AX 365

Thanks for taking the time to repost these photos, Dean. I'm a visual kid of guy. Much easier to understand things when I see it instead of reading about it and having to create the scene in my noggin. Intakes, MLG and that wing / underside butt join look like they're more work than they needed to be if things were engineered a bit better. Congrats on getting things into place. A very nice build. Mike

Thanks Frank. I also have plenty of photos of a Sabre 6 at a museum close to my home along with reference photos of a couple of other Sabres. Much appreciated. Mike

Saw your photos in the display gallery. Very nicely done. I was kind of hoping to see your in progress 'action' shots. No harm. No foul. The end result is great. Mike

The Boss got me one as an anniversary present about 15 years ago. It was an amazing experience. One of the other 'passengers' was a Polish, 33 operational sortie Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster pilot. Don Schofield, who was the pilot for our flight, knew and flew with the father of the woman who introduced me to my wife. We had a nice chat. When the veteran pilot spoke, everyone listened. One person is given the privilege of sitting on the flight deck for take off and landing. For the other passengers, it was a no brainer. The day we were up was very windy and a bit turbulent. We had some difficulty walking around inside the aircraft. As I was doing so, things really hit home for me. I was having so much trouble on a 'mild' day. I then imagined what it would have been like in a 'corkscrew' or trying to get out of a flaming, spiraling, twisting Lancaster while trying to put on a parachute all the while being shot at by night fighters and dealing with flak. And then I tried to imaging the sounds and smells. It was very emotional. I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

AFM...sorry I'm a couple of days late to the party but here's what phantom was referring to. This was posted on Facebook: Tomorrow, Canadians across the country will don sports jerseys as a gesture to show their support for the Humboldt Broncos hockey team following last week’s tragic events in Saskatchewan. Because of the work we do, many of us in uniform have experienced the same emotional burden tragedies like this inflict. Canadians regularly show outpourings of support for us in our time of need. Now it’s time for us to give back. To show our support for the Broncos, I have authorized the wearing of sports jerseys by Canadian Armed Forces members tomorrow, April 12. For those of you who decide to participate, I encourage you to share imagery of your jerseys on social media and tag the @CanadianForces Facebook account. As operational requirements take precedence, not all Canadian Armed Forces members will be able to participate. Also, no one should be wearing a jersey while travelling to and from their work, but may do so within their workplaces and buildings. Our condolences go out to all the players, families and friends affected by this tragedy. Jonathan H. Vance General Chief of the Defence Staff

Hi guys. Thanks for the comments. Just an update to tell you that there's no real update. I've made no significant progress on my build since my last update a month ago. Just in the modeling doldrums a bit. All has not been abandoned though. I have sanded the goop on the underside as illustrated in the photo above. I have also added a bit more putty to make things as smooth as I can. Alclad, as you know, is very demanding. Fortunately it's on the bottom so I'm not too concerned. I've also added the gunsight and masked the canopy and windscreen with EZ Masks. These masks are for the Hasegawa Sabres and although these kits are almost identical, a bit of trimming at the front of the masks was needed. A new #11 blade took care of that. The rectangular nose wheel door is moulded in such a way that it makes building a wheels up model much easier. It's one piece but there's a score mark that allows you to shape the door to 90 degrees when building it wheels down. I've scored and reshaped for wheels down. I did some filling and sanding around the nose ring. I rescribed the lost detail as much as possible. The turtle deck under the rear canopy has also been built up, painted and given a wash of the same brew I used in the cockpit. I'll leave it out of the main canopy until I'm finished painting. It installs in such a way that the painted canopy framing will hide the glue and attachment points. When I paint, I'll prime with Model Master light grey (36495) and adjust any errors. Once done, I'll respray more 36495. When doing a NMF, I find that the light grey mutes the tones of the base colour. I then mask and lightly spray different shades of Alclad on different panels to vary the overall appearance as I did in the previous Sabre build. Sprayed over 36495, not black. Thanks guys. Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming. Mike

Nice work Shawn. Was it the kit or the meds that caused the poopy fit?

bash...while I've never been a fan of Russian jets, you are doing a fantastic job on this. Great save on the wing. The ejection seat turned out very nicely. Keep up the fine work. And congratulations on your nuptials. Mike

airmechaja...I've just gone through your thread and there are no photos, only links and when I click on the link, nothing shows up except ads and 'Post your images here, do not resize, etc.

Coming along very nicely Stefan.

