Malayan Tiger

Historical Background

In the mid-1950s, Northrop Corporation started the development of a low-cost, low-maintenance fighter with the designation N-156. It was partly to meet the US Navy's requirement for a small jet fighter to operate from its escort carriers. The requirement disappeared with the withdrawal of the escort carriers but Northrop continued the development of the N-156 as a single-seat fighter (N-156F) and a two-seat trainer (N-156T). The aircraft featured area ruling ('Coke Bottle' fuselage) and was powered by a pair of the small General Electric J85 turbojet. In general the design seeked to reverse the trend of ever increasing size, weight and cost in fighter design. In 1956, the trainer version was selected by the US Air Force to be its next advanced trainer, replacing the T-33 as T-38 Talon. Despite successful tests, the fighter version did not catch the attention of the US military - the Air Force interest in it waned whilst the Army was not allowed to operate fixed-wing aircraft and it looked like the programme would be scrapped.

However, the Kennedy Administration revived the project with the requirement for a low-cost export fighter in 1962. The N-156F was declared the winner of the F-X competition and was designated F-5A, nicknamed 'Freedom Fighter'. In 1970, Northrop won the International Fighter Aircraft competition. The IFA was held to select the replacement for the F-5A, with better air-to-air capability against aircraft like the Soviet's MiG-21. Initially designated F-5A-21, the aircraft was subsequently designated F-5E Tiger II (the first Tiger was Grumman's F-11). It featured a more powerful version of the J85, a lengthened and enlarged fuselage, enlarged leading edge extension for better maneuverability and radar. Fixed armament remained the same : a pair of M39 20mm cannons. Various customer-specific equipment can also be fitted such as ECM, INS and TACAN. The F-5 family (which also includes F-5B and F-5F trainers and RF-5A and RF-5E Tigereye) was an export success - more than 1,500 were built by Northrop with a few hundred more built by licensees in Canada, Spain, Switzerland, South Korea and Taiwan.

The F-5E became the first supersonic aircraft in the Royal Malaysian Air Force when it received its first batch of Tigers in August 1975* to replace the CAC CA-27 Sabre then in service. Besides its air superiority role, the Tigers were also used in close air support duties, supplementing the Canadair CL-41G Tebuans. 14 F-5Es and two F-5Bs (later sold to Thailand and replaced with a similar number of F-5Fs) were delivered. A further two F-5Es and a single F-5F were delivered in the early 1980s as attrition replacements. They served with No.11 and No.12 Squadrons at Butterworth. In the late 1980s, No.11 Squadron was disbanded (reformed in the 2000s flying Sukhoi Su-30MKMs) and its aircraft absorbed into No.12 Squadron. With the introduction of the MiG-29 and F/A-18 Hornet into RMAF service, the Tigers were placed in reserve. There were reports stating that the surviving airframes were to be converted to reconnaissance role. However, the status of RMAF's Tiger remain uncertain as of today, even though there are photos of at least one of them wearing a new overall grey colour scheme.

The Kit

Mini Hobby Model was a new name to me. But from appearances and word of mouth, it looks like Trumpeter's alter ego. The kit comes in a relatively large box for a small 1/72 plane. The box art is quite strange as it depicts a USAF F-5E flying over a battlefield, complete with burning tanks and aircraft - the USAF (and USN) only use the F-5E as adversary aircraft in training! Upon opening the box, it looked like this kit is actually a copy of Italeri's. The major difference is that the wings are no longer integral to the upper fuselage and that the panels are engraved. The bad points of the Italeri kit were retained however. This includes : ejection seat split in the middle and oversized Sidewinders. To add insult to the injury, the MHM kit have the following deficiencies not present in the Italeri kit: no demarcation line on cockpit transparencies, wrong shape of the windshield, overly thick horizontal stabilisers, wrong LEX position, less detailed landing gear and wrong shape for the external fuel tanks. Decals are for a USAF Aggressor and a Swiss machine (the Italeri kit includes a third option, a RMAF aircraft).

