DONE!!! - Revell of Germany Canadair CL-13 Sabre 6

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Greetings friends.

Never posted a WIP here before but there’s a first time for everything. Seeing the works of others has prompted me to illustrate this build for you - so you can learn what (and what NOT) to do if you decide to build one of these kits.

This kit is a re-pop of the Hasegawa Sabre family. It can either be built as a Canadair Sabre 6 or as a North American F-86F-40 Sabre.

This is the 48th scale Revell of Germany Canadair CL-13 Sabre 6 as flown by JG 71 ‘Richtofen’ of the Luftwaffe in 1961. It will be finished with kit decals. Not sure how they’ll turn out but we’ll see. Paints will be Model Master enamels and Alclad II. I’m not sure if this Sabre was ever retrofitted with the Martin-Baker ejection seat. I’m building it as if it hadn’t been.

Sabre 5’s delivered to the Luftwaffe carried the standard RCAF three colour camouflage; RAF Dark Green / RAF Dark Greay and RAF PRU Blue. The Sabre 6’s delivered from Canadair we natiral metal and the camo colours were applied by the Luftwaffe. Research shows that the colours I should use are RAL 6014 (Gelboliv), RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau) and 7001 (Silbergrau). The cockpits were painted in FS 36231 by Canadair.

The only aftermarket I’ll be using in this build is a Legends seat. As noted by Theuns in his Sabre build (and the approximately 20 or so others that I’ve built!), the kit seat is sorely lacking detail. The seat will be installed after painting the camo colours.

The rest of the cockpit are kit parts including decals for the IP. Painted flat black and clear coated with Future. Kit decal applied over Future and a healthy dose of Solvaset used to get things to settle down over the raised detail. Various knobs were picked out with red paint on a toothpick. There is ample room atop the intake trunking to superglue some weight to prevent the kit from being a tail dragger. I didn’t paint the interior of the intake trunk or exhaust nozzle. I use the kit supplied FOD covers painted red. It provides a nice contrast and a bit of extra colour.

Also, all Canadair Sabres were built without the bump / bulge at the vent on the top of the fuselage by the vertical tail. To model a true Canadair Sabre, this bump has to be sanded off. Further, the Hasegawa Sabre family has a vent moulded on the right side of the aircraft (as viewed from above) and this vent is unique to Japanese Sabres. I had to sand off both bumps and vents. The vent is filled with styrene, sanded, filler applied and sanded smooth with 400, 800, 2000 grit wet / dry paper. The bulge was sanded off with various grades of sanding sticks and then smoothed with wet / dry paper.

One of the differences between the Sabre 6 and the F-86F-40 is the length of the wings. Although both had leading edge slats, the F-40 wing has a 12" extension between the tip of the wing and the end of the aileron. The Sabre 6 had no 12" extension and the aileron extended all the eay to the wingtip. In order to model a Sabre 6, you need to cut off the 12" extensions and the glue the Sabre 6 wingtips into place. RoG provides resin or plastic wingtips for this. I used resin. It does take a bit of work to get them right. I glued the tops to the bottom and used a razor saw to make the cut. I then CA glued the tips on and applied a bit of accelerator when I was sure I had things where I wanted them.

As for the canopy, I use EZ Masks. They’re made by a company just outside Ottawa. One of my LHS’s carry them and they’re great. Like Eduard, they’re pre-cut vinyl. Here they are masked and primed with FS 36231.

That’s it for now. I look forward to any comments or constructive criticism you might offer.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

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I’ve always liked the 1950s fighter jets.

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You’re off to a great start. I really like the ejection seat.

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I have seen Canadian Sabres in active service and several Sabres in the air show circuit and none had modern ejection seats. I had this very discussion with one of the owner/pilots of an F-86-F and he stated that he did not know of any Sabres with upgraded or “modern” ejection seats. Ejection would be a last resort and only if the aircraft could not otherwise be saved (re aircraft in private hands).

Thanks for the information regarding the origin of this kit (Hasagawa). I passed on it because I thought it was a re-issue of the old Monogram kit. I also love the early jets and the F-86 and the A-4 are my favorites. I’ll be watching the build and keep up the good work.

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All…thanks for your kind words, gents.

The Vintage Wings of Canada Sabre flown as ‘Hawk One’ has an ejection seat from a Tutor (Snowbirds). Although newer than the seat supplied by Canadair when it was built (but not by much!), I think VWoC decided to upgrade from the original for safety’s sake.

