When you think of
"esoteric" air forces, what comes to mind? Maybe some middle Eastern
air forces, some South American, or South African....yesnot? Well how about
North Africa this time? Namely Tunisia. I wanted to make something interesting
an unusual, and I don't think you can find anything much more interesting and
unusual than an F-5E from the Tunisian Air Force! Currently the type has served
with no less than 24 different air forces! The F-5 has been an unmitigated
success, and still flies today with many of its original customers.
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images below to see larger images
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Basic kit is the
Italeri F-5E, with slight mods to make it the Tunisian version. For starters,
the TAF Tiger has the dorsal fin extension, common to many export F-5s. This was
cut from plastic card, and glued in place and sanded to blend in, and a couple
panel lines added. The antenna atop the fin was also cut and sanded to shape and
added. The big VHF blade antenna was also cut from plastic card, but added at
the end of construction. That's it for mods!
The camo scheme is unique to the
Tunisian bird, and consists of FS34087 olive drab, FS30400 tan, and FS36375 ,
and FS36320 dark ghost gray upper surfaces, with an FS36622 camo grey
undersurfaces. Two grays, a tan and a green. Not your ordinary camo scheme...but
then again, this isn't your ordinary Tiger. I painted the scheme using paper
masks, with UHU tac as a barrier between the paper and the plastic, which left a
crisp, but feathered edge on all the colors. A coat of Future, decals from the
Carpena F-5 International No.1 sheet, and some dullcoat. Then a wash with my
favorite washing fluid-The Detailer-, and then another coat of flat. Voi-la!
This was a fun and quick build, only about 20 hrs. of work, most of that in the
painting, but it was very enjoyable, and a neat addition to the collection, and
any F-5 fanatic like myself. Back to the concept of esoteric air forces, wait
till you see what F-5 I do next...
Until then....as always....Gotta fly!
Daniel
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