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Hello gang,

So, I've actually begun.

This build will be entirely OOtB. Kit decals, no additional scratch-building, just what Italeri (ex-Kinetic) gives me.

First off, I shot myself in the foot buying this kit. I bought it on a whim from the Newark Air Museum. It cost £42.50. Not bad for a 1/32nd scale kit I suppose but after reading a number of on-line reviews when I got home, it turns out this is the Kinetic kit which is avialable from Hannants for £29.99 + p&p. Not only that but this Italeri boxing does n't include the nose weight either :doh:

Oh well, we live and learn.

With the bad news out of the way it was time to fondle the plastic. I have never seen such thick plastic on a model kit.......! :o Jeez,.....this thing is millimetres thick. No wonder nose weight is needed. I bet it would sit on its' own without weight if the plastic was a similar thickness to other kits. I could n't believe the size of the sprue that the four fuselage sections are attached to. It's like the branch of a tree! Man. I've only now got over the shock :D

I did n't know what to expect after the initial surprise but once I'd calmed down I took a closer look and was pleased with what I saw.

The detail on the surface of the model is very fine and recessed. Credit to Italeri (Kinetic) for molding in a very subtle stressed effect to each panel. I'm seriously hoping that a bare metal finish will highlight this clever detail.

For the most part, I find the remaining detail to be moderate. The plastic IP came up nicely with paint but the cockpit tub and seat are woefully short on accuracy. I think Harolds' AMS resin bits are a must for anyone taking this build seriously.

After glueing the top and bottom halves of the jet intake together I quickly made up my mind to build this airframe with the plugs in place. Another plus to Italeri for providing intake and exhaust FOD guards. (I'll be needing them).

Italeri offer the opportunity to show the guns by providing loose panels over the gun bays. I confess I'm not a big fan of open panels so these have been glued in place. The fit was good with only a little sanding to get them to fill the holes neatly. The airbrakes got the same treatment because although they are often seen in the drooped position on parked aircraft, the detail provided by Italeri in the wells is n't up to snuff for an OOtB build.

Ok, enough of the boring stuff, on to a couple of photos.

Following the instructions, I started with the intake and cockpit tub assembly. I tried to find out for sure whether this 1953 era airframe had a black or grey cockpit but was unsuccessful. Recognising that the tub is going to look pretty spartan on the finished build I opted for black and that whole "coal hole" look hoping to disguise the poor kit offering.:thumbsup:

tn_Sabremodel004.jpg

tn_Sabremodel002.jpg

tn_Sabremodel005.jpg

Lots of grey and sand coloured pastels to weather the bright paintwork and seat cushions/pads, paint chips from silver metallic and future for the glass in the IP dials.

I've begun assembling some other components too. I've glued together the rudder and flaps ready for adding later. Is it me or does the rudder not fit very well? It seems to be too tall and sits out of the curved opening provided in the tail.......

Anyone know how to cure this please?

I've also glued the front and back of each fuselage half together too. I'm not intending to fit the engine to help with the weight issues (plus it won't be seen at all). The joint was n't too bad between the fuselage halves but there is a promounced rounded lip which benefits by being sanded down a little.

If anyone has any tips before I get too far into this build Im all ears. I've always liked the F-86 so hope to do this little fighter justice if possible.

Cheers,

:cheers:

*Edit,...to correct the plane designation in the title.

Edited by geedubelyer
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geedubelyer

You're the third 1/32 scale Kinetic / Italeri Sabre in this build. Check out my thread and Don's (dmthamade) regarding what we've done for our builds. Some tips there. As for the rudder, mine went in pretty well. A bit of sanding was required to get it to fit well but I'm happy with the way it sits. I was a bit perplexed too with the way the rudder pieces and vertical stab fins were moulded. Square face into a rounded opening. I suppose you could find some rounded Evergreen plastic or stretch some sprue and glue it onto the front of the rudder pieces to give it a better fit. I just used CA on the bottom of the rudder and a bit at the top and it's in place quite well.

I really like the way your IP turned out. I used the decal and sandwich option which was easier than what you did.

Keep up the good work. I look forward to your progress.

Mike

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Thanks Mike,

I managed to get the rudder in after plenty of sanding and dry-fitting.

For some reason all of the seperate control surfaces seem to be thicker than their associated aerofoil sections. The rudder is thicker than the fin and the flaps are thicker than the wings. :yahoo:

Oh well, not to get bogged down with trivial details I pressed on regardless.

Here's the state of play right now......

tn_Sabremodel007.jpg

The splash of black is primer used to help see the nose seam. I'll paint the whole model black and then use GW Mithril Silver to create the BMF. My intention is to pick out one or two panels in very slightly different shades by adding some Chainmail or Bolt Gunmetal to the Mithril.

