#5 DONE +++ N.A. F-86K, 'SD-103' of 2./HävLLv 31, Ilmavoimat, late Sixties @p.3

Dizzyfugu · November 24, 2016, 04:06:51 AM

I think the Special Hobby kit comes with engraved panel lines - expensive, though.

DogfighterZen · November 24, 2016, 05:12:46 AM

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on November 24, 2016, 04:06:51 AM
I think the Special Hobby kit comes with engraved panel lines - expensive, though.

Yes, Dizzy, i've got the Special Hobby K and the surface detail is beautiful, with fine engraved lines and nice rivets on some panels. It has a nice decal sheet, a PE fret and resin wheels too. I paid 20 Euros for mine on a Portuguese online shop. As it's still in the box, i don't know about the fit of the parts but i think the price is worth it.
BTW, your Dog is looking very good!

Dizzyfugu · November 24, 2016, 07:15:37 AM

Thank you - but so far it's just a modded "Old Kit". But the more I work on the old Airfix kit, tghe more I like it. It has some weaknesses, like the thick air intake lip or the bleak landing gera wells. But fit is pretty good and anything - expect for a pitot - is there.

Dizzyfugu · November 24, 2016, 09:24:59 AM

More small parts work, closing in on painting! The ordnance comes from exterbal sources: the K-13s (instead of Sidewinders) are part of a MasterCraft Soviet aircraft weapon set, the pylons and launch rails are borrowed from an Academy MiG-23. The drop tanks come from a Revell Fiat G.91 - I assume that these are actually F-86 tanks, but they have simply a better shape than the OOB tanks (in the foreground), are slightly larger and feature stabilizer end caps. Some details were added to the landing gear wells, too.

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

DogfighterZen · November 24, 2016, 01:39:24 PM

I have to say that i've been very surprised with the old kits i've built so far, especially the F-80, IMHO, these old Airfix kits are still good despite lack of detail compared to recent molds. If nothing else, they're always good whif fodder, right?

Dizzyfugu · November 24, 2016, 11:44:27 PM

Yes, the Airfix F-80 is pretty good, too (built one in the Eighties), on par with the Sabre Dog. The really old Heller kits are very good, too, e .g. the Starfighter (with two nose sections), the Saab 35 or the Mirage F.1C. They all have very good proportions, extra parts galore, and very fine details - just raised panels. But they are excellent kits, esp. for their time, and partly "better" than some of todays offerings.

zenrat · November 24, 2016, 11:51:57 PM

Thanks for the info on the Special Hobby kit guys.

Those tanks do look suspiciously like the Sabre tanks that came with the Dartstang conversion set.

I agree with you re the old kits. I particularly like the Airfix MiG 21.

Dizzyfugu · November 25, 2016, 09:15:05 AM

Painting has started! There is much debate concerning the colors to use on Finnish aircraft. While FS 34096 is a good option for the lighter green (even though there seem to be wide variations, too), the "murky color" remains obscure – the recommendations range from pure black though dark olive drab or Forest Green (FS 34079) to a chocolate brown. Obviously, light and weathering have a huge impact and the paints and how they look, so I made guesstimates and tried to avoid FS tones.

As basic upper colors I settled upon simple Light Olive Green (Humbrol 86) and a 1:1:1 mix of Humbrol 173 (Scenic Track Color), 242 (RLM71, Dunkelgrün, a pretty murky and bluish variant, though) and 108 (WWI Green, a very dark olive tone) for an "Extra Dark Braunviolett", or - how I'd affectionately call it - "Breen". Simple RAF Aircraft Grey (Humbrol 166) was used for the undersides.

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Since it is amixed tone, work started this time with the dark "Breen":

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

...and then the Light Olive was added:

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Undersides, shading and weathering to follow soon...

