Andre B Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 (edited) Hi! As there are several F-86 Sabre builds here at Britmodeller I think I have to contribute as well. At least try to... First one up is the old 1/72 scale Airfix F-86D Sabre from 1975. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-02061-1-north-american-f-86d-sabre--263279 I've built that kit back then some time around 1976 and still have good memories of it. For some reason I painted it white. It looked at least "white' on the box and it looked so good with the blue decals and white stars. Airfix must have done an rather good job measuring the F-86D as this kit actually shapewise goes rather well with the later F-86D kits from Hasegawa and the F-86L from Special Hobby. It looks simple but looking at this kit closer one discovers that the Airfix crew actually made some serious work with this kit and the fit is rather nice. I've got this kit a year ago from "Hobbybokhandeln". A "second hand modell shop" in Stockholm, Sweden. Not long time after that I've found one Special Hobby F-86L and when a member of IPMS Stockholm sold an Hasegawa F-86D I've got the third "wanted kit". This made it possible to make an interesting "comparison build". As one can see I have slowly started the Airfix build. And one of the things that can be noticed is the rather small F-86F like "Jet Pipe Nozzle". Compared with the same parts from the Hasegawa and Special Hobby kits I took a "styrene pipe" (a 10 mm Evergreen plasticard tube), and inserted it into my "drilling machine" to adjust it a little shapeways and glued it on the old "bulkhead nozzle". The resultat is as you can se the new nozzle with the old "reversed" inside the fuselage. One can also see the intake duct and the rather "deep" cockpit. Next photo showing the cockpits from Airfix (with the intake duct), the Hasegawa kit (middle) and the Special Hobby kit. There are of course decals for the Hasegawa cockpit. And the Special Hobby kit has some very nice photoetched parts for the cockpit, the ejection seat and the rest of the aircraft. Among those parts countless small vortex generators fort the tail and horizontal stabilazers. And the three kits "side by side", ok "above and under". From top to bottom - Special Hobby, Hasegawa and Airfix... Cheers / André Edited October 20, 2019 by Andre B 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 Some "Nozzle jobs"... The Special Hobby F-86L, the Hasegawa F-86D and the "reenginered" Airfix F-86D. From top to bottom and left to right... Hasegawa F-86D and Special Hobby F-86L. Old Airfix F-86D with bulkhead and new F-86D nozzle. And Emhar Demon out of the box and "reworked". All painted with Humbrol Metalcote "Polished Steel". 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 I also have an unbuilt Heller F-86F and an built HobbyCraft F-86H that needs some repair. Here are the seats from those two kits. From left the Heller seat with cockpit, the Hobbycraft seat and the seat from the Pavla F-86F resin kit. The Pavla resin set for the Airfix F-86F/E kit. Intended first for the Airfix F-86D kit. But maybe not so accurate for an F-86D... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Not 1, not 2 but 3 Sabres, certainly 'pushing the boat out' on this thread André. Making good progress and taking notes as I haven't built a -D, -H or -L yet. Stuart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 (edited) 32 minutes ago, Courageous said: Not 1, not 2 but 3 Sabres, certainly 'pushing the boat out' on this thread André. Making good progress and taking notes as I haven't built a -D, -H or -L yet. Stuart Thanks Stuart, I havn't come to the wings yet. I think there are some "traps" easy to walk up on and fell into. And the cockpit build of the Super Hobby F-86L will be rather interesting. I also have some ideas concerning the Airfix F-86D... Cheers / André Edited September 6, 2019 by Andre B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted September 8, 2019 Share Posted September 8, 2019 Ooh lovely! Following with interest! