LM/KAI F/A-50 Golden Eagle - Portuguese Air Force

[DogfighterZen]

So, this year i'll be trying to finish another Portuguese whif as i did on my only One Week GB ever before this one.
This time it's another simple build of a simple kit, the Academy Snap-fit 1/72 T-50 Golden Eagle.
Here are the pics of the hardware and the work done so far, started Saturday at 00:10.





Bits gathered from the spares box including 2 Hasegawa pilot figures, 2 Revell 16S210 missile launcher rails and 2 AIM-9M Siderwinder missiles, 2 pairs of F-16 underwing pylons and a couple of leftover bits to use for details...



Work started with cutting the wingtip strakes off of the T-50's wings to be replaced by the 16s210 rails...



Glued a few plastic bits to represent the throttle and stick on both the front and rear positions...


The cockpit parts were all sprayed and then the details were hand-brushed.
This was when i started wondering if i could make this T-50 turn into an F/A-50...
I started this kit with a simple build in mind but i quickly threw that idea out the window cause i wanted this to be a fighter, not only a trainer so, down the rabbit hole i went...

Scrounged an F-16's gun port, marked the spot with a pencil and drilled a hole to begin carving out what was needed for the part to fit in place...



After a good fit was obtained, i masked off the surrounding area to protect the very good surface detail on the kit and dropped a blob of Sprue-goo to properly fair in the gun port





That was sanded down and just a dab of Deluxe's Perfect Plastic Putty was enough to close small gaps that resulted from carving the hole half a millimeter too wide.
In order to turn the T-50 into the F/A-50, the tail needed to be reshaped in order to fit a RWR fairing on top so that was what i did next...



so, after two nights of work, the issues that were worrying me with regard to taking too long ended up not taking as long as i thought they would so, this is where i'm at with this build.



I'm guessing that the rest of the build will be smooth but i still have to choose a scheme and sort out the decals.

[zenrat]

Looking promising.  What's the fit of the bottom to the top like?

[DogfighterZen]

Fred, the whole kit has amazing fit, i'm pretty sure there won't be much putty involved and if i do have to use it, it'll probably be the PPP on very small gaps like the tail/spine to fuselage. 

Well, i'm working on the pilots right now, had to cut their legs off right below the knees but the poor guys will have to live like this or else their legs wouldn't fit under the IPs.
Hoping to get the fuselage closed today, that would give me the rest of the week to finish this...

[zenrat]

 

[Dizzyfugu]

The Academy Snap-fit 1/72 T-50 Golden Eagle is a great kit - except for the lacking landing gear...  However, a F-16 landing gear set and be easily implanted, an Intech F-16s (and its many clones, e .g. from Mistercraft) are pretty cheap. Did that stunt a while ago, and ended up in a nive model.

[DogfighterZen]

The Academy Snap-fit 1/72 T-50 Golden Eagle is a great kit - except for the lacking landing gear...  However, a F-16 landing gear set and be easily implanted, an Intech F-16s (and its many clones, e .g. from Mistercraft) are pretty cheap. Did that stunt a while ago, and ended up in a nive model.

Yup, i remember your model, Thomas. It came out great and i'm using it as a reference.
It was also my first intention when i bought this model and i did look in my spares box to see if i had any F-16 landing gear bits to do it but i didn't have all i needed and the mods i also had in mind would take long enough for a one week GB and i wouldn't waste time trying to scratchbuild the parts i needed.
I can always buy another kit and do that but i have the 1/48 kit in the stash so i'm not too worried about it.

So, progress has been steady and i've got it mostly built up.




The worst fit of the whole kit is where normally all aircraft kits have their problems, the air intakes. Still, nothing to worry about, just a few minutes of careful sanding and it should be ok.



Will try to do some work on it today to see if i can get it ready for paint.

[Old Wombat]

 

[Weaver]

Nice one! 

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> i did look in my spares box to see if i had any F-16 landing gear bits to do it but i didn't have all i needed and the mods i also had in mind would take long enough for a one week GB and i wouldn't waste time trying to scratchbuild the parts i needed.
<...>

's ok. Planes should be flying anyway. 

[Mossie]

Pretty thing.

[DogfighterZen]

<...> i did look in my spares box to see if i had any F-16 landing gear bits to do it but i didn't have all i needed and the mods i also had in mind would take long enough for a one week GB and i wouldn't waste time trying to scratchbuild the parts i needed.
<...>

's ok. Planes should be flying anyway. 

I agree! I love it when there's a nice stand included in the kits.

Pretty thing.

It sure is! 

Well, it's almost time to choose a paint scheme, almost always a hard part for me...
I'm divided between a trainer scheme with dayglo wing and fin tips or a tactical camo with lo-vis markings...
Gotta check my decal options to make a decision.

[DogfighterZen]

From what i've seen from most modellers, the smaller antennas and details are normally left for the last stages of a build to so they don't get knocked off during masking painting or just handling the model a lot but, i've grown used to putting them on before any paint goes on because i'll most certainly mess up the paint with the glue while trying to get the parts in their designated place.
Sure, i have to pay attention to where i put my fingers when i grab and handle the models during the rest of the build but i've had better luck with that than when i've tried to leave these bits for last so, here are the AoA probes and a small antenna that i've seen in most pics of the FA-50. I also enjoy these stages quite a bit, i like the small details. 




As you can see in the second pic, i've also added the wingtip rails and a couple of blade antennas and now, all that's left is to mask the canopy, maybe get some pylons under the wings and spray some paint.

[DogfighterZen]

Chris, i'd like to ask if you can move this topic over to the current projects/aircraft page, please. Obviously, i couldn't finish it inside the deadline so i'll be trying to do it later. TIA

[Martin H]

Chris, i'd like to ask if you can move this topic over to the current projects/aircraft page, please. Obviously, i couldn't finish it inside the deadline so i'll be trying to do it later. TIA

Done! 😎

[AeroplaneDriver]

I just read that the T-50 is under consideration for a possible Irish Air Corps Air Defense aircraft...just in case you are not dead set on Portuguese...