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High Planes/Academy 1/48 CAC Sabre conversions


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Okay, this is the start of one of the four CAC Sabres I'm building. Hopefully when it is finished it will look like this one that I finished a week or so ago:

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1/32 Kinetic/Hamilton Hobbies CAC Sabre conversion.

http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=243637

Now, for those that aren't aware the Royal Australian Air Force had this local variant of the F-86 built in Australia under licence. The airframe is 60% bigger to take the bigger and more powerful Avon engine which powered it and two singular 30mm Aden cannon in the nose. This variant of the Sabre was more powerful than your standard F-86 and is believed from USAF exchange pilots that have flown it to be far superior in performance to the standard fare.

The kits I am using are your standard 1/48 Academy F-86-30 but using the local Australian made High Planes CAC conversion which comes complete with kit parts, conversion instructions and Australian decals-except this first one which I had to source decals for. The conversion is also suitable to be used with the Hasegawa 1/48 Sabre kit with all conversion parts present. When I get to the next ones I'll show the kits. Anyway, on with the build;

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The Academy fuselage with the CAC conversion fuselage. You can see the size difference if you look at the nose.

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The noses end to end showing size difference and gun port differences

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An hours work the other day on the cockpit

Edited by Andrew Doppel
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks guys,

Since finishing my F4-B for the Ghost Town GB I thought I'd better get back into these! I say these as I am going to do the four at the same time but use my 75 Squadron (RAAF) as the base for any errors. As I previously mentioned these are the kits as supplied. The Academy box is what the basis is for all of these builds;

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And here's my home based CAC (Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation) production line and what's done so far.

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DSC05825.jpg

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Regards

Andrew :cop:

Edited by Andrew Doppel
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Thanks guys,

Since finishing my F4-B for the Ghost Town GB I thought I'd better get back into these! I say these as I am going to do the four at the same time but use my 75 Squadron (RAAF) as the base for any errors. As I previously mentioned these are the kits as supplied. The Academy box is what the basis is for all of these builds;

DSC05823.jpg

DSC05790.jpg

DSC05791.jpg

And here's my home based CAC (Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation) production line and what's done so far.

DSC05824.jpg

DSC05825.jpg

DSC05826.jpg

Regards

Andrew :cop:

Do you know whether the high planes conversion set is still available anywhere?

Regards,

Derek

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Thanks guys for looking in. Here's what I encountered when closing the fuselage.....not that I'm complaining as I sort of expected it from other builds I have seen. I believe these conversion sets are still available via RedRoo Models Derek.

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Fuselage together with wings dry fitted. There are two small fishing sinkers infront of the I/P to keep the nose down. Hope there's enough!

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I had to sand about 1/2mm off the nose to get the intake cone to fit as it was slightly oversized

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Intake cooling vents fitted from kit parts. The rear one needs a little filling as I sanded out too much of the conversion part and had to brace from inside with plastic card.

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Using a .06 and .08mm micro drill I cleared the slot to fit the port tail plane which is dryfitted and tight

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The starboard wing root looks as though it may need a little fillling, but no big deal

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The underside....a little filling at the front join required as well as the front U/C bay...more on this later.

When building this kit the instructions say to place the kit intake cover into the intake to cover the step/join of the conversion part to kit intake parts. I think I have successfully made it (by shaving some of the back cockpit wall off) to get the intake trunk to sit even with the conversion intake cone so that there is no visible step and look like an operational CAC Sabre.

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I encountered a problem with two of the other three Sabre conversions when trying to remove the trunk conversion part from the sprue with two chunks breaking off whilst razor sawing them off. No biggy though, I have used some plastic card on the outside and will back fill the seem from inside and hopefully get it smooth enough that when you look down there you won't be able to see the putty. Other wise the cockpits are ready for P/E. I hope you like them so far. The red cushioning with have white checkers added for the 79 Squadron Black Panthers bird and the stand alone seat will have white checkers added to the head rest only for my 75 Squadron build.

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Thanks for looking

Andrew :cop:

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Now that's quite a sight brother. Looking good so far. Thanks for letting me know about your undertaking. I'll follow with interest.

Take care, Andrew.

Mike

Ditto! Very ambitious project. Great job so far.

