F-86 Sabre

[Moon Puppy]

Here's a quick build. I started it back in May but got distracted on other projects.

Another good ol' Natural Metal Finish coming. No uber details just a clean quick OOB Academy 1:48 Sabre and some Hobbydecal dry transfers.




Didn't spend a lot of time here, just painted and washed the cockpit.


Worked the seams, of course I screwed something up and the alignment between the two halves were just slightly off. Lots of standing to make even and filling in gaps. Used CA to fill in divots and seam lines. Sanding several times over till I figured I was ready for the Alclad (No I don't have stock) Primer and microfiller. Did a light buff with the 12000 grit Micromesh sheet to get the polished look. Tomorrow I'll figure out what gloss colors to use as a base coat.

Thanks for lookin'!

 

[13aceofspades13]

im liking this man, nice kit, i think the F-86 is one of my friends favorite planes.

buy the way i like this, you don't mind if i borrow it do ya?

 

[Moon Puppy]

Just remember where you got it and bring it back when you're done. ;D

This picture is from Wiki,
Notice the tonal changes in the metal, the different colors of the metal? Hmmm...think one of these will be the scheme.

 

[Quaralane]

SHould be a good looking model

 

[13aceofspades13]

i have always wondered.... why did the US air force and US amry air force always give there airplanes a bare metal finish, maybe beacuse it reflected around its surroundings. however it would also glimmer in the sunlight and reveal its position.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

The belief on the natural metal finishes was it was easier to maintain, and in the early days of jet propulsion, the engines weren't as stout as they would like, so the lack of paint on the aircraft meant less weight to haul around, and thus would go faster. The US weren't the only ones most of the Migs through Korea and Vietnam were a natural metal finish usually as well.

 

[Moon Puppy]

And they look cool! but they surely are not what you'd call stealthy.

Be careful about what's NMF and not, some of the schemes are actually a silver or bright grey dope.

 

[Myke]

Sweet. Looking forward to seeing those tonal changes. I'm not the biggest fan of this era of aircraft, but I love seeing NM finishes.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Moon Puppy]

Well fest on this Myke!

Here we go, practicing some more with the AlcladII

As we left it last night there was the grey microfiller primer and polished down with 12000 grit micromesh. This evening I masked off the wing center panels because I wanted a stark change in the tone of the metal. Also did sort of a mottle effect, all using the transparent smoke color from Alclad. Just because I didn't want to wait for the gloss black to dry...



I polished this again to make sure it's smooth, then shot some Polished Aluminum.

Here's the result.




Here's the wing with a wiping of the micromesh.


One thing I notice is how much brighter the color is over the gloss finish as oppose the semigloss of the primer. This is the key to consistency on the sheen of the metal, consistent finish, either all flat, semi or full gloss. All depending on the effect you want to get.

So this is the game plan for tomorrow, more colors, using the transparent colors just because. Then i'm going to use the AlcladII Clear Gloss coat. Then shoot the Polished Airframe and see what happens.

 

[Myke]

Sounds like a good plan. I've never used the transparent Alclad colors. That's a pretty cool effect, kinda like a preshading. Seems to come through really well.

 

[Eastrock]

Great Update MP!! the alcad looks very promising.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Just an FYI, but you probably know this already, the Polished Aluminum is designed to go over a gloss black in order to get the effect from the color. Works the same was their chrome paint works to create the effect.

Also Stainless Steel, Polished Gold, and one other color behaves the same as well.

Looking good so far though!!

 

[Moon Puppy]

You're right, and I should have followed instructions. I was wanting to see what the color effect would be and overlooked putting a gloss finish on the primer. Patience is not one of my skills...But again, tonight, more colors and gloss coat. We'll see what happens. Shoot, worse that can happen is have to redo it all. :

 

[Junkie]

Looking like that is gonna be a great finish.

 

[ShutterAce]

I have been known to use black and white gloss undercoats on a single airframe to get different shades in the Aclad. It's really hard to see the Alclad against the white though when spraying it.

 

[13aceofspades13]

its looking pretty good, liking the paint.

 

[Moon Puppy]

OK here we go.
This should be a throw back for some of you tie died generation!


trippy man! look at the colors!

you guys gonna think I'm crazy.

No remember the effect i'm going for here, check that wiki picture out again and looky here.







don't know if I got too thick with the Alclad, this is Polished Aluminum. Bright ain't it?? Initial thought is the colors should not have been so splotchy, should have been streaky.
Not sure what I think of it yet. What do you think??

 

[Quaralane]

Looks gorgeous. That mottled effect came through quite nicely

 

[ScaleModelMadman]

I think its cool!

I'm also a huge fan of thinking outside the box. Nothing teaches us new things better than a little experimentation.

 

[Moon Puppy]

Thanks Ken, really not sure if I got the effect or not. Just playing around with volatile fumes and all... I probably could have gotten the same result with different shades of Alclad like I did on the fuel tanks of the Voo Doo way back when.