1/48 Hasegawa F-86E Sabre Jet

RCAF Golden Hawks

by Rodney Williams

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This 1/48 scale F-86F30 Sabre Jet model was manufactured by Hasegawa, kit number "PT13:3200."  I purchased the brass landing gear set made by "Teknics" TK4851-1/48 F-86 Sabre Landing Gear set.  Going for broke on this model, I bought the cast resin cockpit set made by Kendall Model's, #48-605.  It all came from Hobby Town USA, at a cost of about 50 bucks. 
 
This resin cockpit set, is somewhat of a "spin-off" of the kit parts.  I used the cockpit tub and the seat, which was extra nice.  I used the kits instrument panel, as it was molded a bit better than the cast resin part.
 
Thinking ahead, I planned to use the inlet/outlet covers, part numbers "A6" and "A5," therefore I did not need some interior fuselage parts, (EG: G3, G4, and G6, which makes up the exhaust cone outlet).  Parts G1, G2 and G5 make up the "intake duct assembly," which has to be put into the model as the cockpit sets on it.
 
After the cockpit was painted with my Tamiya colors,  I dry brushed the side consoles and other parts with my SnJ aluminum powder.  I have used a 1/4" wide soft brush for this application for about 20 years.    I put some aluminum powder into the bottle cap, and swish the small brush around and round.  I shake off the brush (outside) and get as much powder out of it as possible.  I rub the brush lightly across the instrument panel, seat, and side consoles.  The powder sticks to the Tamiya paint, and highlights the raised items.  I was never good at dry brushing Testors' aluminum paint, so I had to do something else to get my desired effect.
 

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The finished cockpit was white glued onto the "intake duct assembly," which was white glued to the right fuselage half.  I put the two fuselage halves together and held them in place with masking tape.  After checking for cockpit alignment, the fuselage halves were super glued together.  Once the wings and tail plane parts were glued on, I pushed in some round wooden tooth picks into the three landing gear openings.  While the model sat on its' tail, I poured some white glue into the intake duct and started to put in the lead "BB's."  Once it sat on the front wooden tooth pick nose gear strut, I added a couple of extra "BB's."  
 
Long ago I used SnJ Spray Metal Gold enamel paint to trim out my lavender pink Caddy convertible, which is on this web site.  So it was only natural that I go for the gold,  "SnJ GOLD."  I have several "SnJ" model stories on ARC using the aluminum paint, so this is my one and only gold paint story.  After the model was sanded down to 1500 grit using 3M wet/dry sandpaper, I was ready to apply the gold enamel paint.  I tried something different on this paint job, compared to my bare metal SnJ aluminum painting applications. ( I have never applied an undercoat before using SnJ aluminum paint).
 

 
The kit plastic was a light to medium gray color, so I choose to paint it with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White Acrylic paint.  After a few light coats of the white paint, I rubbed down the paint with cotton balls.  I found and fixed a few flaws on the model, then added some more white paint. 
 
I backed off, and wondered if the SnJ gold enamel paint would stick to Tamiya's acrylic paint ?................so it was "TEST TIME."  I used some spare kit parts and applied the Tamiya paint, then rubbed it down with cotton.  I applied the SnJ gold paint, and after a few hours polished it with the gold powder.  A few days later, I added my 50-50 mixture of Future Floor Wax with Denatured Alcohol.  I added a spare Leading Edge RCAF decal, then sprayed on more of my Future mix.  Several days passed will no ill effects to my "test."
 
Spraying on my paint out in my garage, I got some lint on my gold paint, and also in my Future Floor Wax application, which presents some minor sanding with my 3M 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper and clean water.  
 
I date all my paint bottles, so I know when I acquired them.  I have a date of December 13, 2001 written on the bottle of SnJ Gold paint.  I have other SnJ paints with dates of 1988 on them, and they are still good.  (EG:  I used my 1988 SnJ Copper on the inside of the canopy to represent the built in antenna wires).   
 
I lucked out a few months ago as I guy by the name of Donald Radke who lives near Toronto, Ontario Canada contacted me about one of my models.  In turn, Don sent me a gold paint chip color patch, via an email attachment.  This color patch represents the gold paint color which "RCAF" used on their Sabre Jets during the late 50's and early 1960's.  He also gave me a web sit, which shows the Sabre's in a museum and in flight. 
 
In the end, my SnJ Gold color is close to the original color they put on the real aircraft.  However, the old saying from a IPMS/USA head judge is:  " It's not what shade of color you paint on your model, it's How Well You Applied it. "
 

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I purchased the RCAF GOLDEN HAWKS decals from Uncle Bill's Hobby up in Canada for $9.00U.S; which included shipping to my home in California.
I ran into a minor problem when I started to apply the fuselage decals.  The Leading Edge drawings, plus the photo of the real Sabre Jet shows that the aft horizontal decal butts up to the angled bare metal tail cone.  This horizontal decal went on A-OK and matched up to the bare metal area at the panel line.  All of the Canadian Insignia's are the same size, so I butted up one to the front curved section of the aft horizontal decal.  ((So far, so good)).  I carefully slid on the long front horizontal decal, and noticed that the front of the decal covered up the three openings for the .050" cal. guns.  I had no choice but to wet the insignia and remove it.  I slid the long front horizontal decal toward the rear about 1/4 of an inch until it looked like it was back far enough to match the art drawing.  I reattached the insignia decal.  I have no idea why the decals are so long and have the proper curve on it so it matches up with the insignia.  I have seen other 1/48 scale models on the web with these decals on it, yet not one of the modeler's have mentioned this problem.  The other problem with these decals are: Using Micro-Set and Sol, none of the decals sucked down into the panel lines, thus it makes your model look funny when the panel line disappear in the decal area.  So much for thick decals !
 
I added some hand made running lights, and a paper Bare Metal Foil "Remove Before Flight" tag on the pitot tube.   Like my red F-86D Sabre Jet, I glued on the windscreen with Future Floor Wax, and added Tamiya's XF-1 Flat Black for the "anti-glare" panel. 
 
Photo Data:  My model was photographer by me, using my new Konica/Minolta DiMAGE Z3 4.0 mega pixel camera.  I choose this camera as it has two different "macro" close-up settings.  It has a "viewfinder" with a "diopter" adjustment setting, so you do not need to wear your glasses.  Then it has the "Anti-Shake" system which old people like me with shaky hands can use, and not have all your photos screwed up.  It has several other features, including your ability to set the camera for good depth-of-field, when in standard and/or either "macro" close up modes.  It has a staggering 123 page instruction book.  It's a bit too much bull for this retired professional still photographer, who used the ultimate still camera, the Hasselblad 500EL and ELM 2-1/4" format system.  My instruction book for said camera has about ten pages.  Other than the electric motor, it has a built in light meter, and you set everything else.  I shot about 400 thousand perfect photos with my "BLAD," over a 30 year photographic career. 
 
With this Minolta, I'm glad they have a "DELETE" button.  I purchased the camera from ADORAMA, INC. ( www.adorama.com ).  I have dealt with this company for about 20 years.  They are in New York City.  The camera cost around $465.00 including a 16 MB and a 512MB card with free shipping to my new home here in Colorado.  They beat everyone's price, including the so called LOW PRICE LEADER-ALWAYS............ Yes, I mean WAL*MART.    
 
Well...........IT'S HAPPY MODEL TIME 
Rodney
 

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Photos and text © by Rodney Williams