I am very interested as well as I am in the midst of a Sabre build of an a/c my father-in-law flew during the 50's. Will definitely be following this thread. :thumbsup:

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How many different boxes did these conversion kits come in? Your picture shows three different ones, all of those different from the box mine came in. Yes, I have one to build as well; I shall watch your Sabres with great interest.

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Thanks guys. Michael, There were three complete kits in the conversion boxes and I managed to score the fuselage conversion on its own so had to buy the Academy kit to go with it to make the fourth. I hope that clarifies the reason there is four?

Regards

Andrew :cop:

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Looking very good so far!! How do you manage to get ahead so quickly?

I managed to find a boxing of the conversion from HPM model store in Singapore (https://www.hpmhobbies.com)so I'll be watching your build carefully to pick up tips.

The various boxings have the same plastic but different decals as I understand.

Derek

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That's correct Derek. You can see which schemes come with each box. The biggest problem I had was finding the 75 Squadron Black Diamond decals which I now have the tail decals for and the fuselage diamond. The stripe I will have to mask and spray.

Regards

Andrew :cop:

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is the first time I'm seeing a High Planes Avon Sabre conversion in progress. I'll be watching this & taking notes 'cos I got the 1/72 version in my stash. Too afraid to touch it because of all that flash :lol:

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Well it's been awhile so i thought I'd better do something with these builds. Well where I'm at is that the seats are done with the harnesses added and the P/E to the cockpit. The black and white headrest took a couple of goes to get it where it looks okay, whereas the red and white seat took time in laying the little individual squares to make the checkers. Next week I'm on days off after night shift so should have most of the fuselages together.........I hope so anyway!

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Regards

Andrew

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Mike. I finally did some more work on mine this afternoon before I tackle the other three fuselages which I might put pics up tomorrow night so that you can actually see I'm doing something to the others. Here's some points of interest for those considering this build. Brad (aka Blackhawk on AMI) almost put me off from continuing when discussing this build with him the other day but I'm not going to let them get the better of me;

1. Reinforce the kit part C16 (Academy) by putting some plastic card inside the fuselage then glue this part in before fitting the wings.

2. Glue one side of the wings on first then glue the other side. This way you get some flex in the wing base which means that the fuse isn't as 'fat' meaning less grinding and filling later.

3. Dry fit, dry fit, dry fit

The images will detail some of the other issues.

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Any questions? I think I'll do some stages shots so you can see exactly what I mean.

Regards

Andrew :cop:

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Is that the Academy intake!!! I think I would have addressed that big square before gluing any parts together, it's going to be quite difficult to work with all buttoned up.

Curt

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Thanks Curt but I really don't think you'll see it that much when it's all painted and the undercarriage leg is in.

Well the second fuselage is closed up. Here's more on how I did it;

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Part C17 and cutting it to fit top of rear fuselage in front of tail

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Before and after of the clean up required on the fuselage to fit the cut up C17 part (NB Don't oversize the hole which I did on my first fuselage)

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Part of C17 fitted to the fuselage

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Something I didn't foresee as I didn't have this issue with mine is that the engine parts aren't included in the conversion sets so the engine and exhaust ends need to be blanked off otherwise you'll be able to see straight through. I also used plastic card to reinforce the fuselage halves and to fill some of the larger gaps

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Two down, two to go!

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Wings attached with less issues than airframe one but a little filling still required.

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The undersides of the two completed fuselages together.

By airframe four everything will be ironed out and perfect! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Edited by Andrew Doppel
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Here's some further progress starting with the landing lights and intake followed by the tail planes;

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This is the landing lights and where they have to go. The conversion part shape needs correcting obviously

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Fitted with the intake cone on. A couple of holes to fill on both sides but otherwise ok.

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Front on shot showing the small raise in the trunk which will be filled and sanded back for a proper result

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Difficult to see but the holes are filled on the conversion part for the tail planes

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Also difficult to see but a .68mm drill bit used to start the clearing process here

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And finally using some micro files the holes are clear for the tails to fit in

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The tails dry fitted into place

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And, standing on its legs (on left). The front U/C legs are dry fitted as there's still work to be done here.

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A problem with fuselage 3. The parts are warped. The tail is taped as is the lower fuselage creating this problem

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The fuselage is taped even at the top causing this issue at the wing root and U/C area below. I'm going to have to use hot water and try and bend this lower part upwards and inwards if posible without breaking the plastic to get it to alighn as the other remaining fuselage parts are okay. Wish me luck!

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