Reviewed by Geoff Coughlin
Our thanks to Airfix for supplying our review sample, get this kit here now at: www.airfix.com
Hot on the heels of the rather impressive 1:48th scale de Havilland Sea Vixen, Airfix is at it again with this new-tool F-86 Sabre. One of the best looking fighters of all time, surely? I mean, just look at those lines and before we get going here’s a video to get you in the mood!
That box art too…
The box art shows the famous “The Huff” fuselage artwork applied to Lt Jim Thompson’s Korean War F-86F. This is obviously an attractive scheme but a bit unimaginative as other manufacturers have also picked this scheme before but more of the decals later.
So there’s no denying that the box is going to attract modellers but what of the contents? Let’s go inside and find out…
Sprue trees…
63 grey parts go to make up the whole kit with the usual separate clear sprue with canopy. Looking at the main parts like the fuselage and wings the panel line detail looks pretty fine, not as heavy as other recent releases and for me is just right in this scale. There’s some nice detail in the air brake interior and doors that can be poisoned open. The wheel wells also have ribbed detail within and although a little shallow should look convincing when painted and weathered.
The wheels have decent spoked relief moulded into them and also shallow flats to represent the aircraft taking its own weight – a nice touch in this scale. The nose gear leg is remarkable in terms of finesse – very finely tooled and should look excellent when painted. I’m beginning to really like what Airfix has done with this kit.
The seat is pretty basic, but in this scale is probably ok and it fits snugly into the cockpit tub. The tub will have the decals applied to the side instrument panels and main panel in front of the pilot and after painting the headrest red and adding some simple belts/harness I think this cockpit will be convincing.
Two drop tanks are included and are typical of the type. One slight disappointment is the lack of a dropped-flap option and only straight wings are included.
A Nice touch is a plastic insert that is marked 3 g that is designed to fit into the nose area and preserve the look of the intake. The plastic I’m sure doesn’t weigh 3g and so I’ll have to try and get 3g of weight around it and that might be tricky? The other alternative could be to do what a lot of F-86 modellers do and that’s add a FOD guard blank to the engine intake, but we’ll see and look at this later.
Clear parts…
The cockpit canopy is moulded in very clear styrene and has a separate windscreen that just begs to be finished in the open position. You may want to add the decent pilot figure but as always, this is a matter for you.
Instructions…
Pretty clear these and follow the usual exploded stage views. The F-86 is a pretty simple looking aeroplane in kit form and the build shouldn’t present any snags. But do watch out in Build Now, because we will be building this one very soon.
Decals…
As I mentioned you can finish your F-86 in classic Korean War US ‘silver’ / natural metal:
- F-86F Sabre, “The Huff”, flown by Lt. Jim Thompson, 39th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, K-13 (Suwon AB), South Korea, June 1953. Silver overall.
…or go for an option that will provide a nice change: - F-86E(M) Sabre, 4th Stormo, Aviazone Militaire Italiana, Grossetto, Italy 1958. Matt Olive Drab / Dark Sea Grey over PRU Blue (nice!)
The quality of the printing and register is good but as the sheet isn’t marked with by a manufacturer like Cartograf (as on the Sea Vixen sheet) it is hard to tell if these decals will perform really well or really badly. So I’m afraid the jury is out until the build.
What’s the verdict?
Recommended and can’t wait to start this one – my, my, so much to do, so little time!
Geoff C.