1/48 F-86K - MustHave! - Review
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:32 am
North American F-86K
Manufacturer: MustHave!
Scale: 1/48
Kit No: MH148002
Availability: directly from MustHave! (musthavemodels@yahoo.fr) or online.
(Click pictures to see them full size!)
Musthave! is a French company that so far has issued two 1/48 scale plastic model kits:
first one is of a Curtiss Mohawk IV with markings for aircraft used by French, Dutch and British forces in Morocco, Syria, Java and India.
Their second kit is of the North American F-86K (reviewed here) with markings for aircraft used by the following five nations: Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, France and Germany.
The Mohawk IV and the F-86K kits both are based on other company´s plastic kits complemented by conversion parts, decals and new instructions from MustHave! to enable the modeller to build different variants not given before.
MustHave! also is about to release a 1/48 scale Invader kit these days! This new kit is NOT based on Monogram´s kit but is a complete new kit of their own!
The “K” variant of the famous F-86 Sabre is a more basic export NATO version of the U.S. F-86D. The fuselage rocket tray of the US version has been deleted with four 20mm cannons added as main armament instead.
There have been some discussions on short or long wings having been used on the F-86K. According to a good friend “it depends!”. Even the Luftwaffe has got F-86K with short length wings (4x) with other aircraft having been equipped with long wings. Also the French airforce got F-86K with short wings so using the Revell kit´s wings is just fine here.
(Photo courtesy of Joop de Groot)
The top opening card box 320 x 245 x 50 millimetres in size is adorned by a splendid box art showing two French F-86K´s flying high atop the clouds. Upon opening the box the first one sees are two new fuselage halves moulded in black styrene.
MustHave! has done a great job by providing the modeller these new fuselage halves in injection moulded plastic: cutting and inserting any conversion part inserts to depict the cannon openings of a F-86K into Revell´s fuselage parts would quite have challenged most modellers. Also the fuselage of an F-86K is 203 millimetres longer than an F-86D! MustHave! has well spotted this and did the best possible job by providing completely new and correct fuselage halves here!
Also given in the box is Revell´s F-86D Sabre kit with all parts sealed in a clear plastic bag:
I will not go and review this already known Revell kit here. Anybody interested will find the corresponding reviews of Revell’s kit on the Net.
So, we have the new fuselage parts from MustHave! as well as the full Revell F-86D kit here. Furthermore this kit comprises some photo etched and resin parts added by MustHave! to provide missing or additional detail to your F-86K kit:
This PE sheet comprises seat belts, canopy rail detail, a new instrument panel, new torque arms for the landing gear and other stuff.
Three resin parts are given: a new IP cover, an optional rudder and a sight. I am not sure about the optional resin side rudder, though. Comparing this resin part to the rudder moulded onto the new fuselage halves I cannot see a difference aside from the resin part being way thicker than the plastic parts and it offers no additional detail on it, so I cannot see a gain using this resin part…
The new resin IP cover replaces the Revell kit one due to the F-86D and F-86K having different IPs:
Musthave! provides a piece of acetate film to depict the new instruments. This piece of acetate is to be glued behind the PE instrument panel. But even after having painted the back side of this acetate in white colour I cannot see the quality of this will satisfy anyone. The modeller might choose some aftermarket instrument decals instead that easily will give a better result than the reproduction on this acetate. But this is minor nitpicking from me.
Manufacturer: MustHave!
Scale: 1/48
Kit No: MH148002
Availability: directly from MustHave! (musthavemodels@yahoo.fr) or online.
(Click pictures to see them full size!)
Musthave! is a French company that so far has issued two 1/48 scale plastic model kits:
first one is of a Curtiss Mohawk IV with markings for aircraft used by French, Dutch and British forces in Morocco, Syria, Java and India.
Their second kit is of the North American F-86K (reviewed here) with markings for aircraft used by the following five nations: Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, France and Germany.
The Mohawk IV and the F-86K kits both are based on other company´s plastic kits complemented by conversion parts, decals and new instructions from MustHave! to enable the modeller to build different variants not given before.
MustHave! also is about to release a 1/48 scale Invader kit these days! This new kit is NOT based on Monogram´s kit but is a complete new kit of their own!
The “K” variant of the famous F-86 Sabre is a more basic export NATO version of the U.S. F-86D. The fuselage rocket tray of the US version has been deleted with four 20mm cannons added as main armament instead.
There have been some discussions on short or long wings having been used on the F-86K. According to a good friend “it depends!”. Even the Luftwaffe has got F-86K with short length wings (4x) with other aircraft having been equipped with long wings. Also the French airforce got F-86K with short wings so using the Revell kit´s wings is just fine here.
(Photo courtesy of Joop de Groot)
The top opening card box 320 x 245 x 50 millimetres in size is adorned by a splendid box art showing two French F-86K´s flying high atop the clouds. Upon opening the box the first one sees are two new fuselage halves moulded in black styrene.
MustHave! has done a great job by providing the modeller these new fuselage halves in injection moulded plastic: cutting and inserting any conversion part inserts to depict the cannon openings of a F-86K into Revell´s fuselage parts would quite have challenged most modellers. Also the fuselage of an F-86K is 203 millimetres longer than an F-86D! MustHave! has well spotted this and did the best possible job by providing completely new and correct fuselage halves here!
Also given in the box is Revell´s F-86D Sabre kit with all parts sealed in a clear plastic bag:
I will not go and review this already known Revell kit here. Anybody interested will find the corresponding reviews of Revell’s kit on the Net.
So, we have the new fuselage parts from MustHave! as well as the full Revell F-86D kit here. Furthermore this kit comprises some photo etched and resin parts added by MustHave! to provide missing or additional detail to your F-86K kit:
This PE sheet comprises seat belts, canopy rail detail, a new instrument panel, new torque arms for the landing gear and other stuff.
Three resin parts are given: a new IP cover, an optional rudder and a sight. I am not sure about the optional resin side rudder, though. Comparing this resin part to the rudder moulded onto the new fuselage halves I cannot see a difference aside from the resin part being way thicker than the plastic parts and it offers no additional detail on it, so I cannot see a gain using this resin part…
The new resin IP cover replaces the Revell kit one due to the F-86D and F-86K having different IPs:
Musthave! provides a piece of acetate film to depict the new instruments. This piece of acetate is to be glued behind the PE instrument panel. But even after having painted the back side of this acetate in white colour I cannot see the quality of this will satisfy anyone. The modeller might choose some aftermarket instrument decals instead that easily will give a better result than the reproduction on this acetate. But this is minor nitpicking from me.