Kinetic CF-5A 1/48

[Graham T]

Ive always liked the diminutive style of the venerable F-5 but, thinking back, I'm pretty sure that the LAST F-5 I built was the Airfix 1/72 kit when I was about 8!  In those days I thought the markings were for the Italian AF rather than the Imperial Iranian AF!  Anyway I bought this recently & as my intended project (Airfix Vulcan) stalled for want of a replacement part, I thought I'd give it a go.  Get past the useless end opening box & it's quite a nice kit although some smaller parts carried a bit of flash which surprised me.  The trailing edges of the flying surfaces are razor sharp (careful!). Cockpit & seat are a bit bare looking but (a first for me) I dressed up the latter with some belts from Tamiya tape & actually quite impressed with the result after an oil wash.  Fit is pretty good but not perfect; as Kinetic obviously wanted to produce the maximum number of variants from the basic moulds, there are lots of alternative panels that need popping in on the fuselage & these were rather poor & "gappy".  The kit provides AIM-9s, tanks, bombs & rocket pods.  I went with tanks & pods - the latter are a new style to me (possible unique to the RCAF?) & no colour call outs are provided for them.  On the subject of colours the instructions call for 3 x FS shades but if you attempt to follow the pattern provided, it can't be done as the side & plan views do not match up!  For this reason its a little conjectural!  Decals are nice & thin.

 

[Geoffry M]

Great job on your Cf-5.  I am currently building this same kit plus the Classic Airframe version.  The Kinetic does have better detailing but as you stated there are a lot of optional panels that need to be plugged into the fuselage.  Hope mine turns out as good as yours.

 

Geoff M

[f111guru]

23 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Ive always liked the diminutive style of the venerable F-5 but, thinking back, I'm pretty sure that the LAST F-5 I built was the Airfix 1/72 kit when I was about 8!  In those days I thought the markings were for the Italian AF rather than the Imperial Iranian AF!  Anyway I bought this recently & as my intended project (Airfix Vulcan) stalled for want of a replacement part, I thought I'd give it a go.  Get past the useless end opening box & it's quite a nice kit although some smaller parts carried a bit of flash which surprised me.  The trailing edges of the flying surfaces are razor sharp (careful!). Cockpit & seat are a bit bare looking but (a first for me) I dressed up the latter with some belts from Tamiya tape & actually quite impressed with the result after an oil wash.  Fit is pretty good but not perfect; as Kinetic obviously wanted to produce the maximum number of variants from the basic moulds, there are lots of alternative panels that need popping in on the fuselage & these were rather poor & "gappy".  The kit provides AIM-9s, tanks, bombs & rocket pods.  I went with tanks & pods - the latter are a new style to me (possible unique to the RCAF?) & no colour call outs are provided for them.  On the subject of colours the instructions call for 3 x FS shades but if you attempt to follow the pattern provided, it can't be done as the side & plan views do not match up!  For this reason its a little conjectural!  Decals are nice & thin.

 

End product came out quite nice. great job on the seat. Like the soft colors and different from the 80's jets.

All The Best,

Ron VanDerwarker

[exdraken]

Looks  nice!!

Especially colors are great!!