West German Sabre, 1/72, HobbyBoss

[opus999]

F-86F Sabre | HobbyBoss | 1/72

West German Air Force, 3. / JG71, 1963

 

 

I finished this on May 30th, 2022.  I originally bought this kit for my Norwegian Sabre build because it was the only one that I knew for sure had the extended wing.  When I got it I found that the wing's chord was way too narrow and luckily I was given the number of the Fujimi kit that I needed to do my project.

 

This kit was destined to be a paint mule, but I needed to clear out some stash space in a hurry, so I elected to build it, thinking that maybe it wouldn't look so bad if I kept it apart from the more accurate Sabres.

 

As I built it I found more and more wrong with it.  I considered fixing things, but figured it was a waste of time if I couldn't fix the wing chord.  This kit may be more accurate for the secondary scheme they provide which is the Blue Impulse aerobatic team from Japan.  For the West German scheme it is very inaccurate:  The West German Sabres didn't have extended wings, the German seats were Martin Bakers (I used a resin MB seat), the drop tanks are the wrong style, There should be a white stripe between the yellow on the nose and the tulip petals, there should also be a white stripe between the yellow on the tail and the tulip petals.  The tulip petals are too narrow and too close together.  Ugh... that's a lot!

 

And to top it all off, the landing gears are 3 or 4 millimeters too tall, making it look somewhat stork-like.  That could've been an easy fix, but I would've had to cut down the gear doors too and at that point I just didn't care anymore.

 

Another frustration of this kit was the nose decal.  I thought about painting the nose, but I've always liked the performance of HobbyBoss decals so I decided not to worry about it.  Well, this is the one kit where the decals stink.  The nose decal ripped twice and never conformed despite all of the solvent I put on it.  I finally gave up and took it off and painted the nose instead.  That was a bit of a challenge, because HB decals tend to have washed out primary colors.  So the yellow was lighter than a normal insignia yellow.  I painted the nose white first, and then sprayed on a highly diluted yellow, comparing often with the decal sheet, until the yellows matched.

 

I'm not happy that the kit is so inaccurate for this subject, but I am pretty happy with how the finished turned out.  Still, though, the wings look really spindly and that's a big distraction.

 

Paints were Mr. Color C330 dark green, C333 dark gray, and C306 light gray.  The only aftermarket was the resin seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the Hobby Boss wing against the Fujumi wing to show the inaccuracy of the wing chord.

 

 

 

Well, I hope you like it.  Comments, questions and constructive criticism welcome.

[stevehnz]

That is a cracking scheme & you've done a cracking job on it, kit accuracy notwithstanding. I have the Academy Sabre VI kit to do one of these, was going to use the HB decals on it, maybe not now.  Some thinking to go into this, still like yours though.

Steve.  

[Steben]

Great model of a cool plane!

[Steben]

5 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That is a cracking scheme & you've done a cracking job on it, kit accuracy notwithstanding. I have the Academy Sabre VI kit to do one of these, was going to use the HB decals on it, maybe not now.  Some thinking to go into this, still like yours though.

Steve.  

 

I'ld say the fresh applied green (which was RAL6014) could be a tad darker and slightly browner towards what Gunze H78 or C38 mixed in. But stuff wears ... And I've seen exactly the colour Opus has applied on used planes.

"Fresh"


https://www.openspotter.org/bild.php?blid=20355

Edited June 11, 2022 by Steben

[Mig88]

Very nicely done!

 

Miguel

[PhantomBigStu]

I did this scheme recently on the Hasegawa kit not knowing it shouldn't have slatted wings, had similar problem with the nose decal as well and hat to touch it up quite a bit. Great work. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by PhantomBigStu

[Wulfman]

Very nice looking Sabre, well done !

 

Wulfman

[opus999]

12 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That is a cracking scheme & you've done a cracking job on it, kit accuracy notwithstanding. I have the Academy Sabre VI kit to do one of these, was going to use the HB decals on it, maybe not now.  Some thinking to go into this, still like yours though.

Steve.  

Cheers Steve!  I suppose if you were brave enough to paint the tulips on the nose, the rest of the decals would be OK. 

 

8 hours ago, Steben said:

 

I'ld say the fresh applied green (which was RAL6014) could be a tad darker and slightly browner towards what Gunze H78 or C38 mixed in. But stuff wears ... And I've seen exactly the colour Opus has applied on used planes.

"Fresh"


https://www.openspotter.org/bild.php?blid=20355

Glad to know I wasn't too far off, I had a devil of a time paint matching on this particular build.

 

7 hours ago, Mig88 said:

Very nicely done!

 

Miguel

 

6 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

I did this scheme recently on the Hasegawa kit not knowing it shouldn't have slatted wings, had similar problem with the nose decal as well and hat to touch it up quite a bit. Great work. 

 

35 minutes ago, Wulfman said:

Very nice looking Sabre, well done !

 

Wulfman

Thanks guys!