Turn the clock back
twenty-five years, if you please. Back then, my Dad used to take me to
the annual airshow at Villamor airbase South of Manila, where I could see the
Philippine Air force inventory of F-5As and F-8 Crusaders doing awesome flybys
of the base operations ramp. The concrete beneath them would be full of the
PAF's inventory, which then included C-47s, dozens of Hueys, T-34 Mentors, T-28
Trojans and even T-33s. It was amazing, and did so much to shape the
airplane-nut I am today. Then, after the displaying jets landed (in
formation, of course!) and we had our fill of hotdogs and cotton candy,
Dad and I would retire to the shady area across the road, and take shelter at
what was then the PAF museum. More often than not, we used to sit under the
wings of a not too long ago-retired jet fighter mounted on a concrete pylon.
It
was on one of those days that Dad first told me that the jet fighter towering
above us was the North American F-86. My run-ins with the Sabre did not end
there, fortunately. A few years later, an art teacher of mine invited me and Dad
to pass by the art room at my school. He said he noticed how all I ever drew
were airplanes, and might have something interesting to show me. When he opened
the door, I saw the complete cockpit of an F-86F, which my art teacher had
painstakingly put together from bits of retired PAF Sabres. Even today, I am
dumbstruck by that event, and the F-86 is a sentimental favorite.
Click on
images below to see larger images
When I saw the locally-produced
"Haribon Decals" PAF Sabre decal set being sold at my favorite
retailer, I just had to grab it, of course. Although it was quite iffy
trying to figure out what kit would be closest to the ground attack F-86F block
40s flown by the PAF, I finally settled on the Academy F-86E, since it at
least had leading edge slats. Everything else that could not be matched with my
reference photos would be left to the imagination (yours, as well as mine).
After
doing an a basically OOB build, I gave it an overall aluminum finish, a soap and
acrylic sludge wash, and sealed everything with future. The decals were a bit of
a shock, as the very, very thin carrier film caused the letters in "PHIL.
AIR FORCE" to go floating away separately. A lot of patience and my
"marshmallow test quotient" were used up in lining them up on the
fuselage. A thin coat of future on the decal sheet prevented the other decals
from making a repeat performance. The decal set has no standard stencils, so I
used the kit stencil decals. PAF sabres often had less stencils than factory
fresh aircraft, so reference photos are handy. After every decal was placed,
another coat of future was applied to secure everything in place.
It took a four weekends to get the model done, and all I can say is
it was like visiting with an old friend. The aircraft depicted was the 5th
TFW Commander's ship, Basa airbase, in the late 60s/ early 70s. The PAF flew
Sabres from the late 1950s until well into the 1980s.
Happy modelling everyone!
Micah
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