Kitty Hawk 1/35 RF-5E Tigereye

The RF-5E Tigereye was a dedicated reconnaissance version of the F-5E Tiger II, and was originally developed by Northrop as a private venture.

Northrop had originally intended to provide only a limited reconnaissance capability for the F-5E by installing an RF-5A-type nose capable of carrying four KS-121A cameras. Such a nose was actually fitted to a few Saudi F-5Es, but the modification took 100 man-hours to perform and an even longer time to undo. By the mid-1970s, the nose of the F-5E was too small to carry the most modern reconnaissance equipment. In order to provide an up-to-date reconnaissance capability for the F-5E, Northrop decided to design a completely new nose section 8 inches longer than that of the F-5E fighter with 26 cubic feet of volume, nine times the amount of space available in the nose of the RF-5A. The intention was to produce a reconnaissance aircraft with the same capability as the RF-4E Phantom but in a much smaller, cheaper airframe. The intended market included those existing F-5E operators who could not afford to procure a separate dedicated type for the reconnaissance mission.

Features:

Plastic sprues

Clear plastic parts

Waterslide decals

Decals for 5 different versions included