The fifth time is the charm! -- Norwegian F-86F, 1/72

[opus999]

The name of this build is, The Fifth Time is the Charm, or How I Learned About F-86 Wings! (more on that later) 

 

I'm going to be upfront and say that this is going to diverge slightly from how I normally approach  modelling.  I usually try to find photos of the subject, and failing that, try to find photos of aircraft in the same theater and try to make my models match those pictures as closely as possible.

 

Not this time.

 

I have always loved the F-86 and as a kid I always pictured them as chrome-covered beauties.  So I've always had this desire to make an "Airshow finish" F-86.   The plan is to use the Fujimi kit that has the correct F-40 extended wing (kit #F-21) with decals I bought for the project back in 1997 and a resin Martin Baker ejection seat.  Also many, many thanks to @72modeler for giving me the kit numbers for the Fujimi kits with the correct wings, otherwise the title of this might have been "the tenth time is the charm..."!  I had a whole thread on this here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235103374-172-f-86-kit-with-f-40-long-wing-for-norwegian-sabre/.  I plan to use Alclad polished aluminum for the finish.

 

This particular build has been in the making since I was a junior in High School, so like many of my builds there is a bit of a story.  Feel free to wait for the next post if you don't want to read my blathering....

 

When I was in high school, a trip to a real model shop in a nearby city and a pocket full of money from my first job saw me come home with 4 or 5 new models.  One of which was the Heller F-86F with Norwegian markings.  I had been itching to do an F-86 and when I found a kit, with Norwegian markings on top of it, I was really excited. (I am part Norwegian). In my mind I pictured a mirror like, Norwegian F-86 taking center stage on my model shelf.  Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge, and the lack of decent supplies in my town, saw me spray bombing it with Testor's silver (having learned that brush painting silver leaves streaks).  That didn't go well because it looked like, well, silver paint.  I bought Testors gloss coat and after decaling I protected the decals with a coat of gloss, with the secret hope that it would magically nudge it closer to that mirror like finish I always wanted.  Not only did it not improve the look, but the Gloss coat ruined the decals!  They had been dry for a couple of days, but the gloss coat made them wrinkle and then they dried that way.  I was incredibly disappointed.  And deep inside I vowed I'd do it right someday.

 

Here's the original build...

 

 

(As an aside, I normally take very good care of my models regardless of how good or bad they are.  I don't know why this one has lost so many parts over the years.)

 

This picture shows the decal damage nicely:

 

 

When I got my first job out of college, I had some disposable income and bought a bunch of models super-cheap back in the days when Internet stores were selling things at ridiculous losses, just to try and get customers.  At that time I bought the Hasegawa 1/72 F-86F with Japanese markings (because I thought all F-86's were the same) and some aftermarket Norwegian decals.  I got out of modelling before I could get to the project, but it was on my mind when I got back into modelling 8 or 9 years ago.  At that time I dug out the Hasegawa kit and was horrified to find that there were no wheel wells, only holes in the bottom to plug the landing gears into!  I immediately ordered the Airfix kit with John Glenn's Sabre on the box.  The Hasegawa turned into a test of Alclad that turned out well enough that I put the Airfix decals on it and hung it on my kid's ceiling.  This was my 1st attempt to get the right kit. (I recently discovered this kit has the extended wings I needed, but makes it incorrect for John Glenn's aircraft 🙄)

 

 

Attempt number 2 was the Airfix kit.  I built that kit in 2017 and the plastic was soft and had a rough texture.  I sanded the whole thing down to a gloss, but when the alcad went on, it wasn't exactly what I wanted.  The plastic still had some micro pitting.  So I switched gears and picked another scheme off the sheet with the Norwegian decals: that of Mohammad Alam.  Turns out this was really a bad decision because photos of Alam's plane show it to be quite dull rather than the very shiny finish I gave it.  It also has a different wing than the Airfix kit: someone pointed that out to me in the RFI and that was the first time I realized that F-86s had different wings.  So, luckily I didn't use it for my Norway project.

 

 

Right after finishing the Alam Sabre, I bought an Academy F-86F for this project.  I realized that Sabres had different wings, but didn't know how to check for them.  Recently I educated myself on the different wings and got that kit out and discovered it doesn't have the extended wing that I need. That was attempt 3.

