Hi all,

With all those beauties finishing and the deadline approaching, as an intermediate model maker, I wanted this campaign to be a cause of motivation for a friend, who is a beginner; and thanks to Jean-Luc who accepted this offer, which is not in fact a duel to kill, but a duel to "dance". I will be building an NF-5A against my rookie friend's NF-5A... Both will be from "Turkish Stars" aerobatic team. Our kit is the same kit, PM of Turkey. These are very simple kits, only few parts, low accuracy, low quality of fitting, low molding quality, etc. but they are perfect for working, learning and practicing, especially for the beginner, and they are cheap, as well. I know that they are sold to European countries, too, so you can check them at Hannants and others.

So, this is the box picture:



My friend "gerozturk" (Goktug Erozturk) does not know English, so I will be writing on behalf of him. While I am practising some techniques on the model, my friend is learning the basiccs, such as glueing, sanding, putty work, primer, painting, glossing, decal adhesion and so on.

It has been about three weeks since we started building, but I could just find time to post the progress pictures. Here they are:

Parts glued, gaps filled (maybe fourth time), sanded (including raised panel lines), gaps filled again, sanded again and again... As I sad, these kits have lots of problems for the more advanced builder to cope with. (Oh, byt the way, our planes will be at flying state, so no landing gear will be made):






After the putty, I applied the primer. The sanded then applied than sanded then applied... Maybe five times, during which I decided to glue the canopy, and dthe edges and mask the glass... I could not get the surface smooth, the gaps ara unbelievable:







I had my real problems under the plane, where wings attach to the fuselage. It is evident *still at this stage*, where I wish to complete the priming and go on with painting. This stage took me two weeks:



At last I could get a better looking surface:



After this stage, I painted the plane with four thin layers of white enamel and three thin layers of gloss enamel varnish, which at the end resulted in an overall thick layer of paint, but I had no chance, this was my only chance to get rid of the irregularities *still* left after the primer layers:



Next step will be the application of decals. I hope I will not ruin everythig, becuse the decals are thin, brittle and huge. I plan to cut the decals to pieces before application so that they will not tear apart themselves.

My friend "gerozturk" (Goktug Erozturk) will be posting his pictures shortly. He is at about the same stage I am at. He already learned that he has to be patient to make a model, especially in a common project he enters with me, because I am a slow model maker

Thanks everyone, for watching us

Best regards.
Cagin Basaran

Good luck to you both...:}

Hi Çaðýn and Göktuð!

Looks very promising! Welcome to the Duel Campaign!

Jean-Luc

Thanks, friends.

This has been a project to practice some techniques both for us. As I am trying to advance in airplane modelling, I tried several masking techniques on this cheap kit, and Goktug has learned a lot from decal application to gloss finishing. The outcome for us has not been very good in material terms, but we have tried and practiced a lot and learned a lot.

While looking at what I had done at the stage where I was in my previous post, I decided to paint the plane with masks. I tried scanning and printing the decals on masking film but the ink did not dry, so I risked it and used the laser printer but it chewed the sheet. So I printed it on regular paper, sticked a sheet of nylon from a clear A4 envelope with spray adhesive, cut the shapes and sticked them on the plane.

Oh, by the way, because I found it easier to cut the whites from red bakground, I painted the whole plane red at first, then applied the masks.

Lots of problems emerged, as I expected. The adhesive stuck on the red paint, which was not visible before the gloss coat, appeared like sandpaper after application of the varnish. It was too late, I kept on with application of some decals, just the ones with letters. Then coated again with gloss. At last I painted the exhaust nozzles and the pitot tube and it fnished.





I will not be going any further like scribing panels and so on, because of these unexpected errors and the low quality outcome. I will spare my energy on a better project about Turkis Stars, so this has been a very good dressed rehearsal for me.

My friend Goktug has finished his project, as well. He painted the plane white and applied gloss, then decals, then gloss again. He had his own problems like torn decals due to their low quality, but he managed to cover the faulty parts with red paint. He, as well, did not like his outcome much, but says that he learned a lot from this practice. I believe he will become a good model maker in no time. Goktug will be posting his pictures shortly.

This marks the end of our duel-dance with Goktug. Thanks for watching us

Cagin

Hi friends

Hi Çaðýn and Göktuð!

Nice ones! I think even if the planes are not war oponents, the spirit of the Duel Campaign has been preserved! Thanks for both your entries!

Are you planning to do some kind of display bases for the models? They would look better "in flight" than on the ground...

Jean-Luc

Mine will be hung from the ceiling and Goktug has a similar thing in mind. I am planning to use photos to create a photoshop image including both planes in a show, if I find time, of course.

Thanks for your interest
Cagin

Good grief!!! You work pretty fast when you want ain't ya mister!!!! Where the runways your F14 is???? Ehem...Anyways. Good, clean painting both of you. Congradulations. By the way did you add the air intakes by the sides of the tail on the NF-5A's?(Last minute dirt ehehehe)

Good initiative and good of Jean-Luc to let you participate in the campaign.

Really nice birds you have build.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for your interest, friends. Yalim, as I said this has been a preparation model for a later project, in which I plan to make a 1/48 Turkish Stars, so I was not after making any details, but just tried some materials and techniques. The Tomcat is painted, don't worry, it will be ready before next year But it is a tough job to paint 1/144 Tomcat of seventies. Very tough job.

Cagin