Sabrejet

I can't really discuss the kit itself however in case it helps, these RAF Sabres were '6-3'-winged at manufacture: XB647 thru XB650 XB770 thru XB775 XB851 thru XB855 XB916 thru XB951 XB986 thru XB993 XD780 thru XD781 Some of these aircraft had been ferried across with 'XD1xx' serial numbers but these were cancelled and those above applied for service use. 4 Sqn in 2TAF only operated 6-3 Sabres. 112 Sqn only had slatted a/c for its first few months, as did 130 Sqn. The following squadrons flew no/few 6-3-wing a/c: 26 Sqn (only two 6-3 a/c); 93 Sqn (none). The rest flew a mix, dependent on date; slatted first; then 6-3 where conversion was possible.

Here's my 1/48 effort, made several years ago with a conversion fuselage: High Planes I think?

See attached, showing both RAF and RCAF Sabre formations, routes and timings:

That didn't take long! Yes it is: according to the owner it's one of only five survivors and must be the only one in the UK. Incidentally the owner called it a "D&S".

Just back from the Brooklands New Year gathering and as always well worth the effort. Loads of interesting stuff but I had to admit I didn't have a clue what this was. Fortunately the owner turned up so I was able to find out. So any ideas? No prizes other than the satisfaction of getting it correct. Clue: it's not a Porsche (one wag authoritatively told me it was a Porsche 935 (!) and most others who didn't take the time but had a bit more of a clue thought it was a 356). It's not a replica either.

Nice: looks lovely!

Well I've got 39, so there 😜 (I only know that because I just used a calculator to work it out).

RAF Sabre 4: black, black black! (as Wez sez)

If you go back through the Boultbee blurb, this aircraft was touted as the back-up:

Does anyone know the relevance of this post? It seems to have been repeated on Cybermodeler now. Would like to know if I/we are missing a joke.

Incidentally a good example of these CIA aircraft is B-17G 44-85531. It was converted to an SB-17G rescue machine for use in the Far East with 2nd ARS at Kadena and then returned to the Middletown Air Materiel Area at Olmsted AFB in October 1951, where it was converted to a 'TB-17G' (most likely as a cover for whatever it was proposed for). Conversion complete in January 1952 it returned to the Far East and was transferred to 'Top Secret' with mission code CM (special mission aircraft) on 11 February 1953. It disappears from the radar at that point.

CIA certainly used B-17/s for China overflights:

Looking good! 👍

Who's Hugh?

I too have been looking at this and cannot find anything of use. However it looks to me that the extant drive gear (driven off the crank extension) is driving a second gear-driven water pump (just visible in the B&W photos). That would make sense because the prominent semi-circular pipe which extends around the top of the engine in that area would seem to be in the correct location to connect to the water pump, and thence to each cylinder's water jacket - which again it seems to do. Again, guessing but I wonder if the threaded objects are lubricators for the camshaft bearings?

Out of interest, did the silver-painted backup aircraft ever fly in these colours? Might be easier to replicate than the highly-polished version

Prompted by a query from @jpk on the subject of "what's behind the seat?", here are a few bits. First off the canopy area: KH doesn't include the AN/ARN-6 radio compass loop antenna and it's a prominent feature; note that it's only fitted to the FJ-2 (the FJ-3 has a u-shaped rod antenna instead) and that it is attached to the armour plate aft of the seat. Therefore when the canopy is opened it doesn't move - that's quite different to the case when it's fitted to F-86A/D/E/F/H etc. Item 2 below: The canopy itself is quite plain: But has the retraction screwjack mounted underneath: because the canopy raises as it moves rearwards, a lot of the items mounted on top of the canopy shelf (Item C92 in the kit) on the F-86 is mounted beneath on the FJ-2: Main part mounted on the canopy shelf is the cabin air pressure regulator: Item 8 below (item C44 in the kit): If you pose the canopy open, you will have to add some detail that's not in the kit. The decking aft of the seat is part of item B20 in the kit, which looks like this: And KH's instructions show no detail to be added: On the real FJ-2 this area is actually concave, with three distinct faces to it; again because the canopy raises as it moves aft, along with the lowered area of the concave deck this allows two prominent relay panels to be fitted into the apertures highlighted in red: And this is how they look in reality, along with the canopy actuator in the central valley of the deck: The relay panels are Items 7 and 9 below: And some further detail:

Gene, It's not the end of the world; kit parts show the FJ-3 type: And here on an FJ-3M: Recess splays out at the rear on the FJ-2: Shouldn't be difficult to cut out the errant portions.

