Lockheed T-33 Fuerza Aerea Mexicana

The Lockheed T-33 jet trainer had a long and interesting story in Fuerza Aerea Mexicana (FAM) use. First acquired second-hand back in 1961 from the USAF in the jet trainer role, these initial T-33 A-1 airframes integrated the 202 Sqdn. initially flying out of Mexico City airport as the Santa Lucía Air Base had a very short track to operate jets. Matriculated JE-001 to JE-015 the original T-33 batch suffered a high attrition rate by accidents and lack of spares forcing the purchase of three additional machines (JE-016 to JE-018) from the Netherlands to become the only Jet air defense force in the entire country after the retirement of the DH 3 Vampire jet fighters. The paint scheme was the common all-natural metal with red/black tip tanks and anti-glare panels in the front. Some aircraft were modified with 2 bomb racks and two frontal 0.50 machine guns to become the AT-33 standard. Surprisingly, in 1987 and after the acquisition of the much more capable F-5E Tiger, the FAM acquired 40 additional T-33 airframes from the USANG and USAF to create fighter squadrons 210, 211 and 212 and reinforcing 202 Sqdn. all under the 2nd Air Combat Wing based in Mérida, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Ixtepec and Santa Lucía air bases, respectively. This quite unexpected growth established the FAM as the largest T-33 operator in the world by 1990. At this time, the aircraft received an overall matt light gray color finish with the traditional red/black wingtip tanks. More interestingly and unlike latinamerican air forces, each T-33 squadron displayed colorful graffiti on the nose, tail and air intakes plus several experimental painting patterns. While quite useless for air defense porpoises, this marking variety is a delight for modelers.
In 1998, the FAM was restructured and all the T-33s were grouped under the newly formed 402nd Sqdn. in a single air base at Ixtepec. Nine years later, the T-33 were finally retired from FAM service after 56 years. By 2007, they received an awkward monotonous dark green finish that ended the colorful era of the T-33 in Mexico.
As a child, I recall running every morning on September 16th (Mexico´s Independence Day) to my grandmother´s house and climb to the roof to watch those shining T-33s in close formation (we nick-named them the "tetras") in full throttle. A noisy affair that to date gives me the goosebumps!!!
For this project I chose the Platz T-33 1/72 kit (AC-14) detailed with Eduard PE for the cabin and SAC metal undercarriage. The markings were from Aztec Models sheet 72-061.