I'm anxiously watching this one since I am doing the same kit.

Mine is temporarily on the shelf of doom because of the difficulty I'm having with the base black coat prior to NMF. I've done it 3 times now and it sstill looks yucky.

Nice job on the pit and your IP looks so very crisp.

Nice start on the pit.

SO many NMF builds right now. This makes me want to go pick up an F86 for myself. I'll be watching this one.

BK

I have done a few NMF's now with alclad and have found the best result I get is by using tamiya gloss black enamel as my base.

I also do not use different shades of alclad, for me the difference is to "sharp"

I spray airframe allu till I have a nice dark allu look to it , mask off the darker pannels and spray the rest, the more you put on the the lighter it gets.

The difference between the dark and light pannels look different at different angles, but "softer" and more "real if I compare it to the L-29 in NMF at the airfield I work at.

Theuns

So far no filling needed, maybe just a little on the bottom of the wing to fuse joint will be required.

The nose intake ring was a little oversize and I had to sand it allot to fare it into the front fuselage, I wonder if the other builders of this kit has the same issue.

I've built a dozen or so of these Sabres.  Did you glue the landing light piece in the area at the front of the nose gear well before gluing on the nose ring?  I find that by gluing that piece in first, the mating surfaces of the fuselage and nose ring part are very close.  It widens the hole at the front of the fuselage, thus pretty well eliminating the 'step' in the plastic you had to remove.  You may require a bit of putty and sanding but not much.

Also, be mindful of a gap where the wings and fuselage join.  A thin strip of plastic card glued to the butt end of the wing, and then finished to the contour of the top of the wing after the glue has REALLY dried, will eliminate the gap.  Even with an Alclad NMF, you won't know the filler strip is there.  You will need a bit of filler and elbow grease on the bottom of the wing / fuselage join.

Good luck with your project.

Mike

A very nice start, stunning cockpit!  Looking forward to it's completion.

Toshi

No I glued the light pannel on after, no big deal though, a bit of sanding and the intake ring now look OK.

I am very hapy with the wing to fuse fit sofar, the bottom section where it fits onto the rear  bottom of the fuse will need a little putty but the rest looks OK.

Only primer will tell, but the seam on top of the wing root glued well with only thin cement.

Theuns

Yes, I had the same issue with the nose ring but none on the wing roots. The wing roots fit perfectly on mine.

All the basic filling and sanding is complete, just a litle touch up to be done.

I dipped the front windshield in future and was surprised to see how thin the molding was, care will have to be taken not to damage it.

The canopy has a fine seam line straight dont the top centre, this will need some pollishing to get rid of.

Theuns

Love seeing your work on this. Did you paint the inside of the fuselage at the rear before buttoning it up? I feel like I should spray some jet exhaust color on there, but maybe that can wait till after closing the sides.

-BD-

Brandon, for some reason I can't reply to your last post, it does not give ne the icon...

No, I did not prepaint the inside of the reaf fuse, I will still see what I am going to do there, the detail between the jet pipe and rear fuse is not very good from what I can see and the gaps do not look good, I might put the cover on.

Theuns

The detail in the speedbrake wells and wheelwells are really nice.

I put a coat of tamiya primer on to chack my re-scribing ect, all looks OK now I need to sand it all smooth again for the black enamel.

Theuns

Theuns

Nice job.  Just to let you know, that vent in front of the speed brake well is unique to JASDF Sabres.  It wasn't on North American or Canadair built Sabres.  It can be cut off and the area sanded smooth and then the void can be filled with filled with styrene or sprue and then sanded smooth, adiing filler as needed.  Yes, it's easier to do before the fuselage halves are glued together but not impossible at this stage of the game.  Then again, if you're not going for complete accuracy, it doesn't really matter.  Just an observation form someone who learned the hard way.

Mike

Hey Mike, now tha I know about it it HAS to be corrected....LOL

Thanx

Theuns

Gloss black enamel on, alclad to follow.

Theuns

Hey Mike, now tha I know about it it HAS to be corrected....LOL

No problem brother.  Nice job on the gloss black.  What shade of Alclad are you going to use for the overall aircraft?

Here's one I did in #106 (white aluminum) with different shades on different panels (#116 - semi matte aluminum, #103 - dark aluminum and #112  - steel).  Bit of a pain to mask certain panels but it makes for a really nice contrast.

Not trying to hijack your thread but the extra bit of effort to mask and paint those tonal differnces really add to the realism factor.  Looking forward to more photos and the completed project.

Mike

No hijack mate :-)

I usually use only airframe alluminium with the same tecnique of spraying a few coats to get a dark allu, then mask and spray more to get a lighter allu.

I don't use different alclads, it is to expensive here and the results I get I am OK with.

The only thing I need to keep inmind is the upper wing centra spanwize pannel that is more dull.

Theuns

Here it is in 3 coats of airframe allu. I usually at this stage mask off the panels I want to look a little darker and shoot more alclad to make the rest lighter.....I now have 2 ways to go with this model

1. the decals are for a nice 1960's plane in the normal "used" NMF

I see now that the airshow one has what seems to be grey on the centre pannels and wingtips.....not sure I want to do this :-(

Theuns

Now thats what I call shiny.  

Not by any means an expert on NMFs, but I did notice the front areas tend to be a lot more polished and shinier than the rear areas of the plane?

I masked off the outer sides of the wing centre section and put 2 more coats of airframe allu on to lighten that area.

I also masked off the fuselage panel that in all the pix I have seems to be darker aswell as the exhaust and gun pannels.

I will shoot more alclad to laghten the rest , then I usually put 1 coat over everything (unmasked) to make the tone difference a little "softer"

This is looking so, so good, Theuns!

-BD-

Hey Theuns, nice work on the cockpit and that NM looks flawless!!! 

Just wondering, are you using the box decals are aftermarket- a South African bird maybe? 

That simply looks great. Fantastic NMF.

BK

Thanx

I am not sure about the final scheme yet, I used Hasegawa decals on my 104 last year and they were great,  I will have to have decals made up if I went Kofrea SAAF.

The SAAF only had 1 hardwing Sabre in theatre # "Q" 622. (USAF #52-4572)

For those interested here is a link to a SAAF forum I am part of showing nice pix of SAAF Korea Sabres.

http://www.saairforce.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7069

http://s991.photobucket.com/user/Jolley-Roger/media/Q-622_zps04c983d3.jpg.html

Theuns