Genius. Seems obvious now you say it 🙄

Progress is slow but sure: lots to add but not that much to see 🤔 These are the last parts of the engine bay: exhaust headers, bulkheads, baffles, oil filter and duct etc. Quick check with the body on to make sure the exhausts look OK: And from the top: Back with the body off and this is how it now looks. Slow-cure epoxy resin allowed me to adjust the parts with the body on until it all cured. Front cross-braced frame added ahead of the radiator: Only part then was to add the oil hoses; there is a supply, a return and what seems to be a vent/catch tank hose which passes into the LH front wheel arch area. I decided to make these using approx. 1mm solder wire for the 'hose' part; punched 1mm hex plastic card union ends and all held together with a 0.5mm aluminium tube. Drilling 0.5mm holes in 1mm hex plastic card was 'interesting'... And here is hose No.1, with a banjo fitting on one end, done by drilling a 0.5mm hole in the side of a 1mm tube and then slotting the part above into it. Unfortunately I realised that the hose was brown, not black, so they were painted the correct colour before fitting. And here they are fitted, painted the correct colour. I will tone the colour down a bit with some matt varnish. More (not too) soon I hope!

Diagram above is correct for frame spacing and length; ditto for the wing rib spacing, span and sweep angles. I couldn't be fully confident to use it for other dimensions (fuselage depth for example) unless I had similarly scaleable figures.

Few of mine.

I think that's it: the kit door doesn't look too bad so I think we can cross that one off.

Might need that stencil set too:

