WASP ARROWHEAD FIGHTER JET from STINGRAY

 

Following on from my WASP Spearhead bomber post, here’s some photos of my Arrowhead fighter aircraft, as seen in ‘Stingray’.

The kit used in the actual series was a 1:48 scale Aurora N-156 Freedom Fighter which was produced from 1962, and was just about available when Stingray was being made. I do have an unmade 1964 issue of this kit, however, for this project I used an old sixties cellophane bagged Airfix 1:72 scale Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter kit which actually came out in 1966, as I wanted it to be the same scale as my Spearhead bomber. (The reason for using an older Airfix F-5A kit was that I find later versions have thinner plastic and the detailing is less defined)

It’s reasonably easy for the moderately skilled modeller to convert the Airfix F-5A to a WASP Arrowhead. Generally speaking you simply swap the wings from front to back, fit the supplied under-fuselage pod on one one side, and scratch-build an identical one for the other side.

Naturally it does involve some cutting and filling, and forcing things to fit together that weren’t meant to fit together, but overall nothing too complicated.

The kit’s basic colour is aircraft grey and for quickness, I used chequered tape for the rear wings.

As the Arrowhead only appears in 3 episodes – Rescue from the Skies, Cool Caveman and Pink Ic,looking for fine detail reference isn’t easy. The ‘W’ on the tail fin and in the middle of the underside are fairly obvious, but for my photos and as a display model it needs a lot more, so using a little imagination I decided to add a few decals from the spares box, paint on a few black panel lines and apply some subtle weathering.

A final coat of matt sealer, and voilà, a WASP Arrowhead fighter ready to scramble!

In the Stingray series, Arrowhead fighters are generally used as escort aircraft. However, in the episode, Rescue from the Skies, Troy pilots a fast Arrowhead jet to quickly reach Lieutenant Fisher, Phones and Marina aboard the stricken Stingray which lies, immobilised below the ocean, with a bomb attached to her hull!

The real life the Northrop F-5, a development of the original N-156, is one of several supersonic light fighter aircraft. The two main models being the F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter and later they were extensively updated to the F-5E and F-5F Tiger II. The Tiger II was later developed into the short lived prototype, the F-20 Tigershark.

The F-5A had it’s first flight in July, 1959, and entered operational service in April, 1964 (The same year Stingray first appeared on TV)

Although it’s no longer manufactured or in front-line service with the U.S. military, Northrop still provide support for the F-5, and the aircraft continues to be used by various air forces around the World.

U.S.Navy Northrop f-5’s were used in the film, ‘Top Gun’. They were repainted black, and given the fictional designation, MiG -28.

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