Kurt H. Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 I have been inspired by phantom single handedly doing most of the builds in this GB. He can not do it alone, and I want to see if I can build at phantom speed. I have chosen a kit with very few parts which I have built before. I present the Revell F-86. This is a monogram kit from 1976. I will use a microscale sheet to build The Huff. I guess it is a mig killer because there are quite a few red star kill markings. The first order of business is to clean up parts which need cleanup. Since this is a 40 year old tool, it is not surprising to see some flash .. in this case it is hard to tell where the part starts and the flash ends Any way, I cleaned up the parts as best I could and got busy with the airbrush I know it is a bit hard to see what is going on here, but the inside of the gear bay doors, airbrake doors, landing gear legs, wheel hubs, airbrake retraction struts, and airbrake bays were painted floquil old silver. The gear bays were painted with Ammo of Mig gelbolive (closest thing I had to interior green) The Instrument panel and seat are Mr Surfacer 1500 black (I was priming another model, and it is a perfect silky satin black ) and Ammo of Mig FS36231 for the inside of the fuselage and cockpit bucket. Assembly can begin tomorrow. My goal is to have it ready for paint in one week or less. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
airmechaja Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 You're taking on the demi God of model building! That is a big task. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Els Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 You can doooo ittttt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 Day two, I made some progress I performed my least favorite task, painting the cockpit control panels. My bottle of Testors aircraft Interior black turned to goo, despite being sealed properly and kept in a drawer. However, mixing it up on a piece of carboard with some thinner made it brushable. It was easier with my new magnifying visor. I also tried a wash on the area behind the seat, but I used the wrong color, it looks bad. I will go over the wash with something else I tried something new with the instrument panel. Ammo of Mig has a set for US cockpits. One of the products is a gray wash, so instead of trying to pick out the gauges, you apply a wash to a black instrument panel This picture is a little dark, and the contrast between the gray and the black is a little better in real life than this picture. The effect works, but it is not as nice as a printed PE panel, or a full color decal. There is a decal in the kit for the white faces of the instruments. Once the wash is try I can apply the decal. I assembled the wing and the fuel tanks Meanwhile, i glued on the gun bay panel. The fit is as expected The last task was to put a little color on the tail pipe as not to hold up fuselage assembly when the time comes also visible is a wash applied to the inside of the speed brakes. A similar wash was applied to the inside of the landing gear doors. That is as far as I got tonight, I am getting tired so I will pick it up tomorrow. If I have not forgotten any thing I can get the whole airframe together soon. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john53 Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 (edited) Just curious, does your decal sheet give the Huff for the left side and Bill's Baby and Miss Jenny for the right side or just the dragon for both sides. I have built this a few times and the original, that served in Korea, had the dragon on the left side only, Bill's Baby and Miss Jenny on the right side. Will be watching with interest.---John Edited April 6, 2018 by john53 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, john53 said: Just curious, does your decal sheet give the Huff for the left side and Bill's Baby and Miss Jenny for the right side or just the dragon for both sides. I have built this a few times and the original, that served in Korea, had the dragon on the left side only, Bill's Baby and Miss Jenny on the right side. Will be watching with interest.---John I was thinking about this very issue the other day. This decal sheet has the Dragon on both sides, and you are right the original plane has "miss jenny" on the passenger side of the plane. I did not do too much research, was there a second Huff with the dragon on both sides? I saw one picture of an F-86 which looked like it was a warbird with the dragon. I just think it looks cool. The Huff is special to me, when I was a kid, one of the first models my Dad built upon returning to the hobby was the then current Monogram F-86 "the huff" boxing. I want to say he bought the kit at the gift shop of the Air and Space museum when he took me there. It is hard to remember, but I think I helped him with the build. As far as more accurate markings go, the monogram kit with these markings was released in the early 80s, then as a SSP release in the early 90s. It looks like Cutting edge did these markings at some point. Academy also did a release with these markings, which is on ebay frequently from Korean sellers. This is a fun build so I am going to build the best model I can with what I have on hand. If I were to do a serious F-86 project, a magnum opus, life work sort of build I would start with the Eduard Ultimate sabre and scour the planet for the cutting edge decals. Speaking of which I should probably get a Eduard sabre before they are gone. In the meantime I will do the best I can on this model. I really think I can build quickly if I can stay focused. Edited April 7, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john53 Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) No there was only one The Huff. I have no idea who or why the other Dragon was added but it's not there, I've seen the real Huff pictures. Also I think Monogram as every other F-86 maker does, has the drop tanks in the wrong location. They are suppose to be on station 99, that means from the center line of the fuselage to the center line of the drop tank its 99 inches , hence from drop tank center to drop tank center it should be 99 plus 99 or 198 inches, that would be 4 1/8 inches in 1/48 scale, check it out and let me know if Monogram got it right. The gent that clued me in on this said the only model that has the drop tanks right is the Revell F-86D, all others are wrong. I checked it out in some pics and HE'S RIGHT!!!!