Grizly

The Sabre served with 434 Squadron when it was based at RCAF Station Zweibrucken, Germany and the CF-5A when 434 Squadron was stationed either at Bagotville or Chatham in Canada. Which, I'm not sure as I don't know exactly when the two colour wrap-around scheme was adopted. The CF-104 was with 1 Canadian Air Group in Baden-Soellingen, Germany.

From left to right - Hasegawa/Belcher Bits CF-5A, Italeri CF-104, Hasegawa Sabre Mk.6. Paints used were Xtracolor enamels. Decals by Leading Edge.

The CANAV book "The Canadair Sabre" by Larry Milberry has drawings that should be of assistance.

Further to my last, see the following regarding Luftwaffe Sabres... https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/canadair-cl-13b-sabre-mk-6-of-bundesluftwaffe-with-martin-baker-ejection-seat-1-32.33059/

As mentioned, the wings have to be shortened, sugar scoops added, vents added either side of the fuselage and the 'hump' forward of the vertical stab sanded down. Not mentioned is the 'cranked' pitot tube to clear the leading edge slats. Also note that the Luftwaffe adopted the Martin Baker Mk.5 ejection seat around 1960 which also required changes to the sliding canopy so be careful about the time frame of your subject model. The following is my Hasegawa Mk.6 model with Cutting Edge drop tanks and Leading Edge decals. Note, I also cleaned up the inside surface of the slats by removing the visible actuator slots and opened up the ammo bay on the port side.

One easy (and potentially expensive) upgrade for the Spitfire is replacing the engine with that from the Airfix Hurricane.

I see that Cybermodeler is now listing 'new' Airfix 1/24 Spitfire Mk.1a (kit 12001V) and Bf-109E (kit 12002V) kits to be released 2Q20. My quick search of the Airfix website shows what might be a re-issue of the Hurricane but can see no reference of the Spit or 109. Can anybody shed any light on these kits?

As 2020 rapidly approaches and more new kits will be released, remember when plastic models vaguely resembled the full scale item, rivets and panel lines were randomly placed, the number of parts could be counted on one's hand and there were no after market products to correct those fatal flaws?

I'd love to have a Tamiya 1/32 P-38J or L.

dmthamade - very nice build and I can understand how the rivets were of concern with your metal finish. I had similar issues with rivets with Trumpeter's P-47. In my case, the P-38's OD/grey finish minimized the appearance of the rivets considerably.

FunkyZeit, while I don't share you assessment of the kit, I do agree that Tamiya could produce a better kit. But how much better and for what price?

For dmthemade, fortunately I didn't experience any discomfort in that somewhat sensitive area of ones body during my build. As for the nose gear (and main gear), yes, I used the kit parts and don't recall having any issues with it.

For Dennismcc and Tim Hepplestone, further clarification should you be interested in adopting by build sequence... the following photo shows my first step in pulling the basic assembly together. In the photo you have (from left to right) the underside assemblies for the starboard outer, port outer and center section wing/tail boom components. As you can see, this approach provides perfect wing/tail boom joints.

For Bigg Tim, I did a little scratch building based on some research. See below. For Tim Hepplestone, It's a good kit but previous modellers have expressed frustration getting a good lower wing to nacelle joint and have invariably resorted to filling the joints with lots of putty. I found that key to completing the wing to nacelle/tail boom assembly was joining the lower wing half to the nacelles first rather than following the kit instructions. With this method you end up with a perfect seam/panel line joint that requires absolutely no filler. Its a but joint so I reinforced the inside with plastic strip. See below.

Trumpeter's kit built as Colonel Harold Rau's P-38J "Gentle Annie"