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Aircraft that make your jaw drop!

Enchanter said:
From the "Who Cares?™ Department" of Tim...

Looking at those F-5's made me realize that every military aircraft I touched while on Active Duty has 'aged out' and been retired. I'm sure I'm not the only BARFer that can say that. It's time to go see one of the few remaining Topgun F-5s. It's sitting on the ground at (correction) the Hemet airport NAS Fallon.

I don't feel old, but facts is facts.
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On F-5s and models, I built this one a few years back. I'm guessing you probably laid hands on the real airframe depicted here--it's from your era.
01674b51-78c2-4384-97c4-0483d29a13df-1_all_3595.jpg
 
stratslingr77 said:
I made a page on the book of faces several years back just for model stuff.
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What little I could see was very nice.

Did you use an airbrush I assume? Did you have a ventilation thing set up for that?

I tried to make a helicopter years ago using those little Testor enamel paints and, whoo boy, man did that stuff make me loopy. Guess I just didn't notice it as a kid. I have not tried modern acrylics yet.
 
stratslingr77 said:
On F-5s and models, I built this one a few years back. I'm guessing you probably laid hands on the real airframe depicted here--it's from your era.
View attachment 602530
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This looks great! What radome / nose is on it? Is it pointy or the flat / sharknose? What are the names under the canopy rails? EDIT: Lt Baranek, and Admiral Cassidy (who went on to found General Atomics) My OCD is kicking in.

This is it below. On the left is Captain "Boa" Straight, the first USAF F-15 FWS Exchange pilot to Topgun, and USMC Captain "Circus" McGuire.
1790877919511.jpeg

Pic taken by Dave Baranek.

And yes. that one has / had my fingerprints all over it. While the main fuselage of this aircraft has long since retired, the cockpits and tail are still flying. They were grafted onto a former Swiss AF F-5E. This was done to three NAVY F-5F's and they are known as Franken Tigers.
 
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Enchanter said:
This looks great! What radome / nose is on it? Is it pointy or the flat / sharknose? What are the names under the canopy rails? EDIT: Lt Baranek, and Admiral Cassidy (who went on to found General Atomics) My OCD is kicking in.

This is it below. On the left is Captain "Boa" Straight, the first USAF F-15 FWS Exchange pilot to Topgun, and USMC Captain "Circus" McGuire.
View attachment 602538
Pic taken by Dave Baranek.

And yes. that one has / had my fingerprints all over it. While the main fuselage of this aircraft has long since retired, the cockpits and tail are still flying. They were grafted onto a former Swiss AF F-5E. This was done to three NAVY F-5F's and they are known as Franken Tigers.
Click to expand...
My model has the shark nose and extended LEXs--I had to source that part externally because the kit had the original rounded nose.
01674b51-78c2-4384-97c4-0483d29a13df-1_all_3598.jpg
 
It’s also interesting that they utilized what they learned from the original flying wing program back in the late 1940’s. It’s theorized that the reason the program was killed was because of political pressure. Similar to the political pressure that killed the Tucker. Apparently congress was full of corruption after WWII.
 
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