KH Tiger II F-5F

[Jack]

Well, being a "two seater" fan, i received this one today:

 

 

I'm too busy with "real life issues" at this time, but i'll try to get a review out, but don't hold it against me if it's not within a couple of weeks.....

 

Jack.

[Kagemusha]

I'm jealous! 

[RNoAF]

But when is it in the shops?? Ordered mine from Hobbyeasy ages ago but no kit in the mail........................................

[Dave Williams]

Should have mine Monday from Sincere Hobby, if the tracking is accurate.  I just wonder if they fixed the fuel ports being on the wrong side of the spine.

[f5guy]

5 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Should have mine Monday from Sincere Hobby, if the tracking is accurate.  I just wonder if they fixed the fuel ports being on the wrong side of the spine.

 

Did you use their first time buyer coupon? I went to place an order for three of these kits from them, but never did see anywhere to type in a coupon code before confirming the order. I contacted them, and never heard a word out of them. I'd still like to order, but am hesitant to do so without a reply from them. Thanks, Fred K.

[alaninaustria]

Have fun with this one Jack!

Cheers

Alan

[Dave Williams]

5 hours ago, f5guy said:

 

Did you use their first time buyer coupon? I went to place an order for three of these kits from them, but never did see anywhere to type in a coupon code before confirming the order. I contacted them, and never heard a word out of them. I'd still like to order, but am hesitant to do so without a reply from them. Thanks, Fred K.

 

No, I forgot to put it in when I placed the order.  However, after ordering, they sent a returning buyer code for 12% off, and I used that on a preorder for something else.  I forget where in the order process you put the code in, but it was there somewhere.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Dave Williams

[themongoose]

12 hours ago, f5guy said:

 

Did you use their first time buyer coupon? I went to place an order for three of these kits from them, but never did see anywhere to type in a coupon code before confirming the order. I contacted them, and never heard a word out of them. I'd still like to order, but am hesitant to do so without a reply from them. Thanks, Fred K.

 

F5guy there is a small blue plus sign and add coupon text just under the Estimated Basket Total when you forst click on your cart. It’s before you go to checkout or paypal link. Both models I’ve ordered from them arrived ok and in good time.

[madcat911]

On 11/3/2018 at 7:23 AM, Dave Williams said:

Should have mine Monday from Sincere Hobby, if the tracking is accurate.  I just wonder if they fixed the fuel ports being on the wrong side of the spine.

 

Just got my kit today. The fuel ports are still on the wrong side of the spine. Quite unsurprising actually. 

 

One thing that did surprise me was the inclusion of the air-refueling probe in resin. 

 

Of note, the regular nose isn’t supplied so you only get the shark nose. 

 

Mark

[f5guy]

22 hours ago, themongoose said:

 

F5guy there is a small blue plus sign and add coupon text just under the Estimated Basket Total when you forst click on your cart. It’s before you go to checkout or paypal link. Both models I’ve ordered from them arrived ok and in good time.

 

Thanks! I'll give it another shot ;0) Fred K.

[Dave Williams]

Got my kit today.  A couple of quick observations:

 

- Like the single seater kit, the VFC-111 full sunburst tail decals have reversed lettering on one side (one side says AF, the other side FA), and doubled down with the 30th anniversary decal where one side says “30” and the the other side has a 0 and a backwards 3, and the word “Anniversary” written backward.  To their credit, KH included a supplemental decal sheet with corrected tail decals, which they did not do in the single seater release.

 

- The decal and painting instructions have taken a massive step backward from the single seater kit.  They are no longer in color, and the demarcation lines between colors, especially when they are grey shades, are almost invisible in some cases.  Even more confusing, the individual profiles are spread across what are two pages, but way the pages are stapled in the instruction book in many cases the front half of one scheme is mated with the rear half of another scheme.  You need to remove the pages with the painting instructions so you can get it straightened out.

 

- Like in the single seater kit, seat belts aren’t mentioned in the instructions, but are included on the the PE fret.  However, only ONE set of belts is included, so you still need a second set from somewhere.

 

- You do get a resin external refueling probe, but no instructions.  Also, the resin exhausts are deleted from the single seater release, but no great loss IMHO.

 

- Unsurprisingly, many of the single seater issues are carried over like the too shallow cockpits, lack of intake trunking, spine fuel fillers on the wrong side.

 

- The counterweight that goes under the exhaust section isn’t included in the box.  Supposedly all F-5F fitted with radar had it, but it was removed from USN Aggressors when the radars were removed.  So, it’s OK for the VFC-111 bird, but for other options, like the Swiss bird, is something that they missed.  However, like the single seater, radar scopes are present on the IPs.  Interestingly, the box art does show the counterweight on the Aggressor banking away.

 

- The clear sprue includes the parts for the RF-5E Tigereye camera windows, but the portion of the sprue where the RF nose would be is not included, although it is drawn on the sprue diagrams.

 

To be fair, it’s a nicely detailed kit and the only injection 1/32 two-seater F-5 out there, but I can help thinking this is another on of KH’s B-team kits, which looks nice in the box, but suffers from poor research and errors.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Dave Williams

[Kagemusha]

Thanks for the insight Dave, a kit I've desired for a long time, had some ROCAF decals for one a few years.

[Out2gtcha]

KHM seems to commit these types of errors, but hopefully the decent fit of the single seater will continue with the F.

[Dave Williams]

3 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

KHM seems to commit these types of errors, but hopefully the decent fit of the single seater will continue with the F.

 

Thats the frustrating part.  It’s a nicely detailed, good fitting kit, and there is a lot of stuff on the kit that’s correct, but then they mess it up by making some very visible errors both in the plastic and also the markings.  I just don’t understand how some companies (and KH isn’t the only one) can get so much correct, indicating some level of research, and then blow it by missing sometimes easy features.

[Out2gtcha]

Agreed. Having built several commission demos for KHM, I felt Glen from KHMs frustration several times.