René Van Der Hart shows you how to use Hataka
Hobby paint on the Kinetic 1:48 VNAF F-5BK
inetics’ offering of an early
F-5B’s is, like most of their
kits, reasonably detailed,
and whilst a little soft in places,
the shape is quite good, at least to
my eye. The kit offers a large sheet
of decals with numerous versions
to choose from, and I opted for the
VNAF version because I was going
to use the Hataka lacquer based
Vietnam War Paint Set #HTK-
AS09. As usual, construction
starts with the assembly of the
cockpit, and the detail is good on
the side consoles and instrument
panels. The ejection seats on the
other hand, are not so good and
were replaced by resin ones from
Wolfpack. One of the interesting
features of the real aircraft is the
mechanism to open and close the
canopies. I decided to completely
scratch build this complex andfragile construction of rods and
levers from plastic rod and strip.
It took a full day’s work but was
very satisfying to see the result
compared to the original kit parts.
After the cockpit was painted,
construction of the fuselage was
next. The fuselage is built up of
four main pieces. The instructions
want you to build the front and rear
section first and then assemble
them. Not a good idea! So, make two
complete sides as you would find
in most other kits. The fit of theFREEDOM
SPONSORED FEATURE
Fighter for
90 • FEBRUARY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
BY SACCO DE VRIES
VNAF F-5B
RENÉ VAN DER HART
1/48090-93-Hataka-0218.indd 90 12/01/2018 12:09