F-5E Alconbury Aggressor

F-5E Tiger II 74-1554 / 54
527TFTAS / 10TRW
USAFE
RAF Alconbury, United Kingdom
1977

This 3d model is based on the very nice file404 product with various changes. I painted the camouflage and markings in Mudbox and GIMP using reference photos of the real aircraft. The color scheme was called "Snake" and consisted of 34258-Green, 30118-Field Drab and 33531-Sand.

The 527th Tactical Fighter Training and Aggressor Squadron formed at RAF Alconbury in 1976. Its mission was to train United States Air Forces Europe fighter pilots for air combat with Eastern bloc adversaries using "Dissimilar Air Combat Training" (DACT). The aggressor F-5Es were painted in a variety of colorful camouflage schemes designed to mimic those in use by Warsaw Pact aircraft. Two-digit Soviet-style nose codes were applied to most aggressor aircraft. These coincided with the last two digits of the serial number. International conventions made it necessary for military aircraft to carry their national insignia, but the star-and-bar national insignia was reduced in size and relocated to a less-conspicuous position on the rear fuselage. The 527th's Aggressor aircraft were among the first to apply the star and bar in toned-down or stencil form, now standard on USAF aircraft.