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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