North American F-86 Sabre - 1:48 Eduard Ultimate Kit

[Julien]

North American F-86 Sabre
1:48 Eduard Ultimate

The North American Sabre is one of the worlds most recognisable fighter aircraft, made famous by its use in the first Jet vs Jet Air combat battles of the Korean war. North American were able to use captured German research data on swept wing aerodynamics which was able to push the then XP-86 to the required speed of 600mph as required by the USAF. The first flight of the XP-86 would be in late 1947. Even though the US Air Force would retire its sabres in the 1960's the Air National Guard would fly them into the 1970's. The Sabre was used by numerous Air Forces around the world, with the last use being Bolivia in 1994. Over 7800 Aircraft would be built between North American and a further 1800 by Canadair. Total production including licence built aircraft in Japan, and Australian sabres would come in at 9860 aircraft.

The F-86F would feature an uprated engine and the addition of the 6-3 Hard wing without leading edge slats, although the slats would be added back in by the time the F-40 wing was introduced. The F models would feature many upgrades during its production run including the tactical nuclear role for the Block F-35 aircraft.


The Kit
The kit is a Boxing where Eduard have taken Hasegawa's plastic from their F-86F-30 kit and added two small sheets of Photo-etch, a sheet of masks, and a Brassin Ejection Seat. The plastic from Hasegawa is first class, and the moulds seem to be holding up very well after 20 years. Construction starts as with most kits in the cockpit. Here a lot of cockpit parts are replaced with the PE supplied by Eduard. There are new control leavers, rudder pedals, cockpit panels; and an instrument panel. Next the intake trucking is assembled with an engine fan face at the rear. The completed cockpit can then be added to the top of the trunking and the front wheel well to the underside.

The next step is to make up the exhaust section with a rear engine part at it's end. The side consoles moulded into the fuselage halves need to be removed and replaced by Phto-etch (if wanted). Once this is done the completed intake and exhausts sections can be placed inside and the fuselage closed up.

Construction then moves onto the wings which are of conventional construction with a one part lower wing, and two part (let & right) upper wings. Once these are together they can be added to the main fuselage along with the tail planes. The nose is also added at this point.

The next major step is construction of the landing gear. The front wheel is one part and is added onto the main strut. The retraction strut is then added. The main gear door is added along with its own retraction strut. The small front door is also added, along with the panel at the front of the nose containing the landing lights. The main wheels are two parts each and are added to the main gear legs. The outer gear door is then added to the other side of the leg. The main gear doors are then added along with their retraction struts. The instructions would then have you build the sidewinder missiles and their pylons now but this step can be skipped as none of the decal options here carried these missiles. The external tanks are completed taking care to use the right fins as per your decal option (the modeller will have to do their won research on this one).

To finish off the cockpit the new Brassin ejection seat needs to be completed. This is a complicated affair with a multitude of resin and PE parts (not helped by breakages in the parts). The complete seat though should be worth the effort involved. Photo etch is also used to replace the visible area behind the cockpit, and to enhance the area under the rear of the main canopy.

Decals
The decal sheet has been produced by Cartograf and is top notch. Glossy with an absolute minimum of carrier film, it should provide no problems, other than which option to build. The kit comes with Five options;

• FU-584 "Mig Mad Marine" as Flown my John Glen in Korea while on an exchange tour with the USAF. Credited with 3 MiG kills.
• FU-850 As flown Stateside by 390th FBS, Alexandria USA in 1955 - Very colourful with the Blue Stripes.
• FU-539 "Dreaded Gomboo/Sweet Rose" As flown by Lt Ken Ewing, Kimpo AB Korea 1954.
• FU-361 As flown by the 435 FBS, Detroit AFB, 1952.
• FU-341 "MIG POSION" as flown by James Haggerson. 6.5 Credited kills in Korea. (Eduard seem to have slightly got there research mixed up as they say this aircraft was destroyed in 1955. It in fact survives to this day at Kadena AB. FU-342 was in fact lost. In addition FU-341 was a slatted wing aircraft therefore the model needs some alterations for this option).

Conclusion
Is this an "Ultimate" kit? The plastic is good and the decal options are pretty good. However could there be a little more in the box? Eduard have just released a set of Brassin F-86 wheels, and an F-86F-30 update set. Could these have brought it up to the "Ultimate" level? Overall Recommend, highly recommended for the Sabre fan like myself.

Review sample courtesy of

[Antoine]

Nice kit, thanks, Julien.

I think that when Ed "borrow" some sprues (or even the molds themselves?) from hasegawa, it must be a bit more pricey than Academy, or Roden.

So they have to limit the amount of resin to avoid an overpriced kit. I'll be curious to see such a rebox with Academy's F-86.

I'm a bit disapointed by the markings options, I would have far more prefered a number of foreign Sabre.

But maybe there'll be another rebox?

[Julien]

I actually like the decal options on this one, apart from the mistake! Would be interesting to see if they did one with the academy kit, suspect not though.

[kpc7676]

Got mine today and agree that they could have added more resin in the shape of wheel, at least, to make it a little better value for money.

[Antoine]

Would be interesting to see if they did one with the academy kit, suspect not though.

I suspect the same, they have absolutely no reasons to do so now.

[Parabat]

Yes, I think Ultimate might be a bit of a bold statement. If they had done a really bulging box of different wings and canopies and wheels (and sugar scoops ) then it might have come closer to Ultimate.

Still, nice that someone is revamping the Sabres, might just see a CL-13 with poseable slats and included sugar scoops in my lifetime!

[Julien]

might just see a CL-13 with poseable slats and included sugar scoops in my lifetime!

Now that would be nice, are you thinking SAAF

[Parabat]

Now that would be nice, are you thinking SAAF

You know it...