Golden Hawks Canadair Sabre

[81-er]

As it’s been a while, I thought I best update this. I’ve continued to sand down any rough areas and add more coats of the gold as required, and tonight I think I’ve reached a stage where I was happy with that. So it was time to unmask:

 

 

Not bad! And more importantly, no paint bleed.

 

Things look pretty good around the intake. There’s a small flaw on the port side in the photos, but it’s invisible in real lift so I’ll ignore that one:

 

 

 

The delineation between the duraluminium on the exhaust and the main colour is nice and sharp, as it the edge of the aluminium on the tailplanes:

 

 

 

I’m going to give this all a few days to fully cure, then I’ll get masking for the next bits of paint. That will be aluminium on the leading edge of the tail fin, as well as the wing fences, plus some jet exhaust for the inside of the tailpipe.

 

James

[Andwil]

You’ve managed a superb smooth finish there, I cant imagine gold would be an easy colour to spray.  Well done! 👏

 

AW

[zebra]

Stunning! As Andwil says, this can't have been easy, but it looks fantastic. It'll look even better with some decals.

[81-er]

Thanks gents  It's definitely been a bit of a learning curve, but it's been fun with it. And I really like the Alclad paints as well. I'm actually fairly confident I'll finish this before the GB deadline, which would be a first

 

James

[Tony Edmundson]

I would take another look at reference pics of the wing leading edges, not all the leading edge section was ‘silver’.  The demarcation line went through the wing fence.

 

Tony

[81-er]

I'm fully aware I'm doing what's roughly the mk6 scheme on a mk5 model, purely because I prefer the later scheme but only had the earlier kit. I guess it's more of a hommage than an accurate build, I just don't care.

 

James

[Tony Edmundson]

even the Mk6 demarcation line was well forward of where you have placed it.   Can't help it, I'm just a Canadian Sabre nut.

 

[81-er]

Yes, the mk6 had the demarcation at the back of the slats. I just went with the line that I did because it looked the least "wrong" to me. I'm happy with it and I'm not going to change it now, so kindly accept my choices for my model and save your "helpful advice" for someone who's asking for it please.

 

James

[81-er]

After giving the gold Alclad some time to harden up, I got busy masking up the airframe for the remaining bits of aluminium last night. Very obligingly, my local pharmacy gave me some free paper to use as masking when I got my flu shot:

 

 

One airbrushing session later, I had aluminium on the leading edge of the fin, on the wing fences, and the bolting bars under the fuselage:

 

 

 

After a while to dry, I took the masking off (sticklers for accuracy may wish to look away now):

 

 

I’m quite happy with how the demarcation on the fin came out:

 

 

The other side is just as nice:

 

 

I decided it was time to remove the (now very sparkly) off-brand blue tack I’d used to mask the landing gear wells

 

 

While the masking job did the trick, I’m less than thrilled with the colour against the gold now. Far too light and yellow, so I’ve got some alternatives on order. In the meantime, I’m giving it a couple of coats of Aqua Gloss, and then I can start on the decals.

 

James

[Andwil]

Thats a superb bit of masking James 👏 especially for those very narrow sections, to get no bleeding with metallics is a fine achievement.

 

AW

[helios16v]

Bling, bling.  

Looking good.

[81-er]

Thank you gents.

 

@Andwil, my secret is a combination of Tamiya tape and a Citadel texture spreader. The fine end works brilliantly for burnishing the tape down, as well as being narrow enough on edge to really push the tape down into the panel lines or up against the edge of another piece of tape below. It's also extremely handy as a filling tool too.

 

James

[Andwil]

I’ll have to look into getting one of those.

 

AW

[81-er]

It's definitely one of those "how did I manage without this" tools, which I only know about thanks to having a lot of friends building Games Workshop stuff. My use of the Citadel washes came about because of them as well.

 

James

[helios16v]

Never be afraid to look outside the "normal" box.  

[zebra]

How's your beautiful Sabre going James? Just over a week to go!

[81-er]

Funnily enough, I was just coming to make an update. Read on...  

 

Not much has happened on this for a while, as I’ve been concentrating on finishing my F-5E for tomorrow’s deadline. However, some progress has now been made.  I’ve sprayed the landing gear bays with Vallejo Interior Green, which is much more like it:

 

 

I also got the inside of the exhaust painted with Alclad Jet Exhaust, which gave me the chance to unmask the rear FOD cover at last:

 

 

The next step on this is going to be the decals.

