Right On Replicas, LLC Step-by-Step Review * F-86D Sabre Dog 1:48 Scale Revell Model Kit # Review

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1 Right On Replicas, LLC Step-by-Step Review * F-86D Sabre Dog 1:48 Scale Revell Model Kit # Review Further development of the F-86 led to the radar-guided, rocket armed F-86D or Dog Sabre. This aircraft differed in so many ways that it received the designation YF-95A, but was classified as the F-86D. In the nose the F-86D carried an APS-6 radar for its role as an all-weather fighter. The fuselage was widened to provide room for the General Electric J47-GE-17 and could obtain a top speed of 707 mph at sea level. The inch Mighty Mouse rockets were carried in a retractable tray in the fuselage and when firing would immediately extend only long enough for the missiles to clear. 2,504 F-86D s were delivered to the Air Force beginning in March The F86D had a wingspan of 37 feet 1 inch, the length is 40 feet 4 inches and had a height of 15 feet. In the early 1950 s the F-86D established several new world speed records. For the Modeler: This review covers the North American F-86D Saber Dog 1:48 Scale Revell model Kit # This is a much welcome kit compared to the older Lindberg kit. It is a skill level 3 plastic kit molded in light gray with a clear canopy containing 104 parts. It includes waterslide decals for two aircraft. Detailed instructions feature a paint guide and numbered parts name list; a 13 step construction process and three step decal placement. Overall assembled size is: Length 10 1/8 x Wingspan 9 1/8.

2 Pic_001, 002 This is the box art for the kit and on the right is the decal sheet. I used Plastruct liquid cement for assembling the parts. Model Master enamel paint and good quality brushes for general parts painting and Model Master Metalizer (Aluminum Buffing) and Sealer in a spray can for the overall model coverage. Tamiya masking tape, Solvaset to help the decals settle and Testors Gloss coat for before and after decal placement. Pic_003, 004, 005 Parts trees in light gray and clear. Step 1 Pic_006, 007 The assembled cockpit consists of 17 parts, there is no fit issues with these parts just some general cleaning off any sprue that may still be on the part after removing it from the parts tree. Pic_008 Paint the over cockpit Dark Gull Gray and the control panels Flat Black and then follow the instructions for other cockpit detail.

3 Pic_009 I painted certain knobs, dials and switches red and yellow. The instrument panel gauges are painted white and the dry brushed other details with silver. Step 2 Pic_010, 013 Here I used a drop of super glue and glued the pilot figure to a pop cycle stick so that I didn t need to handle the pilot during painting. The red arrows point to seams over the helmet, sleeves, and pants that need to be sanded off. The flight suit is painted Dark Green, gloves and boots are Olive Drab, oxygen hose and goggles are Flat Black (I brushed on Future to give the goggles a shiny reflective appearance), harness Field Green with a bit of Dark Earth mixed in and the buckles painted silver, the face is painted Flesh with detailed eyes, it then received a dusting of black, brown, orange and white pastel chalk. Also the Figure was brushed with different shades to show depth and highlights.

4 Pic_011, 012 Here are the upper and lower intake ducts, there are some injector pin marks on the inside as pointed out by the arrows that need to be sanded off. The bottom half has the landing gear strut and doors attached. Pic_012 is after sanding and the interior painted Steel. Add the wheel well flaps here too Pic_014, 015 The intake ducts are glued together with the cockpit and pilot glued in place, things are beginning to look good. Step 3 Pic_016, 017 These are the rear fuselage halves which also had sink holes on each half near the exhaust. I used Milliput putty to fill in the sinks and after the putty dried I sanded away the excess until it blended. This is the only area that needed this kind of attention.

5 Pic_018 Install the cockpit along with the intake (1 st arrow from the left), the rear deck with a yellow oxygen tank (2 nd arrow) the intake (3 rd arrow), there are optional parts with open intakes but the instructions show using the closed intake panel, which I used, and the air brake (4th arrow) which is molded into the fuselage. Finally, add the tailpipe to the right fuselage half at the rear end. Pic_019 Now the left fuselage half can now be joined. This is where I later ran into a problem.

6 Pic 020 While it seemed that everything was lined up and the fit was good, I later realized that the intake duct was not in the correct location. I didn t discover this until I was ready to glue the nose piece on, which I will later explain. ***NOTE*** you will want to make sure in this step that the front of the intake is lined up with the front edge of the fuselage halves. I did not have any issues gluing the fuselage halves together. I did not glue the nose radome on in this step because I needed to check balance with the wings and stabilizers attached to see how much weight I needed to add to the front to hold the nose down. Step 4 Pic_021, 022, 023 The arrows point out the alignment holes that will need to be drilled for the fuel tanks and sway bars. The parts for the wheel wells are glued onto the bottom wing and the wing slats fit nicely. There was a small amount of flash on the front edge of the slats that only took a quick sanding to clean up. The wings and fuselage are now ready to be joined and this is when I ran into a little surprise. Pic_024 The arrows point to these tabs which when detatching from the sprue tree look like they are supposed to be there Nope!

