Nice work! The NM looks flawless and the decals look perfect!

I wouldn't worry too much about using PE myself, I know some people swear by it but I find if you get all the parts straight and a good coat of paint the model looks better than a lot I've seen with badly applied PE.

Bick, I first sprayed humbroll gloss black as a base, that didn't work so I sanded it with 2000 wet paper. Then re-sprayed with matt black and put a coat of future over that for the gloss.It gave almost a glass like finish, but the masking tends to lift the alclad from that surface , so be extremely carefull.

In hindsight I will not go that route again, but rather use a gloss black lacure decanted from a rattle can as a gloss black base.

It should let the alclad adhere better I hope.

I let it dry for about a day or two before I put any decals on.

Theuns

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments - much appreciated.

@Glen - to paint the instruments I used a thin (0.02") brass wire dipped in paint to get a small drop on the end and placed the paint in the instrument. With care you can get the paint to stay inside the raised bezel of the instrument. Some people have used sharpened toothpicks but I always get too much paint with that technique.

@Theuns - Look forward to posts of your F-86. How long did you allow the polished Al to dry before you placed the decals? Maybe I was too impatient because it looked great at first but??? I had used Alclad gloss black as the base coat. I really would like to master Alclad polished aluminum.

@mkelley - the wing stripes were straight forward masking but for the fuselage I first masked the width of the band with Scotch plastic masking tape, sprayed the yellow then cut thin pieces of plastic masking tape and butted them to the edge of the previous mask. Next I masked the interior between the thin strips. That done I removed the thin strips and AB'ed black. The Scotch plastic masking tape conforms to curves, bumps etc. Try the Scotch plastic tape - you might like it.

Very nice. I have tried painting the stripes on Sabres several times and never had any luck. The finish looks flawless to me.

Ah the joys of working with Alclad. I had the same hassles with it the when I used it for the first time, masking took some off aswell as handling it. But I have learned how to do it better, and will be more carefull in the future. As for NM<F I recon there is nothing that beats alclad short of doing foil.

I will be doing my Hasa f86f in the colours of South African Air Force during Korea. Also the same design as UASF (lend lease) but we had different roundals.

Just for interest sake, I jused Alcad pollished allu on a 1/72 P-47, abd didn't put any clear gloss down before doing the decals. It worked out very well and no silvering of carrier film is visable (academy decals)

I also didn't put clear over it after decals, and the pollished allu looks really nice. Maybe I was just luck to get away with it LOL

Theuns

Wow, great job on the wing/fuselage striping! I'd like to know how you detailed the instrument panel, it looks good.

Glenn

Hi,

@Mike: Thank you. I, too, build for the enjoyment but I have to admit that I sure wish I could do PE and AM like many of the builders here. My reluctance is simply based on the quality of other builds I see here. That said, this is only my fifth build since getting back into the hobby and four, including this one have been posted. The fifth - well let's just say it was a disaster. Not the build but the Alcad gloss aluminum finish. After painting, handling the model for placing decals resulted in much of the paint coming off and I would truly have been embarrassed to post.

@Theuns: Thanks guy. Yes, it's the 1/48 Hasegawa kit. The only pitfall I happened upon was my fault. I didn't notice while looking over the instructions that there was a little graphic telling one to add a 5 gram weight inside the intake. Result was I ended up with a tail sitter and had to add the weight when completed. Can't see it but I know it's there. Otherwise, fit was the best of any of the five models I've built recently. I was truly impressed with how well all parts did fit.

Love it! Looks great

Is that the Hasa 1/48 F-86 f? I have one in the stach and was wondering about the fit and if there are any problems to look out for.

Theuns

Very nice build!

I wish more people would post pics of their builds and not be reluctant.  We all have different skill levels, amount of time we can spend on modeling and different expectations.  I myself model out of the box for the enjoyment and stress relief.  While I love looking at kits full of aftermarket parts and built to the level of winning awards if I attempted that it would take the fun out of the hobby.

Mike