Arrowhead Fighter

[cph64]

The March 2025 edition of Scale Aircraft Modelling contained an article about building the Arrowhead Fighter that featured in the Stingray series from 1965. The series was made in colour in 1964 and was the first series made in colour in the UK. Although British TV didn't start broadcasting in colour until 1967 Gerry Anderson had one eye on the American market.
The original series aircraft was a conversion of the 1/48 scale Aurora N-156, the prototype that went on to become  the F-5 Tiger. The SAM article uses the 1/72 PM Models Northrop F-5A. Knowing I should be able to find one of these at a Model Show I looked and found one but looking further I came across the Heller kit for the F-5E, which has more detail and was the same price as the PM model. Main work for the conversion will be to take the wings back towards the rear, bring the tailplanes forward and reshape the engine intakes. In Trevor Pask's article he has his comversion flying as he couldn't put it in a wheels down configuration, using the Heller kit this looks possible but I'll see when I get there. As I don't have any decals for the World Aquanaut Security Patrol but do have some Spectrum ones left over from the Captain Scarlet Angel Interceptor I'm making an Arrowhead FGR using them.

[MSea]

Will it have a Ork or a Zombie flying it Chris yoho yoho yoho     

[Bigkev]

Will it have a Ork or a Zombie flying it Chris yoho yoho yoho     

It'll be a puppet of course!

[cph64]

Neither, very rare I put a pilot in. I learnt a long time ago that badly painted pilots detract from the build.

[Bigkev]

Neither, very rare I put a pilot in. I learnt a long time ago that badly painted pilots detract from the build.

Shame that. You could always passed him/her off as of that time when figure detail wasn't as good as it is now.

[chriswil42]

This should be an interesting conversion Chris.  Looking forward to it.

[Wizzel]

Blimey, that's an interesting challenge you've set yourself. I'm looking forward to reading how you tackle this.

[cph64]

The cockpit has been made up and painted with AKAH Cockpit Emerald from the paint set I got for my MiG 21 build. I intend to use more of those in the build. Detail was picked out using Vallejo Red and Yellow along with Tamiya Satin Black, which was also used for the instrument panel followed by dry brushing with Silver.
I anticipated a big gap once I move the wings and luckily Heller have both wings joined with a centre section which fits over the fuselage bottom half so this was put in place, the upper fuselage placed on top, and marked as to where I could cut. Dry fitting the wings to the rear fuselage appears initially to be something like. The portion of the forward strake on the wings which is still attached to the centre piece will be removed later.

[chriswil42]

A good start.

[cph64]

A bit more work done, the fuselage halves have been joined and clamped.

[Bigkev]

A bit more work done, the fuselage halves have been joined and clamped.

This one isn't gonna come undone with those hefty clamps holding everything tight!

[cph64]

The wings have been cemented in place and blanking plates made for where the intakes should be, these were fitted after removing what was left of the wing strakes. The airbrakes were cemented in place with gaps filled with putty, next up was cutting the closed main landing gear doors so half could be used in closing the lower body. Once all these were dry next came the job of recreating the 'coke bottle' effect into the fuselage lower half, lots of carving and sanding followed by filling any gaps. The joined tailplanes were seperated and each half joined to either side of the fuselage in front of the blanked off intakes. The nosewheel, which comes as one piece, and the main legs were attached followed by the inner weapons pylons. The outer ones come with moulded on pods and are from spares. I looked through my spares to find any weapons pylons that I could use for the fuselage fit, two were found and fitted with some evergreeen strip cut and placed underneath to give some support, again gaps were filled. The large underfuselage fuel tank took a lot of work to get it something like and this was duely fitted followed by the nose pitot which needed some filler on it and around the join. The canopies had been masked and painted with the Emerald green so all was ready for the spray booth and a coat of primer. Note to self, don't use the vent out of the window in a north-westerly wind as fumes can get blown back into the cottage!!!

[Bigkev]

Looking good with all that chopping and filling.

[chriswil42]

Coming along nicely.

[cph64]

Firstly the nose, fin leading edge and anti-glare panel were hand painted using AKAH Radio Transparent Grey followed by the undersides being sprayed AKAH Overall MiG grey which reacted with the levelling thinner so had to be rubbed down and touched up by hand. After it was dry Citadel Lothern Blue (the lighter one) was sprayed on the upper surfaces followed by the darker Teclis Blue. Any overspray was cleaned up and then the disruptive lines were applied using AK Interactive Olivgrun and Rotbraun from the late War German AFV set of pens. with the undercarriage and wheels painted the main wheel well doors attached, these being numbered the wrong way round in the instructions, the jet nozzles have also been attached after being painted seperate from the main body.