OK so here goes. Kitty Hawk’s 1/48 scale FJ-2 is Item No. KH80155. Based on photos of various kit configurations, KH has rendered the distinct differences in engine intake size between FJ-2 and FJ-3/3M, as well as other variations such as wing configuration, fuselage intakes etc. Aircraft and kit intakes compared: Fuselage length is 429.75 inches, measured from the tip of the intake lip to the aft end of the jet pipe fairing. This equates to 10915.65mm. Converting to 1/48 scale this equals 227.4094mm. I scaled the FJ-2 fuselage station diagram to 1/48 and placed the fuselage parts together; I’d say it’s spot-on in length and also frame spacing. Fin is a tad short, but since it looks like the issue is only related to the tip being a bit short, it should be easy to fix without losing detail: Span of the FJ-2 wing equates to 11313.16mm. In 1/48 scale that equals 235.7mm. Sweep of the wing is 35 degrees, measured at the 25% chord line. Again, the kit matches perfectly with the rib locations and also for span. If anything, the trailing edge sweep (no ailerons or flaps on kit wing or diagram) is a bit too shallow: Other: The forward nose gear door is one of the most obvious inaccuracies with this kit; the original door is around 24 inches long (12.7mm in 1/48), whereas the kit version is 14 and a bit; it looks more. This also means that the corresponding part of the main nose gear door is too short, though it’s less apparent. Kitty Hawk has provided the forward nose door with a landing light – you’ll need to fill the hole and omit the light for an early FJ-2. As mentioned above, Kitty Hawk has provided an engine with this kit, but unfortunately the engine is incorrect for an FJ-2; this type was fitted with a J47-GE-2 (similar to the F-86A/E/F series engines) and the J47 is characterised by having eight individual combustion chamber ‘cans’. But KH appears to have supplied the FJ-3 engine with this kit, which is a J65-W-2 or -4B, which has an annular combustion chamber and no individual cans; it looks a great deal simpler by comparison. The different engines (and their different air flow requirements) are the reason for the larger engine intake on the FJ-3. FJ-2 engine: FJ-3 engine: The better news is that, as mentioned above, KH have modelled the smaller FJ-2 intake correctly. Minor niggles: 1. KH hasn’t included the radio compass loop antenna (the domed, glass-covered item visible under the sliding canopy of F-86s and FJs), but it wouldn’t be a massive stretch to make from a piece of clear sprue. 2. The kit only includes the splitter rudder, which is only really applicable to aircraft after VMF service. It would seem that one or two VMF FJ-2s had the later rudder but the vast majority had a smooth-sided version. Again, it wouldn’t take much to swipe some filler over the rudder to correct that. And if you model a Reserve machine it will be OK as-is. The horizontal stabilizers are also the splitter type, for which the same applies; again, easy to fix. 3. KH suggests in the instructions that 'sugar scoop' fuselage intakes are an option for FJ-2; ditto the Sidewinder missiles. Neither are fitted on FJ-2. Decal Options: In terms of decal/colour scheme accuracy, there are issues with all of the aircraft depicted; 1. BuAer No. 132055 13/MX of VMF-334 ‘Falcons’, MCAS Cherry Point. This aircraft was with the squadron from 16May55 to 01May56. My main issue with this scheme is that the stylised ‘falcon’ motifs on the fuselage and tail fin are mid-blue and it’s debatable whether they should be black or dark blue. My feeling (lacking a period colour photo) is that the falcon motif was black (as was the case on the unit’s FJ-4s), but whether blue or black, the shade was much darker than depicted in the kit decals. 2. BuAer No. “131975” 22/WU, VMF-235 ‘Death Angels’, MCAS El Toro and Atsugi, Japan. The serial number of this aircraft should be 131979, which was one of four FJ-2s detailed for Operation Steam (often referred to as Project Steam) aboard the USS Hancock in September 1954. The operation took place in the waters off San Diego as an at-sea evaluation of its new steam catapults. BuAer No. 131979 served with VMF-235 from 23Apr54 until written off on 10Mar55. For info, BuAer No. 131975 was also a VMF-235 aircraft, and was with the squadron from 08Mar54 to 03Jul56, but was not numbered ‘22’. The kit decals have seven stars on each tail stripe: there should in fact be five per side, with a further one positioned on the leading edge of the fin (so 11 in total, not 14 as shown in the decal sheet). The number ‘22’ should also appear beneath the aircraft type/serial number block on the rear fuselage and this is not included in the kit decals. 3. BuAer No. “130257” 5/WR, VMF-312 ‘Checkerboards’, MCAS Cherry Point. The serial number of this aircraft is wrong (130257 isn’t an FJ-2); it should be 132057, which served with VMF-312 from 19Oct54 to 12Feb56. This aircraft should have the number ‘5’ repeated below the unit number on the aft fuselage but it’s missing from the kit. Note that some or all of this unit’s FJ-2s had the checkers repeated on the horizontal tail surfaces and these are not included in the kit. 4. BuAer No. “131987” 12/AM, VMF-451 ‘Warlords’, MCAS El Toro and Atsugi, Japan circa Oct 54 to Nov56. This serial number is incorrect: 131987 was not a VMF-451 machine. This scheme lacks the small ‘12’ which should be positioned beneath the tail serial number. Also the kit decals have nine stars and each fuselage band where there should only be seven. The blue band extends below the fuselage but not the stars. 5. BuAer No. “132000” 318/LC, VMF-122 ‘Candystripers’, aboard USS Coral Sea 23 March to 29 September 1955. This serial number is incorrect: 132000 was not a VMF-122 machine. I’m not 100% sure what the correct serial number of this machine should be, but photographs show what looks like ‘13xxx9’, which from aircraft on the Coral Sea cruise would make it one of BuAer Nos. 131939, 131949, 131959, 131969 or 132049. Note: the 3-digit modex numbers only applied to the Coral Sea cruise; when not aboard, they carried two-digit modex numbers, minus the prefix ‘3’. Note that the tail stripes and 3-digit number should be on a slope, not as depicted in the kit instructions. Note also the different ways of representing the letters/numbers on the wing between these two aircraft: A few stencils are included in the decal sheets and should suffice for most modellers; there were in reality many more. Notably not included in the sheet is the prominent red disc that was painted around the angle-of-attack sensor to stop folks using it as a hand hold or step. KH have instead suggested that the red circle fuel filler decal (23) should go there instead. They should be positioned as shown in the photo: In general the blue used on the sheet (star & bar decals in particular) is too bright. In summary. No massive issues with this kit. OK the engine is incorrect – that one is annoying. But the other issues are minor and won’t take much to fix. With luck a few aftermarket decal sheets will appear for these kits as well as correction/detail sets for the cockpit etc. But the important thing to note is that this is BY FAR the best kit of an FJ-2 in 1/48 and the same will be true of the FJ-3 when it arrives (and I’m assuming the engine will be correct for that kit too!). Irrespective of that, it’s a really nice-looking, well-detailed offering and doesn’t deserve some of the generic KH-bashing that it’s received prior to issue. My comments above are purely there to enable a full appraisal and hopefully to assist the perfectionist if he/she wants to go a bit further. But built OOB it will build into a really good rendition of its subject: I can't wait to build it and will certainly be buying the FJ-3 kit based on what I've seen. 🍻