OT's Talon

[Old_Tonto]

Should get started on this tomorrow as I am back at work. It will make an interesting lunchtime project.



This seems to be exactly the same as the PM F-5B which is itself a rip-off of the old Hasegawa kit. I built one for a Blitzbau last year & didn't really enjoy the experiance. Still, I know what I am getting into this time.

I will need to do a bit of surgery to make it into a Talon. The base of the tail needs altering & I have to remove the fillets at the wing root. Alsothe intakes on the T-38 angle at 45 degrees, on this kit they're vertical, and they should be flush with the fuselage. How long is this GB?

As expected there is no interior detail so I might attempt to fix that & the decals are very dissapointing.
I might have to look in the decal stash to see if I have any alternatives.

[Old_Tonto]

All I have done so far is clean up the parts as there is loads of flash on this kit.

The canopy is about 2 scale feet thick & cloudy so it has beed dipped in klear & sanded about four times now.
I am still not completely satisfied with it but life is too short.

The canopy is now masked and a coat of black has been applied to give the inside of the frame some colour.



On to the interior (or lack of it) now.

[Old_Tonto]

A little more progress today.

I got the fuselage halves together & I added a cockpit floor from a KP L-39.
That will give me something to sit the seats on.



I don't plan to do much to the interior as the thick canopy will hide it all. Just enough to fool the eye.

I have also found a very old set of decals for a NASA chase plane so all in all, looking good.

[Old_Tonto]

I spent a little time on this today.

I have sanded all the joints as best I can. One half of the fuselage is just a little bigger than the other & slightly longer.
I matched the halves up as best I could so that the join at the top was pretty good & just required a bit of sanding. This naturally meant that the underside is a terrible fit.



Lots of filler needed

I have also begun to tart up the seat as they look nothing like the seats from a T-38.

I have also done a little surgery on the wings, just need to thin down & round off the edges where I cut away the leading edge fillet on the wing root. The wings also lack any panel lines so a bit of scribing is called for.

[Old_Tonto]

Slow progress on this one but having made a blood sacrifice to the modelling gods I am sure everthing will work out.



I have just about finished the cockpit area so I will be able to attach the canopy. I have thinned out the wings where I removed the leading edge fillet. I also removed the box at the base of the tail - I think this holds the brake-shute on the F-5 but is not needed on the Talon.

I have attached the engine intakes & modified wings, both needed filler. Once this is dry & all sanded smooth I need to attack the intakes as they are completely differant on the Talon. They should be shorter & cut off at 45 degrees & rounder. I can cut the angle but there is not mush I can do to re-shape the intakes themselves.

Still, it is beginning to look like a T-38 Tallon.

I will have to address the issue of no panel lines so a little re-scribing is called for.



These PM kits are quite challenging but very enjoyable to build.
My finger hurts.

[Dirkpitt289]

I hate when that happens....

The Talon is looking good though. Maybe the sacrifice to the Gods of plastic was worth it

[JamesPerrin]

The pit looks good and it looks like you are solving the issues nicely to bring this one home looking like a Talon (not that I would know the difference )

[TimJ]

Nice work on the cockpit. It looks like the blood sacrifice did the trick.

[Old_Tonto]

If I didn't know any better I would have said this canopy was not from this kit.

[lancfan]

Looking very good, can't wait to see it in NASA decals.

David.

[Old_Tonto]

Looking very good, can't wait to see it in NASA decals.

David.

They are very old & may explode so I have scanned them this morning just in case.

If that does not work out I have some Portugese air force decals on standby. Anything rather than use the PM ones.

[lancfan]

One failing of the PM range is the (lack of) quality of the decals, if they were to budget for a little more money to provide for decent decal sheets they would still be incredibly cheap kits. The Sea Fury has been catered for with aftermarket sheets but equally sound kits such as the Beechcraft have been ignored so far.

David.

[Old_Tonto]

This is as far as I have gotten:



So the extra few days will be a great help.

[Old_Tonto]

I am afraid that this one will not get finished even with the deadline extension.

Unfortunately family commitments will keep me away from the workbench all weekend.
The Talon will have to be added the the pile of also-rans.

Quite an enjoyable if challenging build. There must be a better way of making a T38.

[Saxon]

Looking good even if you won't finish on time