1/72 Northrop F-20 Tigershark

Gallery Article by Jaime Vinha on Feb 10 2015

 

      

Hi, I have forgotten how long it has been since my last submission, but I am very glad to be back.

This is my Hasegawa 1/72 F-20 Tigershark as a “what-if” operational aircraft with the Portuguese Air Force.

The F-20 was privately funded by Northrop as an improvement on the F-5 and reached out to the export market as a cheap, easy to operate, high performance new generation light fighter in the later 70’s/early 80’s.

It would be a good way for the U.S. to supply their allies with a capable aircraft without sharing the precious newly designed F-16 Fighting Falcon, but a change on the government policies and many other problems left the Tigershark competing with the F-16 instead of being an option to it.

The project was abandoned in 1986 with only 3 built, but not without taking part in aviation history as General “Chuck” Yeager celebrated the 25th anniversary of his historical first sound breaking flight in one of these prototypes.

 

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So why this kit, and why a “what-if”?

I was looking for an easy way back into modeling after being away for almost one year.

This is a very attractive aircraft, the kit is simple and very well reviewed, but on the other hand, the color scheme was not.

The Portuguese Air Force studied the purchase of the F-5 before deciding on the LTV A-7P Corsair II in the mid-80’s so it is in some way logical that it could have been one of the F-20’s clients had it seen the light of day.

Portuguese A-7’s were operated by two squadrons, “Falcões” (Falcons) and “Magníficos” (Magnificent) and I used decals from the Hobbyboss A-7P kit to create this F-20 supporting a 3-tone F-16 paint scheme as it might look in the early 2000’s.

I used Tamiya acrylics, and dirtied it up with two washes and some pastels.

There were not big major issues with the build, but handling my new airbrush and compressor did delay the conclusion for a while as I battled with the air pressure and thinner/paint ratio.

Anyway it's done and I share it now with you. 

Regards

JGV

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Photos and text © by Jaime Vinha