Hi all,
Greetings from Indonesia!! After browsing this web site for quite some time,
finally I can submit my first entry to ARC to commemorate Indonesia Independence
Day on August 17th. But before that, I would like congratulate Steve for this
great aircraft scale model site.
I
choose to model TNI AU F-5E Tiger II from Skadron 14 that based on Iswahyudi AFB
in Java. This kit was based on Italeri 1/48 F-5E Tiger kit which has been
around for quite some time. The fit was not too precise, especially in the front
section below the cockpit. I had a step there that still showed after a lot of
sanding and filling. I also decided not to attach the spare tank because after
test fitting this also showed to be a bad fit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I built
this kit mostly OOB. I added the pilot figure from the Hasegawa kit mainly to cover
up the sparse detail in the cockpit (decal panel actually). This is also my
first try at creating my first custom decal. I have the Iswahyudi lightning
picture for the tail fin from a fellow modeler, Pak Andreas, and printed it out
using a color laser printer. The numbers were from spare decals from other kits
while I used the kit decals for the aircraft stencils.
I
re-scribed the panel lines as the kit has raised ones, but I think I made them
too deep as the panel lines become too prominent. Well, another lesson learned
for my next project.
The
paint job was mainly done free-hand with some after touches using blu-tac for
rougher edges. The colors were custom mixed from Tamiya and Gunze Acrylics,
matched with my eyeball Mk.1 to the actual photo. The actual plane actually had
different shades and hues, so it’s difficult to have the correct color.
Different lighting in the reference photo could also show different color for
the same aircraft, so there’s no right or wrong here, as long as it’s blue
and gray.
Thank
you all for viewing my model.
Ali
Click on
images below to see larger images
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