Hi I'm QDC.
What we're about to build today is Academy F86 Sabre jet and this is in 1/48 scale.
This is a very old kit made back in 1998 and I bought this from Ebay.
I don't think this is produced anymore.
The reason why I'm building this kit is because I casually met a former F86 pilot from the
Korean war.
This is the story.
Many years ago I was participating in a fund raiser for the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier
in Alameda, California.
It was a dinner party and when I was having dinner I noticed that there was an older man
that was being treated as a Rockstar.
He wore a leather jacket and on the back was a painted F86 jet with his squadron number
written.
He was being treated like a Rockstar.
People were gathering around him.
People wanted to talk to him.
I was wondering what was all the fuss is all about.
I asked.
People were telling me that this man was a former F86 pilot who flew in the Korean war.
He was a guest of honor for that fundraiser.
That peaked my interests but unfortunately I wasn't interested in the Korean war so I
didn't bother to come up to him and talk to him.
Which was a shame for me and a loss as well.
Years has past and I had a chance to go inside and see a real F86 Sabre jet and that peaked
my interests a little bit.
Years after that, I saw an incredible documentary on the F86.
It was a real nice documentary in which there was computer animation and also interviews
from former F86 pilots during the Korean war.
That hooked me.
I got so interested in the F86 that I bought this kit to build.
Before we start building this kit, I want to show you the actual footage of me going
inside the cockpit of the F86 Sabre jet back in 2015.
Right after that, we're going to start building this kit.
Bear with me and lets go to the F86 jet right now.
Can you tell me more about this airplane?
[Docent] What you like to know?
[Me] How about the controls?
[Docent] This was an F86 that was lent to the Japanese after the Korean war and it was
converted to a reconnaissance aircraft so the panel for all the cameras was all there.
On this side all the way back to right there was all radios.
That red knob is the lever to opening the shutters for the cameras.
This panel right there is the master switch and the airstart switches for getting the
aircraft going.
On this side, you have environmental controls.
Some trimming controls that works with this guy.
We have flap controls here.
Throttle.
Right here is fuel control for switching tanks.
We have the usual landing gears and the usual instrumentations.
[Me] Has this ever flown during the Korean war?
[Docent] Yes, this flew in the Korean War and after the war it was lent to the Japanese.
If you look at the steel plates at the bottom.
[Me] These steel plates?
[Docent] Yes, you see the diamonds.
[Me] Yes, I notice it's the Mitsubishi symbol.
[Docent] That's where you put your feet when you pull the ejection levers.
This lever here blows the canopy and this level here blows the seat.
[Me] I'm supposed to put my feet like this?
Just crouch over and...
[Docent] You will be holding both onto those handles and off you go.
[Me] My question is that...I'm assuming you're going through high G's already and it's really
hard to move your leg from here to there when your plane is out of control.
[Docent] That's something that they train you and you practice a lot.
[Me] You have no choice.
[Docent] The only thing we're missing is the piper for the guns.
[Me] Thank you.
That's a lot of information.
[Docent] These were for the pilots.
These were very fun airplanes to fly and you will see at 1245pm.
There's going to be an F86 and a Mig 15 flying simulated combat.
So you see how nimble those airplanes were.
Latter on there is a heritage flight with an F-16 and an F86.
[Me] I got to stick around for that.
[Me] Thank you.
Okay, so lets start building this kit right now.
Let's take a look inside this box.
We have the fuselage.
Engine.
Drop tanks.
Wings.
Decals.
And the instruction sheet.
When I bought this kit from Ebay, it include aftermarket parts.
This kit from Aires of this cockpit interior.
Unfortunately, this kit does not fit my Academy kit.
It's designed for the Hasagawa kit and it's too big for me kit.
But I think the seat and the photo etched parts might fit.
I'm going to try to see if it will work on my kit.
So I completed the aftermarket seat and over here is the kit supplied seat.
You can see there's a clear difference between the level of details from the aftermarket
product versus the one in the kit.
I added these fishing weights to counterbalance the model so it won't sit on it's tail.
Okay, so we build the model kit and now it's time for me to show you what I think about
this kit so far.
Take a look.
This is the completed model kit before painting and this is a nice model kit to build.
It's too bad that academy stopped making this model kit.
I find the details very nice but it's fairly complicated so I would not recommend for the
absolute beginner but if you are an intermediate or an advance modeler, this kit is well worth
finding on Ebay to build.
It's time for me to paint the model.
Alright, we built the model kit. We painted it.
We weathered it and now it's time for me to show the completed model kit from the beginning
to the end.
Take a look.
This is the completed model kit after painting and this is a good model kit to build.
I like the paintwork I've done and the decals are good.
Overall, this is a model kit that I wish Academy would release again because it is a good model
kit.
There's no real flaws about this kit that I didn't like.
That completes this model project.
What you're about to see is a video slideshow of the completed model kit and at the end
the slideshow, I'm going to provide you a link to that exciting documentary that I saw
that really got me hooked onto building this model kit.
It's a nice documentary and I hope you get to enjoy it.
I'm going to leave you a link to that at the end of this slideshow.
I'm QDC and thanks for watching.
Goodbye.
Hello again, it's me.
If you're interested in watching the documentary that got me hooked onto building this model
kit...if you click onto here it will take you to that Youtube video of that documentary.
I hope you enjoy it.