RAAF CAC Sabre. Finished. Thankyou Brick!

[Brick]

Taking shape, Eric, as is my Wingnut Wings DH.9 "Ninak", for which, I can assure you, absolutely no kit-bashing or scratch-work is required  ( I'm still not brave enough for that sort of thing.)

 

I thought I might post a photo of what you are aiming at for the folks following your build, so here's the only shot I have of ol' 967.  And does that photo take me back.  I had always had a fascination with the orient, ever since I was in primary school, and finally there I was in No 77 Squadron at Butterworth in the then Malaya shortly after I completed my operational conversion to type.  As a young single man, I had a room on the first floor of the Officers' Mess four times bigger than anything I could have had back in Australia, with two highly professional and immaculately attired room boys to attend to the washing, ironing and other housework of all the young "singlies" on my floor.  Rivalry with No 3 Squadron (also Avon Sabres) was in a healthy state, while the Canberra crews of No 2 Squadron looked at us young hot-shot fighter-jocks with utter disdain.  An RAF squadron of Valettas did the supply drops to the jungle forts, the CTs still being quite active despite the Malayan Emergency having been declared "officially" over shortly before I arrived.  The RAF 'V' bombers (Vulcans, Victors and Valiants) used to come out twice a year for "fun and games", as did the RN's Ark Royal.  The Brits also had Hunters and Javelins at Tengah to keep things interesting, and there was a big SEATO exercise in Thailand once a year, with types galore involved.  

 

I had a balcony outside my room which looked out to the sunsets over the Straits of Malacca and Penang Island, a nice cold Tiger beer at the end of a hard day, the first Triumph TR4 to be exported to South East Asia, and an Avon Sabre on the flight line with my name on it.  I figured that life just simply couldn't get any better than that, and I never wanted it to end.

 

[Martinnfb]

I am actually drooling ,  crazy stuff Erik.

Cheers

Martin

[Simmo.b]

Great work as always, how did she come to crash Brick?

[ericg]

Hi Brick, another great insight and I especially like the last paragraph.

 

Another update. Things were starting to get a bit crazy at my house and I found myself working on three Large scale models at once. I decided I was not getting too far on any of them (although I have had some fairly solid progress on the Super Hornet since its last update) so decided to put two away and do what I should be doing, working on the Sabre!

 

Notice how they are all roughly at the same level of completion?

 

 

Some small detail stuff to break up the tedious job of scribing lines. They are only small additions but added together they should make a difference.

 

I started with the rudder trim tab actuator. As part of the thinning process to get the the kit tail thickness down, I had to sand off the kit actuator. It was a bit clunky anyway, so the new scratchbuilt one looks alot better.

 

 

A detail that has been catching my eye is the small door immediately forward of the vent on top of the fuselage. I initially scribed the door in place to represent it in the closed position but upon examination of Bricks photos and the other period photos, it was apparent that in most instances it was in the open position. A small rectangle of thin aluminium and two hinges, and it was complete.

 

 

 

Not a huge detail, but it is there. You will notice that I have also been re-applying a large amount of rivets.......

 

 

The nose wheel that is supplied in the kit has its spokes filled in for ease of manufacture. I reckon it would be way cooler to have them hollowed out as per the real thing. It should be worth noting that I do believe in this scale, this sort of thing should be done.

 

 

I am going to use Harold from AMS new Sabre main wheels, so in the meantime, I put some tread on the kit nose wheel. I was unable to get the wheel into the chuck of the lathe, so I reverted to my old technique to scribe grooves. with an assortment of different thickness plastic card I was able to vary the height of the wheel against the fixed position of the needle whilst rotating it to give me each groove.

 

 

 

Bricks modesty may prevent him from posting pics of himself here, but I reckon it is time to put a face to the name (although a face that is just over half a century newer in this pic!!)He has been kind enough to provide me many excellent photos during our correspondence and this is one of em.

 

[MikeP]

Hi Eric, the level of attention you give to even the smallest of details really is impressive. Brick's recollections take it from being a miniature of an inanimate object to a little piece of history. The combination makes for a great read.

 

Mike

[alaninaustria]

Outstanding gentlemen! Thanks for the great build Eric and for Bricks to add some real life to it makes it so much more interesting and alive!

Cheers

Alan

[ericg]

Close inspection of several photos that Brick sent me revealed two small doors that are either side of the fin in the open position. I checked my reference photos and discovered that in about 70% of the photos, the doors are open when on the ground. Certainly the photo of '967 that Bick has posted above with his Triumph in front of it showed them in that position so I knew that I had to do it.

 

I chain drilled the holes and filed them and then fabricated the doors from thin aluminium from horizontal window blinds. These photos show some of the considerable amount of extra work that has gone into the conversion to good effect. I still have many more access panel to scribe.

 

 

 

At this stage I normally like to start mocking up the model as it will appear when it is finished to check such things as its stance, angles of flaps, doors, weapon fit etc. It is really starting to look the part.

 

[LSP_Paul]

Looks fantastic Eric. It  is amazing how many more NACA ducts, vents, grills, exhausts the Aussie version has compared to even the later production US Built F-86 series.  Your model is really coming out well,

 keep up the great work.

 Paul 

[Hubert Boillot]

Beautiful detail work, and a very moving story.

 

Hubert

[Loic]

She is a beauty

[mozart]

Do you know Eric, I'm not into nasty noisy jet-type things at all.......but I have to say that I have found reading through this build, with your skills, techniques and attention to detail, along with Brick's reminiscences, absolutely compelling.

Max

[brahman104]

You're really doing justice to the old girl and to Brick! Simply smashing work Eric

 

Craig

[leitch]

For Brick,

 

Sorry to be off topic,

 

My father was in the RAF at or near Butterworth, he was in safety equipment.

He met my mother there, she was the daughter of one of the Butterworth Air Traffic Controllers (RAAF).

They always joked that I was conceived on Penang beach, I was born in September 1965.

So at one point, my Father and both Grandfathers were there at the same time.

My father is James Gordon Leitch RAF retired.

My Grandfather was James Terriss Leitch RAF retired.

My other Grandfather was Alfred 'Bert' Foster RAAF retired.

 

You never know you may have met one of them.

 

I have always had a special fondness for the Sabre, and the Hunter, I knew the Sabres were there from pictures my father has, but Hunters I had no idea.

 

Again sorry to run off track.

 

Andrew

[Iain]

Great subject - superb work!

 

Just catching up with all the posts on this one...

 

Iain

[Guest Peterpools]

Brick

Terrific photo and bring backs memories of my TR250 (TR4A with the in line 6 rather then the 4) in BRG. Two things I do regret over the years:

Selling my Piper PA22-108 Colt and then selling my TR250. Sure wish I still had them both.

Peter