---HTH---John Just looked in my books and be aware that not all decal sheets have the Dragon the right colors. Fujimi has the dragon green with green spikes on it's back, the REAL dragon was dark green with red scales on it's back, Airfix has come closest so far for colors.---John Edited April 7, 2018 by john53 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) Hey John53, thanks for the pic. I have made more progress. I forgot to take pictures, but I did more work on the seat and painting the control stick The gun bay door was not a great fit. If you remember my F-104 build from the classic kits build, I used to go scorched earth with 220 grit sand paper and tons of putty. It does the job, but you sand away half the model. I have since refined my approach. I start with 400 grit sand paper and use accelerated CA as filler. Not only can you sand immediately, the CA is hard, and does not shrink. I have also started using files after watching lots of you tube videos. So instead of sanding away half the airframe and waiting hours for putty to dry, after 30 minutes of work, this is what I ended up with I lost more raised detail than I would like, but still better than a mess like this: (my aforementioned f-104) Spot priming reveals I almost had it perfect in one shot. Just a few scratches to fix I have things to do tomorrow, so it is an early nite. Till next time .... Edited April 7, 2018 by Kurt H. fixing multiple errors Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) It looks like Microscale has remastered and re released this sheet. It is not yet in stock. It does have the dragon on both sides, but It also has nice clear stencils, and nice instrument panels. http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=ac48-0061&Category_Code=NEWRLSAir Edited April 7, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john53 Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) The dragon colors look right but I still don't understand why they don't have the correct decals for the right side of the aircraft. I've always been told to be leery of certain decal makers. Although Academy got it right!!!!! Airfix isn't much better, I have the right dragon but no decals for the right side!!!!!--John Edited April 7, 2018 by john53 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 8, 2018 Author Share Posted April 8, 2018 (edited) I am posting from my phone, for some reason i can not access arc forums from verizon fios. I did a little more work in the cockpit I picked out details with a toothpick, and painted the straps on the seat Hopefully verizon will sort out the connectivity issue. Edited April 8, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) Last night I clear coated the seat and cockpit tub with tamiya X-22 in anticipation of an oil wash This gives a nice base to do a wash The effect might be a bit overdone, but it has more depth and shadow to the seat I used payne gray in the cockpit, just to give a little tonal variation After installing the instrument panel and stick, I saw no reason not to proceed to join the fuselage halves Sanding and then wing and nose wheel bay tomorrow. Edited April 10, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 (edited) Despite my best effort, the fuselage seam was slightly mis matched. After a pass with 400 grit sandpaper, I used accelerated CA to feather the ridge, and sanded a bit more. The seam ended up pretty nice in 15 minutes, 2 rounds of sanding and glue. This would have taken me several days with putty. Since it looked ok, I glued in the nose gear well. I did some minor gap filling on the wing, and glued it in place as well. I made sure the upper joint was level at the expense of a bit of a ledge on the bottom. That will be easier to fix than a mess on the top. I will pick this up again tomorrow. Edited April 23, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 13, 2018 Author Share Posted April 13, 2018 With lots of time today, I came somewhat close to my goal of being ready for paint in 1 week, but not quite. I did two rounds of CA, Sand, repeat and ended up with this. I plugged the hole for the tail prop with a strecthed sprue nub, and sanded it smooth. It feels smooth, primer will reveal the truth. The wings had a bit of a gap. for this gap, I decided to use perfect plastic putty, I like this putty for this kid of gap, since it is hard to sand. I used a Qtip moistened in water to smooth the joint If I am lucky it will address the gap. The same thing was done with the stabilators Since this is a tail sitter, I glued two sinkers in place next, I attached the nose it is slightly smaller in diameter than the fuselage After I a few hours I decided to try CA again... I figured it was worth a try, but I figured it might need putty instead, but CA did the job: The bottom looks good as well I will not be able to work on this for a few days, but being ready for primer in 1 week is an improvement for me, I typically build at a glacial pace. till next time! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
