dai phan

Greetings friends, The model is completed. With the help of all of you, I have learned great deal about exported Sabres. It is not simply putting on foreign markings but involved modifications to the airframes. Modifications to the airframe involves shortening the span, adding slats, removing the panel on top of the fuselage ahead of the vertical tail, filling in various fuselage vents, adding sugar scoops and the most important feature of all is adding the rectangular fuselage vents on both sides. Due to my limited skill I did not scribe in correct panel lines or adding the fuel f

In my opinion, open gun bay is so prominent that I find it odd to forgo this main feature. Dai

Sabrejet, I find closed gun bays to be quite odd. Can you chime in? Dai

Hi all, Honestly the F-86H like the P-51H is something not something highly desirable by the crowd. Correct if I am wrong or right. Dai

Hi all, Great new release! But why on earth the weapon bays are NOT open? Dai

Hi all, It was brought to my attention of the summer 2024 exiting release (at least for me) ! I hope this will not be a let down like the highly anticipated Ammo Mig-17 in 1/48 scale. Dai https://www.facebook.com/story.php?id=100050300297482&story_fbid=1027320902287910&paipv=0&eav=Afbvb4hefDaemf486x61iEXtKfGiul8cUmO4nVhRKyfCyuqfCB1aVIbxAsaLU3Pb27o&_rdr

I'll be dam !!! Dai

Hopefully the final photos will be posted along with my Pros and Cons assements here soon. Dai

Hard to paint white border of the black nose came from Hasegawa Luftwaffe MK 6 kit. I used New Ware mask to paint the black nose. One regretable thing is the thickness of the Eagle Strike decals. Really a let down considering how thin their other offerings were. I think this must be an old release. Dai

The speed brakes were angled down by shaving the top tabs. The fuel tanks were moved inwardly per advise of Tony. The thing that I wish I have the skill for is to scribe fuel filler cap onto the right side. The wing tips were from the kit's discarded sections. Resin wing tips supplied by Hasegawa were undersized in thickness and virtually useless. Dai

The flaps are beautifully done like 3D quality. Dai

Greetings, Some close up photos to indicate what were added to the kit and its conversion done to the F-40 to make a MK 6 to my best ability... The left side sports the vintage Verlinden gun bay and ammunition bay. The ammunition belts come from Legend set as the Verlinden's is too wide and less detailed. Oddly the ammunition bay does not have the ammo casings. The vertical strings are easily made from painted stretched sprues. The deck behind the seat (with the orange light) is also from Verlinden that is more detailed than the kit's. The base is the PE from Eduard cockpit set. A

Hi all, To be fair I have seen companies putting out the same stuff ad nauseum although there are already plenty on the market. Eduard just put out the P-51B Mustang like we already do not have enough already. But then there are companies that put out models that me wonder what's up with their thinking like 1/48 LA-15 or 1/48 Yak -15 ! Dai

Thank you so very much. This so far has been the most time consuming project as there are many resin add ons (Verlinden gun bay/ammunition bay, KASL slats and flaps, Aires seat and AMS sugar scoops) and modifications of the airframe and wings. Learned quite a bit on export Sabres. Dai

Howdy all, With the F-86 project coming to a close, I will start on this project this weekend. The Revell and Promodeler kits differ in the early or later brake chute types. I will have to look into the decal sheet to determine the correct variant. Dai

Hello modelers, This project is coming to a close. I still have to install the pitot tube and the ammo door. Hasegawa calls for the clear mirror part to be installed on the canopy but it is not included on any of the kits? The white metal pitot tube supplied by Hasegawa Mk 6 version is so poorly detailed and cannot be used. I use the standard F-30 tube. The tanks are glued via white glue in case I need to reposition them. Verlinden provides the ammo bay but no ammo casings. Will look into other resin kits to see if I can use them instead. The decals by Eagle Strike is much thicker

Hi all, From time to time I keep reading " Hey, if you make this model or a version of this model, be prepared to print money !". But yet model companies are mum on these suggestions. One example is F-86A which is highly desirable by modelers in any scale. But still no one is jumping at this "print money"thing suggestion. Are model companies seeing something that we modelers do not see? That is why they are not jumping at this printing money thing ??? Dai

Hi all, Another consideration is the correct placement of the red fuselage band. Decal companies tend to get the decal placement incorrect so this is a good example on where it should be placed. Dai

Hi all, All the stencils supplied by Eagle Strike and others are not quite correct as they are printed in black rather than white and black. The letterings when applied over black background should have white letterings so the crews can read them. Something to consider if you are in absolute accuracy. Dai

Hi all, The clear coat was applied. To my dismay, more cracks start to appear on the fuselage. The plastic is getting old and starts to deteriorate. Buy Academy kit ! Dai

Dai Phan 100 Windermere Village Way Blythewood Sc 29016

Hi all, The Luftwaffe Sabre JG 71 is among the most colorful birds of the foreign exports. Getting accurate camo pattern for your project is quite challenging as there are wide variations of the interpretations pending on the painters. Your mercy is at what photos you can find. The Eagle Strike decals give you a nice compliment of stencils. However note the Hasegawa F-40 is NOT the MK 6 so the panel lines are not correct throwing you a curved ball when appliying stencils decals. Dai

Hello everyone, The decal application is completed and tomorrow will be clear coated. If you plan to add slats to make a foreign Sabre, I strongly advise you to use the Academy instead of the Hasegawa kit. The gun bays are there already so you do not have to fight with the resin bays to make them fit with the kit's cockpit tub. The biggest thing is the quality of the plastic. Old Hasegawa Sabre kits tend to have hairline cracks just from handling. I had to fill, sand and repaint from 7 cracks throughout the fuselage that appeared AFTER the whole plane was painted. The plastic tends

Hi, I would like to buy: Scobie 1/48 F-86 narrow chord slatted wing conversion for Hasegawa or Academy $20. Please send PP invoice to drdaiphan@yahoo.com. Thanks Dai Phan

Greetings, Lots of stencils to apply. Dai