Better late than never...

[Sabre F-86]

I'm in, with an  Eduard Bf-109E-7. Bought several of the overtree sets, and have ordered some PE from them. Virgin kit, untouched. I'll start with subassemblies that don't rely on the PE, although it was ordered back on the 16th. Should  be here soon. The painting will be the standard for the period, with Hinomarus, a red stripe with white borders  and  the numeral 1 on the tail fin. 

[Stokey Pete]

That’s an interesting, and very unusual subject. I didn’t even know the Japanese had ever operated the type. 

[Sabre F-86]

In the early part of the war, Japan had a couple 109s sent over for evaluation with the idea of building them under license. It didn't pan out but they did acquire the rights to the DB engine. They also had an Fw-190 A5 or two for the same purpose. 

[themongoose]

Now this will be totally unique and interesting! I love this kind of subject matter

[Sabre F-86]

Still waiting on the PE but the subassemblies are coming along pretty good. Now I know what overtrees are. Some of the parts are not well formed but workable, and with a fair bit of flash. Wing main part done, tail planes, cockpit floor, so far. From the instructions I have for the Adler Angriff kit, I see there are some cockpit bits that can be assembled without the PE, next on the list, along with the landing gear, prop and spinner. Ailerons, flaps, elevators. Nothing worth photographing yet, I'll post some later on as building progresses. 

[Sabre F-86]

PE has arrived, bits are coming together. 

[chrish]

Without pictures it never happened 

just sayin….

[Sabre F-86]

Things are progressing well. First photo, some of the sub-assemblies, grouped together. 

 

 

Secondly, close ups of the exhaust, landing gear strut, and the basic cockpit. 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the somewhat out of focus pics. Next time I'll use a stand. The landing gear hoses were added to the plastic pipe with 30 gauge wire wrapping wire, left over from my college days. The wire is 30 gauge but the insulation is really thin, so much so that it can't be stripped with a 30 gauge stripper. You have to nibble the ends off. Not sure where you can find it, I ordered some 30 gauge from Amazon but the insulation is much thicker and the stripper works. OK if you want the wire, but I use the stripped insulation as hose, with the wire as the coupler. 

[MikeMaben]

 

           

[Sabre F-86]

Gettin' there, slow but steady. I should be able to close up the fuselage tomorrow. Or rather, today, it's 0030 here. 

 

More pics. Cockpit coming together, the PE is good practice for when I do the Trumpeter USS Langley. Bought all the PE for it, acres of teeny tiny little brass bits. 

 

Cockpit

 

 

 

 

Landing gear hoses. Almost done, trim and touch up paint still needed. 

 

 

 

 

Picked up some placard decals, next on the list of things, then a wash, and some pigments, for the cockpit and the gear. 

Edited Tuesday at 01:57 AM by Sabre F-86

[Sabre F-86]

Still chugging along. Fuselage is together, wings on, and the tail planes. Taking care of all the dings and dents where the divots are. The nose is a scream, still trying to get the upper cowling to fit to the fuselage, the end surface where the prop butts against was badly messed up. Got a question. For some reason, the glue doesn't seem to hold very well and pieces keep popping loose. I use tamiya extra thin. Have started to paint parts, need to go get some more  paints. My Gunz Sangyo seems to be drying up. 

 

More photos tomorrow. 

[MikeMaben]

Sounds like something is between the glue and the parts. Gotta make sure both surfaces are clear of any paint or oils.

Keep on chuggin'.

[Sabre F-86]

Beats hell out of me why it won't stick in some place, but does OK In others. I washed everything with dish detergent before I started, and wipe things down with IPA and a Q-tip. Anyway, onwards and upwards. 

 

Some fresh photos, just taken. 

 

Prop and spinner  done, put a piece of tubing into the nose, so the prop can be removed. Just stuck the cowling down with white glue, prior to painting. The nose is as good as I can get it, the upper cowl is a tad wide at the nose, probably because of the bad molding. Looking down, it's not too noticeable, but for a ground shot, it will be visible. 

 

 

 

From the port quarter, the canopy is being masked with bare metal foil and the flaps are still off because I have to jigger the camo markings as there is a gap when the flaps are down. 

 

 

Two shots of the cockpit. The joystick popped off, needs to be reinstalled. 

 

 

 

Another shot of the prop.  That spot of red is sacrificial bleeding, not on this project, but from the shelves I'm knocking together. Spring cleaning in between letting the glue or paint dry. 

 

 

Lastly, the underside. Not sure why there is a gap between the oil cooler and the wing LE. The wing is in the correct position, as is the oil cooler insert. The back joint took some fairing and still needs more rescribing. Wheel wells given a wash of Van Dyke Brown oils and mostly wiped away. 

 

 

So far, so good. I expect to finish the scribing tonight, and start shooting the last of the Alclad aluminum, and then on with the black mottling before the camo scheme. I'm going to go easy on the mottling, While the few photo seem to show a lot of staining, I'm thinking these were new machines and the Japanese couldn't have flown them all that much. I'm also gonna try masks for the first time with my cricket cutter. I have the approximate dimensions for the strip and hinomarus. I'm looking through my fonts list for a good match to the numeral, otherwise I'll have to make it up with the cricket software. All the paints are on hand as of yesterday. 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:07 PM by Sabre F-86
photo in wrong position.

[themongoose]

Weird about that gap  paint looks good. Gonna be sharp when you get done!

[MikeMaben]

Looks OK so far