1/48 Revell F-5E Tiger II

by Dan McWilliams

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This build is dedicated to Spooky.  Thanks for all the attempts to help me with my Fujimi CF-5D; the very nice side benefit was being able to build this excellent F-5E kit.  I chose the Swiss Air Force markings to honour Spooky's European heritage, because I liked the camouflage scheme, and because I've always felt at home when visiting Switzerland.

The kit was very nice to build.  Fit was generally good, and with a little attention it can be built up into a very accurate F-5E.  It is unfortunate that the kits available for F-5As and Bs are not of this quality.  This build was entirely OOB.  Most reference pics I found for these jets showed quite weathered and blurred camouflage jobs.  In the Tamiya acrylic range I couldn't find suitable colours, so I used Humbrol enamels numbers 127 and 66.  I found the contrast and colours were close enough to the real thing for me.  And let's just pretend this jet has come straight out of the paint shop, shall we?

Click on images below to see larger images

  

This submission could also have been entitled "how I spent my summer vacation."  Pic 04 shows the other kit I built in mid August - the all-green Starfighter.  I thought it was fitting to put them together, as both aircraft roamed the skies over Central Europe about the same time.

Dan

Photos and text © by Dan McWilliams