F-86F of the Royal Iraqi Air Force, 1958 +++ SPINNERS tribute build ;-)

Dizzyfugu · September 24, 2016, 05:13:37 AM

Hardware rendition of a recent CG inspiration...

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, was a transonic jet fighter aircraft, produced by North American Aviation. The Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept wing fighter that could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War (1950–1953).
Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in that war, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras. Although it was developed in the late 1940s and was outdated by the end of the '50s, the Sabre proved versatile and adaptable, and continued as a front-line fighter in numerous air forces until the last active operational examples were retired by the Bolivian Air Force in 1994. Its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956, in the United States, Japan and Italy.

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1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

One of the many F-86 operators was the Iraq. The Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF) was still recovering from its destruction by the British in 1948 when they joined in the war against the newly created state of Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Even though the RIrAF had some modern aircraft, the RIrAF played only a small role in the first war against Israel.

From 1950 to 1958 most of the RIrAF aircraft were from the United Kingdom, e. g. Hawker Fury fighters and trainers. The first jet fighters, the de Havilland Vampire of the RIrAF, were delivered in 1953. The RIrAF also received de Havilland Venoms and Hawker Hunters during the mid-1950s. 4 Bristol 170 Freighters were received in 1953. In 1954 and 1956, 19 de Havilland Vampire jet fighters and 14 ex-RAF Hawkers, funded by the U.S., were delivered.

In order to modernize the aircraft fleet (esp. as a replacement for the piston engine Hawker Sea Furies), a "large number" of F-86s were directly ordered in the US by the Royal Iraqi government in the late 1950s. The total order volume remained unclear, but was estimated by third parties to encompass 200 aircraft, also including radar-equipped F-86K interceptors.

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

However, the government of King Faisal II was overthrown by a violent coup in 1958, and Iraq left the pro-Western Baghdad Pact shortly afterwards. As a result, the US government vetoed further arms sales to Iraq after only five F-86Fs had been delivered. As a further result of the revolution, the Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) dropped the "Royal" from its name and the Soviets were quick to supply MiG-17s, and later MiG-19 and MiG-21 fighters, as well as Ilyushin Il-28 bombers to the new Iraqi government. Little is known about the Iraqi F-86Fs' fate, although it is believed that they were stored at Habbaniya at first and then passed on to Pakistan in 1963.

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 1 in (11.4 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11.3 m)
Height: 14 ft 1 in (4.5 m)
Wing area: 313.4 sq ft (29.11 m²)
Empty weight: 11,125 lb (5,046 kg)
Loaded weight: 15,198 lb (6,894 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 18,152 lb (8,234 kg)
Internal JP-4 fuel load: 437 US gallons (1,650 L)

Powerplant:
1× General Electric J47-GE-27 turbojet, rated at 5,910 lbf (26.3 kN)

Performance:
Maximum speed: 687 mph (1,106 km/h) at sea level
Stall speed: 124 mph (108 knots/200 km/h)
Range: 1,525 mi, (2,454 km)
Service ceiling: 49,600 ft at combat weight (15,100 m)
Rate of climb: 9,000 ft/min at sea level (45.72 m/s)
Wing loading: 49.4 lb/ft² (236.7 kg/m²)
Lift-to-drag: 15.1
Thrust/weight: 0.42

Armament:
6x 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M3 Browning machine guns with 300 RPG
4x underwing hardpoints for a 5,300 lb (2,400 kg) payload, including 2x200 US gallons (760 L)
drop tanks on the wet, outer pair of pylons; plus 2x Matra rocket pods with 18 SNEB 68 mm
rockets each, 2x AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs, or 2x 1,000 lb bombs or napalm canisters.

The kit and its assembly:
The Iraqi F-86s are a very good whif subject, since the type was actually delivered to the country but little is known, especially about the looks - even though I'd assume that the five real world RIrAF Sabres arrived and were left in bare metal finish.

