Military trainer aircraft Group build 2020

Air Force pilots attempting to be funny:

I started some hand painting the cockpit, both the stock pit and the resin set.

Light grey for the seats, medium grey for the tub, olive drab for the seat pad, and flat black on the seat top.

Nothing is glued yet.

I've started the Trumpeter T-38 with a resin/PE aftermarket set.

That photo is the parts with a light coat of primer on them.

Those are some nice looking kits there mach, miles better then my ole "T-38". I guess i'll get back to cracking at it tomorrow, have tons of filling/sanding/sawing ahead of me. You could say, with the amount of work I have to do, that I never started way ahead of time .

See ya'll tomorrow 

Tomorrow is the big day!

With all the crazieness in the world right now, now is a good time to de stress by building

a model.

I'm getting ready. Gave everything a good washing:

Trumpy goodness:

Wolfy fun:

The resin aftermarket parts are VERY nice. I'm sure I'll use some. The Wolfpack seats look kind of basic. 

While I was digging out the Talon's I found a an old T-37 kit! I forgot I had it, hopefully its all there. The box is in bad shape.

Those decals look great falconmod! 

keavdod thats the spirit! Nice additional choices!

I see some distributors there, I assume you are building a car also?

I am way too into this trainer build :)  I have a couple of kits on the bench to finish then it's trainer time - the 17th is coming!

Here's the decals and the painting diagram for the T-38 thunderbird.

John

Updated!

keavdog, Great! I was hoping someone was going to T-45.

falconmod that looks great! Welcome! Do you have a photo of the decal sheet?

Paint and decals arrived today as well.  This orange-yellow looks pretty close to the trainer color.  I ordered chrome yellow as well.

You can add these two to the T-38 I'm doing.  Hey, I have a year :)

I'm in with this:

John

Thank you mach . I guess I will do that .

The decals are old and yeller, but at least the kit still had them . I don't know if I should hang em' up in the window to de-yellow, or should I go with new decals? I can get a huge sheet from bna for under $20. What I can do in the meanwhile, is trim off the sidewinder rails, and cut down the leading edge extensions. Least it'll make it look more like the talon, and do a bunch of sanding on the belly to get it more to shape. I'll save all the stores for another build, they are quite worth saving. 

Instead of a T-6 Texan, put me also down for the Academy 1/48 T-33A Shooting star.

Thank you fellers :).

It's all good Willy! Build it. The kit box says its a T-38 and I bet it has T-38 decals. 

It will look great!

That's what I thought jeaton01, Thanks!

Willy, The T-38B is the one used for bombing practice/training. I think it also has a gunsite, but no guns. 

I think I went a bit overboard:

Decal sets and a resin/PE set. Looks like fun!

More internet fun:

https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/jet-fighters/northrop-t-38-high-flight-1972/3049884895001

I'm not sure why the link is not clikable. Sorry.

Willy, the reason your kit has weapons is because it is an F-5B.  The angle in the leading edge where it meets the fuselage is not present on a T-38.  Other differences are in the intake shape and a deeper belly to hold the heavier landing gear of the F-5 variants.

You know mach, to be perfectly honest, I haven't the slightest clue what i'm doing . And that's saying a lot... Lol! I was thinking just a standard T-38A, I don't know very much about the plane, need to do much more research! Just i'm soooo busy, hardly any time to really dig into the build. I was thinking build the talon up as a fighter bomber trainer, but if that isn't correct to the plane, then i'll throw that out. Least it'll save me a pile more work! . Should I saw off the tip rails, to make it accurate? Or leave them be? Same story with the centerline fuel tank, put it on, or leave it off? I think i'll take some time in the next few week to do all my research, google pics will help a bunch. Thanks again mates .

Willy, 

What version are you planing on building?

I ask because I don't think the T-38 ever had wingtip sidewinder rails.

The 2 seat F-5 did but that has leading edge slats. The T-38 did not have them.

The T-38A has a centerline hard point for a luggage container.

I think the T-38B had a centerline hardpoint. I don't believe any T-38s ever had 

wing hard points, but I could be wrong.

In any event I like the build so far!

Thank you mates  Yes, i'm having a ball. But even then, you can get burnt out having fun . I'm getting a bad case of "Sanding Syndrome" from this build, and my build of polar lights 1:1000 refit enterprise. Boy I've done a pile of sanding as of late! Time to take a break with an Tamiya shake n' bake motorcycle. I guess I've gotten to the point on the talon that I can safely put her on hold, at least till the true start date . I have the decals picked out, nice big sheet from bna. Other then that, I guess i'll check back in on the 15th.

Bad, bad, bad sickdude!

Looks like a nice build so far, I guess it's March so all is good.

Pretty air plane.

EDIT: The goal is to have fun and it looks like you are having fun!

Just plain old Chrome Yellow, I'm pretty sure, John.  With a green antiglare panels.

Ha!  Supposed to wait until st paddy's day.  Looks good.  Fun to watch all the t-38s builds.

I went a bit crazy and ordered a t34, t6 and t2.  I've got a year to build them all

BTW anyone know the color used for the yellow trainers?  Looks a touch orange.

mach71

To hold us over before the official start...

To late mach, I started building 1am yesterday and went non-stop for 14 hours... I couldn't help myself!  

I know, i blew the start date well outa the water, least you have the satifaction of knowing that my cfs and fm weren't very happy afterword, to say the least. Well deserved punishment . At least i have the satifaction of enjoying the build, and seeing it come together quite well. Excellent kit for me IMHO, goes together excellent for being old molds. Any problems i've incountered are my own fault, especially dealing with the wings. Really messed up the surfaces on them, own fault again . But in a way, it's good that i kinda did some bad things on it, being a 7 1/5 buck kit, makes for an excellent learner model, can't recommend it high enough, for that reason alone. Much better then learning on a state of the art, 1,000+ piece, several hunderd $, modern super model. Especially those large scale ships, those truly scare me . Any way, i'm finally getting through the wings, and making some serious progress. Not really build progress photos, got so caught up in it that i forgot to take pics along the way, sorry again .

I'm a bad boy and got a well deserved spanking on this one .

Willy  

mach71

freem and lewbud, are your T-6's the original or the new T-6? 

Either would be great! Just wondering.

 

The original.

To hold us over before the official start:

RAF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuwwzfKxf40

USAF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsp-DW1DKl0

mach71

Bish,

 

Both great choices! I'm looking forward to seeing your builds.

While in my LHS today I was looking at the Me262B-1, it looks like a nice kit.

 

Ye, doesn't look to bad. I have built one of the Hase single seaters before, it went together well. I have 2 of these two seater kits so i can do the Nightfighter as well.

2 beautiful planes Mr. Keav . Hope I can do half as nice a job on my T-38, that would make me happy .

Like what was before hand, going to be built stob. I'm painting the canopy solid black, and focusing on painting/decaling. Should be much fun :). Lucky for me, it's Minicrafts kit from the 80's, not the ancient Fujimi one . Still nopit detail to speak of, but very good fits, and nice surface detail, all recessed . Another nice bonus is i got a full sprue of stores for it, all very nice. I'm doing it in regular training config, so i'll save all the stores for another kit. All in all, a great build for beginners, like me . 

freem and lewbud, are your T-6's the original or the new T-6? 

Either would be great! Just wondering.

Today I dug out my old wood T-38 model I got in the AirForce back in 1983!

The pitot tube is bent and the front a bit chipped. The problems of being in storage and moved a bunch. 

Bish,

Both great choices! I'm looking forward to seeing your builds.

While in my LHS today I was looking at the Me262B-1, it looks like a nice kit.