airmechaja Posted April 13, 2018 Share Posted April 13, 2018 You and me both. I've never had a kit ready for primer in a month let alone a week. It's looking good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 14, 2018 Share Posted April 14, 2018 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 On 4/14/2018 at 8:56 AM, AX 365 said: 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 Ah yes I know I read about that scoop somewhere. It would have been easier to fix before assembly, but I like some plastic surgery, I will see what I can do. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 I removed the scoop with a razor saw, followed by a file, and then sanding to make the surface smooth. Now it should be ready for spot priming Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 19, 2018 Author Share Posted April 19, 2018 I did some spot priming tonight and the bottom over all the seams are pretty good, there are a few spots which need some more work, but for a first pass, I am pretty happy. I took more pictures, but it was hard for me to capture with a camera what my eyes can see, and the lighting at my bench is not optimal for photography. I will pick it up again tomorrow. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 21, 2018 Author Share Posted April 21, 2018 (edited) Now I am getting to the phase where there is not a much visual progress, yet it still takes a lot of time. I touched up the small areas which required attention. There was a chunk missing on the tail which I filled in with putty. I gave the model a good scrub, and masked the transparent parts. I glued the windscreen on after masking with frisket film. After a lot of fettling this was the best I could get with the fit, it fits ok in the front, and on the drivers side, but the other side, there is a step. I think I can massage it with perfect plastic putty I also cleaned up the wheels, but it was more than flash, more like a mold mismatch. I scraped them into some semblance of roundness I am tired so I will call it a night. see ya next time Edited April 21, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 22, 2018 Author Share Posted April 22, 2018 Quick update, I am at a bit of a standstill waiting on putty to dry I found gaps around the windscreen. I filed down the fuselage where it meets the windscreen to reduce the step. Next, I used perfect plastic putty followed by a wet qtip. I will let that try then spot prime It looks like it is slightly crooked It does not line up properly on this side. I had a lot of trouble getting it to stay put, maybe the fuselage halves are not quite squared up, or I messed up something else. I think it will look ok as long as the gap is not prominent. I have plenty of other projects to keep me busy, and I need to straighten up the work bench, so I have plenty to do until tomorrow when this putty is dry enough to prime Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 I noticed when looking at my last post I sanded or filed through the masking on one side. So, I was was left with a primered spot that was also scratched. I removed the mask on that side and my fears were confirmed. The picture did not come out well, but it was not pretty. I figured I could remove the primer, and polish the scratch in one step with a tri grit sanding stick, followed by novus plastic polish. It came out ok. Not perfect, but better than a big scratch. I have also used mr surfacer 500 to try and fill in the gap. I decided to mask it again, however this time I used strips of tamiya tape, cut from a length of 6 mm tape I filled in the center with more tape, and applied another coat of mr surfacer. I will not settle for poorly fitting glass! bye for now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 (edited) I have not forgotten this thread. I have spent the last week trying to beat the windcreen into shape. I figured I would spare you the torture of more posts of the same area of the model. Any way, the last round of mr surfacer, sand, prime repeat still shows a small area to address. I could not get a good picture. I applied some more mr surfacer 1000 and hopefully it will be enough. By the end of the week my goal is to have the model primered Edited May 3, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 (edited) The adventure continues with the F-86 I glued the main canopy to the frame. It fit ok, but not perfectly I used Perfect Plastuc putty and a wet Q-tip to address the gaps so, then it was on to primer. I used Mr, Surface 1500 Black here are the wheels, and tanks and the whole model: I did notice at least once area which needed attention, but for the most part the seams and surface look good. Edited May 3, 2018 by Kurt H. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kurt H. Posted May 13, 2018 Author Share Posted May 13, 2018 The past two weeks have flown by and I did not have much time to devote to models. In the time I did find, I decided to remove the canopy for some reason, since it slides open and closed. Unfortunately, clear part came detached from the frame. I glued them back together, but I ended up with a gap I did some sanding and realized "real" putty was required, so out came the 3M acryl blue that looks bad, I know. I tried removing excess with a putty spatula but this putty seems to develop a bit of a skin when you apply it so you get this crusting effect. Careful sanding should smooth it all out.I did notice a few things to fix on the airframe, so another round of primer is needed regardless. well .. see ya next time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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