Hello, Looking to build A F-86 Sabre in Canadian markings, would welcome any advice on the different manufacturers of this subject. Looking at 1/48 and 1/32 scale kits, Thanks
Hasegawa has a few Canadair Sabres in 48th
Depending upon which version of the Sabre that you are looking for, availability is those scales is varied. 1/48 certainly has more it choices, but they range from quite old and toylike (Lindberg), to older but not bad-could use help (Monogram, ESCI/Italeri), to modern (Hasegawa, Academy, Promodeler). In 1/32, there are pretty much just two games in town, the old Hasegawa kit, and the more recent Kinetic kit. The markings for RCAF you’ll likely have to hunt down in any of the scales in aftermarket.
Here are a few aftermarket decals for the F-86 Sabre in RCAF markings. Good luck.
I have built the 1/48 Revell Saber and the 1/48 Hasegawa Saber. The problem with the Revell kit is that it has raised panel lines. The Hasegawa kit has recessed panel lines. As I remember both kits went together with little fuss.
If you don’t mind raised panel lines, the Monogram kit is no big deal. It’s actual biggest shortcomings are the intake trunking and exhaust. I borrowed the covers for those off the Academy Sabre in my stash. As you can see, the old Monogram kit, still builds up nice. It will look like an F-86, and for a reasonable price.
Are there any physical and/or appearance differences between the US made Sabres and the Canadian built Sabres? IIRC the Canadians used a different engine, heh!
Yes!!! Big time! Not to mention all the different wing types… they are all mostly different types of cooling scoops and air vent differences, along with raised hatches and fuel caps deleted here and there…so in the end they all still look like Sabres.
It’s a bloody minefield, very interesting to study. Here’s a start:
Thank you,
Thank you
Thanks
There are many differences between the North American built and Canadair built Sabres. In my opinion, the Hasegawa Sabre is the best of the lot even though the Revell / Monogram Sabre has a few more accuracies for a Canadian Sabre. The R/M Sabre has the correct rounded nose gear oleo leg while the Hasaegawa and Academy nose gear legs are incorrectly shaped (more angular than round).
The R/M Sabre also has the correct engine vents on each side of the fuselage. One drawback, I found, was the flimsiness of the main gear legs. As mentioned, the intake and exhaust openings are poor on the R/M kit but can be remedied with FOD covers from the Hasegawa kit. The R/M kits is only an F-86F-30 or Canadair Sabre 5 with the wing fence.
Hasegawa makes an F-86F-30 (Sabre 5) and an F-86F-40 with resin or plastic wingtips and a bent pitot tube to build a Sabre 6. The Sabre 6 wing is slatted like the F-40 wing but it doesn’t have the 12 inch wingtip extensions of the F-40. Wingtip surgery is needed to correct the wings if you want to build an acurate Sabre 6 from Haseagawa.
Further, on the Hasegawa kit, you must sand down the raised area around the vent on the top of the fuselage at the base of the vertical stabilizer and remove the raised rectangular vent on the right rear fuselage near the speed brake door. Canadair Sabres didn’t have these vents. Sabre 5’s and 6’s didn’t have a fuel filler port on the port side of the fuselage. There were two ports on the the right side.
Leading Edge Models makes fantastic decals for Canadair Sabre 5’s and 6’s. This set has decals to represent the fuselage engine vents I referred to in my bit about the R/M Sabre. If you can find a set of their fuselage stencils, get them. They’re fantastic too. I would attach reference photos but I’m on a tablet and the photos are on my desktop at home.
Good luck with your RCAF Sabre project.
I’ve built the Hasegawa and Kinetic kits in 32nd scale. Kinetic has both the F-86F-30 and Luftwaffe Sabre 6 kits. I’ve only built the F-30 as a Canadair Sabre 5. Very nice kit. I have one of their Sabre 6’s in the stash. It has leading edge wing slats and the option to build an F-40 or Sabre 6 without any surgery. The Hasegawa 32nd scale kit has an F-40 and can be built as a Sabre 6 with surgery and resin or plastic wingtips after removing the 12 inch wingtip extensions. It has leading edge slats as well.
In 48th scale, as stikpusher opined, there are a few makers but of those available, I prefer the Hasegawa kit. No 48th scale Sabre 5 or 6 or F-30 or F-40 kit comes with leading edge slats but I understand you can add a set of F-86 Sabre Dog wings to make a ‘narrow chord’ F-86E or Canadair Sabre 2.
I don’t know a lot about Sabres, but if the Canadair Sabre is anything like the CAC built one, they were very different beasties. Due to the larger engine and different armament, there were major differences in the airframe, including making it wider. Red Roo Models do a 1/48 conversion kit to build the Avon engined Sabres for either the Academy or Hasegawa kits. Hope that helps
Chris,
While I’m no Sabre expert either, the dimensions of the Orenda engines in the Canadair Sabres are smaller than those of the Avon engines as is the CAC Sabre‘s armaments (4 cannons in the CAC Sabres vs 6 X .50 cal mg in the Canadair Sabres). There are virtually no changes in exterior dimensions to the Canadair Sabres and the North American built ones. The biggest changes are internal.
Mike
Thanks Mike, I didn’t know that. Learn something new every day!
Thank you, Very informative I have been wanting to build a RCAF F-86 for a while now the more i look into it the more varied the options become. More so than other Canadian aircraft in my stash not sure why this is but it seems to be. Going to keep learning what i can but I think I will put it on the back burner for the time being. Maybe one of the M/F will come out with a new tool version in the near future. Again Thanks for all the info it is very much appreciated.