I have heard great things about the Airfix 1/72 F-86, so I wanted to build one for the last of my F-86 trilogy. Having done 2 NMFs in a row, I wanted to build something in camo. Back in my early days of flying the C-141, I remembered seeing F-86s during a stop in Honduras. I thought it might be fun and nostalgic to create a Honduran F-86.

History:
The Honduran Air Force received a small number of CL-13 Mk.4s in the mid-1970s. These planes started life in the RCAF, and were then sold to Yugoslavia. They were, in turn, sold to Honduras. Prior to arrival, the planes were refurbished, bringing them up to F-86E/M standards. One of the interesting things about these planes is that they had a Martin Baker Mk.10 ejection seat installed. It seems that not long after these planes arrived in Honduras, one of their most senior pilots was nearly killed when the standard ejection seat failed during an emergency. Apparently all of the Honduran F-86s were fitted with a new seat.

So far, this model has shared many of the highs and lows of the 1/48 version. It is well-engineered and the parts fit together well. That's the good part. The bad part is that there are a number of very large ejector pin marks in very noticeable places, as well as some really huge sprue attachment points. I needed to replace the kit seat with the MB Mk.10, and by coincidence I had files to print the seat in my 3D printer. I want to paint this model late in its career, with some fairly weathered camo. I am also thinking about adding Sidewinders to this model. I don't have any pictures of the F-86E with Sidewinders, but the late model F-86s were capable of carrying Sidewinders, so I may take a leap of faith.

Here is a YouTube walk around if you would like to see a preserved Honduran F-86:

16 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Another awesome entry and ditto progress, my friend @gblair! This looks to be a good kit, however it is quite noteworthy for a modern mold (2010) that the sprue gates are thick and nasty ejector pin marks are present. The Mk.10 seat looks excellent!

A great addition to this Sabre group, George @gblair
Always nice to have another camouflage variant being build.
Those printed seats are really nicely detailed.

Now that the 1/48 Airfix Sabre is complete, I can start moving again on this one. The big parts are basically done, with the exception of some finish sanding. I spent my time today cutting all of the small bits off the overly-large sprues and cleaning them up. I also painted the tires. I added 2 pairs of pylons under the wings, one pair for the drop tanks and one pair for the bombs. I originally had the idea that I would add two early Sidewinder missiles to the inner pylons, but I did some research and discovered that Honduras never used the Sidewinder. I may decide to keep the pylons empty on the final model.

Airfix's annoying habit of placing sprue attachment points in inconvenient places continue. The sliding portion of the canopy had four attachment points, each of which was carefully positioned to sit on a portion of the glass of the canopy. Probably fixable.

The model does not have any form of gunsight, so scratchbuilding something to represent the sight is my next task.

Cheers everyone.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi, Spiros (@fiveten): It does seem strange to not add something like a gunsight. That is my project for tomorrow. Really nice kit otherwise.

Thanks, John (@johnb). I hope to get the sight done and start on the camo today. I need to find some really thin clear material for the glass in the gunsight.

Thanks, Alfred (@alfred). Adding detail to a 1/72 scale kit can be a real challenge.

That four colored camo looks really nice, George @gblair
Excellent work on the tiny gun sight, does add a lot to the interior.
I'm sure the throttle will look perfect in the end as well.