F-86A Sabre, Arizona Air National Guard

[Nobby]

So, here's whats been keeping me occupied!

The Matchbox F86-A with the Arizona ANG markings! Now i've got to admit to been a bit thick here as i thought the thing on the side was a dragon or something, but a little research on Google, and it is actually a stylized snake! Yep, a sidewinder! Doh! Makes sense as it's probably native to Arizona! Two options in the kit, one a Korean war job, and the one i preferred.

The wings were a little on the thick sides at the trailing edges as were the the tailplanes, in fact the tailplanes were too thick period, so a little grinding and sanding refined them. This meant having to rescribe the wings but thats no bad thing as this is a Matchbox kit! The panel lines on the fuz were better, in fact they are about the same as the Airfix kit but they were very uneven looking, like the panel lines of a late build V2! A little grinding on them then! I filled what was left of the panel lines on the wings with some thick super glue then rescibed them.

The original intention was to build it out of the box, but then AMS got a slight hold of me and i picked up some etch from the Hudderfield show for a song and i was going to use that to put some detail in the cockpit. I regained my senses and decided to save that for the Academy F-86 that I've got in the stash.

I decided to scratch a basic cockpit tub and add the pilot to fill the hole.

I cobbled a few bits of scrap plastic card together to make a cockpit tub and the area behind the seat as the kit one was very basic. I really wanted to Incorporate some of the gubbings that goes in there, particularly the so called "Light house" with the domed light thing that is very noticeable in pics of Sabres.

To be quick i used Milliput to give the impression that there was something there. Its not by any means accurate but it's near enough.

A bit of paint slapped on and some tin foil straps for the pilot and that's it! Oh, i added a throttle lever as well!

Once under the canopy it doesn't look too bad. The fit of the canopy was a bit dire but a good dose of filler sorted it.

The joint for the nose needed a fair bit as well!

As this is the "A" model of the Sabre the front windscreen is different to the later marks. It has a split windscreen and the piece in front of this also has an angular appearance. Now Matchbox did try but its a bit to soft and the fairing is rounded, so a little grinding away at this had something that has a least the look, if not totally right. Canopy was masked with a mix of Solartrim and Maskol

I ddn't do anything with the wheel wells apart from draw some fake detail on with a pencil. I had to scribe some panel lines on the under side though as there wasn't any at all!

As this was going to be the first model i'd painted with a metal finish in years, since the early 80's in fact, I decided to experiment. I first considered painting with Humbrol Metalcote but recently i've gone over to acylic almost exclusively and thought of the vapors pervading the den didn't really appeal so i thought i'd try Revell 99 Aluminium. Taking a leaf from Alclad i decided that after giving the model a wipe down with a cotton bud slightly dampened with white spirit then i undercoated the model with some "Plasticoat" gloss black. This is an acrylic paint even though it says enamel on the pot. Mixed with Tamiya thinners it sprays lovely.

After the paint had time to harden over night i wanted to get the effect of different shades but i really didn't want to be masking and painting and i didn't want to lift the finish when removing any masking, so i thought i'd try it this way. I got a soft pencil, scraped some on to paper then using a cotton bud rubbed some into various selected panels. The area round the guns was simply "colored" in and a cotton bud rubbed into it.

I gave it an overall coat of Tamiya gloss then the decals were added. The went on really well with the new formulation Humbrol decal fix and i would recommend it to anybody. I had to resort to Tamiya thinners and a little slitting for the nose band though as the decals were quite thick. Having let it dry though they have sucked into the panel lines.

I had to resort to making my own trestle marks and the red band that denotes where the fuz splits at the rear as there were none with the kit decal sheet. There was also no stencil decals as well but i added some fake ones with a fine brush. They don't say anything but if old kits had them they were the same! I'll live with it!

So only a final coat of varnish to go on, and the bits then i'll post in RFI!

John

[Iain Ogilvie]

Crikey - that takes me back!!!

Very nice build so far

Iain

[Nobby]

Cheers mate! It's been lanquishing in the stash since about 1990!

[Martian]

Looks good!

Martin

[phat trev]

A great looking Matchbox model

[topgear29]

I picked one of these up recently at a car boot sale for a pound as it had a nice sew on patch with it. But you have made one great good job on that. I think this and a matchbox A4 were the first kit I ever got and that is 30ish years ago.

[Shalako]

I've been dreaming of building this kit since 1989!!! Mainly because as a young scale modeler I was fascinated by the markings of this aircraft.

It really looks great - especially the decals - Matchbox had a "good eye" for choosing interesting subjects!

Looking forward to see it finished.

Cheers

Sernak

[Nobby]

Thanks guys!

I have to say that I've really enjoyed this even though it was only a diversion from the Javelin just for a recharge.

[The wooksta V2.0]

Looks fantastic!

[Nobby]

Well, this should be the final pic of it i post here!

I've run a thin wash of light grey water color into the panel lines. Took me a bit of experimenting to get what i wanted as i didn't want it to be too "in your face" especially on the fuz but i don't think it looks too bad and it actually looks better in real life than on the pics. After that i gave it a coat of my special mix of Ron Seal and Tamiya flatting agent with a flat brush to blend it all together. I call it "Ron Matt"

I know it sounds improbable, especially when you open the tin and the Ronseal looks disgusting but once mixed with the Tamiya flatting agent it thins out beautifull and brush's with nary a mark! No problems with wet over laps too! The finish is very similar to Tamiya paint having a silky look. I've yet to put it through the airbrush as just brushing it gives good results so it seems pointless to spray it! Just got to stick the gear on and the gear doors and couple of other bits and its done!

John