F-86K Sabre Dog

[Courageous]

Hi all, this build was going to be part of Group Build a couple of years ago but the misplacement of parts  forced it into the 'grounded' state but a good sort has found the missing parts, so away we go.

First the usual...

 

The box

 

Fuselage sprue

 

Wing sprue plus other bits

 

Odds n' sods sprue

 

Decals, vac canopies, PE, resin wheels

 

How to build it and how to decal it.

 

Stuart

[Terry1954]

Ah, another F-86, this should be good. I've built their H and have one of these in the stash. I must confess I didn't use the vortex generators around the tail on the H as I could barely see them, let alone pick them up and attach them!

 

Will follow along of course.

 

Terry

[Arie Vos]

Vortex generators, that was the challenge with this one. Ping, and they are gone.

I did replace them with thin plastic strip. That worked much better for me.

[Sabrejet]

Following with interest: looks like a nice kit

[Hook]

5 hours ago, Courageous said:

how to decal it.

With the Dutch option, obviously. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Learstang]

I've never been a fan of the early F-86s (I don't know, somehow, they look a bit anaemic to me), but I've always liked the later versions, such as the various 'Sabre Dogs' (F-86D, F-86K), and the 'Sabre Hog' (F-86H). In fact, I have the SH F-86H, so I'll be interested to see how you get along with its 'brother', the F-86K. Good luck with the build!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[Courageous]

Welcome aboard everyone.

6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I didn't use the vortex generators around the tail

 

4 hours ago, Arie Vos said:

Vortex generators, that was the challenge with this one.

Daren't look at them yet but they are a feature, so they'll be fitted...PE or plastic. Thanks for the heads-up.

4 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

looks like a nice kit

Jury is still out Duncan. The surface detail on the fuselage halves is nice and crisp but no location pins. Smaller parts don't seem to be well formed. PE is nice and the decals look good, we'll see how they perform later.

3 hours ago, Hook said:

With the Dutch option, obviously.

The plan is to build the air forces that had them, so why not a Dutch one.

3 hours ago, Learstang said:

I have the SH F-86H,

So do I, so this will give us an inkling into the SH kits.

 

Stuart

[RidgeRunner]

Now you’re talking, Stuart! I’m watching, and hoping you’ll go with those lovely Italian decals

 

Martin

 

Edit: Norwegian would look good too

[Courageous]

19 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

lovely Italian decals

Demanding crowd. A way to go before decals are decided.

 

As is the 'norm', the cockpit is the starting point.

Moulded side consoles removed, ready for PE options. The is pretty basic, so off with foot plates(?) and replaced with PE, PE ejection handles fitted. Also added some plastic for arm rests.

 

After giving everything a coat of grey, the side consoles were added, as were the peddles. The seat was painted up, seat belts added before giving everything a wash of Nuln oil, doesn't look to bad. So far, so good.

 

The fitting of the exhaust can is a little 'iffy' and there is no location markings. This part needs a spacer to keep it away from the side and while the glue was still going off, the other side was added to ensure that everything lines up and looks right.

The intake was a similar but different problem, line up the wheel well and the intake is short of the nose, line up to the nose and the well passes the opening . Decided to go with first option and line up the well, the little gap at the nose intake will be easier to rectify.

 

Do we have a problem... As can be seen, when the tub is offered into position, the rear doesn't match the vertical location on the fuselage because the footplate contacts the top of the intake . I think that vertical locator is at the wrong angle 'coz the tub floor is nearly horizontal, rightly or wrongly, I'll take a bit of plastic off the top of the intake to get a level tub, we'll see.

Oh what fun.

 

Stuart

[Terry1954]

Nice work on the seat, and as for this........

 

3 hours ago, Courageous said:

I think that vertical locator is at the wrong angle 'coz the tub floor is nearly horizontal, rightly or wrongly, I'll take a bit of plastic off the top of the intake to get a level tub, we'll see.

Oh what fun.

 

As you say, it's fun and of course .................... that's what we do!

 

Terry

[Courageous]

The fun continues

 

Cockpit tub in. Next was the fitting of the main console, this had a location mark and shaped that matched the fuselage, so in it went. Unfortunately, there was little or no room for the much smaller side panels, so it was best.

 

And the sides are joined albeit with a little effort as yet again, there are no location pins. Everything lines up; exhaust, cockpit tub, console, wheel well, just need to tidy up the seems when cement has dried. There was a casualty during the mating process, the small panel left of the console has become dislodged and gone walkabout to God knows where, never to be seen again. Ho-hum.

 

While the fuselage seems were drying, I thought I'd get the lower wing to fit in its location but of course, a bit of whittling was required.

 

Stuart

[Courageous]

With the RF-86F now complete, full attention can be given to this.

 

Upper wings fitted and as can be seen a bit of filler is required along the wing roots.