However, fellow member SPINNERS at whatifmolders.com posted recently a simulated Iraqi F-86, based on the unique three-tone camouflage of South American (e. g. Argentinian, but also Bolivian and Colombian) aircraft – see here for reference: <a href="http://s256.photobucket.com/user/SPINNERS1961/media/WHAT IF 2010/WHAT IF ALBUM A/IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.04_zpsq5nyk4ff.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">s256.photobucket.com/user/SPINNERS1961/media/WHAT%20IF%20...</a>
This looked quite convincing and generally made a nice whif topic, so, this build is more or less the hardware rendition of this CG design.

The kit is the very simple, yet well-detailed F-86F-30 from Hobby Boss. Only little was changed, e.g. the additional, inner pair of pylons with SNEB missile launchers (the RIrAF operated Hunters, Venoms and Vampires, so these are a plausible part of the arsenal), the fuel outlet and some additions in the minimalistic cockpit, the only true weakness of many of these simple kits – even though the F-86 cockpit is one of the better Hobby Boss offerings.

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Biggest challenge was actually to cramp enough lead into the Sabre's nose – the cockpit tub with an integrated air intake duct take up a lot of place, and the massive kit is very tail-heavy. Placing lead beads under the cockpit floor was not enough, so I had to fill the air intake partly with more lead in order to keep the nose wheel barely down...

Painting and markings;
The more interesting part of the build. I stuck closely to SPINNERS' screenshots and also adapted my paint tones to the CG benchmark, so that the Iraqi machine would look less like an Argentinian F-86.

The interpretation of a screen color is always tricky, and I settled upon mixed tones:
• A rich, reddish sand tone made from Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) and a little 118 (US Tan)
• A greenish gray (pure Humbrol 240, actually RLM 02!)
• A dark mix of olive drab and chocolate brown (Humbrol 66 + 10, about 2:1 ratio)
• Camouflage Grey (FS 36622/Humbrol 28) for the undersides

The result looks surprisingly (but not intentionally!) like the USAF SAC scheme, known from the B-52H bombers, probably the RLM 02 looks, in contrast to the other colors, very greenish and less grey than hoped for. During the ensuing shading process, after an overall, light black ink wash, I tried to trim the tone towards a colder, pure grey - but the greenish impression persists!
Anyway, it's a whif, and if the Iraqi F-86s had been delivered in bare metal and camouflaged domestically, who knows which tones had been used? Certainly no American Federal Standard colors.

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The cockpit became Neutral Grey, while the landing gear struts and covers became aluminum and the wells interior green. The air intake interior was painted aluminum, too, in a little deviation from the CG benchmark (which appears to be white).

The national markings come from an 1:72 Begemot MiG-25 sheet, as well as the tactical codes, which were puzzled together from single Arabic digits for the four positions on nose and tail. The stencils come from the OOB sheet and also from the scrap box.

Finally, after some minor soot stains around guns and exhaust, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American F-86F-30 'Sabre'; aircraft '251' (ex USAF BuNo 55-7251) of the No. 4 Squadron, Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF, القوة الجوية العراقية الملكية); Habbaniya AB, early 1958 (Whif/SPINNERS tribute/Hobby Boss kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A very relaxed build, since no major conversion or kitbashing was involved. And with an interesting result - the F-86 in Iraqi markings looks strange, yet familiar, and with the obscure real world background this is a very convincing whif.

Captain Canada · September 24, 2016, 05:29:20 AM

Great stuff Dizzy ! Thanks for the colour breakdown as well, I'm going to note that !

Dizzyfugu · September 24, 2016, 08:35:04 AM

You're welcome, thank you, too.

TheChronicOne · September 24, 2016, 10:24:45 AM

I'm blown away by your art work!! That's so nice.

DogfighterZen · September 26, 2016, 10:10:58 AM

I love that camo, Dizzy, great stuff!

Dizzyfugu · October 01, 2016, 03:12:57 AM

Thank you, too. The pics are partyl experimental, with some vertical perspective shots - but this adds a lot of "drama" and action to the flight scene. Seems to work fine.

F-86F of the Royal Iraqi Air Force, 1958 +++ SPINNERS tribute build ;-)

Dizzyfugu

Captain Canada

Dizzyfugu

TheChronicOne

DogfighterZen

Dizzyfugu