Time for my annual Indonesian Air Force build. This time it’s the current jet trainer, the T-50i Golden Eagle. The only kit available is this simplified one from Academy which features snapft parts and no landing gear.
Tori Factory from South Korea makes upgrade sets for the kit and I snagged a copy of their landing gear set. I also bought a T-50i conversion set from a local Indonesian company called Dolan.
The base kit is really simplified although the details are still pretty nice.
The Tori Factory landing gear set.
The Dolan T-50i conversion set which also includes landing gear.
Work begins as usual with the cockpit.
I added the seatbelts with my usual Tamiya masking tape and did some careful painting of the instruments panels.
I began the conversion with the tailfin. On the T-50i the tailfin tip is squared off and originally, it’s a simple matter of cutting off the the whole kit fin and attaching the Dolan part. Unfortunately, after attaching, I realized that the Dolan tailfin was warped and with it made up of brittle resin, there’s no easy way to straighten it.
So I resorted to swapping the kit tip with the Dolan tip with the help of CA glue. The leading edge of the tip is just a bit short so I shaped a small piece of UV putty to cover it.
The wingtips of the T-50i are 16S210 AIM-9 launchers and it’s a simple cutting and refitting.
Now we come to the most complicated part: the landing gear. I first marked out the areas with Tamiya panel liner.
The nose gear bay is a straightforward cut. Note the bottom of the cockpit doubling as the gearbay.
The cutting of the main gearbay however resulted in the kit being cut in half.
Based on the Tori Factory instructions, part of the intakes also require surgery. Once these were done, the landing gear would be a drop-in fit. Well… I hope it would be.
The canopy has a mold line running down its center so this needs to be cleaned but is otherwise nicely clear with raised canopy frame.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction | Pt.3 – Painting | Pt.4 – Finishing
