Madmax

Beautifully built Alain - it looks so, how can one say... French!

Wonderful progress Malcolm - the hard edge camouflage looks fantastic!

As per usual, the drawings one bases measurements on need to be accurate, and good F-86 blueprints are very difficult to find. Based on a cross section of those I have found, and photographs, this is the piece of the elevator that should be removed to get the proportion correct. Here is the final product (on the right), compared to the original and the Kinetic part. The elevator was separated from the stab and its leading edge rounded along with scalloping the stab trailing edge. The rudder was built up a bit in order to give it a rounded leadi

Glad it brought back some memories Derek. I imagine you are no stranger to Martin Baker and Irvin, which in turn (and thanks to the work of our survival equipment professionals) saved a couple of my friend's lives. I can still recall the feeling of strapping on a Martin Baker seat as if it were yesterday, even though it has now been more than 20 years since I last had the privilege! Nick, the painting of walls is done for now, but I have been away from the bench again - installing flooring... Thanks Tom and Violator, the scratch building of detail is one of my favourit

Enjoy the build Tim! I don't know of any 1:32 decals for a SAAF Sabre in Korea, and I'm keen to see what you come up with. There are decals from AIMS for F-51 Mustangs in Korea, but that will only work for the fuselage as they are all 36inch roundels, and you need 30 inch roundels for the wings. I haven't worked out a solution for mine yet, except to say that I hope Nick has his Silhouette cutter fine tuned to cut small Springbuck stencils...

Rivets, shiny Alclad and decals on top - not for the faint hearted! You have pulled off a hell of a balancing act here Chuck, well done.

That really is lovely Nick! By getting the cockpit/canopy dimensions just right, you have fully captured the lines of this beautiful delta-wing.

I am also very keen to see this project come out of hibernation Iain! The 1970's Hasegawa kits certainly are surprising for their age - but understandably not all good surprises... .

It was my turn to cook dinner last night, so I rushed my update and forgot to show you the lovely Aires ejection seat all painted up. I based the colours pretty much on this photo from Warren Thompson's "F-86 Sabre Fighter Bomber Units Over Korea" (Osprey) which is a must-have resource. Working on the seat reminded me of a cartoon that the inimitable Bob Stevens created for the AIR FORCE magazine many years ago. One of my favourites!

You don't miss a thing Mike - very funny! Good question regarding the IP's. I would venture that 'most' Korean war Sabres had that IP, since they were mainly E's and F's from 1952 onwards. That being said however, the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group were flying F-86A's in Korea since late 1950, and the A's IP didn't have the mega compass in the middle (the artificial horizon was there). The E-10 and later models had the big compass (actually a DI). This is an actual SAAF F-30 cockpit: Maybe there are some Sabre boffins ou

Thanks very much to one and all, your enthusiasm is much appreciated! A weird thing happens between dry-fitting and the application of glue - I swear the parts swell up in anticipation. Here you can see how tight the fit of the resin cockpit actually is. I had to file a notch in the top of the intake trunking so that the cockpit would fit without filing away any more of the sidewalls. The difference between the kit cockpit and the Aires resin is quite noticeable, and it is obvious the extra depth has to be absorbed somewhere! With the seat rail

Your build sequence for the Mirage is very clever Malcom - it really does eliminate some horrendous joins that result from following the kit sequence. One of those strange mysteries of life, since the parts don't change What is your trick for leaving the main gear legs unattached at this point, and is the nose wheel leg glued in?

Have you seen this Nick? Although the French Mirage 2000's are beautiful, the Greek Mirages have a mean bite...

You are a sucker for punishment Malcolm! Italeri should donate you a free 1:32 Mirage III of your choice for doing so much to promote their kit. Can't wait to see how this turns out...

Hey Iain, as I recall, Jimmy builds models and I have heard you build great models. Time to show us some! The Sabre is slowly progressing, however, the further I delve into this build, the more I realise why there are only two 1:32 scale Sabre kits out there. The nose wheel-well is detailed about as much as I would like. The actual leg is complete, and I drilled out the openings in the wheel hub so that one can see through them. There are two types of hubs in the kit, the other with lots of "spokes", but this is the one mo