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1/72 F-86A Sabre, Korea, 1951.


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Here is my effort of producing an F86A in 1/72 scale. Life started from Academy's F86E kit and underwent some modifications; tail-plane activation fairings were removed, slatted 6-3 wing back dated to early slatted wing, front windscreen with one from Pavla and for good measure, a K-19 gun-sight fitted. I added a little more detil to the cockpit. The mods took a bit of an effort with filling and sanding but we got there.

The overall NMF was achieved using Metalcote paints from Humbrol.

Decals were a mixture of Matchbox for the serials and 'Miss Louise' and the rest from the Academy kit. The Matchbox black & white band decals were too small and so these were painted on instead. Not a bad effort for my first NMF aircraft, room for improvement.

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Comments are most welcome.

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Nice conversion work!! Did you leave the wing pylons alone or move them inboard to their proper locations(35mm from centerline in 1/72). Is that the Academy nose strut ??? I can't get over the silly angle fork when all others even HobbyCraft has a decent curve to their strut. I haven't picked up an Academy Sabre, all my stash is HobbyCraft or Fujimi.

Model On !!!

Cheers, Tony

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Thanks for comments guys, much appreciated.

Nice conversion work!! Did you leave the wing pylons alone or move them inboard to their proper locations(35mm from centerline in 1/72). Is that the Academy nose strut ??? I can't get over the silly angle fork when all others even HobbyCraft has a decent curve to their strut. I haven't picked up an Academy Sabre, all my stash is HobbyCraft or Fujimi.

Model On !!!

Cheers, Tony

I only done a few mods to turn it into an 'A' but the pylon relocation seems an easy thing to correct and will be done on future builds. Yes it was the Academy nose strut, something I will most probably live with when it comes to using this kit. Thanks for the comments Tony.

My Sabre stash is growing; Academy, Hobbycraft, Fujimi, even a Heller. Tasman conversion kits for the Avon Sabres, A TF86 vacuform is also waiting on the shelf...all in good time.

Next Sabre is an USAF 'E' or RCAF F2.

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Your user name is apt, given all that conversion work on a model to receive an NMF, beautifully done.

Thanks Cookenbacher, fortunately you can't look any closer. This was my first NMF and showed flaws that i must improve on. I just didn't appreciate how much extra prep work was needed... I know now.

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