The Northrop F-5E Tiger II was a small, lightweight supersonic fighter developed from the F-5A Freedom Fighter in the early 1970s. Though it was never pressed into front-line service with the United States Armed Forces, it was widely exported and served as a front-line combat aircraft of many air forces around the world.
In the late 1970s, the Republic of Singapore Air Force selected the F-5E to be its main interceptor, augmenting the Hawker Hunter fleet which was in service at that time. The acquisition also marked the first time the RSAF operated a supersonic aircraft.
During the 1990s, it became clear that the RSAF's F-5E fleet had to be modernised. Singapore Aircraft Industries (now Singapore Technologies Aerospace) was contracted by the RSAF to upgrade its entire fleet of F-5Es. The upgrades included, most significantly, a new radar (FIAR Grifo-F), refueling probe and new cockpit layout similar to that of the F-16C. The upgraded aircraft were thus designated F-5S (single seater interceptor), F-5T (two seater trainer) and RF-5S (photo reconnaissance) and are expected to remain in service until the introduction of the F-35 Lightning III.
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To build the unique F-5S, I used AFV Club's excellent Chilean/Moroccan Air Force F-5E kit as a base. However, there is up to date, no one who produces an accurate instrument panel for the F-5S (even the upcoming RF-5S kit from AFV Club is wrong). So I had no choice but to scratch build the instrument panel. I used the kit's panel as a basis and sanded down most of the detail. Then I attached the MFDs from an Academy F-15E kit and various gauges which were carefully cut from the other 2 panels included in the F-5E kit. I also added throttle handles and beefed up the control stick to look more like a HOTAS set up. The kit seat was not well detailed so I replaced it with one from Wolfpack Designs.
The
model was p ainted
in the RSAF's 3-tone grey scheme of FS36375, FS36270 and FS36118. This
scheme resembles the Hill Grey scheme previously worn by late F-4
Phantoms. The hot areas and exhaust were painted in Alclad White Aluminium
and Pale Burnt Metal respectively. Decals for this 149 Squadron bird came
from a hard to find Siam Scale sheet. I gave it a wash of Tamiya enamels
and sealed it all in with Mr Color Flat Clear.
For the
loadout, I chose a pair of AIM-9M Sidewinders and AGM-65B Maverick
missiles as well as a pair of underwing tanks. It has come to my attention
that the use of the small tanks is wrong so I may change them to the
larger centreline-style ones in the future. That should be an easy job as
the tanks are attached with polycaps.
One
enhancement I made to the kit parts was the replacing of the navigation
lights with clear parts. The kit originally has these molded in solid grey
plastic. The fact that they are round also made painting difficult without
the use of a die and punch set for making masks. So I bought some Wave
Option H-Eyes Mini clear parts and replaced the kit lights with them. You
can find them at Hobby Link Japan (http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVOP-257).
In all, this
was a build which tested my limited scratch-building skills. I do intend
to build more RSAF Tigers but here's hoping that someone will produce an
accurate kit in the future.
Mark Chen
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