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Swiss Shark Nose Tiger, AFV Club 1/48


Robert Stuart

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This will be a model of a Swiss Shark Nosed F-5E.
The shark nose is a modification to the aircraft's nose and leading edge wing root extensions to improve manoeuvrability; it comes at the cost of some speed.

This will definitely be Swiss (unless I change my mind).

The box together with decals and instructions and AM stuff (Peace Alps decals from Matterhorn Circle and a pilot).
F-5E_000.jpg

 

And the plastic

F-5E_001.jpg

 

 

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A great choice Robert, this is a good kit and I shall be building one myself.

I see you have the Matterhorn decal sheet too, that looks to be a very nice sheet and means you can do just about any Swiss F-5. Have you chosen which scheme from it you will do yet?

 

🇺🇦

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1 minute ago, modelling minion said:

Have you chosen which scheme from it you will do yet?

Thanks MM
I have two in mind.  One from the boxing, the other ... maybe too ambitious (but, I can dream)

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Hello Robert!

will be following this one with interest. 

Planning the Staffel 8 „addio vandalo“ myself. If one day I can get one of those AFV F-5‘s. 
 

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Progress has been made on this kit, promise.
This, along with my Canadian example, is to be modelled in flight.  For this I've bent some acrylic rod, and printed a pair of pipes to act as sockets for the rods.
F-5A_006.jpg


More of that story in the Canadian build.

Other progress here:

F-5E_003.jpg

 

Elements of the nose and cockpit

Pilot, dry fitted
F-5E_004.jpg

 

 

 

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Thanks, Craig,
I have a couple of schemes in mind for this one, one 'simple' and one complex.  Either (if I can make them work) would be displayed to best effect 'in flight'.

The choice may boil down to how rich I'm feeling when I get there; the simpler scheme will work with equipment I have to hand, the more complex will need additional stuff.  'Nuff said.

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  • 1 month later...

Another of my build that has been dormant.
It has a base:
F-5E_005.jpg

This is 3D (FDM) printed, filled and painted, alongside a similar, disassembled, Canadian version.

The cockpit and pilot have received some attention:
F-5E_007.jpg


The switches and instrument panel are Quinta Studio, which only arrive at big H's warehouse on the 22nd of last month.

They do look much better than I could achieve unaided.
F-5E_008.jpg

 

The pilot needs some attention before I can close this up and move on to the airframe.

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This is going to look excellent; I wish I'd decided to pose my build in flight, too, because the F-5 looks like it's doing a thousand miles an hour when standing still, and in flight it looks like  2k mph.

 

I also need to get an AFV kit (when my kit purchase moratorium comes to an end in November!) - yours looks a million miles ahead of my old Revel-ogram.

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On 08/09/2022 at 22:31, jackroadkill said:

This is going to look excellent; I wish I'd decided to pose my build in flight, too, because the F-5 looks like it's doing a thousand miles an hour when standing still, and in flight it looks like  2k mph.

 

I also need to get an AFV kit (when my kit purchase moratorium comes to an end in November!) - yours looks a million miles ahead of my old Revel-ogram.

Thanks Jack.
Not sure how you feel about AM cockpits
AFV Club have (at least) two different cockpits, one with a box by the pilot's elbow, and one without.
Big H now has two suppliers with 3d printed decals for the F-5E; Quinta Studio, and Red Fox Studio.  Each supplier has two styles of cockpit, giving us three, maybe four different cockpit layouts  😱 .


Progress!
The fuselage is closed up!
One of the elevators broke off, which is a mixed blessing; it broke, but it'll be easier to paint now.


F-5E_009.jpg

 

 

And, with the F-5A,

F-5E_010.jpg

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

I was suffering déjà vu then I realised I had just been looking at your other build thread! Both look great, I love the stands.

Yes, I am building them in parallel, and as a result, the photos have the same back-ground.  It won't help that the pilot figure is the same model in both builds.

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@81-er, they are for different types, so each has its own niche.
If you were building just one F-5 in 1/48 scale, and not worried about a specific airframe, then I'd say go for the AFV Club kit.
The Kinetic kit isn't bad, just the AFV Club version is better thought out, and the parts fit is better.

Kinetic give you all of their F-5A plastic in the box.
There is less AM stuff around for the Kinetic kit.
The range of decals in the box can be very good (depends on boxing); you may be able to build any F-5A airframe owned by the air forces in the boxing.
Decals are printed by Cartograph.

AFV Club have a range of both noses and of cockpits, but not all are present in the box*
This may mean chasing around to get the box that best matches your need.
Lots of AM stuff around got the AFV Kit.
Decals are printed by AFV Club.

* Exception, I believe this boxing has both the pointed and the shark nose and two different cockpits.
216560-11890-99-pristine.jpg

 

Size wise, AFV Club's F-5E is notably larger than Kinetic's F-5A (reflecting a bigger engine in the prototype?)

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  • Robert Stuart changed the title to Swiss Shark Nose Tiger, AFV Club 1/48,

Priming has started, as with my F-5A, a coat of Halfords yellow filler:

F-5E_014.jpg

 

That was yesterday.
Followed, today, with some grey primer:
 

F-5E_016.jpg

 

F-5E_017.jpg

This is all in preparation for some unusual (to me) paints.
 

F-5E_018.jpg


Finding suitable paint that claims to match RAL colours was an exercise in itself.
Eventually, I found two UK based custom paint suppliers who would mix the paint.  The people who made these are based in Northern Ireland.
Thinners for this are 'normal' paint thinners, that you can buy at house painting suppliers.  Based on smell, that'd be white spirit (oh, joy :fraidnot:).

Coming soon to this thread: how to really mess up a paint job ...

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