Hellenic Air Force
Sabre F-86 E(M)
The F-86 Sabre was
the U.S. Air Forces successor to the P-51. The F-86 was manufactured in several
countries most significantly after the U.S. was Canada via the Canadair.
At the end of WWII
as the allies were quickly capturing the German scientists involved with
designing jet aircraft, the U.S. quickly developed the swept wing XP-86 in 1947,
going into production with the F-86A just in time to deploy to Korea once the
swept winged MiG-15 showed up.
The Hellenic Air
Force has utilized many U.S. aircraft types in its inventory, including the A-7,
F-16, SB2U-5, F-102, C-47, C-130 and the venerable F-86.
During the NATO
Military Assistance Program, the HAF received 110 Canadair CL-13 Sabres Mk II
and at least one MK IV, from June 1954. Serving in the newly created 341, 342,
and 343 squadrons of the 112 combat wing. The squadrons were moved to Tanagra
Air Base in 1957, forming the 114 Combat Wing. All aircraft were powered by the
J47-GE-13 engine. “E(M)” designated the aircraft had been modified to the
6-3 wing, therefore the use of the F-86F Hasegawa kit for this model. They also
sported the early style “V” windshield, which up to this point I had not
heard of, so something new. Since no such windscreen is available in any kit in
any scale, I retained the kits screen as not wanting to kitbash an unknown. I
did finally find a picture of an HAF F-86 with the screen, very interesting.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The 343 was
moved to 111th Combat Wing in 1958, followed by the 341st in 1960. The
341st was the last squadron to fly the Sabre until 1965. The most famous
Sabres were that of the “Hellenic Flame” Aerobatic team flying
Sabres obtained from the 341st, until 1965.
The Hasegawa model
is well designed and crisply manufactured. These are the markings of 341
squadron of the 114 CW. Aircraft is silver metallic lacquer with a red
tail, used Testors silver, flat red and flat black spray paints. The Icarus
decals run about $17, are printed quite well, but had a problem with them
adhering to the model. I used my normal Micro Sol solution, but they easily slid
hours after application. Even wiping the model down 48 hours afterwards, a bit
of moister caused larger decals to slide off. After thoroughly drying for
72 hours, I decided to give it a coat of Testers dullcoat, after that they
stayed on fine.
It is a good
representation of a Hellenic Sabre, but not accurate because of the missing
“V” screen.
Sources: Icarus
Decal Sheet, www.haf.gr
web site, Hasegawa Instruction sheet
Mark L. Rossmann
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