Here's a quick peek at the horizontal tail surfaces painted in Mithril Silver to see how it looks.

tn_Sabremodel010.jpg

I'm on to sanding and filling now.

Some parts of the kit fit beautifully without any gap at all. Other areas will require more effort.

tn_Sabremodel011.jpg

The red arrows point to slightly mis-aligned seams, the blue arrows to a couple of quite thick gaps and the green arrows show where the flaps are proud of the wing surface.....

Luckily, all of this is on the underside. :cheers:

Time to fill......and sand.......and fill............and sand.......

:jaw-dropping:

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Hello gang,

So, I've actually begun.

This build will be entirely OOtB. Kit decals, no additional scratch-building, just what Italeri (ex-Kinetic) gives me

:bandhead2:

Really? OOTB? :lol: You are right, there isn't consistent fit. Some stuff is great, some poor. It reminds me of the early Hobbycraft kits. I think most of the problems can be taken care of with basic modelling skills, just kinda frustraring dealing with the wonky fit and engineering. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks in Games Workshop metallics.

Don

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Really? OOTB? :worship:

Don

:salute:

Yup...really! :yahoo:

I know, I know,.....it's not my usual OP but hey, what can I say? It's fun!

cheers Don.

Hi Anders, nice to see you here. The F-14 is beckoning me. I think I'm working through this OOTB phase and normal service should be resumed soon. :salute:

The surface treatment is smashing but as Don mentioned, there are areas where care is needed to get the best fit.

Also, the cockpit needs alot of work in this scale and the wheel bays are woeful ;)

Thankfully, my 10yr old nephew who this is destined for is unlikely to bother about that.

The warm weather here in Blighty has made modelling difficult this last week. My hobby room is in the loft and with outside temperatures in the mid to high twenties, the temperature in there has been unbareable (mid thirties......)

I did manage to spray the black primer though. The warmth helped it settle down nicely, not bad for a whizz can.

I've begun to polish it for a clean, smooth surface ready for the first coat of silver.

tn_Primerapplied002.jpg

tn_Primerapplied009.jpg

tn_Primerapplied008.jpg

*Edit...typo

Edited by geedubelyer
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The black on your Sabre reminds me of the one in an old movie from the '80s. It was called The Last Chase. Not a great flick, i remember it because of the F-86 that was flown by one of the characters ( Burgess Meredith IIRC) It was black with red, orange and gold? trim with a snake or dragon character on the tail. Was thinking of doing it for this GB but clear pics can't be found. This is the best i could find

http://img224.imageshack.us/i/lastchase377ow.jpg/

Don

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:blink: Hi Guy! What I can see? Can't believe my eyes! :stupid:

One of two things must be have place:

1st. Your are fed enough of scratching, of making research scrupulously studying refers, tinkering with each even

insignificant and hardly visible when in its place detail and so on...

2nd. The stright OOB bug has bitten you so hard that now you are thoroughly infected. :P

Your story of what inside the kit was very interesting. Oh yes, Italiery is of no doubts one of the best plastic manufacturers. :bandhead2:

Well, jokes aside, I think it's a big fun building stright OOB, and it will make scores when properly painted and weathered.

And then, you can see the result just in a week or two.

Nice progress Guy! Eagerly waiting to see her complete in all her glory.

Cheers and happy modeling!

Alexander.

:cheers:

Edited by Eastern
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Hello peeps,

Julien and Richter111, glad you like it. Many thanks for the encouragement, much appreciated :thumbsup:

Hi Don, that's a cool scheme. I had n't seen that movie but the colours certainly suit the Sabre.

Having polished the black primer it felt like the whole thing was sculpted out of coal ;)

Hello Alexander, don't worry my friend, The bugs' bite is wearing off and I think I'll be back to the Tomcat for a while once this Sabre is built.

Building OOTB is great fun but at this rate of completion I'd run out of space in about two months......... :coolio:

No, much better to lavish more attention on the models and take longer to complete them. At least that way my cabinet will last me longer. :D

I started to apply the first coat of bare metal but came across a peculiar issue. I run my airbrush off a CO2 bottle and for the first time, it froze up on me. Whether it is the high humidity, high temperature or just this particular cylinder, I don't know. Either way, I only managed to spray a small area at a time before I had to stop and allow the regulator to thaw.

dmthamade Posted Jun 23 2010, 01:45 AM

I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks in Games Workshop metallics.

Here's how the Mithril Silver looks.

tn_BMF026.jpg

Turning the airframe in the sunlight gives different effects.

tn_BMF025.jpg

tn_BMF030.jpg

As you can see, the Mithril Silver gives a good shine in bright sunshine.

The surface detail on the plastic looks superb under the silver but I'm wondering how the decals and clear coat will affect things later on...... :(

Cheers.

