Hasegawa 1/72 USAFE F-86D

[Giorgio N]

Since I've yet to decide what to do with my Italian Sabre, I've decided to take advantage of the Easter holidays to try a "blitz build" of another subject for this GB.

Now when I say Easter holidays I should make myself a bit clearer... Easter was the 21st, meaning that Saturday 20th, Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd would have been good days for the hobby. Of course visits to parents and friends reduced this time, but in any case it's better than a normal weekend.

Then there was the 25th, that in Italy is National Holiday ! And here comes the "ponte"...

Quick lesson of Italian culture: ponte in italian means bridge. Any bridge, but when it comes to holidays, a "ponte" is a bridge between two holidays that are close together. For example. national holiday on thursday, just add a day and stay home til the following Monday. With so many people taking advantage of this, it's become common for many companies to stay closed in such occasions.. try to find a company open today for example... 😁

Now next Wednesday it will be May 1st... meaning another public holiday ! While I've not really exploited any of these "bridges", the fact that most customers are either closed or working at limited capacity means that I can take it a bit easier and so devote some more time to the hobby.

 

A check in the stash showed several potential candidates but clearly a quick build requires an easy kit to build. So in the end the choice was a kit from one of the companies that generally guarantee a good hassle-free build: good old Hasegawa !

The Hasegawa F-86D is typical of the philosophy of the Japanese company: sharply moulded parts with excellent surface detail, generally good fit and relatively little internal detail. The box has a nice picture of two Japanese Ds. As Japan used a large number of these it's only logical that Hasegawa issued a box specifically for the Japanese aircraft

 

 

Inside the box are 6 sprues, all bagged. Clear parts are bagged with the decals, so no risk of transparencies being damaged by scratches in the box

 

 

As said before, all parts are beautifully moulded in a hard grey plastic. I like Hasegawa's plastic, is hard enough to retain good details but easy enough to cut and sand. I'd like to see other companies using a similar plastic...

The total number of parts is not high, this seems a simple kit even if there are a few options. (don't know why Village decided to rotate these pictures though...)

 

 

 

Of course since this is a GB dedicated to the NATO-WarPac confrontation in the '50s I can't use the kit decals and this will be sorted by this old Microscale sheet. In any case Hasegawa offers decals for a good number of colourful Japanese aircraft, I may use them on the Airfix F-86D I have in the stash..

 

 

The aircraft I'll build is 52-3946 of the 513th FIS, with red and black tail. This unit markings have fascinated me since I first saw them in Squadon Signal's "USAFE In Color" some 25 year ago....

 

 

[Giorgio N]

Now while I've only just posted the introduction to the kit, it should be clear that I've already started over Easter holidays, so there's quite a lot of progress....

Build started as usual from the cockpit. Hasegawa offers little in terms of detail but what is there is mostly correct. The seat structure is however much more complicated in the real Sabre Dog so I added a few bits. Cockpit is overall FS 36231 as typical of late Sabres.

 

 

The plan was to use Hasegawa decals for all panels, however when I applied the first one this broke in the water. Guess the decals are too old and are by now become useless, no good ! In the end I managed to save the decal for the main instrument panel and resorted to drawing my own decals, basing them on an Eduard PE sheet. This proved to be a wrong move as the PE sheet represents an early aircraft, and the consolles are different on later ones.

I also decided to add some belts. The shoulder straprs came from the same PE set I used for the Italian Sabre.. this comes with two sets of shoulder straps, one for the USAF aircraft and one for the Japanese ones. I cut the Japanese belts from the sheet, modified them a bit and glued them onto the seat. The lap straps were made from foil. To complete the cockpit I added the throttle panel from a length of plastirod sanded to shape (it's a bit too prominent but will do).

Last touch was the adduition of part of the complicated tubular structure on the side of the seat... this deploys in case of ejection, so I only added the most visible part of this structure, the two yellow "handles" at the front of the seat.

The cockpit is not really accurate, but gives the impression of a proper '50s fighter cockpit...

 

 

With the panel and stick in place it looked even better...

