SPA Modeler

Back in 2009 I was given a New Year's Challenge to build a 1/32 scale aircraft. I accepted and a gentleman and fellow modeler, Saul Garcia sent me an F-5E Tiger II to work on. Most of you have been following it along with everything else I've been working on with this when you checked into my Maddog Manufacturing Thread. Six years later, I finally have finished it as far as I can.



This is an Epic Fail.




Here are the pics of this model as I have it now. I am not counting this as a finished model so my finally count for 20154 still remains at 29 models. There are too many pieces missing and too much wrong with this to count it as something finished and worthy of including in my collection. Don't worry, I am not throwing this away. I will be keeping this as a reminder of 1) how far I still need to go in my skills and 2) why I stay with 1/72 scale.


First off, overall shot of the top. Many decals are still wrinkled from the Solvaset; paint has chipped (???) before I added a clearcoat; clearcoat dripped on one side (not visible in the pics); paint work is very sloppy and a ton of pieces are missing:



Here's a shot of the bottom where you can see more missing pieces and possibly some of the paint and clearcoat issues I mentioned:



With visions of grandeur swimming through my head, I even tried to get fancy here:



No, this is no Magnificent Monty Masterpiece by far!

I should have made sure I had the skills to do it first! Anyway, what's done is done... or not done in this case....

Here's some shots of the instruction sheet showing the missing and/or broken parts circled for you to see just how epic this fail is:





I'm sure most of these missing pieces may still be floating around in my Hobby Room; if I find them, I'll see about adding them in. Until then, I'm sticking a fork in this one.

Well, that is that. I at least can say that I finally met my New Year's Challenge.... five years too late. No need for you to post compliments here; there's really nothing to compliment on this model. At least now, when ever someone here suggests I "go big" I can show how poorly I do when I "go big".

Thanks for looking in. I do hope that those who feel they aren't as well experienced and skillful as you think I am can now feel confident that you are indeed at my level or better. I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say there. I don't need an ego massage here; I know my small scale stuff is good, so thanks for not doing that either guys. If anything, this is finally closure for those who've been watching this build all along and were looking forward to seeing it done. Now it's done.

Okay, now I have a lot more to look forward to in the New Year and I'm excited to get more done. I'm heading right back to the bench now! Thanks for looking in everyone.

Happy New Year!

I think i may have this kit. Ill paw through my stash tomorrow and find out, if i do i can maybe send you the bits you need. If theyre not broken/missing in my kit. I botched it and lost interest, so itle never get finished. It may have been biffed in the clearout of 2015, but ill check for you.

Thanks Mike! You are very kind. There is someone else on another Forums who also says he may have the spare parts for this so if you are not able to find yours, he will hopefully have me covered. I greatly appreciate your generosity. Happy New Year!

The kit got biffed, but i have some of the parts you need in my spares box. Is it the Kangnam kit? If so send me a list of part numbers and ill get what i have packed up for you.

Mark, I may have some spare parts to donate as well... you're so close to a proper finish here. And I know that you can easily scratch those missing gear doors from sheet plastic.... those are flat easy shapes and you can add framing to look the part on the inner face from strip styrene...

try it try it and you may, you might like it anyway...

As far as the missing canopy base part goes, do you have the part for the open version? Make it open

scorpiomikey wrote:The kit got biffed, but i have some of the parts you need in my spares box. Is it the Kangnam kit? If so send me a list of part numbers and ill get what i have packed up for you.

Thanks Mike. This is the Hasegawa kit so I don't know if any of the Kangnam parts will work. This is also 1/32 scale. The kit parts should be seen pretty well in the instruction sheet pics that I posted with the missing parts circled. These are Hasegawa part numbers though.

Stikpusher wrote:Mark, I may have some spare parts to donate as well... you're so close to a proper finish here. And I know that you can easily scratch those missing gear doors from sheet plastic.... those are flat easy shapes and you can add framing to look the part on the inner face from strip styrene...

try it try it and you may, you might like it anyway...

As far as the missing canopy base part goes, do you have the part for the open version? Make it open

I'm not sure I could scratch the interior details the way this kit looks. Too many rivets and compound curves inside and I just don't want to put any more effort into this than I have to anymore. I'm tired of it being on the workbench.

No I don't seem to have the part for the open canopy version either. It will be easier to just make it closed.

I'll be bringing this to the IPMS meeting this month to show that I finally did finish my New Year's Challenge... five years too late. You'll be able to see it then.

Thanks again for all the help gentlemen! This is what makes these particular Forums the best on the Web!

If everything thats missing is in the photos then i can get you everything from the first image except the main gear door. From the looks of it the Kangnam 32nd kit is a repop of the hasegawa (Or at least a poorly made clone)

Sounds good Mike. Sounds like a plan. Carlos will be helping me out as well. Hey, I'd rather have too many parts than not enough!

I'll PM my address to you. Meanwhile, I'll also be collecting some parts from Carlos at our IPMS meeting. Thanks for all your help!

You are too kind, Duke to mention me! LoL

Its too bad that it went south on this one, but I do hope with parts being sent to you that you would have a "proper closure" on this chapter of building a model. On another note, I would love to get my hands on an F-5E Tiger II in 1/32 scale. There aren't many around that produces them though, i think Hasegawa and Revell has them.

You're welcome Monty! Aside from a couple local guys in my club, I consider you to be one of the Kings of 1/32 scale aircraft!

I do hope you can find one; they are a bit hard to get these days and the models themselves are not the easiest to build. I would love to see a comparison between mine and yours if you get one. I do have a couple people helping out with parts so this just might get a bit more finished soon enough.

Mike, PM sent. Thanks again for your help.