Airfix 1/72 Northrop F-5E Tiger II (Agressor)

AIRFIX 1:72 NORTHROP F-5E TIGER II (AGGRESSOR)

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: October 2009

Kit Details:

Airfix #02020 - Northrop F-5E Tiger II - Skill Level 2

Aircraft History:

First flown on August 11, 1972 the F-5E was a private development of Northrop of its highly successful supersonic trainer, the T-38 Talon. The F-5E was a further development of the F-5A/B/C Freedom Fighter series that proved itself as a more than capable lightweight fighter that was also cost effective for other countries. The F-5E was a more sleeker version of the Freedom Fighter family and was also a very capable fighter/interceptor, highly manoeuvrable and a decent lightweight option for the USAF. The Tiger and its technology were already getting outdated by the time it entered service and was subsequently replaced by the F-16 in USAF service. However, many countries, particularly those from the third world sector, found a reasonable fighter option in the F-5E Tiger.

The US Navy Fighter Weapons School at NAS Miramar (most famous for the movie "Top Gun") gained a handful of T-38 Talons in 1972, but in 1975 when the Vietnam War ended took advantage of the windfall of F-5E's. This windfall came about from F-5E's that were produced and intended for Vietnam but never delivered. The F-5E thus found a new role within the various fighter training schools particularly also Red Flag exercises with the USAF. The F-5E was painted into typical and interpretative Soviet camouflage patterns and equipped what was known as the "Aggressor" squadrons. It most famously appeared as "Mig-28's" in the Hollywood blockbuster "Top Gun" in 1984.

The idea was that this fast lightweight could be used by the services, particularly the USAF in its aggressor units, to simulate hostile aircraft (mainly MiG-21's) in combat training schools against pilots flying F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats. In the late 1980's the F-5E was being replaced by F-16Ns which were subsequently withdrawn by the mid 90's. Often Aggressor aircraft were flown by US Reserve pilots or graduates from Top Gun which sometimes lead to problems. The reason why aggressor squadrons were being disbanded in the 90's was often they made enemies within the ranks from the "prima donna" attitude of some of the pilots. It seemed some of the Aggressor pilots were more concerned with winning scenarios than training and through their tactics which no longer became representative of a possible threat.

The Kit:

For a little aircraft there are a hell of a lot of parts in this kit. As usual, everything floats loose in the box although the decal sheet was concealed in the folded instructions to protect them. The sprues supplied are more standard than the bits of "tree branches" notoriously in Airfix kits. There are four sprues plus the fuselage halves containing 75 typically soft blue-grey Airfix plastic and a single canopy transparency. Although many of the count is taken up by stores. Detail is generally raised, with some of the control surfaces engraved. All of the engraved lines look a bit "novice" in that they are not sharp or in some instances quite straight. While flash, sink holes and ejector pin marks are minor, they are there nonetheless so some parts need a bit of a clean up before assembling.

Instructions:

The large A3 sheet - folded to make an A4 booklet - is very typical of airfix. Two pages contain the reasonably easy to follow 8 assembly steps and the other two pages contain detailed four view diagrams for the two aircraft, covering painting and decalling. An extra A4 sheet contains modelling information, symbol explanation and a brief overview of the aircraft in several languages. Typically painting information is only given by way of quoting Humbrol numbers.

Construction:

For an Airfix kit you get a pretty decent fit out for the cockpit, albeit still overly generic and simplistic. A tub with a rear bulkhead integrally molded is provided which has two side panels with tiny console detail. A main instrument panel is provided also with minor and generic molded instrumentation detail. Both side and main instrument panels are catered for with a decal also. A very simplistic seat is provided along with the usual Alien pilot figure and a control column. All this is affixed together as its own little cockpit sub assembly, and painted in Humbrol 27 Sea Grey (some may argue FS 36231 [H140] is a better match so will leave to your judgement).

Once completed the cockpit sub assembly is fed into the upper fuselage half [fuselage is split horizontally] and this is a very good fit, with both the instrument panel and rear bulkhead supposed to fit within alignment rails inside the fuselage. The main wing is just one-piece, as are the tailplanes, and respectively have a spar which is trapped between the fuselage halves before they are affixed together which makes it very easy to affix for beginners. Nice fit, but the join lines need removal afterward.