As for the Sabre in Luftwaffe service, many of the Sabre 6’s were sent to Dornier to have Martin-Baker seats installed. As the M-B seats were taller than the originals, it also necessitated Dornier re-working the canopy opening system to ride on rails that elevated the canopy when it was being opened and closed.

My uncle was killed flying a Sabre in France in June 1953. Long story short, he was returning to base after a training flight in bad weather. Although it can’t be confirmed for certain, he most likely became spatially disoriented in the thick cloud and haze and when he came out of the cloud / haze he was nose down and headed for terra firma. He ejected at about 700 ft AGL and died when he couldn’t get himself out of the seat. A safe ejection back then usually required a height of about 3,000 ft AGL as you manually had to get yourself out of the seat, unlike the systems used on today’s ejection seats. His skull was crushed between the headrest and the ground. He was seven weeks shy of his 22nd birthday.

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Country-By-Country/Canada/CLOUTIER_Guy_Sabre_fatal/Cloutier_Guy.htm

And when I found out this was a re-issue of the Hasegawa kit, I bought four or five of them as they were about half the price of the Hasegawa offerings. Can’t go wrong with that!

Mike

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Youre off to a great start, Murph.

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This is really coming along, and thank you for sharing your knowledge about the vent only being on Japanese aircraft. I was able to saw off the vent on my Hasegawa and back it with styrene for filling with putty - before the fuselage was closed! Normally I find these things out about a day late.

Can’t wait to see your build come along.

-BD-

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Allan and Brandon,

Thanks for your kind words. Greatly appeciated.

A slight amount of new work done . Posting these photos with the assistance of Bruce (hogfanfs - thanks!) that hopefully won’t have all the text underlined as a hyperlink.

Brandon - your save is exactly what I do. I cut off the vent and glue a small piece of plastic card behind the resultant opening. I then glue some Evergreen strip to the plastic card on the outside and then fill and sand. Here’s the plastic card inside the fuselage.

I’ve also glued the exhuast nozzle in place on the iside of the right half of the fuselage and then clamped both sides together to maintain proper alignment until the TETC cures.

I’ve also CA glued 3 X 3.5 gram (3 X 1/8 oz) steel sinkers into space in front of the main landing gear. The instructions call for 6 grams but I add a bit extra as insurance and I’ve never had the landing gear sag or splay with this extra bit of weight.

That’s it for now. Next step will see me glue the landing light piece in place at the front of the fuselage near the intake opening. Once that is in and dried, I’ll glue the fuselage halves together and add the nose ring. Will post a few more photos as work progresses.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

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Very cool build you have going there. I am now busy with the Hasa F-86f30 and I must say they are just beautiful planes.

The South African AF used Canadaie CL13b’s and I know I am biass but I think this is the coolest looking scheme to have been put of a Sabre 6

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AdxtjNEwUAY/UNu3Sh3vHPI/AAAAAAAABUI/IF9dwMH7CoQ/s1600/Sabre+(1).jpg

Good luck with the build.

Theuns

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Pretty darn nice work! And heck of a story about your uncle there.

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What a great thread, thank you for sharing. Love the detail of your build.

Toshi

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Nice work on the Sabre, Mike! I’ll definitely be folowing your progress! And I’m very glad I was able to help!

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Thanks for the feedback folks.

Aunt Babrara was devestated by Guy’s death. She was six weeks pregnant with my cousin David when Guy was killed. When she passed away a few years ago, my mom helped David (they were very close) sort through some of his mom’s personal effects. She found Guy and Barbara’s wedding photo album, Guy’s dog tags, pilot’s wings, pocket Bible and other items that David never knew she had. He had never seen the wedding album. Mom said that it was almost as if Barbara flipped a switch and turned off that part of her life forever. She VERY rarely spoke about Guy so David knew very little about his father.

Anyway, I’ve done more work on the Sabre. No new photos but I did glue the landing light piece in place before gluing the fuselage halves together. One thing I did add was the AMS resin ‘sugar scoop’ intakes on the small vents on the lower part of the fuselage, just behind the wings. I don’t think AMS is making them any longer. Too bad. They’re essential for later Sabre 6’s. The fuselage halves have been glued together and the wings have been glued on as well.

