Philippines Air Force Northrop F5-A Freedom Fighter

[Gary Brantley]

The kit is the ancient Testors (ex-Hawk?) 1/48 F5-A. It's not much of a build but I've always loved the look of this series and all the variants. One of the pilots I met at the Rockdale airport told me he had trained in the T-38 and said how much he had enjoyed it...he said, "hey, they're still using it today so something must be right!"

This model was built about 18-22 years ago (back when I was working a kit almost everyday). I built it concurrently with a ESCI (ex-OEZ?) MiG-21. Sure enough, the MiG-21 went to Rockdale too. Pics of that visit are forthcoming. A bit of a preview of sorts:



Again, thanks for letting me bore you all! Here's she is, with the old hangar at Coffield Regional Airport filling in as a rural airstrip in the Philippines :



Check out that "area-ruled" fuselage!





















And, more images can be seen here:
http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Texgunne ... %20Fighter

Thanks. Gary

[LyleW]

Nice! I don't think I've ever seen the country name abbreviated like that! something new every day.

[CallSignOWL]

F5's are neat little planes!

[Stikpusher]

Nice pair of early hot rods there! You are correct on their origins. The F-5 is a re box of the Hawk kit and the Mig came from OEZ originally.

[Gary Brantley]

Nice pair of early hot rods there! You are correct on their origins. The F-5 is a re box of the Hawk kit and the Mig came from OEZ originally.

Thanks Stik! And thank you Lyle! I remember when I built them, thinking how similar their circumstances were; both were low-cost fighters sold to 3rd world client states. I thought of it as a "theme" I guess. Sort of like other "schemes" I've envisioned ie. Century Series Fighters, World War Two Twin-engined bombers, bi-plane fighters of the 30s, etc. And, damned if I don't have plenty of each "idea" in my stash. All I need is motivation and time!

[lawdog114]

Very sharp F-5.

[Gary Brantley]

Very sharp F-5.

Thank you Joe! Much obliged.