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted September 23, 2019 Author Share Posted September 23, 2019 Found this interesting article about the first flight of the F-86D almost 70 years ago. Some nice pictures... https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/22-december-1949/ Cheers / André 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 (edited) Some cockpit work... Whit three different 1/72 scale Sabre's there are different cockpits and possibilities how to fit the cockpit parts to the fuselages. From bottom left we have the old Airfix F-86D with an "closed fuselage". In the middle the glued Special Hobby F-86L fuselage with an open hole for the wings. One can softly squeese the cockpit in place thrue that "winghole" after the intake and fuselage parts have been glued toghether. If this also is possible to do with the Hasegawa F-86D (upper right) I am not sure of yet. The Super Hobby kit comes with some nice photo etched parts with inatrument panels for the cockpit, harness for the bangseat and smal vortex generators. One interesting part on the Special Hobby kit is the smal part of the "sight" that goes on top of the instrument panel. But one can't find out where the accurate place of this part is according to the instructions. In the picture above it's just placed there and not glued. Is it "on place" or should it be moved further forward? From left the Airfix kit with some Pavla cockpit parts for the aft of the cockpit. Next, in the middle the Special Hobby kit with the same parts but not so detailed. And to the right the Hasegawa kit with almost the same part as the Special Hobby kit. The Airfix kit with more Pavla parts. The bangseat is rather spartan but not so bad as one think with the first look of it. I think I can do an rather nice seat of it. The cockpit of the Airfix kit is rather deep but that gives the possibillity to place the Pavla cockpit right on top of the floor of the Airfix cockpit. The Special Hobby cockpit on the bottom left, in the middle the Hasegawa cockpit and in top to the rigt the Airfix cockpit with the Pavla cockpit placed "on top". What can be seen is also the Airfix "seat" and the back of the Hasegawa "seat". One thing with the Airfix kit that has to be mentioned is that the cockpit frame is moulded with the fuselage parts. This means that one has to cut of some plastic to fit the Pavla parts to the cockpit interior. On the picture the left fuselage part has been cut but not the right part. And last another picture of the Airfix fuselage part with the uncut right fuselage part (to the left) and the left cutted and thinned cockpit frame fuselage part (to the right)... Edited October 20, 2019 by Andre B 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) I'm loving this: I do need to get one of those Special Hobby kits too. How does SH do the canopy? There isn't a radio compass aerial (domed glass part under the rear of the canopy that Airfix models as part of each fuselage half): I've noted that is incorrect on some F-86L models I've seen. Edited October 21, 2019 by Sabrejet 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) 15 hours ago, Sabrejet said: I'm loving this: I do need to get one of those Special Hobby kits too. How does SH do the canopy? There isn't a radio compass aerial (domed glass part under the rear of the canopy that Airfix models as part of each fuselage half): I've noted that is incorrect on some F-86L models I've seen. Hi! I also noted that some if not most of the F-86L differs from the F-86D. The Special Hobby is more or less a copy of the Hasegawa kit and a bit more detailed than the old Airfix. That's why I have an idea of using the Pavla parts behind the bangseat under the canopy. The Special Hobby part can be seen in picture nr. 4 in #8... ...and in this photo... From left to right: Pavla F-86F, Heller F-86F, Special Hobby F-86L and Hasegawa F-86D. I had an idea of using a red or yellow "warninglight" from an 1/76 scale truck for that doomed part under the rear of the canopy... Cheers / André Edited October 21, 2019 by Andre B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) In case it's of use: F-86D radio compass loop (dome on rear decking) and sense (lines on canopy) antennae details: And on the F-86L they are replaced by an L-shaped bracket and black box for the Audio-Frequency Amplifier (in place of the loop antenna) and on the canopy there is a pitchfork-shaped Localizer Receiver antenna (often applied over the top of the radio compass sense antenna): Edited October 21, 2019 by Sabrejet 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) Some more work done on the Airfix Sabre... Both fuselage parts cut according to plan. I also made an cut in the rear part of the floor on the Pavla resin cockpit for the Airfix bangseat rear part. Next step is to lower the rear bulkhead a little for the Pavla rear decking. Also seen on the picture is the 5 g fishing sinker that also give the intake an nice and tight fit to the bottom of the fuselage. The reworked rear engine nozzle is also in place. Cheers / André Edited October 21, 2019 by Andre B 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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