North American F-86F Sabre

1
May 6, 2017
Alclad II worked fine, although I expected it to be stronger, in the plastic spoon it sticked very hard but in the model, as I was sanding, it nocked out some chips that I had to sand down and retoutch, about 2 times,but in the end that´s the result.
2
May 6, 2017
Here is the right side of the wing done, with rivets and polished with finger nail polisher stick, we can compare with the original side on the left.
3
May 6, 2017
After a visit to the Wernigerode Luftfahrtmuseum, were I could analize the real plane very close, I notice the complete absense in the kit of the landing lights that fold flat in the surface, so here I will recriate that as good as I can
4
May 6, 2017
The rivets were done all free hand and I think next time I will try to use a ruller to get them more straight, some areas they were a bit too deep and in others almost vanishing, but I gess that´s the way to learn: practice, overall I like the result...
5
May 6, 2017
After a lot of sanding, polishing, gap and sink marks filling riveting, polishing more. 3 coats of primer with sanding and repairs in between, the gloss coat is done.
6
May 6, 2017
Airfix have the sprue gate located exatly over the center welding line of the tank, in one of them I maneged to reshape the missing bit but in the other I damaged the surface around, not nice for NMF, so I sanded off completely to add stretched sprue.
7
May 13, 2017
First color on, mrp super silver metallic
8
May 13, 2017
I masked some of the black primer to paint them in another shade
9
May 13, 2017
Second color on, MRP Chrome, I have not maskedked anything, I just removed the masks that protected the black in the previous step
10
May 13, 2017
The chrome covers very slow and have not much effect overcoating the silver, I can still see clearly the demarcation line if the tape
11
May 16, 2017
Adding some variation to the metallic surface
12
May 16, 2017
I used some mr color 8 in the center of the panels of the ailerons and flaps to add a bit of interest in the model
13
May 16, 2017
Decal madness on the way!
14
May 16, 2017
We have wheels... and it's not a tail seater, good thing!
15
May 17, 2017
Airfix haven't provided any way to make the front cover, not even a panel line gap, so I made myself one decal out of the provided "spare decal" using one circular cutter.
16
May 21, 2017
Finished! it is still reflexive in places under some angles, but without clear coat I run the risk of finger prints and the decals to came off eventualy (when I was masking some areas to retouch the metal finish, chunks of the big "USAF" came right off!
17
May 21, 2017
I'm afraid of the durability of the finish, After the incidend with the "USAF" decal camming off in the masking tape I was scared to death, thankfuly I repared the damage and so far I have been handeling it with care using latex gloves
18
May 21, 2017
I placed one order for one alclad ll aquagloss, I'll try it to seal the model, I used Tamiya pannel accent wash for the airelons and flaps only
19
May 21, 2017
Not much weathering going on, panel lines are already very deep, I'll not "accentuate" them
20
May 21, 2017
that was a longer road than I was expecting, but I loved the experience.
21
May 21, 2017
Froom some angles is possible to see the carrier film of the decals, I will try some Alclad ll aquagloss as soon as it arive to see if it can fix the problem...
22
May 21, 2017
The overall looks convincing to me.
23
May 21, 2017
The landing lights were improvised, the rivets were done with RB production.
24
May 21, 2017
The black detail in the front of the nose cutted off from the spare decal really worked well, I used Revell decal soft and hair dryer with a lot of patience it conformed nicely to the surface with minimum wrinkles.
25
May 21, 2017
The navigation lights on the tip of wings were sanded off early in the building process, I used one blob of 2 part transparent epoxy to recriate that, and I used on top clear green, red and orange in the tail.
26
May 21, 2017
the machine gun´s pannel was masked and painted with Mr Hobby buffables in a mix of iron and stainless steel, and than buffed to shine
27
May 21, 2017
Seat from Pavla, had to sand the sides to make it fit,They do also the full interior for this kit, the back of the canopy was improved with some wiring, the "Maj Blenn" should be placed in the frame of the canopy, but obviously there´s no space
28
May 21, 2017
after painting one thing anoys me: the difference in the rivet's depth, too deep in one wing and vanishing in the other, next time 'll be more carefull using ruller to straight them up and be sure they look consistent troughout the model.
29
May 21, 2017
real lights as well as the navigation lights were chopped off early in the build process, replaced afterwards for 2 part clear epoxy, here painted over with orange clear from tamiya
30
May 21, 2017
the landing lights that I created previously in front of the noose landing gear, were painted with Molotow liquid chrome marker and filled with Revell Contacta Clear (similar to micro kristal klear) the tip of pitot tube was replaced for hipodermic needle
31
May 21, 2017
one lesson learned is that when I atempt to make rivets, I have to be more constant in the pressure and carefull wen sanding it: some areas are deep and in others it almost desapear
32
May 21, 2017
the resin wheels are realy one welcome improvement over the kit ones. I think now that I could have used some aftermarket pthotoetch for the instrumentation as the canopy is very clear.
33
May 21, 2017
overall alignment is ok, the shape of the canopy could have been better fron the front section and the frame in the rear botton is far too thin, but worked out nicely.
34
May 21, 2017
also the ejector seat helped a lot, it is very visible from the canopy, I have removed the internal transparent locator tabs from the clear part because they would be evident later, I chopped them off, sanded and polished, I think I did a good job there.

Comments

1 6 May 2017, 20:51

Martin Oostrom
It looks like you put in a lot of effort. The result is fine by me 👍

6 May 2017, 22:59

Spanjaard
looking quite interesting, i will certainly follow

7 May 2017, 08:31

Ekki
Watching.

7 May 2017, 08:53

Christian Bruer
Very nice work so far Cesar 👍 Looking forward to the first coat of the NMF.

Cheers, Christian

7 May 2017, 08:58

Stefan Schacht
Hi Cesar, nice start. I take a seat. Cheers Stefan

13 May 2017, 12:05

Spanjaard
metallic color looking fantastic!

13 May 2017, 16:52

John Thomas
Nice work

13 May 2017, 17:42

Stephan Ryll
What a shiny Bird ! 👍

16 May 2017, 16:22

Gerald
Nice work 👍

21 May 2017, 12:59

Christian Bruer
Excellent work and finish Cesar 👍

21 May 2017, 13:25

Łukasz Gliński
Splendid NMF and a nice tutorial, thx

21 May 2017, 18:35

Ekki
Fabulous job. Well done.

21 May 2017, 18:36

Gordon Ormiston
???? I wish I could get metallics looking this good

21 May 2017, 19:10

Roberto Rocat
Shining beauty 👍

21 May 2017, 19:27

Robert W Martel
Very Nice Job !! Love the F-86. 👍

22 May 2017, 02:35

Album info

In this project I will test my Ideas in refining my NMF output, fully riveting, and polishing the textured surface from airfix, bringing the overall look to be less toy-like, let´s see what I can achieve.

I don´t have many construction pictures this time, hope to get it done faster and put the pictures of the result as soon as I can

North American F-86F Sabre

34 images

1:72

Completed

1:72 North American F-86F/E(M) Sabre (Airfix A03082A)

1:72 T-14EA for F-86F (E) Sabre (Pavla Models S72066)

1:72 F-86F Sabre wheels (Pavla Models U72-126)

1:72 F-86A Sabre Vacuform Canopy (Pavla Models V72-93)

North American F-86F-30-NA Sabre

US Air Force (1947-now)
25 FIS, 51 FIG 52-4584/MIG Mad Marine (Maj. John H. Glenn)
1953 Korean War - Suwon AB

NMF

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