 

Attempt 4 was the Hobby Boss F-86F-40 kit that someone posted a picture of.  In that picture it was clear that it had the extended wings!  I ordered it straightaway and found that while the wing span and angles are correct, the chord is way too narrow.  Narrow enough to be noticeable when next to other Sabres.   Grrrr....

 

That's when I posted the question in the link above, and ordered attempt number 5:  The Fujimi kit.  Which has the correct wing.   Finally.

 

Here are my different attempts (except for the Academy, which I didn't want to pull out of the stash).

 

 

 

Despite my rambling, I hope you'll want to follow along!

Edited March 19, 2022 by opus999

[billn53]

I was never a great fan of the Sabre (when I was a kid, just starting to build models, the Century series was the latest & greatest). Until, that is, I build an F-86A for my Wisconsin ANG collection ( lots of wing work needed for that conversion, among other things). Now I have a bunch of Sabres in my stash, so Sure! I’ll follow along!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Following along, Ive been a huge fan of the Sabre/Super Sabre series my whole life. Something about jets with open maws that look good to my old Mk.I’s. 👀

[gingerbob]

I'm actually kinda neutral about the F-86.  It has the look of a well thought out fighter for its day, so I can appreciate it in that way, but in some way I can't really explain it "lacks personality" to me.  Once in a while I get fired up about them, but the rest of the time I kind of shrug.  And yet I've got several of them in the stash...

[opus999]

I've actually been working on this all week.  Just about 20 minutes every night.  A lot of work was necessary to get the ejection seat to work.  This particular Sabre had a Martin Baker Mk. V ejection seat.  I couldn't find any Mk. V resin ejection seats available.  I found a Mk. IV, and decided on that after comparing it to the only picture I could find of a Sabre Mk. V seat (actually from a German F-86, supposedly. Picture at: https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/canadair-cl-13b-sabre-mk-6-of-bundesluftwaffe-with-martin-baker-ejection-seat-1-32.33059/).  The resin Mk.IV is a little different on the sides and top, but will work fine for my purposes.  It was too tall, though and had to be filed from the bottom up.  It looks a little funny now, but inside the cockpit with the canopy on, you can't tell.

 

I worked on the cockpit during the week.  It was pretty simple, but the decals were a challenge.  They didn't seem to want to stick and I thought they'd be a no-go, but I put a ton of Mr. Mark solvent on them and I was shocked at how beautifully they conformed to the raised detail!

 

 

 

I also painted the engine front -- steel blades and hand brushed Testor's Chrome for the cone.  Not that you will see it when all is said and done...

 

 

I put the intake and cockpit parts together

 

 

 

You can see the nose weight I had to add on the front.  I also added some here:

 

 

Thursday night I painted the ejection seat

 

 

 

It's going to be well worth it because the seat and cockpit are highly visible through the bubble canopy.

 

I put the fuselage halves together and then dry-fit the wings to discover to my surprise an interference.  The front of the intake assembly stuck out so that it interfered with the gear bays in the wing assembly.  There was no way to put the wings on correctly without a little surgery with the Dremel tool.

 

 

Now the wings fit fine. 

 

I had to do some seam work yesterday.  The fit is pretty good, and the seams weren't terrible, but for a very reflective metal finish, the seams had to be as perfect as I could get them.  It was tedious because I started with a very fine grit to avoid any scratches that can't be fixed with Mr. Surfacer 1500.  

 

Didn't get to the bench today because of various issues, but I still need to finish the seam work before I can put on the wings and canopy.

[gingerbob]

Man, that's a lovely first compressor stage, or whatever one is supposed to call "the front" of a jet engine.

 

One other general comment: while I caught on to some variation of Sabre wings pretty early on (I brush up every so often!), I share your frustration that the gorgeous scheme you've just spotted inevitably calls for a different configuration than what the available kit offers.  Then again, I'm the sort that will say, "Ooh, this is an absolutely superb kit that captures every teensy detail for the specific sub-variant it claims to be... I think I'll make it into an ____ instead!"

[billn53]

The interior is looking very nice, especially the seat. I, too, am surprised at how the panel decals went on — well done!
 

Just be sure to add enough nose weight!

[Courageous]

Gotta love a Sabre build.

 

Stuart

[RidgeRunner]

20 hours ago, opus999 said:

I put the fuselage halves together and then dry-fit the wings to discover to my surprise an interference.  The front of the intake assembly stuck out so that it interfered with the gear bays in the wing assembly.  There was no way to put the wings on correctly without a little surgery with the Dremel tool.

