Testors Northrop F5-A "Freedom Fighter" Philippines AIr Force
Comments
gorbyAnother good'un Gary – nice metal finish. I have always thought the the F-5 was much underrated – a stunning looking and performing aircraft.
Gary BrantleyThanks my friend! I remember zooming around the yard with a white colored, toy F-5 as a big kid. I have always loved how they look. I think I need to build another plane in NMF; it's been quite a while since I've done so and I do have a few nice candidates in the stash. One finish I've not tried is Alclad. Perhaps I should give that a go? 🙂
Martin OostromThe F-5 is a beautiful plane. I love the cola bottle lines. Like Gorby said; another good'un.
I've tried Alclad for the first time on my F-89, it's easy to use, gives a good finish, but smells like ..... But as you are the Great Enamelator, that shouldn't bother you much 🙂
Gary BrantleyThank you Martin! "the Great Enamelator" I got a great chuckle out of that moniker. Heh, heh, even when I worked as a professional painter, I preferred oil-based paint. It smells like money to me! 🙂 Braggin' I guess, but give me some good quality enamel and a good bristle brush, and I can paint wooden trim and cabinets that looked as is they were dipped in paint, glass smooth. Ahhh, those were the daze...🙂
Erik LeijdensAnother great build of the greatest small fighter! I can remember Dutch NF-5's flying over my home when I was a kid. Always had a soft spot for it, time to build one!
Gary BrantleyThank you Erik! I hope to see you build an F-5. It should be an inspiration for all of us!! 🙂
Maciej BellosGreat result Gary!
Erik,in 1991 some of those NF-5s ended up in Greece, 10 single seaters and 2 two seaters. They were the last F-5s of any kind in the Greek Air Force to be retired in 2002.
Alec KGreat model and great outdoor photography, Gary. I am really enjoying these "blasts from the past" of yours 👍
Gary BrantleyThanks Spanjaard, Maciej and Alec! I'm glad you took a look and left those generous comments. Alec, I'm so glad you're enjoying these older builds. Believe or not, I still have a few from years back that haven't been to the airport yet. That should change before too long! Thanks to you guys again! 🙂
Album info
I have always loved the lines of the Northrop F-5A. Sleek and elegant with that great area-ruled fuselage, it is a real classic. This model is the one that was built concurrent with my Iraqi MiG-21MF. 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 nice 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 back about 1992 (back when I was working a kit almost everyday). I’d love to build at that pace again; perhaps the muse will strike again soon. Heaven knows I have a huge backlog to work with! The paint was Floquil Bright Silver and the decals came with the kit. I used the pilot figure to take up space in the oh-so sparse cockpit. It’s another model that had never been photographed until I hauled it, along with five others, over to the Rockdale airp