Now that the Academy F-86 is done, it was time to get back to the Airfix kit. I started adding some of the sub-assemblies, mainly gluing the cockpit, the nose gear compartment, the airplane nose, and the engine false front to the intake duct. Unlike the Academy kit, this model does not have an engine and the rear fuselage doesn't detach from the rest of the model.
This plane has a number of panels that must be attached to the fuselage, all of which need to be carefully checked to be sure they fit correctly. You have the option to show the machine guns, but I didn't want to have the gun bays open. The first panel, which is glued into place from behind, fit perfectly. Yeah! But the other panel didn't fit well, so careful sanding and fitting was the order for the day.
I have narrowed down the paint scheme and plan to build either a NASA chase plane or a QF-86. I originally planned to do a foreign paint scheme, but it was hard to find a foriegn user who had late model F-86s. As you know, there were a lot of variants of the F-86, with the main difference between the various versions being the wing. I have thought for a long time that all F-86Fs had the same wing, but that wasn't true. The early F-86F's had a broad chord 6-3 wing without slats, while the late model F-86F's had the 6-3 wing with slats. Apparently no USAF unit used the F-86F, which was basically designed for export. Most of the exported planes had the early wing. To make matters more interesting, when the export early F-86F's came in for depot maintenance, a replacement wing set was often installed to bring them up to late model standards. So, why is this important? The Airfix kit has the 6-3 wing with slats. So, the kit will only build a late model F-86. Specifically, the kit will build an F-86F-40. This somewhat limits my choice of what to build. Conceivably, an exported early F-86F could have received the later wing during major maintenance, but I couldn't find a photo of either a Honduran or Peruvian F-86 with a late model wing, so I decided build something that I knew would work, namely a QF-86F, or a NASA plane. Any way, that is the long and short of the painting decision. I am still looking for some photo evidence that would allow me to build one of my chosen export paint schemes, so all of this is still Jello.
9 attached images. Click to enlarge.
