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Comrade Katya
Katya Hodgson (Comrade Katya)
GB

1/48 F-20 Tigershark JASDF
Freedom Model Kits 1/48 F-20 Tigershark

Scale:
1:48
Status:
Completed
Started:
March 7, 2019
Completed:
March 16, 2019
Time spent:
Over a week

And here we go, Freedom Model Kits' 1/48 F-20A Tigershark, painted in "what-if" JASDF markings inspired by the Mitsubishi F-2A.

The Northrop F-20 Tigershark was a light fighter prototype developed by Northrop from their earlier F-5E Tiger II fighter, built on Northrop's own initiative but intended to be a direct competitor to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. The most obvious change from the earlier F-5E was the replacement of the twin General Electric J-85 engines with a single larger General Electric F404 engine, the new arrangement providing roughly 60% more thrust that the old engines. It also featured a highly advanced avionics suit including a new radar developed specifically for the F-20 (systems based on this are still in use today) which gave it BVR capability from the very beginning, unlike earlier versions of the F-16. Despite this advantage and several others over the F-16 (and the cheaper price of the F-20) the Tigershark ended up not being adopted by the USAF, and consequently was never used by anyone else, leading it to sometimes be refered to "The best aircraft the USAF <i>never</i> had".

Internal armament was a pair of 20mm Pontiac M39A2 cannons in the nose, with 280 RPG, the F-20 could also carry a variety of stores on its underwing hardpoints and wingtip missile rails, including the latest long range AAMs.



The kit itself is relatively new, coming in 2017 as the second kit ever released by Freedom Model Kits. Whilst Monogram did release a 1/48 kit of the F-20 way back in the day, this is a very outdated kit with raised panel lines.

Freedom Model Kits' kit initially appeared to be of good quality, with fine recessed panel lines and detailing. However there was a not insignificant amount of flash and roughness on many of the parts, which was very difficult to remove in some cases. Fit of the parts also was not always the best, particularly the in my opinion over-complicated intake assembly, which had a lot of parts that joined poorly. Nevertheless I managed to get it all together in the end and with the aid of a lot of filler it looks reasonable. On the plus side the cockpit decals were lovely and fit perfectly making the cockpit really come alive, and they are also very accurate to the real Tigershark.

For the paint... well many of you may know my fondness for Japanese aircraft and the JASDF, and I was inspired by my previous build of Hasegawa's 1/72 Tigershark to also build this as a "what-if" aircraft of the JASDF. Except this time instead of looking backwards for a camouflage idea as I did with the 1/72 kit (which I based off the F-104J), this time I looked forwards, and decided to base my camo off the beautiful Mitsubishi F-2A.

Painting this camo was rather tricky, but after being inspired by a video I saw I decided to try the technique of making masks out of paper, which actually worked surprisingly well despite some overspray, and allowed me to create the nice mirrored dark blue camo markings you see on the wings and stabilators. The colours I used were Vallejo Air Greyish-Blue for the light blue, and Vallejo Air Dark Mediterranean Blue for the dark blue.

For the decals I was able to use some from the kit, most of the small markings and stencils, as well as the small wing roundels, came from the included decal sheet. However for the other markings I had to look elsewhere. The fuselage roundels and red stripe on the bottom came from an RS Models 1/72 Ki-87 I built last year, happily the colour of the roundel was a reasonably close match to the wing ones. For the numbered ID markings and tail insignia I was able to make use of some of the spare decals that came with the Hasegawa 1/48 F-104J I built not that long ago, meaning this aircraft actually has JASDF numbers and a JASDF tail emblem. I was very happy with how the decals turned out, and they really made the aircraft come alive.

I of course used pledge floor gloss before and after the decals to seal them in, and once the decals were done I simply had the ordnance to finish off.

The kit included a variety of stores including a large drop tank and two smaller ones, 2x AIM-9M and 2x AIM-9L AAMs, and 2x AIM-7 and 4x AIM-120 AAMs. I ended up deciding to use the AIM-9s and AIM-7s, but not the AIM-120s, as these missiles are not used by the JASDF. I painted these and the pylons separately from the plane, and attached them later, a process facilitated by the kit's inclusion of poly caps in the wings so that you are able to do just this. Although sadly due to pegs breaking off, I ended up having to glue one of the missile rails on after all, which is why one of the AIM-9 rails is visibly angled.

In the end though despite the many problems, I am reasonably happy with how this came out, and with lack of a direct (at least new) competitor kit, if you plan to build a Tigershark in 1/48 scale, this is the one to go for.

Happy Modelling!

Project inventory

Full kits
18002
F-20A Tigershark
Freedom Model Kits 1:48
18002 2015 New tool
/search.php?q=*&fkMATEID[]=43834&showast=no&fkWORKBENCH[]=WB43834&page=projects&project=55178
 
 

Photoalbums

1/48 F-20A complete
10 images
View album, image #1
1:48
1:48 F-20A Tigershark (Freedom Model Kits 18002)
1/48 F-20A construction
38 images
View album, image #38
1:48
1:48 F-20A Tigershark (Freedom Model Kits 18002)

Comments

7 March 2019, 13:54

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