1/48 Hasegawa F-86F Sabre

Gallery Article by Alan Williamson on Feb 17 2010

 

Kit: 1/48 Hasegawa F-86F Sabre 09483

Additions:

  • Aires F-86F Sabre Cockpit set 4022

  • Aero Master USAF Korean War Sabre Jets Pt.I (F-86F/Es) 48-749

Construction:
I brought this kit from my local Hobby shop some years back on inspection of the kit I decided that the Hasegawa cockpit would not do. The kit cockpit lacked detail, funny most of Hasegawa's 1/48 jet range cockpits seem to lack detail, yet their 1/48 W.W.II aircraft cockpit detail is quite good.  I searched Aires on line catalog and found that Aires made a cockpit for this kit, I sent Craig at Aerworks an E-mail and placed an order for the resin cockpit.  Once the cockpit arrived, I started the build.  I started with the Aires cockpit I shaved off all the excess resin and then began to paint the cockpit, I used Model Master Gray FS36231.  Once the cockpit was painted I used the Tamiya Weathering sets and set about giving the cockpit some depth I then sealed the Weathering set using my airbrush and airbrushing a cote of matt clear.  With the cockpit painted and now assembled I had to modify the kit fuselage halves as well as the intake, using my small hand held drill/sander I went to work on thinning out the inner fuselage halves and the intake were the kit cockpit would sit.  A lot of dry fitting was needed before I was happy with the cockpit fit.  I do however find that fit problems still arise from using a resin cockpit/detail set, I found that I still had a slight gap in the forward halve of the fuselage once the halves were together, just under the cockpit windscreen. A little Tamiya putty and some light wet rub fixed the problem. It was time to attach the wings to the fuselage I believe this kit could use a little more detail if not depth in the wheel wells other wise this kit represents a nice looking F-86F. 

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Painting, Decals and Finish
This was the part of the build that set me back I had a lot of trouble with the paint and the kit decals. I decided to paint the entire kit in Model Master aluminum plate the first attempt failed the paint started to develop crows feet over the kit, so out came the oven cleaner a trick I picked up reading other articles on this site.  Once I had removed the paint from the entire kit with the oven cleaner and washed the kit twice, I began to paint it yet again.... Success, I was happy with the paint and finish. I airbrushed a cote of clear over the kit ready for the decals. I began to use the kit decals I wanted to make up the F-86F that Capt. Ralph S. Parr flew in 1953. I started placing the yellow stripes decals on first using decal solution but after half an hour the decals and paint started to react. I was not happy, out came the oven cleaner and off came the paint and what decals I had placed on. The kit was again washed twice before I re-painted it. I attempted to paint on the yellow stripes however I could not get the black boarder around the yellow stripes right after a number of failed attempts I decided for the third time to strip the kit of all its paint. Again the kit was washed twice I sent Craig at Aeroworks an E-mail to obtain some decals with the yellow stripes.  The only ones he had in stock were Aero Master USAF Korean War Sabre Jets Pt.I (F-86F/Es) 48-749. However when they arrived I was so annoyed about the hassle I was having with the painting of the kit that the kit sat on the shelf for around a year.... That was until I watched a series on Foxtel call "Dog Fights". This series spoke to actual pilots form past and present on their encounters in dog fight situations and reenacted the dog fight with computer generation. One episode was on Capt. Ralph S. Parr and his F-86F Barb. That was what I needed the F-86 came off the shelf and I attempted to for a fourth time paint and place decals, this time I had success that is except for the decal of Capt. Ralph's name on the canopy window it went to pieces on me so I wrote it on using a red pen didn't work like I had hoped. With the decals now in place I airbrushed the kit in a cote of gloss clear followed up with a wet pastel wash, which was sealed in with a cote of matt clear being airbrushed over the kit. I then attached the landing gear, doors, drop tanks and cockpit canopy, and that was it finished. 

Capt. Ralph S. Parr
After watching the episode of "Dog Fights" on Capt. Ralph and his F-86F Barb I was amazed at his tour in the Korean War and what he faced and achieved to become a select few of the American Aces of the Korean War. Capt Ralph was 28 at the start of his tour in the Korean War. On June 7th 1953 Capt. Ralph got himself and his F-86F into a incredible dog fight, in this particular mission over the Yowloo River at 43,000 feet Capt. Ralphs flight of four F-86F's were jumped by a flight of MIG 15 at nine o'clock high, splitting up the formation of four F-86F's Capt. Ralph Parr and his wing man were now alone, when Parr spotted a MIG-15 at tree top level, Parr wing over with a spit S to intercept the MiG at tree top level, leaving his wingman behind.  Because of Parr's sudden maneuver his wingman was unable to follow as he could not find Parr even after asking were Parr had gone.  Parr with the throttle of his F-86F fire walled was in a dive diving on the MIG-15 below at tree top level Parr pushed his F-86F past 670 miles into a dive cracking the sound barrier passing Mac 1. In a vertical dive such as this the F-86F's flight controls were ill equipped to deal with this speed in the dive. The F-86F needed 14,000 feet to pull out of the dive. Parr began to pull back on the stick of his F-86 Parr had to deal with nine times the pull of gravity to pull the F-86 out of the dive.  Parr pulls the F-86 out of the dive at ground level right behind the MIG, problem being he was now alone and there was not just one MIG but 16 MIG's. Parr put the pipper on the lead MIG and squeezed a round.  Suddenly the flight of 16 MIG's spit their formation Parr stuck with the lead MIG.  Parr's next problem that the bulb in his gun sight had gone out which he put down to the extreme conditions the F-86 went though in the dive.  However Parr continued his pursuit on the lead MIG.  At 500 feet from ground Parr found himself in a rolling scissors maneuver with the MIG canopy to canopy.  Parr claims that both him and the MIG were so close that he could see the MIG pilot shoe laces though the canopy.  Both Parr and the MIG continued with the rolling scissors maneuver bleeding of power trying to get behind one another for a shot.  Finally the MIG pilot made a mistake by not bleeding off enough speed putting him in front of Parr however Parr was too close to fire, he was put inches off the nose of his F-86 from the tail pipe of the MIG.  Parr chopped the speed brakes giving enough distance from him to the MIG.  Parr squeezed the trigger on the F-86 and the six 12.7mm machine guns came to life the MIG-15 was hit and plowed straight in to a mountain.  Parr now finds he has eight MIG-15 on his tail, Parr Snap rolls his F-86 and three MIG's over shoot Parr fires giving himself two MIG's Parr now has ten kills to his name and is one of eleven pilots to clam Ace over in Korea, Parr disengages and meets back up with his squadron.  Parr went on to become a double ace in the closing stage of the Korean War.  After the Korean War Parr found himself flying again this time it was Phantoms over Vietnam in the Vietnam War.

Thanks

  • Steve Bamford for allowing me to place my photos and articles on this site
  • Craig at Aroworks for getting in the Aires cockpit and Decals. Craig can be contacted at aeroworks@iprimus.com.au

Alan Williamson

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Photos and text © by Alan Williamson