The intakes have a little bit of depth and are affixed to their air louvre and then the sub assembly attached to the fuselage. Providing you test fit and scrape off the join lines from affixing the fuselage halves together, the fit is very good. A tiny bit of putty was needed at the rear of the intake to fuselage join and sanded smooth to blend in. Mr Surfacer probably would have done the job too. Add on the one-piece tailplane and feed in the two exhaust cans at the back, and most of the airframe is just about completed. Just a note of wary, with part 15, the starboard exhaust can, the excess plastic that looks like flash - isn't! I was going to shave it off, but thought I would test fit the part first, and found the excess plastic is supposed to be the back of the fuselage (ie: brake parachute housing) - lucky I test fitted first!

Being a wheels up modeller I of course then went to work on closing the air brakes and wheel bay doors. There is virtually no interior detail as far as these areas are concerned, aside from very small and basic structural work. With a bit of a scrape around the edges to remove any tiny amounts of flash and a test fit, all the doors fit very well indeed.

For stores, which makes up most of the parts in the kit, you have the choice of Mavericks and Mk82 bombs for the underwing pylons, wingtip Sidewinders and a large 184 gallon fuel tank for a ventral fuselage pylon. I said this makes up most of the parts because effectively Airfix have provided you with enough bombs and Mavericks to make up any combination of each on the underwing pylons, which obviously means four of each. For me, I added wingtip missiles and the fuel tank only. I have a number of F-5E Aggressor photos, not one of them is carrying underwing ordnance. Most are actually completely clean configuration, but a couple of photos have the fuel tank and wingtip missiles (or pods presumably for electronic data), so that was good enough for me. So just the fuel tank and wingtip missiles were added.

To finish off the construction phase an arrestor hook was added underneath and the two-piece canopy was added. The nose cone is made up of two pieces which the pitot probe trapped in between the two halves as they are affixed together - just make sure you orientate the probe the right way, should be fairly obvious but mine still needed sanding to remove a tiny step where it meets the top of the nose. Then there was just a couple of rectangular aerials to affix under the nose of the F-5E. A very quick and easy build it must be said in spite of the supposed skill level 2 required on the box.

Colour Schemes:

You have the choice of two Aggressor F-5E's from this kit. The first is a VMFT-401, USMC, MCAS Yuma USA 1996 example finished in the overall two-tone brown desert camouflage featured on the boxart. The second example is a two-tone grey and blue-grey wrap around European style of interpreted Soviet camouflage pattern from the 527th Aggressor Squadorn, USAF, Alconbury, UK, 1990. I really couldn't go past the European camouflage idea - and although I finished it in the kit's USAF livery, most of the Aggressor aircraft I see in this pattern are Navy aircraft. There are plenty of different schemes out there so if you weren't too fussed about historical accuracy you could make up some really interesting schemes such as a two-tone green and stone; two-tone blue or a olive brown and gull grey example. Plenty of pics on the Internet. While the instructions called for Humbrol 64 (light grey) I used H127 instead as this looked more correct when looking at photos and made a nice base grey which also acted as a primer. On top of this I applied H140/H145 as suggested in the instructions.

Decals:

The sheet is small but does contain three sections, one for either aircraft and the other with decals that are common to both. Colour register is quite good, but then again that is not hard with blacks and greys or single red colours, but the printing is not very sharp and all the smaller stencils, including the warning triangles are blurred and unreadable. The multicolour decals like the Russian style star and numbers are printed off centre and not the best. In terms of applying the decals to the models I really didn't have many problems at all, they conformed very well with setting solution although were prone to curling after removing from their backing sheet - so be careful. A minor amount of silvering was evident afterwards.

Accuracy:

The kit is a good looking replica. If you have to be nit picky about this kit, then the detail bits and pieces are not there, including the auxiliary fuselage intake doors and a couple of other small aerials missing from the top of the fuselage. Some shape problems exist but overall a reasonable looking kit.

Overall Recommendation:

For me this was a far easier kit to put together than the Skill Level 2 suggests on the box and should be within the scope even for beginners. It's not a state of the art model but then the F-5E doesn't have a great deal of small detail likes scoops and vents which makes it an easier model to replicate for companies like Airfix. I also like the fact that it is a subject that is just a little different, and nice to sit on the model cabinet beside the F-14! Recommended warmly!

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