 

Yes, a fault of the Fujimi kit and something I’ve wrestled with many times ;(

[opus999]

On 3/21/2022 at 2:00 AM, gingerbob said:

Man, that's a lovely first compressor stage, or whatever one is supposed to call "the front" of a jet engine.

Thank you!  I think you're right that it's the first compressor stage.  I was tired when I made the update and so was resorting to "Thag-speak"...  "front of engine... good... ugh."

 

On 3/21/2022 at 4:08 AM, billn53 said:

The interior is looking very nice, especially the seat. I, too, am surprised at how the panel decals went on — well done!
 

Just be sure to add enough nose weight!

Thanks Bill!  The instructions called out 3 grams.  I added 4 and made sure to test it with dry fit landing gears.  Looks like its going to be OK.

 

 

 

[opus999]

I was able to do little tasks all week.  These included finishing the cockpit -- which meant installing the front part where the HUD will go, painting around the top (where the canopy will attach) and drybrushing silver on all the black pieces:

 

 

I attached the nose piece, which is what was in process when this picture was taken.

 

 

I had an oops with a finger print on the side, but that was readily fixed.

 

I also painted the zinc chromate and added a gloss over coat for a little bit of wash:

 

 

 

 

I had a bit of a problem with the drop tanks.  The drop tanks in the pictures of MT-U were not the type included in the kit.  They weren't in the Hobbyboss kit either.  The old Heller and my John Glenn build had the correct drop tanks though.  I dind't necessarily want to pull them off of the John Glenn build for fear of damaging the paint on the wing where they are attached.  They would have the benefit of being all finished, though.  The Heller tanks have 2 disadvantages: 1) they were put together rather sloppily, and 2) I'm missing one of the fins.

 

 

I didn't get a picture of the seams because my camera battery was dead, but they were dreadful.  Too much glue, and a terrible (maybe as much as a millimeter) step along the seam of one of them, and a noticeable step on the other.  I threw them in the freezer for a couple of days but was not able to get them to come apart at all.  Luckily on the one with the worst step, there was a small gap in the seam just forward of the pylon.  It was enough to get a knife blade into and cut/pry the halves part.  The other drop tank is stuck tight.  I was cursing my 16 year old self for practically using a tube of Testor's glue on a drop tank. 🙄

 

Luckily the seams on the tank that's stuck tight are manageable.

 

The one that I was able to pry apart was re-glued with careful attention paid to lining up the seam

 

 

The other one will need sanding and shaping

 

 

I don't know how much progress I'll make this weekend.  This Saturday is my wife's cub scout pack's pinewood derby, which includes setting up the track and cleaning up afterwards.  I suspect it will eat up my Saturday.

Edited March 25, 2022 by opus999

[opus999]

The first thing I did today was to try and fix up the drop tanks.  In the spares, I found similar fins to the one I was missing.  They were bigger, but could be filed down to size and shape.  I don't know if they were from the same kit or not.  

 

 

I filed it down and I also cleaned up the seams on the tanks and sanded off all the paint and raised detail.  I glued them all together and they look reasonable.

 

 

Next I installed the wing assembly

 

 

I then focused on the last few parts of the cockpit -- the HUD and  the light (?) in the back:

 

 

I masked the canopy and installed it, and then put the horizontal stabilizers on.  Now all I have to do is mask the zinc chromate and I think I can start painting!

 

[mark.au]

That was quick!  Painting is the funnest part, I’ll pull up a chair and settle in for the remainder of the show.

[opus999]

On 3/26/2022 at 3:57 AM, mark.au said:

That was quick!  Painting is the funnest part, I’ll pull up a chair and settle in for the remainder of the show.

Welcome aboard Mark!

[opus999]

I was able to put on a nice thick coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 on late friday night, followed by the green anti-glare in front of the cockpit.

 

 

I realize I made a mistake with the anti-glare.  I thought I should do it first because masking over the "shiny" alclads (polished aluminum, etc.) is a bad idea because the tape mars the finish.  I realized today that I will be gloss coating it with aqua-gloss, which I can mask over and paint with no problems.  Right now I run a real risk of a ledge in the paint where the tape is.  I'll have to see... there may be a little reworking in my future.  

