Hasegawa 1/48 RF-86F

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Chris and Stuart!

The Alclad ALC 101 has been applied over a Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer. Serious damage was done to the masking supplies in setting up to paint the theater stripes, in this photo the black stripes have been painted using Model Master Black Chrome and then have been masked off. After this photo an undercoat of flat white was sprayed on the yellow areas.

[jeaton01]

Got the buzz number on the tail and the greyish color on the wing inner panels now. Next is the USAF on the wings which had to follow the grey areas.

[keavdog]

Impressive John. Yellow/Black over NMF.... well done.

[jeaton01]

Thanks, John. Black first, then white, then flat yellow, then chrome yellow. All very thin layers.

I think I'm done with the masking and painting, now it's just down to the decals. The gun ports were not present of the RF-86's, but to fool the enemy they were painted on. I puzzled for a while on how to do that, and then decided to use a pencil. I cut masks for the outlines and ran a pencil around the inside and made smudges where the barrels would show. Overcoated that with Alclad Aqua Gloss. I didn't think I could cut or place a mask well enough to do a creditable job with paint.

[keavdog]

Looks good John. Gun ports are totally credible. So flying at top speed, the adversaries could look and see the gun ports? Must have been the last era of gun fighting.

[jeaton01]

Yeah, I suspect it was more for the pilot's ego, I know I'd never see it.

[jeaton01]

Spent most of the day putting on stencils and the stars and bars. I'm sure I missed a few but who's to know. A few bits to add yet and I'll have to put a seal coat on it since there may be handling I can't control at the museum. I'm thinking a dusting of Alclad aqua gloss and if it is too shiny after that a dust coat of Alclad flat.

[Duke Maddog]

This is coming along nicely! As for the gun ports; they didn't want the enemy to know it was simply a recon bird. Having them on there would make an enemy who was already shy about tangling with Sabres think twice about taking them on so they had a better chance of getting home with the photo intel.

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Mark.

All done, ready to go. I skipped the final flat coat as I was happy with just a light coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss.

[Gary Brantley]

Those pics of both models together are just so cool, John! Two beauties, but I'm partial to the Sabre!