You're beating this one into shape, Kurt. Nice. I used a spare set of Hasegawa intake and exhaust plugs on the Revell Sabre I built. A bit of sanding required but it took care of the blocked off intake. I also found the main gear struts to be a really weak point in this build. I thought Tamiya Extra Thin would be fine. WRONG!!!! Use CA glue, if you don't already. I don't know if you can fix it, or if you want to fix it, but as an FYI, that triangular scoop on the right side by the speed brake well is unique to Japanese Sabres. North American, Canadair or CAC built Sabres didn't have them. Not trying to rain on your parade but if accuracy is a concern, you'll want to remove it before you get to painting. If not, I'll just close my yap and let you continue. Looking forward to more progress. Mike

Looking good Shawn.

Great build but that really blows about the warp.

Having been the NCO in charge of the Ottawa Police Collision Investigation Unit in the past, it'll take more than a month. It may take two or three, and maybe longer, for the full technical reconstruction report to be finished. There are a lot of things that the investigators will need to do; physical scene exam, search warrant for Event Data Recorders (vehicle 'black box'), collection and analysis of said data, vehicle safety checks, etc). Unfortunately, this isn't CSI where everything is figured out within an hour. I think we owe it to the families of everyone involved, the community, the first responders, the rest of Canada and all who are grieving, to avoid any speculation as to what might or might not have happened. We need to allow the RCMP Collision Investigators to complete their report and let them tell us what happened instead of everyone guessing what happened. That's my nickel's worth. Mike

Here's my entry for this GB. It must qualify because it says so on the box, therefore it must be true. 48th scale. Kit decals, no aftermarket stuff. I started a couple of weeks ago but am just getting around to posting photos now. Here we go. Box Art Parts Decals - Beautious Butch II Options include exposed speed brake wells and machine gun bays. They're closed with appropriate parts glued in place. Kit seat with rudimentary tape belts and seat cushion. Drop tanks and wheels. Cockpit sprayed with MM enamel FS36231 and knobs and switches picked out with red. Not accurate but visually stimulating. Water based acrylic craft paint wash applied. Need to do a bit of silver dry brushing for scuffs on ruder pedals, floor and cockpit sill. IP painted flat black with light grey dry brush over raised details. Fuselage halves and wings to fuselage joins are good. A little bit of filler required on fuselage. Last time I built an Academy Sabre, I had problems with part C16. I glued the wings to the fuselage and then tried to glue part C16 to the wings in the opening provided. C16 fell into the fuselage and because I had installed the J-47, C16 got stuck and I had to cut the fuselage apart to get it out. FACK!!! What a PITA! This time, I taped the fuselage halves together, set the wings in place and managed to glue C16 to the wings in the proper place. Hasegawa incorporates C16 onto to lower wing part. Much easier to assemble. As I progress with this build, I can say that I prefer the Hasegawa line of Sabres to this Academy offering. While some may argue that it's nice to be able to separate the fuselage halves and display the GE J-47 and to have the gun bays exposed, I find the Hasegawa kits easier to build, even though they are almost identical in parts and build sequence. I had some difficulty with the nose ring on this kit, as I do with the Hasegawa Sabres but I found the fit of this one a bit worse than the Hasegawa part. The cockpit tub on the Hasegawa kit is separate from the intake runner and I find the Hasegawa cockpit a bit more detailed. This kit has the cockpit tub as part of the intake runner. Maybe it's just me but I prefer the way Hasegawa does it. Although the Hasegawa kits have a small triangular vent on the right side of the rear fuselage that is unique to JASDF Sabres, it only takes a few minutes to remove the vent, fill the opening and smooth the area in order to make an accurate F-86 Sabre. To make an accurate Canadair Sabre 5 or 6, the raised vent on the top of the fuselage at the tail of the vertical stabilizer has to be sanded smooth with the top of the fuselage. That vent on this kit is a separate piece so making an accurate Sabre 5 or hard edge Sabre 6 is pretty difficult; more difficult than with a Hasegawa kit. I have added four steel fishing sinkers on top of the intake runner and behind the cockpit tub but ahead of where the landing gear struts will attach to prevent it from being a tail sitter. On the Haswgawa kit, I can fit enough weight onto the top of the intake runner without having to add behind the tub. Another plus, in my opinion. I'll be adding the red painted front and rear FOD covers to the intake and exhaust openings to add a bit of colour. I'll be using Alclad II lacquers for the airframe along with Model Master and Testo square bottle enamels for other colours. Constrictive criticism and positive feedback is always welcome. Thanks for looking. Mike