FAR F-5A Freedom Fighter

Alex K
Interesting! Thumbs up and good luck!

Gary Kitchen
Thanks Alex. 👍

Spanjaard
Nice project 🙂 with resin and all, please do not send it to the shelf of doom, 1/144 needs love too 😉

Gary Kitchen
Thanks Spanjaard. My issue is I'm a starter, not a finisher. The joy of unboxing and getting underway is my Achilles heel. 😄

Greg Baker
I'm signing up for this one now... because a) I'm also afflicted with starters syndrome... addicted to the endless opportunities of a new set of sprues... and b) because this kit is a disaster - and I really don't say that often. As I said over on my own wall... the biggest problem with this kit is that it's not even CLOSE to 1/144 scale. I think it's more like 1/120 scale... which, if you're going to pair it up with an B727 might look odd. I have those Heroes pilots and even though they're very nice, you usually have to SQUEEZE them into a 1/144 scale cockpit. The fact that your pilot has room for a hot-tub and a mini-bar in his cockpit tells the tale on the size difference.

Hope that's not too negative. You've done some nice work on it so far, and if the scale doesn't really matter, I'd say go for it. I just remember hunting for that kit and then being EXTREMELY disappointed when I realized the issue. It's like one of those birds that lays it's eggs in another bird's nest - the parents end up feeding a monster that muscles all the other (regular sized) chicks out of their dinner. 😉

Dutch
Gary, Great work thus far. I applaud your effort to open the cockpit and add the pilot. I have several of these 1:144 scale ARII/Otaki jets and there is no cockpit whatsoever in any of them, so your effort is laudable. As Greg pointed out, for some reason the Otaki F-5A kit is closer to 1:105 scale than the boxtop stated 1:144 scale. I still intend to display it in my 1:144 collection, but may have to get one of the Dragon / Revell F-5E kits in true 1:144 scale for comparison. Carry on! Kind regards, Dutch

Łukasz Gliński
Respect for the perseverance in updating the kit 👍 Signing up to the starter club too 😄

Gary Kitchen
Thanks guys. New year new start. This is on the shelf of doom currently but I will get back to it at some point. I'm treating myself to a nice simple Airfix Mig-17 at the moment and a cyber hobby BF110 which I am enjoying. But I'm not giving up here 😄