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Since today (May 6th, 2012) the Lucky Model website proposes the Kinetic 1/48th Northrop F-5A/CF-5A/NF-5A Freedom Fighter kit (ref. K48020) as pre-ordable. Kinetic being closely related to Lucky Model, such advertisement indicates usually a very soon release of the kit. Source: http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48020 Price P&P incl. : +/- £ 19.00! See also the two seats F-5B/CF-5B/NF-5B boxing thread: http://britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234944218-148-northrop-f-5bcf-5bnf-5b-freedom-fighter-by-kinetic-released-new-f-5ab-boxing-in-2018/ See also the Wolfpack Design F-5A Skoshi Tiger rebox thread: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234979803-148-northrop-f-5a-skoshi-tiger-kinetic-rebox-by-wolfpack-design-released/ V.P.

Wolfpack Design is to release new tool 1/72nd Northrop F-5E/F Tiger II kits. Source: https://www.facebook.com/wolfpackd/photos/a.554832374609972/2920066541419865 V.P.

After its single seat 1/48th Northrop (C/N) F-5A kit (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234918577-148th-northrop-f-5acf-5anf-5a-freedom-fighter-by-kinetic-released-sprue-pics/?hl=freedom) Kinetic is to release a two seats (C/N)F-5B Freedom Fighter kit - ref.48021. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel V.P.

Hi Mates, Finished a F-5A from Classic Airframes recently. Thought it would be nice to make it from a lesser know F-5 user, Libya. The operational life of the F-5 in the Royal Libyan air force was a short one due to the coup from Gaddafi in 1970. Couple of the machines were sold to Turkey I believe. The kit is OOB except for most of the decals, the Libyan markings are from ArmyCast and the stencils came from the CA kit and from a spare Kinetic kit F-5 decals. Oh, and the pitot is from Master. The build process can be seen here; https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=14213&p=albums&album=72174 Erik

AFV Club is to reissue its 1/48th Northrop F-5E Tiger II kit as " Peace Bell Programme" (Yemen & Taiwan AF) - ref. AR48S10 Source: https://www.facebook.com/AFVCLUB.TW/photos/a.3561524077226419/3617871271591699/ V.P.

Hobbytime Model Kits ( link & link) is to release a 1/72nd Northrop R/RF-5A Freedom Fighter (plastic ESCI) - ref. 058 Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenmats/permalink/3411015518957966/ Box art V.P.

AFV Club F-5F modified with fin fillet, blade aerial and shark nose sourced from their F-5E Tiger version. Various paints used from a variety of manufacturers. Aztec decals used for the markings (although I opted to paint the tiger stripes by making stencils based on the decals) Enjoyed the build more than the painting, but that's par for the course Thanks for looking. Mike

Hi, Purchased an inconspicuous box containing an F-5a from Tiger Hobbies in 1/48 scale. Want to create an NF5-A, but the 1/48 KInetic Kit is hard to come by these days and expensive. This Kit was £10 with £3.60 postage. For this price the contents did not disappoint at all. Some of the panel lines are a little deep, but not as bad as I anticipated reading some of the reviews. Nevertheless, I am going to fill and re-scribe some of the panel lines. Filling the panel lines with a mixture of CA glue and gunmetal pigment: After 2 hours of filling and sanding, the fuselages are ready to scribe. Due to the sanding the remaining panel hatches and smaller features are now also a little toned down. Removed antennas to facilitate easy sanding. to be reinstated later. Just contemplating which of 4 schemes to go for not entirely sure: (Anyway long way to go still....) Decals from "Dutch Decal" are on the way from Germany by post. Another decision to make is whether to get a resin cockpit set or just the ejection seat or do some detailing myself. Some internet browsing to be done tonight. Going to take my time with this one. Need to research what differences there are with the NF-5A version compared to the regular F-5A's. The chaff dispensers to the rear of the fuselage is one unique feature from what I gather (and are included in the kit). To be continued......

