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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

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Parts

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Decals - Beautious Butch II

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Options include exposed speed brake wells and machine gun bays.  They're closed with appropriate parts glued in place.

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Kit seat with rudimentary tape belts and seat cushion.

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Drop tanks and wheels.

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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.

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Fuselage halves and wings to fuselage joins are good.  A little bit of filler required on fuselage.

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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.

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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

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Glad to see someone else in this group build Mike.  Love 86's. This plane represents the top scoring American jet Ace to this day. I'm not trying to hijack your build but very good subject. 16 Mig-15 kills in Korea. :chain-gun:

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  • 4 weeks later...

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.

 

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Thanks guys.  Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming.

 

Mike

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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

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Mike,

 

I did the same build years ago but found the kit's yellow decals to be unusable.
Perhaps I had a bad sheet but they were thick and didn't want to stick to the model.
I ended up painting the yellow and black stripes as well as the dark blue triangles on the nose.

The other decals on the sheet performed okay.

 

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Nice subject. I have had several Academy kits, the first thing I do is toss

the decals, I have had no luck at all with them, gave up years ago, they

just don't want to stick.---John

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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys.  The primer turned out well but this isn't going to get done before deadline.  As a matter of fact, I haven't touched it since I sprayed the primer.  My interest in building has gone completely down the toilet in the last few months.  Thanks for the encouraging words though.  One day...

 

Mike

Edited by AX 365
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