7 Pic_025 There is now way possible to join wing and fuselage together with these tabs on, so I clipped them off and cleaned up the rest with an X-Acto knife and then things went together nicely. Pic_026 With wing and fuselage together it begins to look like a fighter jet.

8 Step 5 Pic_027 No problem attaching the flaps except there is a huge copyright symbol, company names and production year printed on the bottom of one of the flaps. I sanded the lettering off and I m pretty sure that you will want to also. Steps 6 & 7 Pic_028, 029 The main and nose landing gear go together good, there are some seams along the gear struts that need to be clean up and care should be taken when removing the sprue tabs so that the parts don t get damaged.

9 Steps 8 & 9 Pic_030, 033 The external fuel tanks and rocket tray assemblies are pretty straight forward, after cementing the fuel tanks together the seam where they join will have to be sanded to give them a clean look. The clear plastic support plastic support was not used because weight will be added to the nose. Pic_33 shows the position and angle of the sway bar for the fuel tanks because the way the instructions are drawn it hard to tell how that part fits. Steps (Options) I chose to have the air brakes and canopy open, these parts can be built in the closed position if you choose. In step 11 the stabilizers are attached, there is also a part that fits on the tail, this part didn t make sense to me as the tail is not molded to accept part 18. The tail section would have to be filed away in order to get the part to fit, after viewing several photos and not seeing a tail in this configuration I chose not to use that part. Step 13 I used part 96 to show the boarding ladder in the closed position and then glued the navigation lights in place. Pics_031, 032 Here the red arrow points to the intake protruding forward from the fuselage, up to this point I thought this was how it was supposed to be. I added ¼ ounce of weight to the nose and placed it on top of the intake in front of the cockpit. ***NOTE*** Now I was ready to glue the nose/radome in place but the intake was preventing it from happening. I then had to saw off, file and sand that portion of the intake to make it flush with the fuselage and then I could glue the nose in place. My mistake meant that the inlet and intake didn t line up, so I needed to file and fill with putty to have the correct look.

10 Painting Pic_034, 035 Before painting I washed the entire model with warm soapy water to remove any oils or residue from handling and sanding, and then allowed it to thoroughly dry. I masked off the windscreen, cockpit and the other clear parts and used a dowel inserted into the tailpipe to hold the model while I sprayed it with Aluminum Metalizer (buffing). After allowing the paint to dry I never touched the model with my fingers, I either used a paper towel or clear plastic wrap to hold the model. Metalizer paints are unforgiving and any scratch or blemish will show, when done right, however, the outcome is amazing. I buffed the model with a soft cloth to make it shine. Some panels were painted with Magnesium Metalizer or were gently gone over with an eraser to change the effect. Using Tamiya masking tape I masked off and painted the glare panel Olive Green and then painted the nose/radome Flat Black. The tail pipe and surrounding area were painted Burnt Iron and then had powdered pastel chalks brushed onto it. I masked off the canopy and windscreen with clear tape and with an X-Acto knife cut around the frame work and removed the tape from the frames. At this point I was ready to apply Testors Gloss Coat to the overall model. Decals I chose the markings for the model on the box art, I applied the bigger decals first and used Solvaset to get them to settle down. I really had a hard time getting the shark teeth decals to settle down and conform with the fuselage near the intake. Even after they dried they did not conform, after several more applications of Solvaset they finally formed around the curves and settled into the panel lines. I also noticed that some of the panel lines on the drawings do not match with the panel lines on the model, so I best guessed where they would be.

11 Then came the stenciled decals, there are 120 decals and some numbers have 6-8 of the same that need to be applied. For instance, like all of the No Step decals, I was very happy when after about a total time of three hours they were all on! The red stripes that go around the fuselage did not connect on the bottom so I ended up finishing the lines by painting them in. I also painted in red around the intake where the shark mouth decals didn t reach all the way. I then finished with another over spray of Testors Gloss Coat to seal the decals. Overall - This is a great looking kit when finished and I am pleased to add it to my collection. There were a few surprises along the way, some easy to solve and others not so much (mostly the intake issue that I had). But I think that there are a few things modeling teaches us, patience and problem solving. I spent about 17 hours on this kit plus the 3 hours involved with the decals. I feel that anyone will be happy with this kit and with a variety of decals they can have some great looking models.