AREA 88: F-5E Tiger II (SHIN)

Dave Flitton
Watching!!

Greg Baker
Although not officially part of the whole SCM Aggressor GB, everyone else has F-5's on the go... so why not. I've got an F-5A as well...

Augusto
Have this kit too! Would like to read your impressions of it.

Martin Oostrom
Shin is one aggressive pilot 😉

Nils Steyaert
following 🙂

Greg Baker
Back in action on this one. The fit is nice, but I kind of chickened out on the cockpit control panels. I tried painting them, but nothing worked to my satisfaction, so I went back and just covered them up with decals. Oh well...

Maciej Bellos
Following!

Greg Baker
Thanks Maciej! With the blue on, it's now starting to look like Shin's famous F-5E... that makes it more fun!

Martin Oostrom
She's becoming a beauty. Shin couldn't have painted her better himself

Greg Baker
Had to redo the white top coat, and more or less destroy my meticulous under shading because a minute amount of green paint hidden in my airbrush gave the slight white touch up on one of the wings a pukey glow... sigh. Then I had to redo some of the blue because of inadvertent overspray by the white. I attached almost all the underside bits, so more or less just weathering and decals to go here... oh, yeah... and a chair.😉

Donald Dickson II
Catching this at the end. Opinions on the kit?

Chris Greathouse
Cool looking jet!

Greg Baker
Well, I think it fits together relatively well, but it's pretty basic and does lack for some detail. I'm building a rebox of the ESCI F-5A side-by-side and that much older kit has some much nicer parts... especially the pilot chair and the airbrakes and wheel coverings. The panel details look pretty good though.

Donald Dickson II
I am pretty much in agreement there.

Greg Baker
And there we go... all done! Not as many decals to put on this time, so the final weathering and mark setting went a lot quicker than it did for the Crusader. One thing I did though was swap out the chair/control stick and canopy mechanism from my F-5A build. The old ESCI parts really are better, so even though it was a bit of a squeeze, I decided to give the F-5E "main event" build all the glory and leave the leftovers for the F-5A. I've been sitting on this kit for a long time... waiting until I was "good enough" to do it. So, even thought it wasn't really part of the "Aggressor Group Build", I was inspired by all the F-5s flying around and bit the bullet. All in all, I'm pretty happy. Still little things like missed sanding spots and panel lines that don't quite match up. So I don't know know if I was good enough to build it, but the build is good enough for me... 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Oh please, it looks great!

Neuling
Top result indeed!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I still struggle a bit to get a really nice, clean paint job - especially after I try to do the panel lines and weathering. it's not bad... but I feel it could be better.

Spanjaard
very nice, Greg

Nils Steyaert
great work, i like the way they turned out 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks! I have to admit, it's nice to have a collection of Area 88 builds that actually include some of Shin's planes now.😉

Greg Baker
OK... Some final glamour pics are now posted.

Nathan Dempsey
Looking great Greg! Brings back good memories of hanging out in the comic shop.

Alec K
Awesome 👍

Slavo Hazucha
All Aggressor pilots know - when the burning unicorn appears in the skies, it´s ejection time...!

Looking superb in the color scheme & the tail markings just make all further discussion obsolete... 👍

Dave Flitton
Looks awesome! Let's start another!!

Chris Greathouse
Awesome job, great weathering!

Martin Oostrom
This large scale suits you well. Great job as usual

Spanjaard
excellent, indeed

Matthew A
Can't see it staying that nice and shiny for long