Hi and Happy New Year, Please find my latest completion, the NF-F5 freedom fighter. The kit is from Tiger Hobbies and has its problems, Shape issues and very deep panel lines. Nevertheless, for £13.60 (incl shipping) I had tremendous fun building it. Panel lines were filled in and re-scribed where necessary. The only after market items were the masters pitot-tube and gun barrels and the NF-5/F86 DutchDecal sheet. The kit is not for the purist in the hobby, I hope Kinetic will re-issue the f-5a soon again. Paint and clear coats by Mr Color and home made wash and tamiya weathering powder/pastels. Apologies for the photography, I only have an iphone and 2 desk lamps. In the "work in progress" section on Britmodeler I have listed the build. (Since I am a newbie, I haven't figured out to insert the link in this field) :-) Continuing with my f-15D from academy, hopefully a little more accurate in outline and detail. Hope you like it. Cheers.

Saved from the shelf of doom, I started this kit couple of years ago under rather funny circumstances. It all started with me having a go at the rather modern Hobby Boss F-5E only to discover its biggest glaring issue - the windscreen being way too short. To remedy the problem, I bought a water damaged Italeri kit off of eBay mostly for its clear parts. Seeing that the Italeri had the right shark nose and squared off LERXs seen on most US aggressor aircraft, I wondered if the HB kit was worth proceeding with. Eventually, I used the Italeri canopy as a basis to form a new windscreen for the HB kit and decided I would do a twin Tiger build. Long story short, I ran out of steam midway and both kits were packed away after reaching primer stage. Fast forward to 2019, I was looking for something to 'finish off quickly' and came across these two again. I decided to just focus on completing the Italeri while I used decals from the HB boxing. I made some minor mods to better represent the subject aircraft, nothing crazy. Modifications made were - Seat headrest changed to improved style (using putty to build the headrest buttress), scratch built the canopy lift mechanism and fashioned an ACMI pod using styrene pipes. The canopy lift feels like an absolute must have for anyone building 1/72 F-5s and took the most time on my build to get right. This is quite characteristic of the F-5 and I have no idea why kit manufacturers decided to leave it out. This was finally finished off over the last week since so much work was already done. I was too lazy to use blu tac on the camo and ending up free-handing it at 1 bar psi. I think it turned out OK. Hope you all like it.

Singapore sent a small detachment of F-5Fs to the Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB in Jan-Feb 1983. Note that the national insignia hadn’t changed to the lion’s head yet. All of the aircraft carry the 144 Sq emblem on the tail. Aircraft 855 (USAF s/n 82-0189) Aircraft 854 (USAF s/n 82-0188) Aircraft 853 (USAF s/n 82-0187) Considering the USAF serial numbers, wonder if these were straight from the production line? Thanks for looking Sven

Ressurecting this one from the archives AND the shelf of doom.... I lost some of the original "in progress" pics during the "Photobucket Scam," but did manage to recover most of them. The starting point was a Hasegawa F-20.... The original starting point photo was one of those lost... so here's a photo of the seat just to fill in the gap... from a Revell AG F-16 with some spare pfotoetch belts...(little blurry....) Should be finishing this one up soon....

Among numerous projects, anounced or not announced, Kitty Hawk is reported to have a 1/32nd Northrop F-5E Tiger II. Mike Benolkin from Cybermodeller has even reported words from Glen "Kitty Hawk" Coleman saying that the 1/32 F-5E is coming in March barring any logistics problems... Wait and see. Sources: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?s=5c2ff6e68ae17012c76054379ea11236&showtopic=66843&p=886701 http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?s=5c2ff6e68ae17012c76054379ea11236&showtopic=66843&p=887578 - ref. KH32018 - Northrop F-5E Tiger II - ref. KH32019 - Northrop F-5F Tiger II - ref. KH32023 - Northrop RF-5E "Tigereye" V.P.

As follow up to its Northrop (R)F-5E/F Tiger family, AFV Club is to release a Iranian 1/48th HESA F-5E Saeqeh-80 kit - ref. AR48111 Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1512888545423326.1073741955.236926266352900&type=3 V.P.