 

 

 

[Giorgio N]

With the cockpit completed I could focus on the external parts. First and easiest job was gluing the wings together. No big deal here, the fit of the parts was perfect:

 

 

Sabre enthusiasts will notice that I've made a clear choice here: the F-86D featured the early narrow chord slatted wing and slats were generally extended when the aircraft was on the ground. Hasegawa does not give extended slats, I could have cut them and placed them extended, would have been a nice touch... however if this has to be a quick build, there's no time to work on the slats. Slats could be kept closed and "my aircraft" had them closed that day... 😁

 

On the fuselage however I reproduced some proper detail, thanks to one of the options offered by Hasegawa: the Ds featured two different intake arrangements on the fuselage for what I believe is the afterburner cooling intake. The original had a NACA intake in the fuselage sides, these were later replaced by a large scoop intake. My aircraft had the latter so the relevant part was cut from the sprues and placed on the fuselage. This requires sanding the bulged area behind the original NACA intake, nothing major but as the model will be finished in natural metal I tried to avoid scratching the plastic. The picture below shows one side with the original intake and the other with the new scoop in place.

 

 

The picture above also shows the many vortex generators that these aircrafr featured on the rear fuselage and tailplanes. Hasegawa moulded these as solid plastic, they are a bit on the thick side but it's not easy to mould them. The Special Hobby L and K kits have PE parts but adding all these is a nightmare... in my case I'll not replace the hasegawa parts, it's a quick build afterall...

 

With the intakes sorted on each fuselage half I started preparing these for gluing... first I added the intake/front wheel well (two parts glued together, upper and lower. On top of this I added some fishing weight, glued in place with my trusted silicone sealant. Then I added the two small side panels, again adorned with my home-made decals.

Dryfitting the fuselage halves and the nose cone I realised that the latter was very slightly wider than the fuselage at the very top so I decided to sort the matter before assembly: a small thin plasticard wedge at the very front of the fuselage will sort this. Nothing was added at the lower end as fit here looked good.

After gluing all parts together and a little sanding around the nose cone and on the fuselage top I had this:

 

 

Not too bad ! There seems to be a gap behind the wedge ahead of the cockpit but this is actually filled with clear resin. I'll only see if the filler did its job properly after a coat of primer, but should be ok.

One thing that can be noticed is howevr that the cockpit is missing... yes it is ! Unfortunately the fit of the cockpit is a bit vague in this kit, and in the end I decided to leave the cockpit out and only glue it in place after the fuselage was closed. This meant removing the side panels and while attempting to fit everything in the main panel also detached... oh well....

[helios16v]

Got to like a little quick build to shake off a little funk.  I had fun building a 1/72 Seahawk heli over the course of a week a couple years ago.  

[giemme]

 

 

Nice progress so far, G!

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

Thanks all ! I tend to be a slow builder, so not sure if I'll be able to keep the pace, but I'll give it a try... at least the kit should help since it's relatively simple.

 

Some more progress: I managed to fix the cockpit in place, followed by the side panels. The final result is IMHO convincing enough:

 

 

 

Mind, I'm not a fan of decals for instrument panels, I believe that even in 1/72 the modeller should be given a choice between decals and proper moulded detai. This is something that Hasegawa offers in some of their kits (F-104 for example) but not in others. At some point I was tempted by a possible resin clone of the PE parts included in the Special Hobby F-86L (the L is just an upgraded D) but would meant a bit of trial and error and a lot of time. The SH parts also don't fit the Hasegawa kit, the panel is wider and the consolles are slightly different (SH is probably more accurate here). Still, I'm happy enough for this build.

 

After the cockpit it was time to glue the exhaust. Hasegawa offers a single part, a tube with some good turbine detail at the end. I don't like single parts like these as they make painting the turbine detail pretty difficult. The part is of good length, that is good in terms of accuracy but of course makes painting even more difficult... I may have to touch up the detail a bit, but at least now I have the exhaust in place

 

 

The picture above also shows the many vortex generators moulded with the fuselage. There are a few more that must be glued in place, offered as individual plastic parts. These will be better glued in place after painting at least the tail, as they would interfere with the decals.

 

Cockpit in place, exhaust in place, there's nothing else that needs gluing into the fuselage, so time to mate this to the wings ! Before doing that however, better do some drufit checks.. that revealed a gap at the wing root and also that the wing assembly tends to sink a bit in the fuselage.
It should be one of the basics of the hobby but I have to admit that I've come to proper preparation of the parts quite late. This however makes a huge difference ! Better prepare the parts first than having to use tons of filler later ! Here I added a couple of very thin spacers (0.13 mm) at the wing-fuselage joint to lower the wing slightly. Then I added a plastirod insert to spread the fuselage walls a bit to try and eliminate the gap.

 

 

Did this preparation help ? IMHO it sure did !

