Building Revell-Germany’s 1/48 F-86D Sabre Dog |  |
The F-86D has been on my “why-don’t-they-make-it-in-1/48-scale” list for more than 30 years (and even more!) and at last here it is! I can say it was worth the wait: Revell gave us a very good kit, easy to build, accurate and finely detailed.
I used to say: “when this one will be released, I’ll drop everything and start building it right now”, and so I did! I couldn’t wait for decals or resin detail sets to appear and broke my prime directive: never build a model from the box or use kit decals. I think the last time I did so I was 15 (33 years ago...).
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I was very pleased to find two pictures of Revell’s choice for a Danish aircraft in the Aircam book on the F-86. Most interesting and rare, they are pictures of each side and show that Revell did a very good job as far as accuracy of markings is concerned. Only the blue of the tail stripes look too light, but as always, interpreting black and white pictures is a hazardous exercise! I nevertheless painted the stripes a darker blue.
The F-86D could be equipped with either 120 or 200 US gallons wing tanks. The kit proposes the 120 g. and the pictures show the 200 g. ones. They are quite similar in shape, the larger ones having fin strakes added to their winglets. I admit I cheated a little and just added the fins to the kit’s tanks.
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I also couldn’t resist adding a few wires and things to the seat and cockpit coaming (remember my prime directive?), but it was still a pretty much out-of-the-box job.
Natural metal finish has always been my nightmare until I discovered the Alclad II paints. At last, a metallic finish that can be masked like any ordinary acrylic! I used post-it, Maskol, Tamiya tape and even Scotch Magic! I handled the model quite a lot during the decalling process, with no finger marks whatsoever.
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The decals went on without any problem, and I found them to be well printed and quite thin. They also reacted well to Solvaset and the carrier film became invisible when dry without any varnish.
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I really enjoyed building this kit and I can’t wait to get the early model and CD-ROM I ordered to make a few others. Who said something about a F86-K conversion? Why not....
