Sun Ra

Awesome build!

Really nice, looks great

nice one dude!

This is inspirational, it really is. I'm getting obsessed by this period of history, and I have a stash of kits and a clutch of decals to do. I'm using your pics as reference and as a high standard to aim at. To add to the reading list, seek out 'A Doctor At Dien Bien Phu' by Major Grauwin, and 'Ciel De Guerre En Indochine', which is a photo-journal of aircraft and airmen from 1953, and has some great photos of mechanics stripping down Bearcats, C-47s and the like. Your models are awesome stuff, love it, thanks for sharing.

I'm 42 going on 11 when I build a kit! Officially, my 'planes are for my son to play with once they're built. He never gets near them.

Great build, really impressive. Thanks for the insights into the Airfix kit, I've lined one up for a future Air National Guard build (when I clear my current kit backlog, so maybe in 2022)

Thanks bhouse, I took another set, lo and behold, no problems.

Do you remember the old 1/72 Matchbox Sabre? I must have made about half a dozen back at the turn of the 80s/90s when I was a kid. I really liked the shape of the aircraft and the cool Arizona Air National Guard decals, not that I really understood what the ANG was back then. I usually built them 'in'flight', it was the quickest and easiest way to get kits built and I was impatient to have a finished 'plane (later, I started doing them gear-down and open cockpit, and I remember being proud of how good they look. They where probably terrible). Browsing Hannats website I happened across Microscale's 1/48 decals for the f-86 featuring the very same Arizona ANG 'roaring lion' scheme, so I couldn't resist. The Hasegawa kit is obviously way more detailed than the Matchbox (but only in one colour plastic, unlike Matchbox's which had some parts in a fetching baby blue, as I recall), but I stayed true to my roots and did it 'in flight' - which required some filling in with Milliput as mature, serious modellers don't do in flight, and the kit isn't designed for that. The decals caused me a few headaches with the long side decal spliting into 3 on the starboard side, line up issues on the nose band and masking-tape lifting off bits, even after a coat of varnish (and others - see what you can spot!). Massively enjoyable blast from the past, now I'm off to run around the living room 'flying' my Sabre. There's a Sabre in my garden!

Strewth! Taken with a Samsung S8, but I'll try taking another set. Thanks for the advice.

Sorry if this has been posted before. I've done a (quick) search and nothing comes up. I'm using Tinypic to host pictures and the keep coming in upside-down. The raw pics are the correct orientation, annoyingly. When I post them, they are also the wrong way round.... Anyone got any advice. Thanks! See - honest, taken the other way up!

This is built out of the box, with no 3rd party parts, and using the kits decals. It was a nice build, parts fitted well, good instructions, a full colour painting and decals sheet. The Hobby Boss decals in this kit where fairly decent, but I still managed to destroy one of the 'F's for the engine cowling, which means I've just made up the decal scheme - sorry to offend the purists! I like modelling 'in flight', but this kit wasn't really designed for that, I should have glued the wheel well covers to a bit of sprue before fitting them to stop them sinking in, well that's hindsight for you. Also, I made the rear wheel 'down' just for the fun of it. Again apologies etc. This is my maiden build, and my 1st build for a good 2-3 years! It's also the first 1/48 model I've built, so a lot of excuses why it has some obvious flaws - the canopy is hideous, there are still a lot of seams, and I managed to destroy half the decals as I was putting them on. However, I'm still looking for honest criticism and advice on how to improve because I want to raise the level of my modeling. The mandatory 'in flight' shot for in-fight models. If you have palm trees in your garden, and you model is a French Indo-China example, why not?

Thanks for the warm welcome. I've just finished a 'test' welcome-back-to-modelling build, and I've got a F-86 Sabre kit on its way to me, so I hope to have something to post soon(ish).

Hi world - This is my second restart at modeling - I picked up the paint and glue 4 years ago after last making a kit aged about 13 ( which was at the end of the '80's). I built a few 1:72 things, then a baby came along, and I stopped. That was 2 years ago, and I'm making another go of it. I've changed my focus to 1:48 kits, and probably 1950's and 60's jets, simply because I love the shape of them. My user name is a tribute to my other love - jazz. I am not a long dead Egyptian king. This forum is a big inspiration to me, and its great to finally be involved. James.