Here’s a photo of the ‘sugar scoops’ on another Sabre I built:

I always leave the horizontal stabilizers off until the very end as it makes masking around the back end for painting the camouflage and the steel around the exhaust opening so much easier. It makes applying decals easier too. Although these are different models, here’s an illustration of what I mean:

Next up, I’ll be adding the nose ring and lightly sanding the seams prior to priming. Once I have the seams done, I’ll add the gunsight and front windshield. I should then be ready to prime. I’ll add more photos before priming.

Thanks for looking and again, I appreciate the feedback.

Mike

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Some new photos to illustrate the progress thus far. Adding the landing light part before gluing on the nose ring really helps with the alignment of the parts. No step. No gap. No muss. No fuss.

Here are the ‘sugar scoops’

Wing pylons have been glued on and drop tanks glued together. The RCAF and Luftwaffe used finned drop tanks on their Sabre 6’s. Yours truly lost one of the fins so I fabbed another from card stock.

As noted previously, and in theuns’s Sabre build thread, there’s not a lot of detail up the back end so I’ll be using the FOD covers both front and back.

The main gear doors have been glued to the struts. I then clamp them vertically in clothes pins to maintain the proper alignment while the glue dries.

Not sure how many pictures I can post in one reply so stay tuned for Part 2.

Mike

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I’ve glued the gunsight to the IP coaming. There is a small semi-circular ejector pin mark at the bottom of the gunsight between the two small stubs. This should be removed.

The gunsight has been glued into place and the appropriate area painted flat black. It looks glossy as the paints is still wet.

Finally, the radio beacon that attaches to the turtle deck behind the seat and under the canopy is painted with Tamiya clear orange and then attached to the turtle deck.

That’s it for now. I’m getting very close to being able to prime (Model Master light grey FS 36495). I’ll post a few more photos when I get to that stage.

As usual, comments and constructive criticism is always welcome.

Thanks for looking in folks.

Mike

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Hello Murph -

Very Nice Sir, Very nice in deed

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Hunter,

Thanks for looking in and your kind words.

Small update today. I started this project as I was stalled on a project I’m doing for a group build on another site. I had lost my mojo with that build and got into a bit of a funk. To break out, I started building this Sabre. It helped get me back into the swing of things as the other project (1:48th scale Hobbyboss F-105D Thunderchief) is now coming along nicely.

For this Sabre project, most construction is complete and she’s been primed with Model Master Light Grey (FS 36495) enamel. There are a few very slight imperfections that will require a bit of clean up but nothing major. This photo shows only the major pieces but everything that needs to be primed has been.

The model is sitting on the camo scheme that I plan to build. Next up will be masking for the yellow nose band and the dielectric fibreglass panel at the top of the vertical stabilizer. That bit remains MM light grey. Once the yellow has been sprayed, I’ll mask that and then spray the undersides the appropriate grey.

Thanks for looking in and as usual comments and constructive criticism is always welcome.

Mike

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She’s looking good Mike, looking forward to seeing the yellow and camo laid on her.

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Thanks for looking in and the comment, brother.

Sorry that there are no new photos but this build has somewhat stalled while I complete another project. I started this project as I was in the blahs while building a 48th scale HobbyBoss F-105D for a GB on another forum. I had hit a brick wall and a familiar project was what I needed to get going again. Starting this Sabre saw me do something I have never done before; having two builds on the go at the same time.

Having gotten the creative juices flowing again, I’ve been concentrating more on the F-105 to the point where I’m very close to the final assembly stage (adding bombs to MER’s, Bullpups and pylons, centreline tank, main landing gear and wingtip and formation lights).

Consequently, the Sword has been on the back burner. The burner isn’t ‘Off’ though. Things are cooking very slowly. The underside colour, as well as the topside grey, have been sprayed with the topside grey going on this morning. Once that dries, I can mask for the camo green, black anti glare panel and steel around the exhaust opening. I can also spray the Alclad on the landing gear bits and in the main wheel wells. The front gear bay gets sprayed interior green.

I hope to have the Thud completed by the weekend. Once it’s completed, I can devote my time to finishing up this Sabre project. I’ll post a few more photos after I’ve sprayed the topside green camo.

Thanks for checking in.

Mike

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WOW! Grey paint. At least it’s progress. I’ll be masking (3M Nexcare tape, as usual!) for the green later this afternoon and hopefully spraying tonight.

The only thing more boring than looking at these two photos was watching the paint dry after I sprayed the it.

More to follow.

Mike