RAF Sabre 4 - the Airfix 1/48 Kit

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi chaps, I'm currently building this -  and converting to a slatted MK.6.  The parts so far are all fitting well, but I'd caution that on the port fuselage half the inserts seem slightly less willing to fit flush, all sitting a little low in their positions. It might just be my kit but its worth mentioning.

The wing breakdown makes adding slats very simple BTW.  And I could easily see an aftermarket resin company making drop a drop fit slat conversion that would require only a simple mod to the parts.  If you do remove the wing fence  though- its very slightly hollow so back fill with CA&Talc first. 

cheers

Jonners

[Denford]

13 hours ago, Harry Callahan said:

When i see the pics iam really disappointed about Airfix. Thats not state of the art. No crispy details, my old Hasegawa and Academy ones looks still much better.

Airfix is really semilar to Revell, both are not high level engineering. 

Is it possible that the bio-degradable plastic Airfix now use restricts how sharply detail can be molded?  I also suspect that sharper detail costs more or all kits would have it.  That said, Airfix are for the mass market where cost is important.

[Julien]

8 hours ago, Denford said:

Is it possible that the bio-degradable plastic Airfix now use restricts how sharply detail can be molded?  I also suspect that sharper detail costs more or all kits would have it.  That said, Airfix are for the mass market where cost is important.

The mouldings of the new Blenheim are in the same plastic but seem much sharper

14 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

. No it's not an F-86A, but we'll get over it. 

I wont  

[bryanm]

15 hours ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Hi chaps, I'm currently building this -  and converting to a slatted MK.6.  The parts so far are all fitting well, but I'd caution that on the port fuselage half the inserts seem slightly less willing to fit flush, all sitting a little low in their positions. It might just be my kit but its worth mentioning.

The wing breakdown makes adding slats very simple BTW.  And I could easily see an aftermarket resin company making drop a drop fit slat conversion that would require only a simple mod to the parts.  If you do remove the wing fence  though- its very slightly hollow so back fill with CA&Talc first. 

cheers

Jonners

The flanges on the closed port gun bay door needed a good scraping to get it to fit flush.  I haven't got to the starboard one yet.

 

Bio-degradable plastic???!!!  I hope not -  I don't want all my hard work disappearing into a pile of compost!

 

 

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

3 hours ago, bryanm said:

The flanges on the closed port gun bay door needed a good scraping to get it to fit flush.  I haven't got to the starboard one yet.

 

Bio-degradable plastic???!!!  I hope not -  I don't want all my hard work disappearing into a pile of compost!

 

 

My starboard gun bay was a perfect fit, as was the ammo bay cover.

Cheers

Jonners

[Scimitar F1]

As a big supporter of Airfix this is a disappointment. I am currently building a Humbrol era Spit 24 and the external detail holds up well 26 years after release. It is much finer than as shown in these pictures.

 

This kit is not mass market - it is over £30 rrp. The cost of plastic has to be negligible when compared to this. 

[Giorgio N]

3 minutes ago, Scimitar F1 said:

As a big supporter of Airfix this is a disappointment. I am currently building a Humbrol era Spit 24 and the external detail holds up well 26 years after release. It is much finer than as shown in these pictures.

 

This kit is not mass market - it is over £30 rrp. The cost of plastic has to be negligible when compared to this. 

 

A kit that allegedly was developed by a Korean company under contract from Airfix.

[Scimitar F1]

2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 

A kit that allegedly was developed by a Korean company under contract from Airfix.

I was aware of that (and the Lightning) but surely 25 years is enough time to catch up?

[72modeler]

7 hours ago, bryanm said:

I don't want all my hard work disappearing into a pile of compost!

There are those who say that's what most of my finished models resemble! My buddies...

Mike

[Giorgio N]

4 hours ago, Scimitar F1 said:

I was aware of that (and the Lightning) but surely 25 years is enough time to catch up?

 

The technology to make such kits is sure available to Airfix, my feeling is that the reason for not going for it is just financial.

Not that it's something only "affecting" Airfix: Revell had several kits made in Korea in the past and these generally featured very good moulds. At some point however they decided to give up on the Korean mould makers because they were more expensive.. a look at most of the recent Revell kits show the difference.

Mind, I share the frustration of seeing modern kits fall behind 25 year old competitors in terms of detail sharpness ! Shouldn't be like that...

[baldwin8]

14 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

Mind, I share the frustration of seeing modern kits fall behind 25 year old competitors in terms of detail sharpness ! Shouldn't be like that...

 

It seems there is a certain benchmark price that the majority of modellers with not go beyond for a kit. Shame, I am waiting for an improvement of the Hasegawa Sabre, and this is not it.

[Giorgio N]

1 hour ago, baldwin8 said:

 

It seems there is a certain benchmark price that the majority of modellers with not go beyond for a kit. Shame, I am waiting for an improvement of the Hasegawa Sabre, and this is not it.

 

The cost of a kit depends on many factors and different companies may need to have different suggested retail prices to make a profit on similar products based on the company organisation, market size, strategies and so on. And of course the location of the company may have an impact, as different countries would have different production costs (of which labour cost is only one aspect)..

