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FUJIMI/TESTORS 1:72 NORTHROP T-38 TALON |
Reviewer:
Michael Johnson (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
2 April 2003
Images supplied by Michael Johnson, and include Monogram 1/48 F-20 Tigershark,
reviewed elsewhere on SMAKR
Fujimi-Testors 1:48 Northrop T-38 Talon
Fujimi also release a Thunderbirds boxing using
pretty much the same moulds
The Northrop T-38 Talon was developed out of design studies for the N-156F fighter design. The N-156F went on to become the F-5A Freedom fighter and the T-38 flew for the first time on April 10, 1959.
Powered by 2 highly efficient GE J85-5 afterburning turbojets, the T-38 trainer is capable of reaching mach 1.2 and became the world’s first supersonic trainer.
In service with the USAF’s Air Training Command since March 1961, the mission of the T-38 is basic flight training. This includes supersonic flight, take off and landing techniques, multi jet engine operation and all forms of aircraft navigation. The dual engines of the T-38 have given the aircraft a high degree of safety and its relative ease of maintenance have made it a highly economical and popular plane to fly.
There is something about Northrop’s F-5 series of aircraft that grabs my attention and interest. Not so long ago I built the fantastic Monogram F-20 (F-5G) Tigershark and have in my stash, as yet unbuilt, a couple more F-20’s, a Monogram 1:48 F-5A and a Revell 1:32 F-5E Tiger II.
© Michael Johnson 2003
NOTE: This image has been cropped - a full size picture can be loaded up in a separate window by clicking here
I purchased this kit from a fellow club member for $15 a couple of months ago. The box contains 3 white sprues and 1 clear (single piece canopy), an in-register, cleanly printed decal sheet by Scalemaster providing two marking options and an instruction sheet. Parts are cleanly moulded with raised panel lines and only minimal flash. A dry fit of fuselage halves boded well for future construction and the T-38’s diminutive wings and all aspect tailplanes fitted into place positively. There were also a couple of injector pin marks on the inside of the large main gear doors, which were quickly dealt with using Tamiya filler.
Construction (as always) started in the cockpit. There are absolutely NO details in the cockpit at all except for a basic representation of the two ejector seats and reasonably moulded instructor and student figures. Something had to be done, not even an application of black paint could conceal such a large hole as seen through the expansive canopy glass. To make matters worse, the lack of bulkheads either end of the canopy area meant that you could look through the front undercarriage bay straight through to the tail of the plane and up through the canopy glass. I spent several hours with plasticard constructing floors as well as bulkheads to “plug the gaps” at either end and between the pilots.
I read a review of another build of this kit on a modellers website. In this review, the modeller shoehorned cockpit details from a Monogram kit into the vacant cockpit. Great idea if the spare parts are there to be used. Mind you, the finished result was most impressive.
The fuselage halves went together very well, with some filling and sanding required to smooth over the joins. The wings attached very well, with small amounts of filler required, smoothed over with the nail polish remover dipped ear bud. This is a fantastic way to fill gaps in areas such as wing roots or hard to access areas. I apply the filler as normal, leave it to cure for 5 minutes and then run an ear bud dipped in nail polish remover (make sure the remover is of the acetone type) along the filler. The moist ear bud softens and smooths the filler into place perfectly, removing any excess in the process. Once dry the whole process can be repeated if required.
The whole cockpit was then painted in black to assist in the deception. The seat headrests received a coat of flat red to add some colour. I then turned my attention to the pilot figures. One had a big sinkhole through the chest, which received some filler, smoothed over with an ear bud and nail polish remover. Once painted, the pilots looked quite acceptable.
Once the pilots were in place, I then masked the canopy (which I had previously polished with novus plastic polish) with Tamiya modelling tape. The interior frame colour was sprayed on and after drying the canopy was fixed in place using Testors clear parts cement. Small amounts of filler were needed to smooth out the fuselage/canopy frame joints.
© Michael Johnson 2003
The kit offers two schemes for the T-38 Talon, both are all over gloss white USAF training birds. I chose a T-38A from San Antonio Air Material Area, Kelly AFB, in Texas with its trainer orange (or Fluoro red) tail, wing and fuselage panels. I sprayed the entire plane Citadel Skull White and after some minor seam correction resprayed and put aside to dry. I then masked and sprayed the fluoro red panels and the black anti-dazzle on the nose. For the Fluoro-red colour, I used a Tamiya spray can as I had heard about the horrors of applying this colour through an airbrush. The paint was left to dry for 24 hours before masking the nose area for the black anti-dazzle colour and I was horrified when the black crazed. I left the black to dry “as is” and sanded the paint away, going right back to bare plastic and being careful not to disturb the masking. I then applied thinned Citadel Chaos Black acrylic paint over the area in several coats. I will not be using Fluoro-red again I fear!!
The engine area and burner cans were base coated matt black and dry brushed with Modelmaster exhaust, burnt metal, burnt iron and Humbrol matt aluminium in that order. Each metallic paint was applied with a successively “drier” dry brush. I find this combination gives a great representation of a heat stressed metallic look.
Once all the paint had cured, I applied several coats of Johnsons Future with a wide flat brush, kept especially for this purpose, to seal everything in and preparing the surface for the decals.
The decals looked pretty good on the sheet. However the glue turned out to be yellow in colour, which against the white of the fuselage looked awful. I decided to wash each decal clean and bed them down onto the model surface with a thin pool of Future, with the addition of some decal solvent, the decals adhered very well to all those oversized rivets!
Once the decals had dried, the fuselage was washed with a damp cloth to remove any glue and solvent residue the decals where then sealed in with yet another coat of Future.
I then sprayed a sealer coat of Aeromaster semi-gloss to tone down the gloss of the Future and set the fuselage aside to dry for 24 hours.
All that remained was the undercarriage and the undercarriage doors. All these parts were pre-painted earlier and no complications were encountered whilst attaching them to the finished fuselage.
I used a thin red decal stripe (cut from another sheet of the appropriate red colour) to create the candy stripe on the nose mounted pitot tube, this is a simple and great way to create the “candy stripe” effect on such items without resorting to messy masking.
The canopy masking was removed and the clear areas buffed up revealing a cockpit nicely boxed in with two attendant two crew figures.
The Talon was now finished and ready for the cabinet. I did not undertake any weathering except for “dirtying” up the undercarriage. As the Talon is a trainer, I figured that it would be kept to a high degree of cleanliness by the ground crew.
I was concerned with the scale of the Talon, finally finding out that it is actually more 1:50 than 1:48, but once parked next to the more aggressive looking F-20 Tigershark and looking great in it’s white and fluoro red markings, who cares?
© Michael Johnson 2003
For the modeller though, this is the only kit in quarter scale available for the T-38 Talon, so on that note it is a welcome addition to my collection.
Well worth getting hold of and super detailing or building out of the box.
F-5 in Action Squadron/Signal Publications
© Michael Johnson 2003
NOTE: This image has been cropped - a full size picture can be loaded up in a separate window by clicking here
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