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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