To spruce up the kit, I picked an Eduard Zoom PE Set for the F-5. This is basically a basic PE set which concentrates on the interior of the aircraft especially the cockpit. As I intended to build a TUDM machine, I bought a Scale Nutz decal sheet but was disappointed when the sheet only includes the national insignia, 'TUDM' titles, squadron symbol and serial numbers only. So I stopped the project temporarily whilst waiting for VFA Productions to release their F-5E decal sheet. Also during the hiatus, I managed to procure a Tamiya boxing of Italeri's F-5 so the Italeri kit will act as a donor to replace the MHM kit's bad parts.

Construction

As usual, construction started at the cockpit. I sanded off the details on the kit's instrument and side panels in order to accommodate the PE parts. The Eduard replacement parts  for the instrument panel consists of a clear celluloid piece with bezel and dials marked on them and the instrument panel face. The instrument face was stuck to the celluloid using white glue and the assembly was glued to the plastic using tiny drops of superglue. I should have painted the bare plastic white as it could allow the 'dials' to be more visible. The plastic rudder controls were also replaced with PE. The side panels were painted light grey using Tamiya Surface Primer and then painted Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. I intended to use thinner to remove some of the black paint so that the grey paint under the relief shapes can be exposed, but I think I waited too long and the black barely came off. The PE for throttle control was not used because I simply can't handle the tiny bits! I felt that the ejection seat look a bit anorexic so I added a little putty to the seat back to simulate cushion (plus it hid the ugly seam down the middle). The cockpit was then painted Gunze H317 (Dark Gull Grey). I did not use the MHM stick as it was poorly molded and used the Tamiya's instead. I then installed the PE parts for the seat, which includes seatbelts and oxygen hose.

Before closing up the fuselage, I installed the two clear parts representing landing lights on the bottom half of the fuselage. The cockpit assembly was glued to the upper half and the tailplanes were also installed at this time. I however used the tailplane from the Tamiya kit as it was more in scale than the thick MHM part, despite the fact that it has raised panel lines. The fit at the rear of the fuselage was not good and I have to fill the resulting gap. The intakes were added and the wings fitted. Dry-fitting shows that the LEX is too far forward and I have to cut the mating tabs to align the wings into the proper position, using the Tamiya part as guidance. I also replaced the vertical tail with the one from the Tamiya kit. Then it was time to paint the model.

Painting and Decaling

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to build this model as a Tiger in RMAF service. I bought VFA Production's 'RMAF Tigers and Scooters' decal sheet. The sheet provides decals for early (aluminium) and later (camouflaged) marking schemes and also a rare 'Aggressor' scheme. I originally wanted to the Aggressor aircraft but eventually decided to do the 'regular' camouflage scheme. I first painted the exhaust area using Gunze 8 Silver and Gunze 61 Burnt Iron. When dry I masked off the area and went on with the rest of the fuselage. RMAF Tigers were painted using FS36495, FS36440 and FS36375 greys. I painted the colours using Gunze Aqueous. The radome and the anti-glare panel was painted XF-1 Flat Black. For markings, I chose aircraft M29-01 of No.12 Squadron. The decals were printed by Microscale and adhere well to the glossy surface. All decals were then subjected to Mr Mark Decal Softer.

Finishing

The remainder of the parts can now be glued. I however replaced the landing gears with the ones from the Tamiya kit. The AOA vane was also replaced with an Eduard replacement. The cockpit transparencies were replaced with the ones from the Tamiya kit. I decided to pose the canopy in the open position. However, since this kit is a copy of Italeri's, it also features a very simplified canopy opening mechanism. For weaponry, I discarded the kit's fat Sidewinders and replaced them with AIM-9Js (RMAF actually use AIM-9Ps but any difference is internal) from Hasegawa's weapon set. I did not put any other ordnance as RMAF's Tigers were rarely seen with underwing weapons. Finally, the panel lines were enhanced using 2B pencil and Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear were sprayed over the model.

Conclusion

A satisfying build despite the shortcomings of the kit. Some modelers (including me) might prefer MHM's offering over Italeri's purely on the basis of the engraved panel lines. Yes, there were some extra effort that need to be done by the modeler, but it was nothing a reasonably skilled modeler cannot do.







*Some sources mentioned that the RMAF was the first operator of the F-5E in South-East Asia. This is wrong as The Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) of South Vietnam was actually the first, operating F-5Es from at least after the general US withdrawal in 1973.