Scale Plastic & Rail

1/48 F-5E Tiger III (Chile & Morocco) from AFV Club

1/48 F-5E Tiger III (Chile & Morocco)
AFV Club
Catalogue # AR48S02

Introduction
Today I have the pleasure of reviewing the Northrop F5-E Tiger III, as used by the air forces of Chile and Morocco. As you may tell from the kit's serial number, this is only AFV Club's second aircraft release in 1/48 scale, and follows on from their F-5E Tiger II which I believe was released in 2010. Although widely known for their 1/35 armour kits, AFV Club hit a winner with the Tiger II, and this kit shares most of its parts with that earlier release, so it should be good...

Background to the F-5E
The F-5 family can trace its roots back to a privately-funded venture by Northrop in the 1950s, although the first generation F5-A Freedom Fighter did not enter service with the US Air Force until the early 1960s. Although the F-5A was never a front-line aircraft for the U.S., it was widely exported to then Cold War allies with around 800 airframes being sent overseas; a further 1200 or so were used by the USAF in a slightly modified form as a trainer. Production of the F-5A stopped in 1972.

Chilean Air Force F-5E

The second generation F-5E came as a result of a 1970 request by the USAF for a new light fighter that once again could be used to equip America's allies, or sold on the export market. Incidentally, the Tiger name comes from the Skoshi Tiger programme -  a combat evaluation of the F-5A in during the Vietnam War. Shipped there in 1965, and only operating over the South, they never saw action with any MiGs whilst operating under the USAF.

F-5E air show display

The F-5E first flew in 1972. It has a larger fuselage, more powerful engines and more sophisticated avionics than its F-5A forebears. Leading edge wing extensions also provide it with greater manoeuvrability. The Tiger III upgrade includes amongst other things an air-to air refuelling capability, and was carried out by Elbit Systems of Israel. Interestingly, the upgrade of Moroccan F-5Es in this capacity was the first deal of its kind between Israel and a Muslim country.

A copy of the artwork that comes with the kit

Finally, for those of you who think the silhouette of the F-5 airframe looks familiar, and are fans of the movie Top Gun, I can confirm that, yes, it was these aircraft that were used as 'MiG 28s' to oppose our good friends Maverick and Ice Man!

Kit Contents
The kit comes in a standard AFV Club box which has box art and pictures of other AFV Club products on the inside of the box top. The rather nice F5-E box art is reproduced on a small poster, which could always be framed if it takes your fancy? All the sprues were bagged separately, including decals and clear parts.

There are nine sprues in light grey plastic, one for the clear parts, a small fret of photo-etch metal, and four small poly caps (more about those later). The main shell of the fuselage and the two exhaust cones come separately, rather than on sprues. At first glance, there is some excellent surface detail, although some of the raised 'rivets' may be a tad large considering this is 1/48 scale (I am more accustomed to 1/32 subjects).

The detail and quality of moulding is very good on some of the more intricate parts, like landing gear legs, instrument panels etc. There is a small amount  visible flash on some parts, but nothing that can't be cleaned up in a few seconds. There are quite a few sprue gates on some of the long slender parts, such as the in-flight refueling probe, air-to-air missiles and landing gear doors; these will require care to remove and clean up.

The instructions are A4 format, over 12 pages, and show the construction over 16 steps in easy to understand line drawings. There are colour call-outs for Gunze, Revell, Humbrol and LifeColor paints. Markings are provided for 4 aircraft; three from the Chilean Air Force, one Royal Moroccan Air Force. Throughout the construction, there are clear call-outs for slightly different configurations and parts according to whether you are building a Moroccan or Chilean plane.

Construction begins with the cockpit. The main tub is one part, with the side instrument panels added as separate pieces. The detail on these - as with the main IP - is raised, and will look very good with some dry-brushing. The arms of the ejector seat are nicely detailed, but the seat back does have ejector pin marks visible.

Crisp detail on instrument panel

You are required to choose in Step 2 whether you want the canopy (which is crystal clear) posed open or closed.

Crystal clear canopy

The cockpit is enclosed in a three-part forward fuselage section, with the nose cone added once these are put together. The pitot tube is added right at the end for obvious reasons; it is very delicate, but I would still use an turned brass alternative once one becomes available - perhaps Master Model are listening?

Ejector pin marks will be tedious to remove from the seat

The main fuselage is formed of the top 'shell', part #S, and part #P3 which is the underside of both fuselage and wings as one. This will take care of any wing dihedral issues, and should make getting a nice tight fit much easier. Flaps, ailerons and leading edge slats are all separate parts. Although the instructions do not indicate, the first two could perhaps be posed drooped / down - check your references if this is appropriate. Detail on these larger surfaces, including the wheel wells, is very good.

Main fuselage piece; crisply moulded, no warping

Close up of wheel wells

There are vents on the side of the fuselage that, depending upon which parts used, can be positioned open or closed. The intakes are a four part assembly, including one piece of photo etch grill. The intake cowling parts #P9 and #P10 did have small amounts of flash at the edges and a ejector pin mark on the inside; the flash should be easy to fix, whilst I think you will not be able to see the pin mark. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done and as far as I could see were seamless on the insides.

Exhaust nozzles – no seams visible on inside

The landing gear looks good, and given the relatively small size and weight of this aircraft, I would only consider using metal landing gear if they offered a considerable upgrade in detail. The wheels are not weighted, but have decent tread and rim detail. The gear doors can be positioned open or closed (different parts used); if closed the landing gear parts etc are not used.

Landing gear looks good

There is not too much in the way of ordnance, but there are extensive choices out there already courtesy of the aftermarket manufacturers. The kit provides two air-to-air missiles mounted on the wing tips, and a choice of 1042l or 568l fuel tanks. The tanks are interesting because they incorporate the poly caps I mentioned earlier, allowing you to add or remove the tanks as you wish. This is quite a nice touch I think.

1042l drop tank

If positioning the gear down and cockpit open, there is a four part access ladder which should look quite nice.

There are markings for three Chilean aircraft in two-tone grey, and one Moroccan aircraft in a three tone scheme of sand, brown and green, with grey underside; the latter is certainly rather eye-catching. The decals seem fine and in good register, but since the various warning and instruction decals are in Spanish I cannot comment on the accuracy of the wording.

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So What Do We Think?
This is a nice little kit of an airframe type which continues to sere around the world, and because of that we get to model it in country colours and schemes which will be a welcome change for some. The kit itself seems well-engineers and nicely detailed, with really only a small amount of flash here and there and the perhaps a few too many sprue gates. Nevertheless, I would say that this kit would be suitable for those just starting out on modelling mid scale jets, and should turn out very nice indeed in experienced hands.

Highly recommended.

With thanks to the team at AFV Club for the review sample.

AFV Club kits can be purchased at all good retail hobby outlets

Nicholas Mayhew