 

I wanted to spray on the gloss black undercoat on yesterday morning before going to the Pinewood derby set-up, and had the airbrush loaded up and was ready to go when I realized I hadn't sanded the Mr. Surfacer.  My experience with the Bearcat was that sanding the Mr. Surfacer 1500 with micromesh help me achieve a gloss finish much more easily.  So, I had to clean up the airbrush and then I sanded the surface using progressively finer mesh to 12000 grit.

 

 

The Pinewood derby set up was finished about an hour early, which gave me about 45 minutes to paint the gloss black under coat.  It went well except for two problems. 1) it seems I am doomed to drop a wet sabre during the gloss black painting phase.  It happened with my Mohammed Alam build and it happened yesterday.  I didn't really drop it, I had it on a stick in a clamp while I was reloading the airbrush and it tipped over.  Luckily only the tail touched the edge of the desk and so the paint was messed up there, but that was easily fixed later.  2) I forgot from my B-57 build that too much leveling thinner sprayed neat on the surface of Black paint will turn it a fascinating iridescent dark gray.  That also goes for adding too much leveling thinner to the paint as well (I'm using Tamiya spray gloss black decanted into the airbrush).  Spraying straight leveling thinner on the surface helps it level out and gives a smooth glassy finish.  You just have to spray it lightly.  Which I forgot, so it had the most fascinating pattern of dark gray and black -- which I forgot to take a picture of.

 

Last night after all the activities were done, I went to examine the paint and found it wasn't glossy enough yet.  Which was fine since I was going to paint it again to make it pure black instead of grey and black. This time I took it easy mixing in the thinner and made sure to spray the thinner on top of the paint surface in fine mists.  Here's what it looks like today:

 

 

I think I am happy with that.  I'm dying to hit it with the Alclad, but I'm going to wait for a few days.  The reason why is because last night when I was sanding the blemished tail, I found a fingerprint in the paint where I was holding it.  It looked like an oily fingerprint, which surprised me since I had just washed my hands.  when I used soap and water to clean it off, I discovered it wasn't oil, but an extremely shallow imprint of my fingerprint in the paint.  That means that while the paint was dry to the touch, prolonged pressure through holding it would deform the paint.  I buffed that out before I put on the final coat.

 

The paint has to be completely dried and cured because I will be handling it to mask before painting.  There will be some black areas to mask, but I will also use the technique I used on the Mohammed Alam build to create different shades of metal.  If you mask over an area you want to be a little darker metal, then paint a few coats of a "shiny" Alclad, you can then remove the masking and continue to paint and those panels will be slightly darker than their surroundings.  You can decrease the degree of contrast by adding more layers of paint.  This works because the shiny alclads are slightly transparent.  I liked it because it made a subtle difference and that's what I need for a well-maintained airshow finish.

 

So I will try my best to resist and try not to do the masking and painting until at least Wednesday.  It ought to be completely dried and cured by then. 🤞

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by opus999

[opus999]

Events conspired against me so I didn't get any bench time this week.  That's OK, though because I wanted to make sure that the black gloss paint was fully cured.  I think almost a week might do it!  

 

I was really sick today, Covid test came up negative, so it's some other creeping crud, but I felt well enough after sleeping all day to sling a little paint.   I used my Mr. Color Stainless Steel to paint the panels around the guns and the tail pipe:

 

 

 

The pictures don't quite do it justice.  That paint comes out looking very lovely. 

 

I then painted some alclad on some scrap I'd prepared last week.  I coated the scrap with the Tamiya TS-14 that I used on the model.  I decided to test my Airframe aluminum, which I've never tried before, and also put on my polished aluminum for comparison.  Talk about a "Wowsa!" moment:

 

 

That's the airframe aluminum on the left.  Its like a mirror.  WOW.  For comparison, here is the polished aluminum:

 

 

Sill looks pretty nice in its own right.  Interesting thing about the polished aluminum, it starts out with a very crisp reflection, almost like the airframe aluminum, but the more you put on, the more muddled the reflection gets.  To a point.  I noticed that after a while the reflection wasn't changing and that's what you see in the picture above.

 

I toyed with the idea of using the airframe aluminum on the Sabre, but it almost seemed over-the-top.  I mean, it would look really cool, but seems a little too much.  So I used the polished aluminum and painted the drop tanks.  I think they turned out nice.

 

 

 

I was starting to feel under the weather again and decided to stop.  Next up, I need to mask some panels and then I can paint the polished aluminum on the body of the aircraft.  The masking will probably take longer than the painting.