 

James

[81-er]

I got the majority of the decals on last night, bar the couple that need to go on the black anti-glare panel:

 

 

 

These were interesting decals to work with. Whatever process Leading Edge use for their decals lays down the colours in relatively thick layers. There’s a visible step in the blue of the roundels where the white underneath finishes, for example, and the white of the hawk heads have really nicely conformed to the panel lines below, but the red of the stripe hasn’t. I’ve not used any softener solutions on them yet, so I do have to give credit to Leading Edge for how well the white has conformed, as well as the blue of the roundels. I’ve got good hopes that the red of the stripes will as well once I hit it with the softener.

 

It should also be said that they released from the backing nicely and were very easy to place. The only decal that had any issues with breaking at all was the Golden Hawks script on the port side, and that was 100% down my clumsiness. Slightly thick in places they may be, but I would absolutely buy their decals again.

 

Coming back to the model itself, I’m rather relieved to find that all the photos I can find of Golden Hawks Sabres show no stencilling whatsoever. I’m assuming that’s down to them being specially painted display aircraft who would no doubt be looked after by the most experienced mechanics. So I’ve saved myself the pain of over 100 stencils.

 

I mentioned at the start that I’ve left the decals for the anti-glare panel for last. The overall level of sheen on the model now looks about right to my eyes as these weren’t matt finished aircraft. My plan is to get everything else sorted, then mask for the matt black areas. I’ll stick the decals on those before a final matt coat, then unmask the rest of the model and it’s done. In theory…

 

James

[81-er]

After a few rounds of decal softener, I reckon the decals are as settled as they’re ever going to be (which is fairly well, more than acceptable). They’ve all had a couple of coats of Aqua Gloss to seal them in, meant it was time to mask for the anti-glare panel and radome to be painted black. As part of that, I figured I could afford to unmask the main canopy as I needed to mask up the forward edge of the framing anyway:

 

 

Looks pretty good to me!

 

This next shot not only shows that plenty of the cockpit is still visible, but it also shows how thin the frame that needed masking is, as the fixed section of the canopy will be matt black too:

 

 

All masked up:

 

 

And the black applied:

 

 

Assuming that looks ok when it’s dried, I’ll get some Aqua gloss on at lunchtime. Hopefully decals during the afternoon (there’s only two, and they’re tiny), and a matt coat this evening which would allow me to unmask for good.

 

The drop tanks have also progressed. All of the photos I can find of these show them as smooth without any particularly noticeably panel lines, so I’ve filled them all and sanded them smooth. That’s left a hint of a line, which is fine with me as it looks more realistic than it did. They’ve now been sprayed gold, now they just need their noses, the leading edges of the pylons, and the leading edge of the strut painted silver:

 

 

I think that’s the last of the paintwork on this, so hopefully I can get everything assembled and the have it in the gallery before the weeked.

 

James

[81-er]

Anti-glare panel glossed and the last decals placed (there's another identical on the other side):

 

 

I'm giving it a few hours to dry out, then I'll clear the dust off and hit the black with a matt coat tonight.

 

James

[81-er]

Unmasking last night revealed this glory:

 

 

 

The only (minor) problems are all on the starboard side. A bit of gold came off with the masking (should be an easy fix), and the inside of the front glazing panel is fogged on the inside, which I’ll just have to live with:

 

 

What else to do after that than get her on her feet?

 

 

 

The to do list is shrinking:

 

• Fix the gold
• A couple of touch-ups in the gear bays
• A wash to bring out the details in the gear bays
• Paint the silver bits on the drop tanks
• Attach the drop tanks
• Attach the pitot tube
• Attach the red drain tube to the rear fuselage
• Take photos for the gallery

 

So, not only does it look like I’ll be getting a second model finished within a GB deadline, but also two finished within a week! That’s unheard of for me 🤣

 

James

[zebra]

Spectacular!

[81-er]

Thanks, Julian! I must admit, this is one of those ones where I'm looking at it and thinking "did I really build that?"

 

James

[81-er]

And here we are, the last update. The paint has been fixed, the drop tanks now have their silver noses & leading edges, the landing gear bays have had a light wash to bring out some details, navigation lights have been painted, and all the fragile bits have been stuck on. I’ll leave you with a teaser, the rest are going in the gallery shortly:

 

 

James

[Grandboof]

Love that gold finish . Well done 

Martin H