1/48 Monogram F-86 Sabre Jet

Next is paint. I have seen a few different photo references and decided to go with a light grey interrior rather than the silver that the kit recommends. 

I also decided to hand paint the instrument panel  

I used some pre made washes I got in a kit of paints to add some depth. I have since swabbed it down with a q tip to lighten the effec.

Then I dropped some future onto each gage on the instrument panel. I did this about four times letting it dry between drops. 

And just a shot of my work bench at the moment. 

Brilliant work there.  That pit looks great.  Those monogram IPs are really nice and paintable. 

Looking sweet! Nice detail painting!

Yea that looks awesome 

Looks great! Will love to see the rest.

In case you are looking for any NMF paints for the exterior, I just recently bought/experimented/used the AK Xtreme Metal paints on a project. Very impressed. Dries quickly, easy to apply, no primer needed, and took "full strength" (no de-tacking) Tamiya masking tape without any lifting of color or finish. Easier to apply than Alclad, and tougher. 

Did a test and under the conditions I sprayed (temp, humidity) the tape didn't lift it after 12 minutes of dry time (though I didn't mask the real project for 24 hours like I normally do, just to be safe). Was dry to the touch sooner than that. 

I was really impressed with them. The different shades look good next to each other. 

Just in case it's useful to you. 

dswebb

Looks great! Will love to see the rest.

In case you are looking for any NMF paints for the exterior, I just recently bought/experimented/used the AK Xtreme Metal paints on a project. Very impressed. Dries quickly, easy to apply, no primer needed, and took "full strength" (no de-tacking) Tamiya masking tape without any lifting of color or finish. Easier to apply than Alclad, and tougher. 

Did a test and under the conditions I sprayed (temp, humidity) the tape didn't lift it after 12 minutes of dry time (though I didn't mask the real project for 24 hours like I normally do, just to be safe). Was dry to the touch sooner than that. 

I was really impressed with them. The different shades look good next to each other. 

Just in case it's useful to you. 

 

Thanks for the info. Ive been thinking on this subject and was not sure if it was going to use just what I had or do foil or alclad. I do believe I may follow your recommendation on this. 

Nice cockpit work.

So other than breaking off the pitot tube things have been going together well. I got the fuselage and wings all together rather straight by gluing everything together really slow, section at a time.

The instrument panel and top doesn't fit too well so I decided to glue it in after the fuselage half's were together with the cockpit in place. I also packed the nose completely full of miliput to help is sit right after it's finishe. 

So I figure I'm just going to pain this one with what I have available, which is some Vallejo and some Army paints. I decided to use black Stynylrez primer. The photo doesn't reflect this but I am currently polishing the ever loving crap out of it all now before I apply the top coat. 

That is still one kit I've never built. I've always admired it and wanted to build it though.

Looks like it's not fighting you lol. Looks great so far.

Thanks. It is a pretty good kit I think. The fit is relatively good but you can get the cockpit off angle a bit. Plus the top of the instrument panel is supposed to glue onto a ledge on the back of the panel but it is almost nonexistent. 

Plus I'm not sure on how accurate the cockpit details are I only did minimal research but I can tell you there is not throttle. Other than that it has some decent detail. 

You're doing a great job on this classic kit. The moldings and detail still look nice and crisp on this one. Monogram was usually pretty good about their detail accuracy in the era when these molds were cut. They were the king of the hill at that time, and pushing the standards higher.

Great job!

Well I guess it's coming along ok. I have some spots I have to go back and touch up and still have a few rough spots to polish out but it's ok. 

I added a little extra detail to the canopy frame behind the seat. I drilled out the clear antenna bulb and mixed some brown and yellow up and painted it inside where I drilled. I also raised it up a little and added some wires. Nothing special or anything like that as I wasnt planning on doing much more than just buildi the kit as it is. 

I am thinking about spraying it down with future after I finish polishing it. Then painting the yellow stripes on that, and then spraying it all down with future again. I feel it would add depth and make it look more like bare metal maybe? But I'm not sure. 

Looking good! 

Great work on such an old kit.