Sabrejet

Test sprue pics now available on FaceBook. Looks nice!

I hear the same thing about vac-forms and I have no idea why many modellers are so limited in their scope. Resin (moulded resin that is) is for me the best modelling medium. I do try the odd plastic kit but many go in the bin since I just don't get the same pleasure with them that resin gives me. I'm also sure that many modellers complain about Resin, vac, PE and white metal even though a lot have never even given it a go. And on the subject of cost, I have to laugh when I hear modellers complaining about how "expensive" resin kits are. Then they go out and happily buy a few bland Tamigawa plastic kits, add a load or resin and PE extras and end up spending more than they'd have spent on the resin kit! And ultimately spend less time modelling than if they'd bought the resin kit. Modellers are a strange bunch.

I think it's fair to say that the F-86 day fighters have been poorly served in 1/32, and those kits that do exist are either flawed by age/clunkiness or other issues such as shape, over-simplification etc. We are at least lucky to have the Kitty Hawk D/K series nicely looking after the interceptors and I do wonder if KH had survived whether they'd have got round to doing an F-86A/E/F series. Meanwhile none of the 1/32 F-86F kits are anything to write home about, and we've never had kits of the F-86A or F-86E in a large scale, and the F-86H likely never will be. So it's probably understandable that decal sheets are a bit thin on the ground. It's also frustrating that many of the decal sheets that are available are not particularly imaginative, and many of the better ones require conversion of the base kits to be accurate. I once converted the Hasegawa kit to Sabre 4 configuration and painted it as an RAF 112 Sqn machine but the conversion took a bit of work (wing mods mainly) and the decals were a mix of spares box and custom/masking.

One of my favourite manufacturers! They do some lovely kits so hopefully this will follow suit.

It sounds like there is hope: but it's also a wake-up to us all that you shouldn't procrastinate about buying these lovely kits.

Could floor "a" company, but not I suspect in the case of JETMADS. Their subject choice is pretty impressive and since they have commitments to buy before they launch the production run it's probably the safest way to do business. 3D printing adds to the flexibility of that business model. I'd love JETMADS to be 100% cast resin, but I expect that would increase production costs and ultimately the cost to the purchaser.

And they are direct copies of the kit parts. So if you want more finesse or better accuracy they fail on both counts. They are also less strong, as mentioned. Total waste of money.

Well you'd like to think so....

Yeah but their J2F looks SUBLIME!!!!

I have the X-3; it seems you don't...

Um no. The cast parts are world-class and the 3D-printed parts possibly not as good as we see in Lukgraph kits, but still good, and getting better with each kit. And, "...their 3D printed par[t]s look like they were printed ten years ago" just sounds like sour grapes from someone who didn't get a kit. I didn't get a Neptune either, but I'm not going to throw a tantrum about it.

Each issue is limited to 500. This is a new issue, with new decals (and assuming parts too). So no false representation and nothing to get upset about. And in any case, who the hell buys a kit for its exclusivity?

Sadly that spot is held in perpetuity by de Havilland. Hence the phrase, "Aaaah de Havilland".

Never say never!

So aside from being a tad too long, how about the flatness or the Kitty Hawk F-5F canopy in profile?

It may be an illusion but the aft canopy on the T-38 has an elegant smooth curvature in profile that doesn't seem to be there on the F-5F. Kitty Hawk look to have got this right on their kit so I'd say it's a 'no' for a swap. But is that an error on Kitty Hawk's part or are the two canopies really different?

For clarity it's a Boulton Paul Defiant. Just in case anyone got excited at the prospect of a 1/32 Overstrand. Now imagine that!!!

*deleted* - title revised.

Nothing vintage or wrong here either: I make a LOT of 1/43 and 1/24 race cars with awesome vac screens. They are eons better than anything you can get in plastic.

I doubt very much they'd be 3D-printed other than to prove the CAD and fit.

...clear?

I tried it but not really for me. Hopefully it will develop with more words and maybe fewer photos and/or smaller images. I get the need for images but not when they are effectively repeat views of images on other pages. I did enjoy the Mark Hanna article and the Bf.109 restoration too but it needed more period photography and more detailed text.

I do have to laugh at people saying they got their P2V kit before anyone else. One guy on another forum said he'd got his months ago but requests to post images fell on deaf ears. Now everyone's got theirs it seems he's happy to post... I'm glad for those who got the kit, but why the BS?

I don't think fuselage length is a safe gauge for kit pricing. It's Lukgraph: it'll be superlative.

Apart from the very nice F-86D and F-86K done by Kitty Hawk, we could do with F-86A/E/F/H in 1/32. Going further, a CAC version too, plus Sabre 5 and 6. The likelihood is slight however, and realistically I think the only chance might be the usual (yawn) F-86F with 6-3 wing. With luck a new F-86F would encourage the aftermarket to do a series of conversions.