1/72 F-86F Sabre Fujimi/Italeri Spanish Air Force - a late WIP

[cpoud117]

Hi guys,

 

This is my first topic on Britmodeller, don't be too hard with me.

 

I've recently made my way back to the hobby after about 10 years without building anything. I dusted off my tools, trashed a number of fully dried paint jars and bought myself all the gear I couldn't afford as a student 😀

 

I've decided to re-start with a not-so simple kit, the Eduard L-39 and quickly got frustrated. With the L-39 on the shelf of doom, I took on a simpler project with the Italeri rebox of the Fujimi F-86F-30.

 

I had never managed a decent natural metal paint job in my youth and thought it would be an interesting challenge. The model was primed with Mr Surfacer 1500, then coated with a thin layer of Mr Hobby H332, polished with Tamiya compound and finally sprayed with various shades of Mr Hobby supermetallic 2 mixed with C002 black from the same brand.

The inspiration for the livery came from seeing this picture on Britmodeller. A rather rare example of a Spanish F-86F with the "Hard" wing. I have no idea how long this particular aircraft kept these wings since most Spanish Sabres flew with the extended F-40 wing.

 

This is actually the cover from this book https://www.scalemates.com/books/north-american-f-86-f-sabre-alas-espanolas-ae108-gonzalo-avila-y-roberto-yanez--100038. If any of you in Spain or else happens to own the book listed above, I'd love to know if another picture of C5-154 with the "Hard" wing is present in the book. I'm trying to figure out if this exact plane carried any unit markings from one of the various squadrons based in Torrejon.

 

After a few dozen hours relearning the trade, I've made it to a point I'm happy to share with you guys. I hope you'll like it. Pictures aren't too great since all I have is an Iphone SE for the time being.

 

Markings will come from the awesome looking sheet from Series Españolas https://www.scalemates.com/kits/series-espanolas-se672-ejercito-del-aire-north-american-f-86f-sabre--1335787

 

Have a great evening!

[billn53]

Welcome back to the hobby. As someone else who returned to modeling after a long absence, you’re in the right place! 
Your Sabre looks great! I can’t wait to see her done.

[Thom216]

Nice looking paint on the Saber. Are you sure you took ten years off instead of ten days..?

Welcome back!

[Jackson Duvalier]

8 hours ago, cpoud117 said:

I dusted off my tools, trashed a number of fully dried paint jars and bought myself all the gear I couldn't afford as a student 😀

 

Feels good, yeah?  😎

 

Welcome back, cpoud117!  Your Sabre is looking very nice so far.

[corsaircorp]

Well Man !!

Glad to see you back at the bench !!

And Lord !! You did'nt loose your skills !!

Really good metallic painting !

Maybe @Terry1954 can help with pics of the Sabre !!

I'll follow if you don't mind it !!

Sincerely.

CC

[cpoud117]

Thank you guys for all your kind words and warm welcome 😊

[cpoud117]

Hi guys,

 

I've just realized that this book has also been released in English, maybe one of you happens to have a copy and can take a look for more pics of C5-154.

 

 

Thanks in advance for your help 🙂

[Terry1954]

On 6/9/2022 at 7:17 AM, corsaircorp said:

Maybe @Terry1954 can help with pics of the Sabre !!

 

Can't help with any pictures of Spanish Sabres directly but a quick google produced quite a bit. The above picture featured a few times and led to the following site which is about Moron AFB, but only the one (same) Sabre picture!

 

http://www.sbap.be/events/2016/023moron2016/023moron2016.htm

 

I really like the way you have simulated the NMF!

 

Terry

 

 

[Terry1954]

Actually just found this one also, not your target aircraft, but close!

 

[Sabrejet]

Neat job! Folks forget that many of these 'foreign' F-86Fs started their new careers with the 6-3 wing. These include Japan, Venezuela and Norway as well as Spain and others.

[cpoud117]

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

 

Can't help with any pictures of Spanish Sabres directly but a quick google produced quite a bit. The above picture featured a few times and led to the following site which is about Moron AFB, but only the one (same) Sabre picture!

 

http://www.sbap.be/events/2016/023moron2016/023moron2016.htm

 

I really like the way you have simulated the NMF!

 

Terry

 

 

Thanks for the kind words, Terry. I've spend quite a while on google looking for more Hard wing equipped Spanish Sabres but found little. Aviation corner has a nice selection of historical pictures http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery_en.asp?pg=1&fp=1&aircraft_type=North American F-86 Sabre&aircraft_version=&aircraft_type_id=512&sort_order=hits
 

Including this Hard winged Sabre with rather minimalist markings.  http://www.aviationcorner.net/show_photo_en.asp?id=283551

A bit too minimalist for me.

 

Ideally I'd have gone for a F-40 model with the large codes near the cockpit. But all I had when I started the build was hard wings. I even have a second-hand RF-86F box someone stole the F-40 wings from and replaced them with hard ones (that will teach me to buy kits without inspecting them at shows).

 

As much as I like the day-glo 200 gallons unfinned tanks on the F-40 models, I don't think the hard wing is cabled for them. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

Neat job! Folks forget that many of these 'foreign' F-86Fs started their new careers with the 6-3 wing. These include Japan, Venezuela and Norway as well as Spain and others.

 

Thank you Duncan. I knew about Japanese and Spanish "hard wings" but Norway and Venezuela are news to me. Do you happen to have some pics?
 