[opus999]

Hooray!  I got the nerve-wracking alclad part done today.  I say nerve-wracking because with such a mirror like finish, any minor screw-up becomes a major screw up.  As expected it took longer to mask than paint.  Here's where I was at after masking:

 

 

 

I then proceeded to paint.  I had to judge how much to put on before removing the wing panel masks, which was tough.  But I guessed and stopped to remove the panel masking:

 

 

I then went back to painting with broad, even strokes and when I liked the contrast between the wing panels and their surroundings, I stopped.  I used a cloth diaper to gently remove the paint dust, removed the masking, and here we are:

 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with how it all turned out so far!  I like how the difference between the darker metal and lighter metal is very subtle.  As it should be.

 

I could probably apply the aqua gloss at this point and be OK, but I'm going to let it sit until tonight.  The Aqua Gloss stage is the next nerve-wracking part.... 

[mark.au]

That’s a beautiful NMF, Opus.  I really like how you did it too, the contrast between the panels on the wing and the rest of the airframe is absolutely spot-on.  Really fine work.

[opus999]

10 minutes ago, mark.au said:

That’s a beautiful NMF, Opus.  I really like how you did it too, the contrast between the panels on the wing and the rest of the airframe is absolutely spot-on.  Really fine work.

Thanks Mark!  I struggle with NMF... mainly because I find it hard to make it realistic looking.  But making an "airshow finish" is a bit of a cheat to avoid any real weathering!  

[mark.au]

44 minutes ago, opus999 said:

Thanks Mark!  I struggle with NMF... mainly because I find it hard to make it realistic looking.  But making an "airshow finish" is a bit of a cheat to avoid any real weathering!  

 

Nice.  To weather that all you'd have to do is run a hint of a post shade around some of the grimier parts of the airframe and then flatten it all down to a flat-ish satin finish and there you go, weathered NMF.  

 

Getting an airshow finish like yours is much harder I think, there's nowhere to hide.  

[opus999]

I'm currently putting on stencils.  The alcald was covered with a coat of Aqua Gloss, so it is protected, however I am not using any solvent on the decals.  The stencils are small and don't need to conform to anything and even though the Alclad is protected, I'm still a little worried about using solvent.

 

I have a couple large decals (on the tail fin) that will need to conform to panel lines.  Does anyone think using solvent on these will be OK?  I really can't remember if I used decal solvent on my CF-104 or Mohammad Alam builds or not.  Of course, I didn't make a note of it.  

 

The reason why I am so nervous about this is because I had decals turn black on Alclad, which I'm mostly sure is because of foolishly using chemicals to polish the black base coat.  But not 100% sure.

 

Any feelings or experience with this issue?

[opus999]

On 4/1/2022 at 10:31 PM, mark.au said:

 

Nice.  To weather that all you'd have to do is run a hint of a post shade around some of the grimier parts of the airframe and then flatten it all down to a flat-ish satin finish and there you go, weathered NMF.  

 

Getting an airshow finish like yours is much harder I think, there's nowhere to hide.  

Timely response Mark!  if you remember the test scrap piece I had a few posts ago.... I was going to mention that I plan to use that to figure out how to make various degrees of worn metal.  When I first started using Alclad, I thought I'd start with a base of polished aluminum or airframe aluminum and then add weathering on top of that, finished by a semi-gloss or dull coat.   I thought that would mimic how metal appears in real life: with a layer of corrosion and gunk. 

 

Somewhere along the way I was tempted with the various shades and flavors of Alclad / AK / Mr. Color, which all seemed to promise a similar look without as much work.  Maybe in the hands of some talented people, but not in mine!    So I decided to go back to my original thought process and that's what the test scrap piece is for.  And then you chimed in with an affirmation of what I was thinking.  Excellent timing sir!  

[billn53]

I've had good luck using metallic pigments to weather a natural metal finish. 

[opus999]

Friday I put a coat of Aqua Gloss on.  I always do this by brush because it levels out so well you can't tell it was hand brushed on.  I've tried airbrushing it and it's a mess: it either doesn't level out or it runs.

 

So here it is.  Not much different than the last picture, which is good!

 

 

As I mentioned before on Saturday I was putting the stencils on.  I was able to do all the fuselage stencils Saturday:

 

 

 

 

 

I only had a little time tonight and was able to put on the stencils on the top of one wing.  So more to come this week.....

 

[billn53]

That looks really, really great!