Airfix have their reasons to chose certain companies to make moulds for them, cost will likely be a factor (but likely not the only one) and I'm sure they will set target prices for their products to meet the perceived expectations of their customers. Said that, a look at Academy prices show that it is possible to have high quality at a relatively low cost, where for quality I only mean mould quality (Academy kits often fail in other areas). That they can do it does not necessarily means others can do the same at the same prices.

Airfix big advantage is that their kits are widely available in the UK (and in other markets too), something that can't be said for many Asian manufacturers. This alone will likely make this kit pretty succesful.

[Sturmovik]

Is it possible to build this Sabre as an F-40 plane?

[Sabrejet]

25 minutes ago, Sturmovik said:

Is it possible to build this Sabre as an F-40 plane?

 

It would need a lot of work: extended wingtips, filled side vent panels, revised dorsal vent panel and scribed slats for a start. 

[Sturmovik]

3 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

 

It would need a lot of work: extended wingtips, filled side vent panels, revised dorsal vent panel and scribed slats for a start. 

I'll stick to the Hasegawa kit then.

[Rabbit Leader]

From a far distance, what we have here is a kit that virtually offers nothing new to its competitors which have been on sale (and on 2nd hand resale) for over 20 years now. A smart marketing department would have offered something novel with this kit in order to attract new sales (.i.e slatted wings). Now I can only comment on how I see things in my small patch on this earth, however this kit will retail for $80 Australian by the time we get it and that’s a lot of coin to outlay for another quarter scale Hard Winged Sabre. I hear the AM guys may develop a slat wing conversion, but with the base kit costing this much, it would have already out priced itself. 
 

If Airfix cannot (or will not) compete with sharp tool moulding then it’s best to concentrate their energies on the many other subjects where there is minimal or virtually no competition.  Thankfully Airfix will make money on their new Beaufort and Chipmunk kits to ride out the lack of sales on this one. 
 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Tony Edmundson]

2 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

Is it possible to build this Sabre as an F-40 plane?

wait for a next release perhaps, but honestly the Hasegawa F-86F-40 has very little in the way of problems in that regard.

 

Cheers, Tony

[andyrowe]

Hey everyone. Just received my Sabre direct from Airfix. Unfortunately the stbd. fuselage has serious short shot issues and the port minor but still annoying just the same. Have just emailed Airfix and await their reply.

I'm not sure if mine is an isolated incident or if it will be similar to the Sea Fury short shot debacle a couple of years ago.

Anyway I have requested new parts and as they still have them in stock it shouldn't be an issue (you would think!).

Their quality control can be shocking at times!

 

[Shorty84]

Seems they have still not improved their quality control then. It boggles my mind that they don't seem to care that this damages their reputation as it happens again and again with their kits

 

Cheers

Markus

[treker_ed]

Received mine direct as well, but no problems with any short shot parts at all - fuselage is fine and all major components are ok as well.

[bryanm]

No short shot issues on mine but some sink marks, mostly very minor but more noticeable on the bottom of the flaps, which I might or might not fill.  I thought there could be a problem with alignment of the panel lines on the fuselage spine but after taping them together they are fine.  The fuselage halves are pretty floppy but I guess will be much more rigid when the innards are fitted.  Otherwise the quality looks good and I think the panel lines will be just right when painted.

 

The port closed airbrake door needed a bit of scraping of its flange to sit flush but the starboard one and closed gun bay door fitted perfectly.  

 

Looking at photos in 'From the Cockpit' there are a range of parked Sabres with airbrakes open or closed, main gear doors open or closed, steps open or closed, and no doubt others I haven't spotted - but as far as I can see they all have their flaps up.  I'm going for the configuration on p99: canopy open, airbrakes closed, main gear doors open, port step open and wing leading edge 'triangle' lying on the step.

 

 

 

[franky boy]

Hello chaps 

 

I received mine a week ago. No short shots but a few sink marks as mentioned above. 
 

I thought that the detail on the sprue carrying the fuselage halves looked softer than the detail on the other sprues. Not sure why that would be? 
 

It is being proved that the Airfix quality control monster is still at large. I certainly don’t think that this kit is as nicely moulded as say the recent Hunter F6 kit. Not sure why that would be as I don’t fully understand the dark arts of the injection moulding process. But still I look forward to building it and I hope it proves to be a good seller for Airfix. 
 

James

[Selwyn]

The 4 sqn scheme on this kit looks a bit dodgy.  the  4Sqn aircraft   had the T*B style of markings in white on delivery, (Never yellow IIRC) XB 854  and these were later replaced  with the 4 Sqn flash  replacing the T*B and the indevidual Aircraft code letter  placed further forward in Blue.  This scheme seems to be a mishmash of the two, if a photo exists its probably during the markings repaint. But it does not seem to be representative of the Official markings.

 

Selwyn

[Sabrejet]

4 Sqn colour scheme in the kit is correct.

[Julien]

Yes please keep this on topic