The 1950's and early 1960's is generally acknowledged to be the golden era of the post-World War II RCAF. Aircraft development was marked by the introduction of the CF-100 and the remarkable Avro Arrow. Canadian aircraft were to be found all over the world in support of UN and NATO commitments, as well as filling the skies at home. One the aircraft that has come to symbolize this period is the Canadair Sabre. A license built version of the North American F-86 Sabre, it was produced in 6 versions, flew with 13 different air forces, and ran to a total of 539 production machines.

For my kit, I choose the to build the 1/72 Hobbycraft Sabre V. I also decided to enhance the kit with addition of some now out of production Eduard photo etched brass and aftermarket decals. The latter was necessitated by the fact that I wanted to build an RCAF Europe Air Division aircraft in the colours of the Sky Lancers demonstration team. This team flew between 1954 and 1956 and was made up of members from the various squadrons in Air Division. My particular aircraft would be that F/L Tony Hannas of 421 Squadron, 2 Wing, in 1955.

The Hobbycraft kit comes molded in grey plastic, has recessed panel lines, and is by and large flash free. It is actually a nice little kit, and also comes in a Mk. VI version as well. When comparing it to the latest F-86F from Academy, it becomes clear that both kits are from a common source, though the Academy offering might have a little better cockpit detail. It was here in that I began my construction.

As with previous Hobbycraft kits that I have made, the cockpit was a bit on the sparse side. I replaced the kit instrument panel, the rudder peddles, and ejection seat with PE. The seat is a mini-piece of engineering as it is made up of seven individual pieces of brass, some only as big as the letters on this page. To install the instrument and side panels, I bent the brass pieces as needed and supported them from behind using small blocks of styrene. The cockpit was given an overall coating of Interior Grey (FS36231) and then the smaller details were picked out using the appropriate colour for that piece. These were all mounted to the cockpit floor and the whole assembly was dry fitted a number of times before the fuselage was finally closed up to ensure proper alignment of the various parts. Also prior to closing, nose weight was added to keep the aircraft from tail sitting when complete.

With the cockpit installed and the fuselage closed up, it was time to deal with wheel wells. I removed the detail in the kit's main gear wheel well and replaced it with some PE and some sheet styrene. This was then installed in position as part of the bottom wing half. The nose gear wheel well only needed to receive a few PE parts. On the same brass sheet there were details for the landing gear struts, which were added, as well as some replacement doors for the nose gear. Beware of the instructions when it comes to the nose gear. On the kit instruction sheet it says to place the larger nose gear door (part C3) on the right side of the wheel well when it should in fact be on the left.

While on the matter of the nose gear well, it was in this area that I did a little minor scratch building. I hollowed out the engraved landing light detail with a Dremel tool and installed two MV model train lens. This small addition actually makes quite an impact to the overall look of the kit. Some of the other scratch built details I added included a new pitot tube, some wheel well plumbing, and new side braces for the drop tanks.

The third sheet of photo etched supplied the replacement speed brakes for my jet. The brakes are made out of four separate pieces of brass and must be bent to shape. In interior half of the door provides the correct profile so it was just a matter of rolling the exterior half to match it. I then used the kit supplied hydraulic actuating rods to show these doors in the deployed position. Care must be taken when showing the doors in the open position. When open, the doors hang out and down from the fuselage, not straight out as has been depicted in some recent magazine articles. A quick check of any reference material will show how they are supposed to look and in some cases a little minor surgery of the door hinge arms is required to achieve this look.

The rest of the kit was put together pretty much as per the instructions. There were a few small areas that needed the attention of some putty, but this was to be expected and they were easily dealt with. It was now time to send the model to the paint shop. I prefer to use Model Master enamel paints whenever I can, and this project was no exception. I determined to paint the underside RAF PRU Blue, the top coat using RAF Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green (FS34079), and the wheel wells and speed brake housings Interior Green (FS34151). Once the smaller areas were also painted, like the black anti-glare panel, I gave the plane a gloss coat in preparation for decaling.

To build the aircraft I planned I used Arrow Graphics Decals Sky Lancers set and their Sabre stencils set. I have used this manufacturer’s decals before and they go down easily, responding well to the application of Micro Set and Micro Sol. The one thing that I still can't get over is that whenever I use them there is always a milky white boarder around each decal where the clear carrier film is. Each time this causes me concern, and each time my worries are unfounded. The morning after I do my decaling, this milky appearance has vanished and left me with nice looking decals. Must be the Decal Fairy or some modeling elves that come out at night. Either way, the decals look fine.

As this was a demonstration aircraft, I decided to go for a clean look to the kit, as I'm sure the crews would have at least washed the plane before flying it in front of thousands of spectators. I did no external weathering of the plane, and only scuffed up the parts of the cockpit where there would have been some wear, like on the floor and the canopy rails. Once complete, the whole thing was given a coat of PolyS satin finish. Here is one area where I diverge a little with my paint choices. PolyS make a flat and satin finish that are outstanding and easy to use.

Now with the plane all painted, decaled and satin coated, I installed the last of the small detail parts; landing gear, pitot tube, and the like. The finished aircraft renders a very nice looking model. Coincidentally, this kit was entered in the 2003 RMMC model contest and came second to another RCAF Sabre. Pretty good company I’d say. Now it’s time to kit it up a notch and tackle a 1/48 Sabre.