1/72 Hobby Boss F-86L

Gallery Article by Vinny "Cousin Vinny" Ibarra on June 12 2009

  Philippines Independence Day 2009 

 

The Philippine Air Force operated at least 70 F-86Ls with the 5th Fighter Wing from 1954 to 1980. One famous picture is a 24-plane flyby of Philippine Sabres spelling the name "IKE" during the visit of President Dwight Eisenhower in the late 50's.

Philippine Sabres were originally operated in natural metal, but some wore colorful paint schemes. "Beelzebub" is a plane from the 7th Squadron and carried red markings on its tail and stabilizer.

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Suffering from AMS, I built this model out of the box, just to get out of my modelling doldrums. The paint is Gunze and Testors metalizer. I did not bother to polish the paint as in-service aircraft do not have shinny appearances. The only concession is the replacement of the kit decals with the excellent Haribon Decals. The project took just three weekends to finish.

Need a quick project to build OOB to cure AMS? This kit has less than 25 parts and a lot of simplifications (especially the cockpit). But the scribing is the best there is in 1/72.  I seriously recommend this kit. 

IPMS Philippines

Vinny "Cousin Vinny" Ibarra

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Photos and text © by Vinny "Cousin Vinny" Ibarra