¹⁄35

Top Gun Tiger

Construction

Before I could paint, though, I needed to build. The Monogram 1/48 scale F-5F kit is not bad by the standards of its day, but it does need some help. I did not do anything extraordinary, just some basic improvements to the kit. The modifications I made to the kit were as follows:

• The Monogram kit is of an Air Force F-5F. When the Navy got a hold of the aircraft, they modified them for better ACM performance. I made the same changes to the kit. These include: 

  • Reshaping the nose cone into a "shark's nose". 

  • Removing the radar scopes from the main instrument panels (Naval F-5's do not carry radar). 

  • I should have also enlarged the leading edge extensions on the wings, but I learned of this modification too late to incorporate them into the kit. 

• I drilled-out the left nose cannon barrel. 

• On F-5F's, the right nose "cannon barrel" is actually an avionics intake. I replaced the gun barrel provided in the kit with a small diameter plastic tube and faired this into the nose without leaving a gap. 

• I added the angle-of-attack vane on the right side of the nose using the etchings provided in the Monogram "high-tech" release of the F-5E. 

• I blocked the engine intakes so you could not see through the model. 

• I added afterburner interiors to the engine exhausts using plastic tube and the etchings provided in the Monogram "high-tech" release of the F-5E. I added anti-sway braces to the centerline weapons pylon. 

• I replaced the fins on the centerline fuel tank with .015" sheet styrene. This is still too thick, I know, but any thinner just looked as wrong as the two foot thick fins that come in the kit.