 

With a dimension from the C/L and  vague picture in the instructions, the tank pylon locations were marked. As is the way with this kit, the underwing to fuselage joins need a bit of work. Mustn't forgot about rocket mounts, again only a dimension and a vague picture.

 

So onto the fuel tanks and again with no location marks, research had to be done to get a good approximation of where the pylon should be located. I added some location pins t aid fitting to the wing, they are now sided too.

 

This was a bit of a task, not so much the doors but undercarriage legs, they were a right mess.

 

Something to be aware of is the fitting of part E22. Scanning through images of the 'K', IF it gets fitted, it should be fitted further forward, the upper of those two intakes. I say IF because it looks like the Dutch airframes weren't fitted with these. So, a decision was needed on what was the end game, I decided to go Dutch.

 

Stuart

[Hook]

2 hours ago, Courageous said:

, I decided to go Dutch.

Excellent choice.

[Hook]

18 hours ago, Courageous said:

I say IF because it looks like the Dutch airframes weren't fitted with these.

Some did!, I've checked my Dutch Profile on the F-86K and it looks like our K's from the Italian built batch (Q-875 through Q-902) had them. Q-333 as per the kit decals did not, however. 

 

One 'fun fact' regarding the All Weather Sabre in Dutch service is that, in typical frugal style, these were fitted with Hispano Suiza 20mm cannon retrieved from our Meteors as a cost cutting measure. To fit the Sabre, the barrels had to be shortened, however, which 1) caused all kinds of havoc with the harmonisation and 2) proved not all that compatible with the MG-4 fire control system which was set up for the US M-24A1 cannon, so gun fire accuracy was lousy. 

 

Hey, these stereotypes have to come from somewhere...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[RidgeRunner]

Again, nice work Stuart! She is coming along very nicely.

[Hook]

Here is one with the scoops: 

 

https://www.sberg-movements.nl/afbeeldingen/1964/9592.jpg

 

Enjoy!

 

Andre

[Courageous]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:22 PM, RidgeRunner said:

Again, nice work Stuart! She is coming along very nicely.

Cheers Martin but the hard part is nearly here.

On 5/6/2022 at 7:30 PM, Hook said:

Here is one with the scoops: 

Thanks Andre but as you have already highlighted the kit option of Q-333 doesn't have scoops .

 

Onwards and upwards...

Kit comes with two vac canopies and guess what, I needed the two as the first just didn't want to fit. Nice and clear canopy ...at the moment.

 

Fitted the rocket pylons in the CORRECT place. According to kit instructions, these should be mounted 30.5mm ( 1/72) from C/L. this makes its wing station about 86.5" but images say otherwise! After a quick communication with Duncan @Sabrejet, he confirmed that it should be at station 47.312", that's 16.7mm from C/L and that looks much closer to images. So, fellow modellers, don't always believe your instructions. If you're wondering about the pylons, I'm using the Fujimi kit ones as the SH didn't make the grade, rockets too.

 

Now to the task I was dreading and still may not happen...vortex generators . The kit VG's are PE and to me, look over scale . @Terry1954 didn't bother . @Arie Vos used plastic strip. Rock and a hard place  I think .

 

Stuart

[Terry1954]

13 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Rock and a hard place  I think 

 

Good luck with that one!

 

Terry

[Martian]

I think you are doing a fine job of taming this kit,so nil desperandum.

 

Supportive of Mars 👽

[Courageous]

Much of yesterday evening was spent finding materials, adhesives to do these vg's but the biggest problem was handling such small pieces, and nothing seemed to work consistently enough .... Back to the drawing board .

Were these kit vg's oversize , so I decided to try and find out the size of these vg's and came across this Flickr image: F-86K Vortex Generator blades and this image

 

They don't look to far out, so I may just go with the kit bits but they are still rather small...

 

Stuart

[Courageous]

Well, I bit the bullet...

And went straight in at the deep end, chose the smallest vg plates and got stuck in. My thinking was that if I can do the smallest, then it should get easier. Thank goodness there were spares 'coz 3 plates pinged-off somewhere. Anyhoo, albeit a nerve racking operation, they didn't turn out too bad, a little rough but that's 'macro' view for you.

 

Stuart

[billn53]

You’re a better man than I am, sir! I would have turned a blind eye on seeing that PE fret.

[Courageous]

10 hours ago, billn53 said:

I would have turned a blind eye on seeing that PE fret.

I almost did on a few occasions.

 

A bit more madness...

Rough as old nails with the macro but hopefully the worse is over. They give you the exact amount of blades for this stage and sods law says you'll have some escapees, fortunately we had only one. Next stage, fuselage tail...the visible part.

 

Stuart

[Hook]

A coat of primer and you're good to go - great work!

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Terry1954]

Just had a peek at my F-86H (made without using the VG's) and inside the box of my K, and it has reminded me how seriously small those VG's are. The K has far more actually than the H. You have done an amazing job there Stuart, top marks indeed!

 

Terry

 

aka envious of south Dorset