1:32 F-5 Iranian Air Force /IRIAF/ Camouflage Paint Masks

The Tiger II under the Iranian flag

The small twin-engine fighter came about as a cheap and undemanding machine for the allies of the United States, and Iran was among its largest users even before 1979. After deliveries of spare parts were cut off, the Iranian Air Force learned to maintain the machines with its own resources, and some examples fly to this day or have served as the basis for local derivatives. It is precisely that long service that gave the aircraft a varied palette of finishes, which departed from the original American standard.

The desert palette

The Iranian scheme works with tones drawn from the landscape: sand or light ocher as the lightest field, plus a medium brown and an olive-toned green. The lower surfaces tend to be light gray to blue-gray. Given the 1:32 scale the surface of the model is large and you will use noticeably more paint than you are used to at half the size; reckon with roughly twice as much.

Tools you cannot do without

• Tweezers with long jaws, because the pieces for a large scale are sizeable and flexible.
• A container of water with a drop of detergent in case you need to move a film.
• A good gloss clear coat as an intermediate layer, which pays off doubly on large surfaces.
• Enough time: a large scale forgives less and every bit of overspray shows.

Before the films are stuck down, all the joints on the fuselage, the engine nacelles and the wing transitions must be finished, because in this scale every seam left unsanded turns into a dark line after spraying. Apply the paint perpendicular from above and in broad continuous passes; with a sprayed at an angle the edge of the film is blown under and the edge loses its sharpness.