Snowtrooper · November 25, 2016, 01:31:21 PM

Looking good and authentic enough

The "light" green is the (in)famous Kimmo Kenttävihreä (Kim the Field Green) which according to the official standard is roughly FS 34151 or BS381c 222 aka US Interior Green (or British Light Bronze Green) which is just about nonstandard as hues get, and as it gets weathered (which it does very quickly) it gets a more yellowish hue. The official name is very descriptively "Vihreä" (green).

The "dark" green, supposedly about FS34064/BS381c 437 can be approximated with just about anything ranging from Schwartzgrün to Helo Drab - a very dark green that weathers to a brownish hue and gets progressively lighter. The official name calls it "Mustavihreä" (black green).

The light gray (Vaaleanharmaa) is variously approximated either as FS36440 or RAF Aircraft Grey BS381c 627 so you're spot on

You can't go wrong either way, the existing MiG's in museums have a wild variety of hues, no two the same colour. A dark and a light tone and a very pale grey and you're good to go!

zenrat · November 25, 2016, 10:06:55 PM

In keeping with the season are you going to paint the nose red and call it Rudolph?

DogfighterZen · November 26, 2016, 02:12:07 AM

Quote from: zenrat on November 25, 2016, 10:06:55 PM
In keeping with the season are you going to paint the nose red and call it Rudolph?

I can imagine that one, even better with a complex array of antennas...

Dizzyfugu · November 26, 2016, 02:45:37 AM

Both, with Santa at the stick and some sugar canes under the wings...

Thanks a lot for the info concerning the Finnish colors - I could not find any useful information and relied upon many reference pictures, online and in literature. In the recent Airfix BAe Hawk, which also contains an option for a Finnish aircraft, the recommended Humbrol tones are 224, 163 and 166. 224 is IMHO very good, but only if you want a "fresh" aircraft and do no shading or weathering. 163 is dubious, IMHO too light, but it could work as a combo - even though real world aircraft appear much darker to me, hence my mixed attempt that has a dedicated brownish hue. The undersides appear very pale, and simply grey. FS 36440 sound plausible, I even went with 166 for an even lighter tone - and it looks very good.

Everything will change, though, since a lot of shading with lighter and more intense colors follows soon - but the first impression looks good, at least to me.

Dizzyfugu · November 26, 2016, 06:23:13 AM

Meanwhile... some proof of progress: some wash and lots of shading with many different greens and browns.

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

No red nose - but things start to look dedicatedly Finnish:

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

...and weathered. Well, any Finnish fighter I have seen so far looks very clean and tidy - except for some seriously sun-bleached upper surfaces or overpainted sections where the fresh paint really stands out. Hard to simulate, but in order to make things more interesting and less uniform, I treated the leading edges and the afterburner section with sand paper and added a few touch-ups around the fuselage. This is how things look, close to the decaling phase:

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This appears pretty rotten, but clear varnish will dampen the look. Hopefully...

Dizzyfugu · November 26, 2016, 10:17:43 AM

Almost there...

1:72 North American (Fiat) F-86K "Sabre", 'SD-103' of the 2nd Flight/HävLLv 31 (Fighter Squadron 31/Hävittäjälentolaivue 31), Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), Karelian Air Command; Kuopio-Rissala, 1968 (Whif/Airfix kit conversion) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Roundels and squadron markings come from an Italeri 1:72 Bf 109G kit; the "Bat & Moon" emblem belonged to 2./HävLLv 31 when it was a night fighter squadron in the early Fifties, but it disappeared with the Finnish Bf 109s, AFAIK. The fictional all-weather F-86K appeared like an appropriate carrier for the stylish emblem, and, otherwise, the well-known lynx emblem would have been the alternative. The individual tactical code was puzzled together from single black letters and digits (TL Modellbau), while most stencils come from the OOB sheet and some other sources.

"SD-103" will soon be ready for a virtual flight over Kuopio-Rissala.

nighthunter · November 26, 2016, 10:40:57 AM

Beautiful, always despised the Saber Dog D, for ruining (in my opinion at the time) the beautiful lines of the F-86A, E, & F. But after I discovered the cannon armed K, fell in love.