Edited June 10, 2022 by cpoud117
Bad english

[Sabrejet]

Norway:

 

 

Venezuela:

 

 

[cpoud117]

Very interesting, thanks for that.

Are the tanks on the Norwegian picture simply Korean war era 120 gallons with added fins?

 

I had "FLY BRUKT AV DET NORSKE LUFTFORSVARETHEFTE NR. 25" downloaded but I clearly didn't spot the fences on some of earliest pics. Had I spotted them, I may have been tempted to divert from Spanish to Norwegian but it's a bit too late for that.

[Sabrejet]

The 120-gallon tanks evolved to incorporate the end plates, which in-period were known as 'Stuka fins'. The larger-capacity finned tanks also evolved in the same way but the 200-gal tanks were forced-ejection so did not require assistance to separate when jettisoned. It's also worth noting that the pylon was jettisoned with the tank on all but the 200-gal finless drop tanks.

[Courageous]

Welcome back cp, your metallic Sabre is looking very nice indeed.

I'm not a fan of single colour schemes and those day-glo 200 tanks do break-up the otherwise mono colour. I'll try and do one of them but not sure if any of the 1/72 Sabre kits come with these tanks or AM...better open a few boxes.

 

Stuart

[Terry1954]

36 minutes ago, Courageous said:

but not sure if any of the 1/72 Sabre kits come with these tanks

 

200 gallon finless I think. Checked my stash and these two have them, in addition to the normal 120 gal tanks. Both Fujimi. You must have at least one of these in your Sabrestash!

 

 

Terry

[Courageous]

5 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

in your Sabre stash!

I have so many in my stash but you've just saved me a job.

 

Stuart

[Creepy Pete]

Clement! You're back!

 

And what a lovely return to the hobby this is. Good work.

 

Pete

[cpoud117]

Thanks mate, it feels good to be back after so many years away from the bench. How are you?

 

I sorted my kit stash which back at my parent's place over the holidays. So many kits, so little time.

A lot of it went to charity and still, my dedicated kit cupboard is already filled to the brim.

 

One thing hasn't changed, it's still a lot easier to buy kits  than to finish them. 😆

[Smudge]

On 08/06/2022 at 21:30, cpoud117 said:

I had never managed a decent natural metal paint job in my youth and thought it would be an interesting challenge. The model was primed with Mr Surfacer 1500, then coated with a thin layer of Mr Hobby H332, polished with Tamiya compound and finally sprayed with various shades of Mr Hobby supermetallic 2 mixed with C002 black from the same brand.

 

Hi. Welcome back. This looks like a nice project, and you are off to a great start. 

 

I like the look of your metal finish. Could you please explain a little more about the 'Tamiya compound'. I'm not familiar with that, and I'm wondering if it might help prevent some of the metal paint from lifting off during masking. Metal shades are always quite delicate I find, at least in my limited experience.

 

I hope you can find some pictures, it would be a shame not to use some of those lovely decals.

 

Cheers.

[cpoud117]

1 hour ago, Smudge said:

 

Hi. Welcome back. This looks like a nice project, and you are off to a great start. 

 

I like the look of your metal finish. Could you please explain a little more about the 'Tamiya compound'. I'm not familiar with that, and I'm wondering if it might help prevent some of the metal paint from lifting off during masking. Metal shades are always quite delicate I find, at least in my limited experience.

 

I hope you can find some pictures, it would be a shame not to use some of those lovely decals.

 

Cheers.

Thanks for you kind words, Smudge.

In a nutshell, I tried my best to work towards a scratch-free surface. I primed with grey Mr. Surfacer 1500, sprayed a thin coat of H332 Semi-gloss RAF light grey (I think any grey would do, I assume black would give a more reflective shine)

I then polished the model using a microfiber cloth and a bit of Tamiya 87069 fine polishing compound. This gave me a very glossy surface on which to spray the silver main coat.

Mr Hobby Supermetallic 2 are very fine and went on beautifully with Tamiya lacquer thinner (about 40% well stirred pain to 60% thinner)

 

The idea of not going for a straight gloss black undercoat was inspired by Ivan @Fanakit excellent work on his equally excellent French website of the same name.

http://fanakit.free.fr/F86D_hasegawa/f86d_sabre_dog_hasegawa.html 

I also tried to reduce Tamiya's masking tape adherence by first sticking to the top of my hand. 

I didn't have any major paint lifting and what little I had was fixed rather easily. 

[Smudge]

Thanks for your reply to my question, and your detailed answer. Very interesting, I shall have to get some Tamiya polishing compound and give it a try. And thanks for the link 

 

Following along. Cheers.

[cpoud117]

Hello guys,

 

After some time away from the workbench, I finally made some significant progress on the Sabre.

• The paint job was sealed with a coat of Alclad Aqua clear carnish
• The panel lines received a grey wash (aiming only at the lines, I wanted to avoid a full wash that would alter the metallic paint)
• The decals were laid. It took a few sessions to get them all down but I think the stencils really bring the model to life.
• Another coat of Alclad Aqua was applied to seal the decals in.

 

 

 

 

 

This puts it rather close to the finish line. I was thinking about a coat of satin varnish to tone down the shininess but I'm not even sure it's necessary.

Hopefully, the next update will point to the RFI section 🙂

Edited August 18, 2022 by cpoud117
broken link

[Smudge]

Nice.

[Courageous]

10 hours ago, Smudge said:

Nice.

 

Stuart