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

Gallery Article by Mark Chen on Aug 9 2010

  Singapore National Day 2010 

 

In 1978, the Republic of Singapore Air Force received its first supersonic jet fighter, the Northrop F-5E Tiger II. It was used as an interceptor and ground attack aircraft to augment the Hawker Hunters and A-4S Skyhawks in service with the RSAF at that time. Years down the road, the F-5Es and F-5Fs of the RSAF were upgraded to the F-5S/T standard and more than 30 years on, continue to fly in defence of the nation. They are slated to be replaced by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter when it goes into production.

This is the AFV Club kit of the F-5E built as a Tiger which served with the RSAF's 144 Sqn "Blackite" during its early years. The kit itself was very well detailed with the exception of the lack of a full intake. It went together with minimal fuss as the parts were well engineered. 

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Due to the lack of information on the early 3-tone grey scheme, I ended up painting the model with Gunze's 308(FS36375), 307(FS 36320) and 337(FS35237). Till now I am unsure if that was the correct combination of colours.  I gave it a wash with enamels to bring out all the nice rivet detail. 

The only aftermarket I used for this build was a resin ejection seat from AMS resin. This replaced the kit's mediocre seat with one that was full of detail albeit a little fragile.

Decals for this early RSAF F-5E came from the kit which were unfortunately slightly out of register. The decals themselves reacted well to decal setting solution and snuggled down really nicely into the kit's many recessed panel lines and rivets. Overall, this was a wonderful kit to build. Seeing that AFV Club will be releasing more variants of the F-5 in the future, this will probably not be my last Tiger II.

Happy 45th Birthday, Singapore!

Mark Chen

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Photos and text © by Mark Chen