Mr Frankenstein's Dog

[Sabrejet]

A while back I did a 1/48 F-86A, using the slatted wings from Revell's F-86D kit and combining those with the fuselage and other bits from the Eduard F-86F. A lot of hacking and bashing later I had an F-86A. But I also was left over with an F-86D fuselage and a 6-3 wing, which is an annoying combination and also a bit wasteful. So the whole lot went into a box, soon to be forgotten. That is until this year, when out it all came, and after a bit of head-scratching, this is the outcome, photographed in this morning's mild frost. I'd wanted to do an 'in flight' F-86D for some time, so that's another tick in the box too:

 

 

The wings were back-dated to narrow-chord spec by cutting out the '6-3' wedge, gluing it all back together and then grafting it onto the F-86D centre section. Slats were then scribed to make it all look good. The aircraft is depicting a 93rd FIS F-86D-35, as flown by John Ruettgers, CO of the squadron in 1954:

 

 

 

This scheme didn't last much beyond 1954, and the CO's bird was the only one to have the white infill on the lightning bolts. Decals are from Microscale sheet 48-955 and if you are going to model this aircraft, note that being a D-35, it had no drag 'chute. That's despite what Microscale tell you (and even though they depict the correct version on their decal placement guide!). The instructions do have a few errors (decals not required for this date etc):

 

 

But they do have some respectable references 😉

 

 

The only other thing I did was to convert the seat from "aaaargh!" to, "everything's cool" configuration. That's another risk of using a museum aircraft as your source of reference (Revell used the NMUSAF's F-86D in this case):

 

 

So here it is. The cruddy MDF stand will be replaced with something more tasteful by the way:

 

 

 

 

 

And just for info, this is where the other bits went:

 

 

[Toryu]

That looks great! A perfect assimilation of the different parts - very well done. I like the 1950s jets, and particularly some nice scratch modifications.

[Farmerboy]

Superb build, certainly looks good in the cold Wiltshire air!

[SAT69]

That has to be the most beautiful Sabre D model I've ever seen. Great work!

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, SAT69 said:

That has to be the most beautiful Sabre D model I've ever seen. Great work!

 

I wish  That is a lovely compliment. 

[Gary Brantley]

Totally cool, and a wonderful Sabre!  

Thinking about that MDF stand...it doesn't look bad, but perhaps would be enhanced by some paint.   Maybe a gloss black or even another shade of silver?  

 

Thanks for sharing your great model project with us.  You really nailed it!  

[swralph]

Looks great.😀

[opus999]

That is beautiful!  I really admire the NMF with the subtle differences between panels.  If I hadn't read your description, I wouldn't have guessed you did major surgery on the wings.

[F-32]

Love it, very cool indeed!