Sabre of 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Butterworth, Malaysia at the opening airshow for Paya Lebar, Singapore's new airport Easter weekend April 1961.The 3-sabre' marking was carried by all aircraft between 1958 and 1962.
Academy w/ High Planes Models 1/48 CAC Sabre correction kit and decals.
Aires-4022-1-48-F-86F Sabre cockpit set
Lifecolor and Tamiya paints.
I must admit, that when I started this kit, I had a dread that I was monumentally going to balls it up. Reading the pages of instructions and watching A2's build thread, I thought that with the combination of the low volume conversion kit parts, the metal paint job and the fact that some of the decals had cracks in them that gave the impression that the whole build could be ruined with one irreplaceable decal exploding when it hit the water. It got off to a rough start when I decided you use the resin cockpit set that came in the box. It nearly didn't fir, but I kept permitting until it did. I had no other choice, the modifications had already begun. Seams and gaps are still my weak point and on this thankfully most of the flaws are either hidden or not as noticeable as I thought, still they are there. The decals went on great, although having the white decals to apply first made placement of the Squadron 3's difficult. I followed the decal diagrams lining up the sabre with the access panels shown and hoped that it was right. It wasn't, the angle was wrong, and it shows, but again its not as bad as it could have been and it looks great in the cabinet.
Big thanks to Bruce (PacificMustang) for selling me the kit at such a great price, to Andrew D, for the great build thread to follow when I found myself scratching my head, and everyone here who offered advice and feedback along the way.
