Aussie Sabre

[Loopyduck]

Hi all, this will be my very first build thread so please be gentle LOL.

Since getting back into modelling around 12 months ago now I have been getting Royal Australian Air Force subjects done. I managed to get my hands on a kit depicting our license built Sabre and finally decided to tackle the little beastie.

The kit is a Highplanes 1/48 CA-27 Sabre (kit #K048010) This is actually an Academy F-86F kit married with some conversion parts to allow for the many modifications that the Aussie Sabre carried. The biggest of those modifications was the installation of a Rolls Royce Avon engine instead of the GE J47 and replacement of the six .50 calibre machine guns with two 30mm cannon. The end result was that around 60% or more of the original airframe had to be modified.





The kit kit also comes with decals from Southern Sky Models which provides for a number of different schemes (as long as you like natural metal finish as a base colour } The decals look a bit old so not sure how they will come out but fingers crossed.

[Loopyduck]

Construction time..... The instructions are OK but as I would soon discover would not be entirely accurate. The first step was to cut away the top half of the air intake before joining the intake halves together. This would allow the conversion part to be glued into place. On the real aircraft the Avon engine required a 25% larger intake hence the conversion piece. This process would also introduce me to the delights of scraping, filling and sanding that would become the norm with this kit.



I decided to glue the wing halves together at this point. I first drilled out the holes for the stores pylons and then sanded down the thick trailing edges. Once the wings were glued there was only some minor filling and sanding required. It was at this point that I discovered how wrong the instructions actually were. I had drilled out the wrong holes for the drop tanks and associated sway arms. Luckily I have a Hasegawa F-86F sitting in the stash so I was able to use the lower wing half from that kit as a guide to get the correct hole placement. A quick thump across the head and a reminder to double check my references in future LOL.

I also decided at this point to glue the fuselage halves together at the tail only. There were no guide pins on the conversion pieces and by gluing just the tail I figured it would make it easier to get the correct alignment while still allowing me to get the exhaust and cockpit assemblies into place later on.

[Loopyduck]

Next step was to get the cockpit all done. As there were no guides on the inside of the fuselage to place the cockpit I decided that I would glue the nose piece to the air intake. I figured this would save me any potential grief by not having the intake and nose line up correctly if I had done it another way. Next came painting of the cockpit area. I added some scratch built shoulder harnesses made from painted masking tape and some triangular pieces out of the spares box. Some weight for the nose was also added at this point as getting it in later when everything was buttoned up would be nigh on impossible.

The end result will not be perfect and not entirely accurate but at least it will look effective through the canopy.

[Loopyduck]

Next up was to put in place the exhaust and cockpit assemblies. Some minor modifications on the exhaust and it went in easily. The cockpit however was a different story. The instructions warned me about needing to make adjustments so that the cockpit would fit in place correctly but that was a massive understatement. It took major surgery, healthy doses of filler and a whole lot of patience to get things to fit. I got it all done in the end but what a job. With the cockpit in place the fuselage was glued up.

[Loopyduck]

Where I am at the moment. Weeks down the track and not much sanity left hehehehehehe. The wings and fuselage have been mated and various vents and panels glued into place along with the compulsory filling and sanding. That should be the worst of it over with and things should be more straightforward from here. At least it's finally starting to look like a Sabre.

[Nesher]

Nice! It is always interesting to see lesser known variants of classic airframes Will you be fitting Sidewinders to it?

[Loopyduck]

Nesher, yes I'll be throwing a couple of Sidewinders on to it. Even though I'll be using decals associated with an aerobatic team, I think it will look a little boring with just the drop tanks. So weapons are go

[vyper1]

Love the extra attention to the cockpit, waiting to see this one finished

[Loopyduck]

What was left of my sanity disappeared pretty quickly after giving this beast a coat of primer and seeing just how much more clean up work with sanding and filling was needed. At this point I was giving serious consideration to putting the whole thing away and doing something else for a while but I decided to persevere. I got it re-primed and looking like I could accept it as a suitable piece of work.



Now it was time for paint.I had originally decided to go with Alclad Polished Aluminium but a final safety check on colour schemes saved me from a fatal mistake. Australian Sabres did not have a natural metal finish but were painted in silver lacquer instead. I made the switch to Vallejo's Model Air Chrome and gave the model a couple of coats.



With the base coat down it was time to add the details of black wing and tail tips with white edging. A similar pattern for the nose and various other colours as needed, all done with Tamiya acrylic. I used metallic grey on the gun ports and tail exhaust.





Next step will be a gloss coat and the decals, if I haven't been sent to an asylum first LOL.

[vyper1]

Nicely done so far

[Russ72]

Nice work Glen. Well worth the persistence.

[SyntaxModels]

Awesome stuff, I will have to order me one of these!

[Art17847]

coming along great ....nice job with the cockpit

[UKguyInUSA]

Excellent first build thread mate, she's looking fab so far!