The remainder of my 65th FWS/AS images... S/n 74-1571, June 1983. Now in the Flogger scheme. 74-1572, February 1981. Grape scheme. 74-1572, October 1981. Flogger scheme. 74-1572, June 1983. A darker Flogger scheme? 75-1573, March 1981. Flogger scheme. F-5F, 82-0091, February 1984. Grey 2 scheme. F-5F, 82-0090, February 1984. New Ghost 1 scheme. A parting shot taken during the filming of the Red Flag movie. 74-1569 on the left, '1558 in the middle, and the real '1557 on the right. The camo doesn't completely match, but who would notice that? Thanks for looking, Sven

The last of my images from the 64th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Nellis... S/n 74-1558, November 1980. Old Lizard scheme. '558 again, April 1981. New Lizard scheme. 74-1564, April 1981. Flogger scheme 74-1564, May 1981. Flogger scheme with a little touching up of the tail serial number to indicate the 64th FWS. 74-1564, June 1983. Flogger scheme, with a darker tan? 74-1567, February 1981. Snake scheme. '567 again, February 1984. New Lizard pattern with a definitely darker tan. 74-1568, March 1981. Snake scheme. 83-0074 February 1984. Looks like I told a lie to Boman in Part 1 of this series. I was sure I hadn't seen a family model on the line until 1988, yet here they are in 1984. '074 wearing the Flogger scheme. 83-0072, February 1984. Sand scheme 83-0073, February 1984. I haven't been able to identify the camo scheme. That's it for the 64th. I don't seem to have as many for the 65th, probably misfiled someplace. Thanks for looking, Sven

After the F-5E/F Tiger II (link), Kitty Hawk has the project to release 1/32nd Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter kits. Source: https://www.facebook.com/736521713066784/photos/a.736556396396649.1073741827.736521713066784/1623005921085021/ V.P.

Wolfpack Design (http://www.wolfpack-d.com/) is to rebox the 1/72nd ESCI/Italeri Northrop F-5A kit as "Skoshi Tiger" - ref. WP17203. F-5A Skoshi Tiger in Vietnam War Sprue parts by Italeri models, 4 A/C markings for USAF and South Vietnam AF in Vietnam War Decal printed in Korea A3 colour printing manual included Release : September 2014 Source: http://www.wolfpack-d.com/catalog/htm/wp17203.html V.P.

The Royal Saudi Air Force at Red Flag 81-1 in November 1980. An interesting mix of F-5Bs, F-5Es, and F-5Fs on the ramp at Nellis. A unique markings variation is the wearing of the typical USAF markings for the 425 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron out of Williams AFB and the addition of the RSAF roundels and tail flag. That's the 405th Tactical Training Wing emblem on the right side of the nose and the 425 TFTS emblem on the right. F-5B, USAF s/n 72-0439. Another variation on this example is the partial use of light green in place of tan for what would otherwise be a standard Southeast Asia camo scheme. Compare with F-5Es '402 and '406 below… F-5B, USAF s/n 73-1602 F-5B, USAF s/n 73-1408 F-5B, USAF s/n 73-1603 F-5E, USAF s/n 71-1419 F-5E, USAF s/n 72-1392 F-5E, USAF s/n 72-1398 F-5E, USAF s/n 72-1402 F-5E, USAF s/n 72-1406 F-5E, USAF s/n 73-0855 F-5F, USAF s/n 73-0889 F-5F, USAF s/n 73-0891 Not that it was any of my business as an operational test guy from the other end of the Nellis ramp, but we were told that the Saudis were scheduled to participate in this Red Flag exercise but it was “easier” for them to “borrow” aircraft from the USAF rather than ferry or ship their own aircraft from Saudi Arabia. Others may no more? Thanks for looking, Sven

Hi all, what at is the best kit available for this aircraft? Looking for your advice. Thanks. Martin

Hi there, this is my old 1/72 F-5A from Italeri. I opened the gun bay and scratched build the M39 from hypodermic needles and small pieces of plastic. I also used a resin seat to add realism to the cockpit. Base is from Coastal Kits. Many thanks for looking.

