AFV Club 1/48th F-5E Tiger II

Photos by Will Riepl and Gary Meinert

INTRODUCTION

Northrop had an interesting concept in the mid-1950s to produce a trainer and a fighter that featured good performance but with less complexity, expense, and maintenance. The trainer project (N-156T) became the T-38 Talon, while the companion fighter project (N-156F) became the F-5 Freedom Fighter.

The prototype F-5 flew in 1959. The USAF was initially not interested, but later realized that this small fighter was ideal for America's allies. The F-5A and B were subsequently produced in large numbers for users in the Military Assistance Program and for other friendly nations. Many were also built under license in Canada, Spain, and the Netherlands.

The improved F-5E version appeared in 1972 and was very popular with foreign air forces. This agile fighter also found a niche in USAF, Navy, and Marines service in the aggressor role simulating the MiG-21. By the late 1970s, the USAF had established four F-5-equipped aggressor squadrons.

One of these USAF squadrons, the 527th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor Squadron, was formed at RAF Alconbury in 1976 when 20 F-5Es were airfreighted to the UK by C-5A Galaxies of the Military Airlift Command. This squadron provided valuable adversary service in Europe until the late 1980s.

My model depicts Black 51, one of the aircraft of the 527th Aggressor Squadron in 1977. It has the "snake" camouflage pattern, which is one of the four original camouflage schemes for the USAF F-5E aggressor.

KIT DESCRIPTION

AFV Club of Taiwan is best known for armor models, but the company has recently jumped into the 1/48th scale aircraft market with the F-5E Tiger II. This kit is the early F-5E, with the original radome, leading edge extensions, and ejection seat. It is obvious from the parts breakdown and the parts not for use that other versions of the F-5 will be produced by AFV. Four decal choices are provided.

On the plus side, the kit has many nice options:

- compressed or extended nose landing gear
- open or closed rear fuselage auxiliary air inlets
- separate and posable wing control surfaces and rudder
- up or down speed brakes
- open or closed molded main landing gear doors
- up or down taxi/landing lights
- open or closed canopy

A nifty set of photoetched parts for the canopy rear-view mirrors and the perforated panels in the air intake splitter plate are provided. A ladder and external stores (consisting of Sidewinder missiles, drop tanks, and an ACMI pod ) are also included in the kit.

On the minus side, the plastic has a rough exterior finish, and there are too many sink marks and flow marks.. Some of the sink marks are subtle and don't show until after priming, but others, e.g., in the main wheel wells, are immediately apparent. Another criticism I have is that the recessed detail (panel lines and rivet/fastener holes) is heavy and inconsistent in width or depth. The clear canopy parts are adequate but should have more petite framing.

Another annoyance is that there are no air intake tunnels -not even partial ones. And no blanking plates, either.

CONSTRUCTION

Some have called it origami construction - I call it over-engineering. The fuselage alone (not counting the air intake assemblies and the radome) has an incredible nine major parts. I understand the need to have a separate forward fuselage section to allow for a future F-5F kit , but there are still too many parts that complicate and extend the construction phase.

The forward fuselage sub-assembly was the most troublesome fit because of the unnecessary left side gun bay panels (parts B1 and B3) that need to be blended into the other parts. (There is no gun bay in the kit.) The bottom piece (part C5) also did not fit well to the others.

I filled several ejector pin marks and seams inside the air intakes. I left alone the ejector pin marks in the ejection seat, as my pilot figure covered them up

I deviated from the instructions by attaching the upper instrument panel (part N6) to the coaming (part P17), then later mounting it to the cockpit top. I also separated the horizontal stabilizers, which are molded together as a unit with a bar between them.

CONVERSION TO FLIGHT

After noticing a photo in my F-5 In Action reference, I was inspired to display my model in take off mode with the landing gear retraction cycle in progress. (The F-5E takes off with the nose gear in the extended position.) All the parts I needed for this display were in the kit, except for a pilot figure. Fortunately, I found an old Monogram pilot that just happened to fit well in the kit seat. I had to replace the pilot's right arm so that he would grip the control stick.

Of course, I also had to elevate the model by attaching it to a base (small wood plaque) via a 3/8" acrylic rod.

The nose gear was altered to fit into the nose wheel bay at the proper angle. The main gear wheel wells are a bit too shallow, but I was still able to fit the wheels into the wells. I scratch-built the tiny section of strut that is visible under each wheel, and I found some shapes from my spares box to represent the gear door retraction pistons.

IMPROVEMENTS

The small air intake doors in the rear fuselage as supplied by the kit were too thick and had rounded corners. So I removed them and scratch-built my own doors from plastic strip.

I substituted metal tubing for the kit's plastic gun barrels, and I scratch-built the small black dorsal antenna behind the canopy.

PAINT & DECALS

The model was painted in the snake pattern with Testors Model Master enamels:

FS 33531 Sand, FS 34258 Green, and FS 30118 Field Drab. Testors MM Aluminum was used for the wheel bays, landing gear, and inside surfaces of the wheel doors. For the rear fuselage area, I chose Testors Metalizer Aluminum Buffing. The jet exhaust nozzles were sprayed with a mix of Aluminum Buffing and Steel Buffing. I did not buff these colors because I didn't want them to be too shiny--I simply sealed them with Metalizer sealer.

Panel lines were accented with colored pencils and appropriate smudges were added with weathering powders.

The decals came primarily from Afterburner Decals Sheet 48-062. However, I had to create my own nose number 51, which is black with yellow borders. A friend made the yellow number pattern over painted decal film for me, which I cut out and applied to the model. Next, I cut up and pieced together black Superscale numbers over the yellow ones. A tricky operation and a high pucker factor indeed, but it turned out OK.

Decals were applied with Solvaset and blotting over a Polly Scale gloss coat--my usual method. Later, a Polly Scale flat coat was added.

Pilots of the 527th wore distinctive helmet markings. I managed to hand paint the gold and red areas on the front of the helmet and apply a tiny red star from an old 1/72 decal sheet.

CONCLUSION

I would give this kit a B minus on the report card. AFV Club needs to improve its molding technology, which is not up to the high quality level of industry leaders like Tamiya or Hasegawa. That said, I look forward to more aircraft subjects from AFV Club.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac, and I am pleased to have my very own little tiger, the F-5E.

References:
F-5 Warplane for the World by Robbie Shaw
F-5 In Action by Lou Drendel, Squadron/Signal
Northrop F-5/F-20/T-38, Warbird Tech Series, by Frederick Johnsen
Air International May 1980
FineScale Modeler December 1989