot of images ;) ;) But attention the H.A.F.'s F-16C/Ds have difficult colors and u must make mixtures....Next week I'll start 2 H.A.F. F-16s a "-C Block 50" and a "-D Block 52+" ;) ;) ;) Milten maybe means that there are many decals for H.A.F.'s aircraft ;) There are 2 greek companies who produces greek decals....The first I think is named 'Afterburner" and produces 2 different foils and the second was (I think it's closed now) Ikarus Decals. The 2nd company produced a lot of decals foils among them many for Anniversary planes 8) 8) 8) Thanks God I am lucky to have all those foils (they'll be a treasure for Greek modelers after few years due it's closed now and they'll become rares)......
So.......
as there isn't any interior (as I told you) I decide to make a resin copy from Classic Airframe's F-5A interior (cockpit + seat).
This is Terstors's interior (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A3.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A3.jpg)
and this is Classic Aiframe's resin copy (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A1.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A1.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A2.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A2.jpg)
Yesterday I finished almost whole the plane (except some parts which I'll fix them after painting :) )
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A4.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A4.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A5.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A5.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A6.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A6.jpg)
as you can see I sprayed Hycote's primer and next step will be preshadding ;) ;)
uhm... you're really quick with this build! :D
maybe it looks a bit odd, but in airplane modeling it's easier to paint cockpit before assembling it with fuselage halves...
and landing gear is also usually glued at the real end of build (after painting of camouflage)...
but OK, it's not so impossible to do it this way either ;)
looking forward to paintjob! ;)
"Sandman" my friend you have right :) :)
after the preshadding
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A8.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A8.jpg)
today I use my infinity to paint the "Aegean Blue" color (Lifecolor's No UA44)...
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A10.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A10.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A9.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A9.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A11.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A11.jpg)
I don't "cover" the preshadding lines because F-5s were dirty airplanes due the liquids' flew (specially those in "Aegean Blue" camo) 8) 8) ;)
t.b.c.
the preshading turned out really nice :)
Thank you Dragan my friend ;)
Last night I make a little progress on this project.....
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A30.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A30.jpg) (http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A40.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A40.jpg)
and the down side,
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/th_F-5A50.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/?action=view¤t=F-5A50.jpg)
to be continued......
Excellent preshading, maybe too much weathering on downside. But as I see it's not finished yet and the way your work progresses it will be a very good one!
in previous step (just camouflage colour over preshading) it looked that preshading is overdone, but now after decals it looks better ;) maybe it looks too dirty on underside but I believe that you're right when you say they WERE dirty for real! :D
what's next on this "bird"? :)
All Greeks airplanes generation '60s - '70s like A-7 "Corsair" - F-104 "Starfighter" - F-5 "Freedom Fighter" had many liquids running at the down sides due the over heating. Just think that the U.S. SR-71 "Blackbird" every time when it flew it lost about 100lt of liquids due the huge temperatures and the metals' deformation !!!! About the 99% of Hellenic airplanes are painted white or silver (their down sides) so these fluids become more obvious than on a S.E.A. camo.....
Specially the F-5 was a very very dirty airplane; Just look at this F-5A painted with the "first" scheme (silver down sides)
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff283/panafan/f5afr_reference1.jpg)
notice how the "Aegean Blue" color became discolored.....
"Sandman" my friend next I'll add the canopy and the wheels' covers (first I must paint the wheels' interior places)....at last I'll glue some rockets and bombs ;) ;)
Uh, very fast work !
But, very nice one !
I like very much "dirty looks" of used airplane, so, this one is my favorite.
I am interesting in one more thing: In a mid of '90, I was on holiday in Asprovalta, where i have seen a couple of times, F-5 fighters (also F4 Phantoms, from Thessaloniki?) in a low-level flight. Did these fighters have a two-color schemes or I did mistake, but, it seem so be in 2 colors, or they may be US-planes? They were so nice...Fantastic planes !
After the holiday, my wife :o ask me to build to her one F-5...(it was Heller, rest in piece now, after my kids finished it totally 0:)), but i like two color cammo on the Tiger still.
"Kerber" my friend thank you ;)
Many Hellenic airplanes have change colors many times....The F-5s at the beginning when we received them there were in Natural Metal color.....after few years we have receive 15 more in S.E.A. camo. Some of them were been painted in "Aegean Blue" because they over flew Aegean Sea. We received some F-5Bs from Jordan and we kept the original Jordan's camo (and the pilots named them "Sorayas"). In late 70s we receive some NF-5 and F-5E from Holland and they were painted in Dutch camo (and we kept it). Finally I think only one was been painted in F-16's camo with Low visible roundels.....So there were about 6 different camos on F-5s 8) 8) 8)
Same history with F-4E. Initially were painted in S.E.A. camo; Then many of them were changed to "Aegean Blue" scheme....After "Piece Ikarus" modifications they were repainted to Low Visible scheme or "Hill Gray I/II". We received 2 different editions of RF-4E from U.S.A.F. with normal S.E.A. camo and from Luftwaffe with "German NATO lizards camo"......Only the F-104s + Mirages 2000 and F-16s kept the original camo...even Mirages F.1 were been changed to "Aegean Blue" but from the industry directly before their delivery....
odlicno ti ide,cak i ona zaprljanost koja je identicna za grcke avione jer oni nekako cini mi se imaju najprljavije avione od svih RV sirom sveta,ljudi prosto nevole cistocu.