Edit: Next step......

tn_BMF039.jpg

tn_BMF040.jpg

tn_BMF032.jpg

tn_BMF031.jpg

Edited by geedubelyer
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Looking very nice there, Guy! B)

I don't know but I think there's something about those rivets and the somewhat uneven surface texture that comes off looking very convincing, especially after a coat of silver.

Please tell me, how do you thin the GW paint for airbrushing? (My apologies if you described this earlier and I failed to see this info.)

I have used those paints for detail painting using a brush with good results and would like to try airbrushing too.

Cheers,

Anders

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Thanks Mike, glad you like it. Yeah, sorry for the truncated update.....I'd have sprayed more but the regulator froze again.

I suspect I have a faulty cylinder so until I finish this one I may be forced to only paint small sections.

Hello Anders, thanks for the kind words. The GW paints are smashing to use. I thin them with de-ionised water and it seems to work just fine. I have actually used plain tap water in the past without any visible issues but switched to de-ionised water after reading an article that mentioned possible chalkiness to the paint finish due to salts in the water.

The GW metallics are beautiful to paint with. Creamy smooth with good opaqueness and minute metallic particles.

I could n't agree with you more about the surface detail that Italeri (Kinetic) have rendered on the surface of this kit. It's a first in my experience and they should be applauded for giving a very realistic appearance. This stressed skin effect is something that I'd planned to do on a model for some time and now most of the hard work has been done for us.

It would be nice to see other model companies following this outstanding example.

Cheers,

:)

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Thanks for the info on those GW paints. I will certainly give them a try with my airbrush, just need a suitable subject, such as the Kinetic F-86... :)

Agreed, Kinetic is on to something here with that beautiful surface detail.

Keep it up! :)

Cheers,

Anders

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Thanks for the info on those GW paints. I will certainly give them a try with my airbrush, just need a suitable subject, such as the Kinetic F-86...

Agreed, Kinetic is on to something here with that beautiful surface detail.

Keep it up!

Cheers,

Anders

Now that is something I'd pay to see Anders :coolio: Mind you, we both have a big kitty to finish at some time don't we? :yahoo:
That looks darn good!
Hi Patrick, thanks man. After seeing the stellar job you did of your Hun, that means alot :yahoo:
Wow,

that mitheril silver sprays well, I might give that a go.

Julien

Hi Julien, thanks. It's not just their Mithril Silver that sprays well. The other metallics are just as good. The darker "steel" panels in the images below are Boltgun metal ;)

tn_BMF054.jpg

tn_BMF055.jpg

So I'm all done with the main elements. I'll need to attach the windshield and canopy next before I add the decals.

The warm weather means time in my hobby room is at a minimum just now. More progress when things cool down a little.

:wub:

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Hello gang,

Ok, enough of the boring stuff, on to a couple of photos.

Following the instructions, I started with the intake and cockpit tub assembly. I tried to find out for sure whether this 1953 era airframe had a black or grey cockpit but was unsuccessful. Recognising that the tub is going to look pretty spartan on the finished build I opted for black and that whole "coal hole" look hoping to disguise the poor kit offering.:cheers:

tn_Sabremodel004.jpg

tn_Sabremodel002.jpg

tn_Sabremodel005.jpg

Cheers,

:worship:

*Edit,...to correct the plane designation in the title.

Hi, . .

this maybe late but perhaps still worth reading as far as cockpit/seats color is concern.. Its down below in the following page

http://f-86.tripod.com/colours333.html

Philippine Air Force's 60 plus units of Sabres in service from late 50's to late 70's were F-86F25/30/35 . . .

Regards...

Edited by TausugAIR
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the kind words Mike, much appreciated :doh:

Thanks also to you TausugAIR for the link. I'm going to stick with the black for ths build. My ten year old nephew (for whom this build is destined) won't be any the wiser so it will save alot of extra work but I appreciate the heads-up, cheers. :huh:

The weather has cooled off a bit so the temperature in my hobby room is tolerable again. {~phew~}

I've added the windscreen and started with the decalling. The decals are Cartograph and work beautifully. The only issues are self-induced by my ham-fistery :coolio:

I'm applying them directly to the painted surface and so far things look good. Although the decals are quite thick, they settle down over the detail with some persuasion and Micro-Set.

tn_Sabremodel013.jpg

It's great to see some colour on the bird.

tn_Sabremodel018.jpg

There are numerous stencil decals but the placement is a bit vague on the instructions so some guesswork is in order. Again, it won't bother my nephew so I'm not going to get hung up on it. After my usual diet of grey jets, I'm just enjoying seeing the vibrant colours on this bird. :D

:lol:

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Really coming together now, sir. The stencils over the yellow fuselage band give a real air of authenticity. I know the stencils are time consuming but the reality / wow factor make it all worthwhile. I know it did for mine and I know it does for yours too.

Great work geedubelyer.

Mike

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  • 2 months later...

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