This was a project I was doing over at ARC for a Group Build (Far East), but I haven't finished it yet. I've been reading up on South Vietnam's F-5 operations and was inspired enough to want to build one. The kit I am using is Kinetic's F-5A, which does the job nicely. Work naturally started with the cockpit: The panels and side consoles are nice, but I wish Kinetic would have done a set of cockpit instrument decals since the panel detailing is okay, yet lacks dials on the instrument faces. So out came my collected instrument decals to do the job. Eduard does color etch, but I was a little cash strapped when I started. One minor issue I will point out is if you are doing an F-5 that ISN'T a Canadian bird, the kit provides a Marconi HUD box rather than the more rudimentary NORAIR gunsight that most F-5A/B models have. The Marconi HUDs are something seen more with air forces that have updated fleets. It took me a few minutes with a file to make the HUD/gunsight mount look a bit more featureless, although if I had to do it again I would have cut the box completely out of the panel and stuck in something a little smaller. But it looks okay. With cockpit work done, I assembled the intakes, fuselage and wings. Everything more or less went together okay. One thing I recommend when building this kit is to not finish the nose and rear fuselage separately and glue them together as the instructions recommend. Instead you will have MUCH cleaner seams up top if you glue each nose half to each rear fuselage half before gluing them together. Fit was good and the resulting seam was a lot easier to handle. It did not need filler. Now there is a little bit of a gap between the intakes and rear fuselage, plus a similar gap between the bottom nose/fuselage plate ahead of the wing and the wing itself. I was able to fill the gap perfectly with some .010" styrene sheet (plasticard) and it blended in nicely. You can position the control surfaces on this kit. The rear wing flaps are traditionally up when the plane is parked. Leading edge flaps sometimes have a slight droop when parked (or more depending on the operator). One thing that all early F-5 and T-38 jets seem to have though are drooped ailerons when parked as they seem to sit about five degrees down on both sides when the hydraulic system is not pressurized. Thankfully it is pretty easy to represent that with this kit. One unique feature of VNAF F-5s were the 90 lbs. of lead armor plate they had mounted under the nose and parts of the tail. The plating was introduced during the USAF's "Skoshi Tiger" evaluation and South Vietnam continued the practice when they got the original F-5C jets and some additional F-5A and B models. Again I used some plasticard to represent the armor plates based on available photos found in my reference books and online. Another thing I'll mention is the outer wing pylons. If you wish to droop the leading edge flaps, a notch will need to be added to the outer pylons. On the real jets, this notch is covered by a spring loaded flipper door/fairing that goes up when the flap does. Kinetic didn't scribe in the fairing area in so I am going to represent that with pencil lines. I did sand in a slight notch into both pylons to help make space for my slightly drooped flaps. So that is where I am. I've got the model in primer with some paintwork done to the bottom. I'll shoot another round of photos when I start laying on the SEA camo on top. I'm using a little different pattern than Northrop's factory camo. Based on pictures I've seen, it looks like the oldest F-5s in the VNAF fleet likely went through depot level maintenance in 1969-70 and when they got repainted, the camo pattern seemed to be based on the desert/Asia Minor scheme, but with SEA colors. Hopefully I can pull this off properly.

Tanmodel (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234967245-tanmodel-172-148-132-projects/) has started its research to produce 1/32nd Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter & T-38 Talon kits Source: https://www.facebook.com/tanmodel/posts/352064218315179 V.P.

Last night I finally finished the last of my first handful of aggressor F-5Es. It is the lovely AFV Club F-5E kit with Wolfpack ejection seat (the kit only comes with the old type of seat). Paints are mainly Xtracolor, and the decals are from the great Afterburner Decals sheet for aggressor F-5s. I have eight more AFV Club F-5E/F/Ns on the bench at the moment, so this won't be the last F-5 from me you will see here. Jens