 

 

 

Fit is pretty good now, I may just have to lightly sand the joints on the bottom fuselage.

 

This picture also shows one other decision I've taken: hasegawa offers the option of the extended tray for the FFAR rockets, that were the only armament of the F-86D. It's a nice detail but this would have to be glued over the panel visible in front of the wing.. that is not correct of course ! This is the bottom of the retractable tray, if the tray is extended this panel must be removed. As this is a quick build, I'll not use the tray (and I'll likely keep this for the SH L in the stash) but will represent the aircraft with a retracted tray.

 

That's it for the most recent good news, now let's see the bad ones...

I checked the Microscale decal sheet on the model to see if the tail markings would fit as the sheet was issued many years before the Hasegawa kit and all markings are likely designed to fit the Airfix offering. It was very simple: make a copy of the decal sheet on plain paper, cut the tail markings and place on the model. Well, they don't fit at all ! They are also not printed particularly well and for these two reasons I've decided to paint the red/black motiv on the tail. I will then cut the unit markings from the sheet and apply this in the right place. There are several pictures of F-86Ds of the 513th FIS on the web, including one of this same aircraft so no problem with references.

Having to paint the markings means having to change the painting stages a bit. I will now have to prime the tail area in white, paint the red, mask and then paint the black. Then the whole area will be masked and I'll be able to prime the rest of the model in black, followed by the various metallic shades.

[modelling minion]

Blimey Giorgio you are really moving fast with this one!

Looks like a really nice kit, wasn't aware that it had recessed panel lines.

I'm looking forward to seeing more progress with this one soon.

[giemme]

1 minute ago, modelling minion said:

Blimey Giorgio you are really moving fast with this one!

Indeed! Great to see this taking shape already!

 

Ciao

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Ooooh Hello a Dog ! My Favorite type of Sabre, good choice of kit for a reboot to the Mojo. 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Col.]

Cool subject choice Giorgio and rapid progress with it

I'd no idea this kit existed until seeing your example here.

[exdraken]

Looks nice already!

[Giorgio N]

Thanks everyone and sorry for the slow progress !

This kit comes from the golden era of Hasegawa kits, when they issued a lot of new aircraft every year. It's a very nicely moulded kit, with lovely panel lines. Hard to believe that first appeared 23 year ago...

 

It took me a while to start painting as I first had to mask the stripes on the tail. I checked various pictures to decide how the masks should have been and then designed and cut my own. I first sprayed the whole tail area in red, applied the mask and then sprayed black. While I was doing this I also applied black primer to the wings...

 

 

Removing the masks showed that the tail is not that bad !

 

 

I did a small mistake here: the top of the tail should be in light grey, as this covered an antenna. Pictures of Ds from the same unit show that part of this area was sometimepainted in red, however my aircraft has the whole part in grey. No big problem really, I'll mask and paint at a later stage. The mask would follow two panel lines anyway.

 

After this I've masked the whole tail and sprayed the model in black primer. I masked the whole tail as I preferred to use normal Vallejo Premium Airbrush Color paint for the stripes while I'll be using Vallejo's black primer for the rest of the airframe. Both are black but the Premium Airbrush paint is shinier while I prefer having the primer under the metal colors. No pictures yet to show as the model is now in a cupboard waiting for the primer to set properly. Tomorrow I'll start adding metal shades..

[giemme]

The tail is looking great, G!  Looking forward to the metal shades

 

Ciao

[Col.]

I'd hardly call your progress slow Giorgio! Nice work on the masking and painting

[Giorgio N]

Well, maybe not slow but I could be faster... not sure if I can finish the kit in time at this pace...

Anyway, you wanted metal ? Here's some metal !

With the tail masked, I primed everything else in black and then applied the first shade using Vallejo Metal Colors. I decided to use a slightly darker aluminum for most panels, so I mixed Aluminum with Dark Aluminum in a 10-3 ratio and sprayed the whole model with this mix. Here's the result

 

 

 

 

I decided for this slightly darker shade as pictures show the presence of a few panels lighter than the main airframe shade. These will be painted separately.

Maybe hard to notice ( I realised just now how bad these two pictures are...) but I didn't apply much care to the central wing panels. These will in fact be painted in a different shade. These panels were made through a different process that resulted in a much less shiny appearance. I've also read that they were often painted in a dull aluminum or even grey finish, what I'll do is most likely paint them with a mix of aluminum and grey or even white.

