Clunkmeister

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. It’s a great little kit full of potential. Other than the canopy catching me unawares at the very end and somewhat spoiling the result, it was an absolutely painless build. My thoughts on the canopy. Both hoods are designed to be displayed open. Both come with full internal structure in both plastic and PE, and the lift mechanisms are beautifully detailed and complex looking. As a result, closing the hoods is impossible after they’ve been built up. Of course, I built them up to pose open. But literally on the last day of the build, the light went on in my head that Glen wants closed canopies. That meant taking fully detailed, painted, decaled, and weathered canopies and somehow stripping the entire structure out without scratching or breaking them. Then, fitting them to a model that was built with no regard to the fit of the canopies. Some minor trimming of the rear ejection seat, fuselage rails and rear bulkheads. Just the fact I was able to mostly accomplish this, to me is a testament to the canopies themselves. I’ve cracked multiple Tamiya and Hasegawa hoods and theKitty Hawk ones worked well. A bit of an accident on one lower rail, but nothing huge. Talk about builder error. I committed the first moral sin of modeling: forgetting how it was to be displayed. If I’d have remembered, the hoods would have been on early as well as being masked and painted along with the airframe. Thanks for watching y’all! Glen will have this at the Kitty Hawk display this weekend in Richmond, Va.

Martin is the man! He has many little tricks....

Now, I build one my way. Fix the little inaccuracies and open the bloody canopies

And kiss it goodbye. I’ve gotten really good at packing models. This was just getting the cradles right. Then, I line the entire box with the pink foam, and cut the cradle ends down to fit. Hot glue everything together, then place tissue or a thin foam around the areas on the model that sits on the cradle. Hot glue stops against the model tp prevent it shifting forward or back, hot glue crosspieces on the cradles that lock the model in place, install foam top cover, then seal the box. It’s probably overkill, but it works.

Thanks y’all! It was fun.

Other than having to close the canopies at the very last moment, and spilling Tamiya extra thin all over the arse end of it, meaning a strip and reriveting job, it was a quick and mostly painless build. I can highly recommend this model to lovers of the F-5. It takes the 1/32 scale F-5 and makes the old Hasegawa kit look like a tinkertoy. Just remember, if you're planning on closing the canopies, fit them first. I didn't and the rear one, while better, is nowhere near perfect. Cutting down the rear seat mount to lower it would be needed, or lower the floor Either way, that's the only glitch for me and it happened at the very end of the build. I'll build mine with the canopies open. But it's HIGHLY recommended. Just do your research first. F-5’s had more options than a 67 Mustang. Well I just saw the flipped decal at the trailing edge of the fin. Dammit!

Well, this one is done as of yesterday and should be nicely winging its way to Virginia for a display. Here’s a few quick pics, Ernie style, from my phone, on my soon to be demolished bench. I have no clue how accurate it is, I think the drag chute door should be grey, it’s titanium color,.. oops, and the canopy will need a rubdown to get the handling smudges of it, but assuming it survives the trip unscathed, it’ll be ok. I don’t like to end a build in a hurry especially when changing horses midstream, but such is life. It’s a fun build, but if you want the hoods closed, plan ahead. These are not even close to being perfect, but that’s my fault alone. This is my first real jet build, and it was way way way out of my wheelhouse, but I had fun. It may not be perfect, but it’s pretty nice. A decent 5 footer

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I have mine all ready to go with all the PE and extras, but an F-5F and Lanc got in the way. You’re gonna clobber this one, Carl. Then, hopefully W.12?

If I could, I would.

Those look like they belong under a Canadair 6, never mind a D!

Pics to follow.

Agreed. Snow is reflective. Like water, it reflects the surrounding terrain. Blue sky, bluish tinge to snow and icy tops reflect the sunlight like prisms. Grey sky, the snow is dull. But if you have vehicular traffic, whether it’s taxiing aircraft, land vehicles, or legged methane producers, the rust and footsteps mix with the dirt, etc, and snow quickly gets grey, brown, and dirty.

MARTIN, behave! Cough cough, sputter sputter.

Gotta check the kit. Not a big fix, but an obvious goof if you build the wrong block numbers

I’m going to use Eduard’s ejection seat and improve the panel some. Other than that, maybe wheels. But I’ve seen a few of these built, and they turned out amazing. Skip the engine, do the Hasegawa style fuselage assembly so it’s exact. I heard the belly pan is a pain and the rocket container is tough to build retracted.

It’s not unexpected. The kit’s engineered for open hoods, and I didn’t plan to close them until Thursday when the fog cleared. Good news is that the hatchet job will be invisible, bad news is that it looks much cooler with the hoods open. Life goes on. yes Ivan, the F-86D will be an “adventure”. But I’ve seen some incredible builds of that kit, and it can be done. As for Texas ANG, I’ve yet to find proof in photography that they flew the D. They flew a few bulletnosed Sabres, but I think they had different wings.

Yep, snow is never “white”. It ranges from bluish to different shadings of grey. oh, and for the ultimate realism, a little yellow spotting here and there is normal. Notice the grey around the Snow Snake burrow.

Well folks, Kitty Hawk throws me a slight curve ball. This is to be a display model at hobby shows, so it’s gotta be closed up. Open canopies, speed brakes, etc get broken constantly when picked up and handled at shows. That nugget of information completely slipped my mind during the build, so here we go. Yay. Because the kit is designed to have the canopies open, two guesses what that means. And the first guess doesn’t count. Yep, the canopies don’t fit! Oh, they fit the openings just fine, but the kit gives you all the scale goodies such as inner canopy rails, latch mechanisms, lifts, locks, everything. So, not only does all that go away, but the scale thickness of the plastic canopy means the rear canopy hits the top of the rear seat. By about 1/32 of an inch. So, out come the trusty nippers and #11 for some creative modeling. Heheheeeee

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, my friend! Next Kitty Hawk kits for me to build are the OS2U and the big ol’ Sabre Dog. But I never saw myself building this one, so who knows? Maybe I’ll snag me a Mirage or an F-5 recce Bird when they hit the streets. I like the kits. OOB yes, and maybe a few details are generic or not for your exact chosen prototype, but even OOB, they’re challenging enough to make the build enjoyable and not robotic. The coolness of resin without the headaches and resin dust.

I really like it. Not an armor guy, but I think I might be able to stomach his one.

Or by having to wear bib overalls and a straw hat.

Agreed, but as it’s OOB, on they go. Maybe finding a John Deere, Caterpillar, or M.A.N. Logo might help?

Almost there. OOB build, and it looks like an F-5: it looks fast and it’s pointy at the front. Tomorrow, on go the canopies, position lights, nozzles, and sensors, etc. I’ll then call it done and in the mail on Monday.

Awesome Hannover, Sir. What time period would this Polish kite depict? Obviously postwar, but late teens, early twenties or mid twenties?