Schmitz Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 I got the book Aces Wild for Christmas (I'm starting to like Amazon "wishlists" - I add books I'm too cheap to buy myself and they magically show up under the tree); its written by Marine/North American Aviation test pilot Al Blackburn and tells the story supposedly well known within North American that test pilot George Welch took the XP-86 prototype supersonic in a dive days before Yeager got the X-1 past mach 1. True or not, I'm thinking it would be cool to build a 1/32 XP-86 to display with the Revell X-1. I'm mostly an auto modeler who dabbles in aircraft when something catches my fancy, so I'm not an expert on what kits are out there. A quick look on HLJ and Squadron.com suggests that the kits available now are the F-86F-40 flown by the JASDF in the 1960s, which had a different wing than the early models. Is there a 1/32 kit of an early model F-86 that I should look for on the vendor tables? Are the wings that different between the two? Any info appreciated! Thanks! Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aAzZ09 Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 (edited) Don: I remember one of the earliest 1/32" scale kits of the famed F-86 Sabre came from Hasegawa many years ago. It was an F-86F-40 I believe, with the "6-3" wing plus the slats. It may be difficult to obtain these days. If you wanted to go that route you could check with fellow IPMS members, at swap meets, or regular IPMS contests in the vendor area. Failing that, I would recommend using the current Italeri 1/32" scale F-86F kit, and with some minor modifications to the windshield (make a vacuform mold of the old windshield) and deletion of the gun ports on either side of the Sabre(simply cover them with Milliput or Tamiya putty perhaps), do a conversion from the F-86F to the XP-86 (as it was known until June, 1948) when it became the XF-86.) Also, scale the leading edge of the wing down somewhat to scale per drawing (if you have one of the XF-86) from the later "6-3" wing offered in the F86F. Other than that, there's really not too much difference between the two birds. I'm currently reworking the old Monogram F-86F 1/48" kit for kicks. There are much better kits offered out there these days from Italeri or the 1/48" Hasegawa Sabre kit, but I thought I'd have some fun with this one. Happy Modeling, Mark Edited January 15, 2014 by aAzZ09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Ah, ye knave, what a can of worms you've opened! The short answer is: you cannot get there from here! There is NO "early" F-86A Saberjet in anything above 1/72, short of a major conversion. All of the 1/48 AND 1/32 kits are F-86F's, and ALL of them have the "6-3" wing (slatted and not), not to mention the all flying tail surfaces. There are a couple of early wing resin conversions (mostly OOP), which are hard to get and/or expensive. An alternative in 1/48 is to get a Monogram F-86D Saberdog and use THAT wing; which is an early-slatted-non 6-3-no wingtip extension wing! There is no alternative in 1/32 except surgery: removing a wedge from immediately behind the slat housing that's a scale 6" at the root and tapers to a scale 3" at the wingtip. Since you want to do a prototype, you'll have to make an "A" and then do a little more back dating from there. 1) You need a "V" windshield, instead of the flat windscreen in all later Sabers. Lindberg provides this in 1/48; there's none in 1/32 2) You need an slatted-non 6-3-no wingtip extension wing (see above) 3) You need an early tail- the bulge at the base of the horizontal tail planes is smaller on the "A" than on the later models. It's subtle, but there's a difference! You can graft the Lindberg Saberjet tail on in 1/48, but in 1/32 it'll take some judicious sanding. It's a major undertaking....you can't just paint a Saberjet white and call it the prototype! It's utterly amazing that with all of the Saberjets made NO ONE has made the definitive Korean War F-86E with the slatted early wing in 1/48! It's also a relatively easy step from there back to the "A", once you have the right wing. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but hope this helps! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmitz Posted January 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 It's a major undertaking....you can't just paint a Saberjet white and call it the prototype! Sure I can ! Thanks for the info Mark and GIL. I could probably live with the wrong wing shape, but I'm not sure I could overlook not having the slats. I think the take away is, buy the cheapest F-86F kit I can find (probably the Italeri), then put it on the shelf and wait for someone like Dragon to do a new kit of an A or E (of course buying a really expensive out-of-production Hasegawa kit would probably increase the odds of getting a new kit ). I'll have to think on this one. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 You should know that the 1/32 Hasagawa Saberjet has the last, "latest" wing. It's a 6-3 "hard" wing with the slats retro fitted AND a 1ft extension to the wingtips outside of the ailerons. So, you not only have to chop out the wedge to back date it, you also have to chop off those extensions! Of course, with the Kinetic 1/32, you have to chop out the wedge and add in the slats (which is probably tougher). GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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