AX 365

Thanks gentlemens!

Very nice work, pal-o-mine! I have the Academy F/A-18A+ (#12107) in 32nd scale. I haven't cracked open the box yet so I'm not sure if the RCAF style landing gear are included in the kit. It comes with RCAF decals so I'm hoping that they have the proper landing gear. I'll find out when I get to it, I guess. Some handy pointers here for when I get around to my big Hornet. Look forward to the end results. Mike

Very nice work, big man. At this pace, you'll be a one-a-day guy when you retire!

1/48th Hasegawa F-86 Sabre as a Sabre 4, 67 Squadron, R.A.F., Wildenrath, Germany, 1955. More photos in the build thread below. Mike

Thanks ALF. I saw that orientation on the instruction sheet and did a double take and some extra research myself. She's finished. I know it's not a true Sabre 4 but it's a close representation and that's good enough for me. Thanks for looking. Mike

Some progress on this Lancaster since my last update. I was working on this one while working on a couple of Sabres at the same time. This is the first time I've ever had two kits on the go at the same time. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. The gaps and issues around the nacelles as identified in the post above have been rectified. I've also painted the props and engines. The yellow blade tips are brush painted. Too much muss and fuss to mask and paint such small areas. It looks okay so that's fine with me. The engines are MM Flat Black. I might drybrus

Photos before sealing gloss coat applied. Decals are from Eagle Strike, kit stencils and a few extras from CanMilAir. Some silvering of kits stencils but not much. Next photos will be of the completed project. Mike

That turned out really nice. Good work.

Thanks ALF. I looked at the camo job and was not impressed with my freehand efforts. I resprayed the green and masked the grey. A mini vacation to Quebec City and Xmas chores have stalled progress but I have made some. Since completing the three colour camo, I've masked and sprayed the area around the exhaust opening, the anti-glare panel, gear door inners and the wheel wells. There is some overspray on the PRU Blue that will need to be addressed. Once that's done, I'll gloss coat and apply the decals. Will provide photos when the clear coat is on. Mike

A five foot dive!? EGAD. I might have utter a cuss word or two. I hope it wasn't too badly damaged; I mean beyond 30 pieces and all breaks were minor or along panel lines. I agree with your assessment on the two kits. Kinetic has its pros and cons but I much prefer the Hasegawa kits. Good luck with this one. Mike

Very nice. I like the homemade masks. Ingenious. Mike

Looks good, G. Which dealer? I bought both my Mustangs at Lincoln Heights. Great sales and service. I went to a few dealers when I bought my first one. I went to Sterling (not very attentive), Jim Keay (knobs! - salesman tried to sell me a stereo with a car attached ), Campbell's (arrogant) and settled with LH. Car I was wanting wasn't in stock but they facilitated a dealer trade for me.

Just finished painting the camo. Will mask and paint the gear bays, exhaust opening and anti glare panel on Thursday, hopefully.

Cars Guitars - in a band in HS - Paul on the left, Mike on the drums, Steve on the bass and me on the right. I have four other guitars. Golf - Paul and I (37 yrs after HS) on vacation this year at Harbour Town. We play golf together weekly here at home in the summer.

That's looking really nice. Great work on the yellow. Not easy. Mike

Nice! Taking some pointers from your build chum. I have the big F/A-18A+ kit (USMC and RCAF decals included) with a set of Canuck decals. I haven't looked inside the box yet so I'm not sure if it has the correct CF-18 shocks or other unique RCAF doo-dads. Having said that, I see the kit you're building has the spot light that's probably covered with a blanking plate to make it an F-18C. I think I may tackle it next year. Look forward to the next update. Mike

Thanks Bruce. Every time I fill out one of those "What kit would you like to see manufactured?" surveys, I always ask for an F-86E or Sabre 2 (with the appropriate Canadair vents and the likes) in 32nd and 48th scale. Nobody ever seems to listen. Mike

Gear and doors attached, flaps installed, plugs in with gaps illustrated and gaps taped and filled with Testor's Clear Cement. Mike

Cockpit tub (artistic license), IP (kit decal - incorrect for Canadair Sabre but I don't care) and seat with tape belts (artistic license). Mike

I don't think I made it up that year? Can't remember. I do remember '13, '15 and '17 though. What's in the water up there? Almost everyone is pregnant or pushing a stroller! Nice work Shawn. As ALF said, yellow (and white) can be a PITA to get right. Even with a primer of light grey I can still FUBAR white and yellow. Mike

Thank you to not only RCAFFAN but to Snowbird3a for pointing out my error regarding the wings. I knew that the Mark 4's were basically Mark 2's with some changes that we don't need to go into here. I also knew that the slatted wings were like those on the Mark 2's and that some were also fitted with the '6-3' fenced wing. I guess I misinterpreted about wing slats being installed on the '6-3' wings. Having said that, I can see in the photo of the three aircraft on the decal sheet above that the bottom two have the Mark 2 slatted wing while the top one has the '6-3' fenced wing with the ammo

bikerider and ALF, Thanks very much, gents. Mike

Here's another Sabre build for this GB. When the RAF identified a capability gap in their fighter arsenal in the early 50's, they contracted Canadair to build and supply a number of Sabres for them as a stop-gap measure until they had a home grown fighter that they could replace the Swords with. 430 Sabres, the Sabre 4, were ultimately delivered to the RAF. Some had hard wings with the fences, a la Sabre 5, and some were retrofitted in the field with slatted '6-3' wings. This build is an approximation. I'm building a slatted wing Sabre from 67 Sqn based at Wildenrath, Germany in 1955.

To echo, there are some really nice builds here folks. Take a bow. Here' my completed Hornet. 1/48th scale Kinetic CF-18 using kit decals, MM and Alclad II paints.

Thanks to Emvar, I've placed the missing footprints on the model and I'm calling it done. I said I was going to weather it but I lied. Maybe next time. As alluded to, this kit wasn't without its vices but there were some nice things about construction as well. I have a second one to build and I'll take the lessons learned with this one and apply them to that one. Here's my CF-188A, s/n 188747, assigned to 409 'Nighthawk' Squadron, RCAF. It'll never win any prizes and that's okay. It makes a nice addition to my Hornet display.