So this chap inherits from a relative a large country house. On his first visit, he’s poking around the attic & comes across an old painting & an equally old looking violin.  Excited at his discovery, he shows them to a friend who deals in antiques but as he is not an expert in these fields, his friend advises him to take them to a specialist.  Accordingly, our man loads them in the new Range Rover & heads to London & Sotheby’s.  There, he is advised to leave them for analysis & they will be in touch.  Sure enough a couple of days later he receives the call back to Sotheby’s & is ushered, expectantly, into a side room. 

Shortly, two men appear & take their seats behind a beautiful antique desk.  Our man is agog with expectation.  “Thank you for bringing these items to our attention” begins one of the experts.  “We have subjected both to exhaustive analysis, and can confirm that what you have here are a Rembrandt & a Stradivarius.  Unfortunately, Stradivarius was a really crap painter….” 

What has this to do with this model?  Well, in 1945, many would accept that the UK led the world in two very important aspects of aviation:  the design & production of jet turbines, & the design & production of fighter aircraft.  Unfortunately, the “super duper” fighter aircraft were all piston engined & the marvellous turbines were all installed in straight winged aircraft that could never realise the true potential of the power plant.  With the fall of Germany, much research data, materials (& of course the engineers who had carried out the research) fell into Allied hands.  In the race to seize this material, the UK came a poor third behind the USSR & USA & it was in these two nations that swept wing designs (with British designed or derived jet turbines it has to be said) first took to the skies.  Soon thereafter, the MiG15 & F86 Sabre clashed above Korea & the era of the piston engined fighter aircraft was over. 

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Of course the advantages of swept wings were not totally lost in the UK & some promising designs appeared on boards & as prototypes/experimentals but the post war UK economy & notoriously parsimonious attitude of UK Governments of all persuasions to the armed forces (a trait that goes back to Wellington & the Peninsula War) meant that there was no indigenous swept wing fighter for the RAF on the cards until 1954/5 with the Swift & Hunter. 

Meanwhile, the RAF was squeezing all it could out of the WW2 vintage Meteor & Vampire.  A stop-gap was needed & the obvious choice was the North American F86 Sabre, however with NA production fully committed to the USAF, examples would come from the Canadair line. 

First, a word about wings.  It appears that with only a few exceptions, RAF Sabres were delivered with the slatted wing.  However, the vast majority were refitted with the 6-3 wing at major overhaul.  Thus it is necessary to check references for any specific aircraft at any specific time.  A “quick” visual check is the presence of the small fence on 6-3 wing machines. 

Despite a life long interest in aviation, I am ashamed to admit that I did not realise until a few years ago that the RAF ever operated the Sabre.  Some 14 RAF Squadrons operated the type but for a period of little more than three years (Jan 1953 to June 1956) before replacement, mainly with the Hunter. 

The kit here is the Academy F86-F-30, actually in the High Planes box with decals for six RAF units.  At £25 here in the UK, it’s considerably more expensive than the Academy boxing but in effect it includes “aftermarket” decals.  High Planes provide a photocopy of the original Academy instructions.  I think mine was a fifth generation copy & none to clear.  In addition, an entire section dealing with the joining of the fuselage halves had been omitted.  Still, it isn’t brain surgery we’re doing here.  Not much to be said about the kit that hasn’t already been said; it goes together like a dream.  The only addition I made was a Legends seat (a Korean firm of whom I have never previously heard) picked up of Ebay.  Well moulded with seat belts & a good fit into the Academy cockpit. 

The Sabre is a dreadful tail sitter & although perhaps I should have thought about this myself, I suspect that the “missing” section of the instructions would have advised about nose weights!  Fortunately, I had planned on using the intake FOD cover provided & simply glued some fishing weights up the intake, hidden by the FOD cover! 

The kit contains ordnance that wasn’t used by the RAF (Sidewinders) & two styles of drop tanks – with & without the finlets.  All my references showed the tanks without finlets but I understand that the other style was adopted later in the Sabres short RAF career. 

Markings are for the CO of 66 Squadron, RAF Linton on Ouse Yorkshire 1956.  Standard RAF Dark Sea Grey/Dark Green with roundel blue fin, rudder & nose cap & painted aluminium undersides.  All Xtracolours. 

All in all a very easy build.  The spare RAF decals will find their way onto other Academy or Hasegawa Sabres in due course!

Graham

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