ITALERI 1:48 F-5A FREEDOM FIGHTER

 

Reviewer: John Wilson  (rec.models.scale)

The Freedom Fighter was developed as a light-weight and easily maintained supersonic aircraft, suitable for supply to friendly nations under the USA Military Assistance Programme of the late 50's, early 60's.  Only a few were bought by USAF, for limited service in Vietnam, but many were sold to other countries where the aircraft was used in close support and light attack roles.  Countries supplied included Canada, Greece, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Phillipines, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuala in varying version types.  Because of its handling and performance characteristics it was a favourite with pilots and this combined with minimal maintenance and airfield requirements, has seen the aircraft still in service at least with lesser developed nations today.

Disappointingly this is not a new kit from Italeri - rather it is a reboxing of the aged Testors example.  You can see this from the small obscure Testors logo on the box, but even then that's not something you are likely to notice until you unwrap the box at home (like I did)!!  You are too busy eyeing off the attractive Italeri boxart!

Inside the box you are greeted with the sprues packaged inside a plastic bag, molded in soft aircraft grey coloured plastic.  Panel lines are raised and control surfaces are etched into the plastic, both of which are overdone.  Also I was surprised of the lack of parts to build the model - I was expecting a lot more.

Construction starts with the sparsely detailed cockpit.  As with the rest of this kit you will find that you will need to find some decent aftermarket or cross-kit building alternatives and brush up on your scratchbuilding skills.  This kit will let you down in detail.  You are given a pilot figure that is typically as (non-)realistic as 60's technology allowed, a seat and an instrument panel with decal.  There is no other detail provided such as floor/tub, control stick or sidewall detail.  

Fuselage halves go together quite well although the instructions alert you to including a jack so you can have the canopy open.  This is wrong because the canopy is fixed to the ejection seat like a large trapeze, and can be displayed open without actually touching the aircraft's body.  Decent cutaway drawings of this aircraft that are available in several fighter compendiums will show this.  The whole wing is one-piece and needs plenty of filler around the joints.  Fit of most of the components is surprisingly straight forward for an old reissued kit.  But the intakes were difficult to position and affix, and is probably the bane of the construction process.  The plastic is soft and does not contain that 'crisp-like' feel that we have come to expect from latest kits.  Even the exhausts are fiddly to affix at the rear of the aircraft.

Detail in the wheel well is indicative of the cockpit noted above, basically zilch!  The gear doors are thick although can be glued closed without too much fuss.  The air-brakes can be positioned open or closed, but to do the latter you will need plenty of filler to plug up the gaps due to the poor fit.  This shortfall may also end up being quite visible on the finished project too, so keep this in mind, especially when you consider that little things like this can easily be spotted on natural metal finished aircraft.  The undercarriage is simplified and inaccurate, and in this scale could have been much better.  The two piece canopy is, however, clear and fits onto the upper fuselage very nicely - better in closed position given the points stated above.

Three aircraft are provided for by the kit, all natural metal finished examples, which is disappointing again.  USAF 4441st CCTs, 1964; a spanish Ala Tactica 21, 1972 example and "Jokers" aerobatic team, 1970 of Royal Norwegian Air Force.  I used metallizer to finish my USAF example in and it came out very well.  The decals are produced by Italeri and go very nicely onto the model.  

Overall the kit captures the F-5A features very well but up close you can see all the little shortcomings of the kit.  Filler was used very liberally in this kit in spite of the relatively straight forward fit of the construction, and all this seems to be further accentuated by the fact that the metal finish seems to bring it all out.  Perhaps a camouflage version might make a better finish.  The kit shows its age and to really finish as a tip top project one must delve into the aftermarket, cross-kit building and scratchbuilding areas and techniques.  This is certainly not a lemon of a model but is well out of date and anyone thinking that this is a new kit from Italeri is going to be very disappointed.

Related Reviews:  Esci 1/72 F-5/RF-5 "Skoshi Tiger"  

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Appears to be 3-view drawing of an F-5A variant