More noticeable, there's some more work to do to sort the fuselage joiunt ahead of the windscreen, but as this area will be painted in olive drab I'll sort it later.

 

 

 

[Col.]

You are making good solid progress with this one Giorgio and even if it doesn't make the gallery deadline it will not be far off. You are also seriously tempting me to get one of these for myself

[giemme]

I must try those Vallejo metal case colors, sooner or later. They definitely look the part, G!

 

Ciao

 

[Giorgio N]

16 hours ago, Col. said:

You are making good solid progress with this one Giorgio and even if it doesn't make the gallery deadline it will not be far off. You are also seriously tempting me to get one of these for myself

 

Do it, you'll not be disappointed ! It's a very nice kit of a subject that has worn some very colourful markings. Eduard also has a PE sheet that adds detail to the cockpit and other areas

The issues with USAF decals seem to be hard to find, tried to bag one on Ebay a couple weeks ago but the price went well beyond what I'd have liked to pay. The issues with JASDF decals are easier to find and the kit is currently available from a number of Far East based shops.

 

12 hours ago, giemme said:

I must try those Vallejo metal case colors, sooner or later. They definitely look the part, G!

 

Ciao

 

 

They are nice colours and are also very easy to use. Drying time is really fast, Vallejo claims 5 minutes, personally I tend to wait 15-20 minutes before masking, just in case. With such a quick drying time it's possible to add several variations in very little time.

 

One this model I'm not really applying too many variations in the metal. Period pictures don't show that many but some are visible and these are the ones I tried to reproduce here. At the moment I have a base colour on the whole airframe, a darker metal on the fuselage centre section and around the intake, and a couple of lighter area, one below the cockpit and one on the airbrakes. I'd say I can stop here with the fuselage, with the exception of the dark metal around the exhaust, that will be added later- Don't know, maybe the difference in the panels is a bit too stark, but I'd say I can live with it

 

 

It's not easy to take pictures of a model with this kind of finish, as the metal color reflects light differently depending on the angle. For example, the wings are in the same colour of the rear fuselage, yet this looks brighter in the picture above.

The wings will need some more work: the wingtips seem to be lighter than the rest while the large centre panel is, as said before, much less reflective and may need a mix of aluminum and grey.

[giemme]

I personally like those variations, G  I also think that after decals and weathering, they will tone down

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

If you like variations, there's more now !

Added a couple of darker metal shades in the exhaust area and, more important, finished the wings. On these I painted the tips with Vallejo Model Air Aluminum while the central panels have been painted in a mix of the same Aluminum and white.

The Model Air is less shiny than the Metal Colors, so producing a duller but pretty light aluminum. By mixing this with white I managed to have a very dull metallic finish, that IMHO reproduces quite well the finish of the wing central panels... with these I declared the metal areas completed, so I decided to remove the masking on the tail to check the result. There's a bit of work to do to sort a couple of small problems, but a small brush will sort these nicely. The model is starting to look pretty colourful !

 

 

Next areas to address will be the radome, antiglare panel and top of the tail. The radome is in black or a very dark brown. I'll probably mix black with some dark brown to have a colour different from a pure black. The antiglare panel is in good old Olive Drab... I have several paints that I use to reproduce this, will go for a greener one. The tail tip was in fibreglass, will paint it light grey.

In the meantime I also realised that I made a mistake in painting the wheel wells in aluminum, they were in green. Should have been Interior Green but the pictures I've seen seem to show a darker green, maybe it's the lighting or maybe the result of years of dirt accumulating in these areas. I may use something like FS 34102 or similar.

[giemme]

Top job!

 

Ciao

[Col.]

You've captured the patchwork of metal grains in fine style there Giorgio

I did a search on eBay the other day only to find a single Hasegawa kit in Australia that would cost the best part of £30 by the time it got to me Even the old Airfix kits are sitting at similar prices With any luck I'll find one at a model show for more sensible money some day.

[Giorgio N]

19 minutes ago, Col. said:

You've captured the patchwork of metal grains in fine style there Giorgio

I did a search on eBay the other day only to find a single Hasegawa kit in Australia that would cost the best part of £30 by the time it got to me Even the old Airfix kits are sitting at similar prices With any luck I'll find one at a model show for more sensible money some day.

 

That's likely the best way to go. This one came into my stash exactly that way! I had tried finding one online for ages with no success, then at a local show, and not even a large one, I found this box in a pile of stuff for sale. In the end I brought it home for a very good price

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Excellent job, Giorgio! 👍