1/48 Academy T-50i Golden Eagle

Gallery Article by Alex Sidharta on Aug 17 2015

  Indonesia Independence Day 

 

      

After a mere 35 years of service, Indonesia retires the British Hawk Mk.53 in March 2015. Korean KAI T-50 Golden Eagle was selected to replace this old trainer and all 16 aircrafts were delivered in less than a year-time in mid 2013-early 2014.

Indonesian Golden Eagles are painted in two color schemes, 8 aircrafts in “Aerobatic” scheme and the remaining in “Combat” camouflage color. From the outside, Indonesian T-50 is more-or-less similar to the Korean FA-50, which has straight level top-fin.

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Building the Academy kit as the Indonesian version (official name is T-50i Golden Eagle, “i” stands for Indonesia) requires some modifications. The biggest mods is to scratchbuild the fin top. Other features to add are the formation lights, “beer-can” sensors in wings’ leading edge, antena and installed the kit-supplied gun and blast-shield.

I changed the cockpit color from FS 36231 as instructed to FS 36375 which is more accurate for T-50i. As for the scheme, I chose to build the combat-colored aircraft. Just like the Indonesian F-16, T-50i is painted in grey FS 36314 and green FS 34148. Gunze’s C-334 is quite similar to the grey color but there is no modeling paint matches the green. With a help from a fellow modeler, finally I could get the green color by mixing automotive lacquer paint.

Decal was mixed of kit decal, Hobby Gallery decal and self-printed markings, serials and insignias.

Construction itself was straight forward with no drama. I used little filler mostly on intakes joint. In my opinion, this is not a beginner-kit as so many details and small parts but I think I can understand why Academy releases such a detailed model of their “national” aircraft.

As it is supplied by centerline droptank only, I also modified a spare mid-wing F-16 pylon and attached it on the model with a pair of AGM-65 Mavericks. On wing tips, there are 2 AIM-9L (Indonesia doesn’t have it but it looks cool on T-50 J ) attached.

That’s it and time to enjoy the pictures then....

Alex Sidharta

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Photos and text © by Alex Sidharta