Phil Cooke

Applying more panel lines and transfers to the fuselage - plodding along quite nicely and fast approaching the final lacquer coat. I was particularly pleased with how the two landing lights turned out - mounted onto white circles just ahead of the nose gear doors. ?

Hiya Rob - yeah it was your thread and build which pushed me to have a go at the home-brew waterslides, I've never made my own before but I'm really quite happy how they've turned out - the base colour showing through is the only concern (my red markings look black when applied on the blue stripes for example) Most of the detail we apply of course cant be seen in the air, but you would be amazed what the camera picks up these days on a close pass in good sunlight, these details really bring those photos to life and complete the illusion of scale for me! Well worth the effort!

Many thanks Nigel, I do make thin card templates for repeatable shapes like wheel cover doors or access panels to ensure symmetry, I position the card and put a small point of ink at each corner or change of angle on the shape, then use a flexi rule to join the dots. They are all just scaled and positioned by eye with a wealth of 3 view line drawings to hand for a guide. A 0,5mm Sharpie does the job well on a painted surface.

After a frustrating 3 weeks I'm finally able to move my arm upto the workbench for light work only - thankfully the panel lining and decal work still needed does fall into this category! The wing is now complete with all panel lines, waterslide decals and lacquer. Positioning the trimmed waterslides. I gave the area a quick lacquer coat before they were applied with MicroSol and MicroSet. As Chris correctly pointed out having printed the decals on my home PC the 'GROUND HERE' decal needed a 10mm white circle painting first onto which the decal was applied. The red circle around the wing tank filler cap has gone a little black looking mounted onto the blue stripe, there is also a bit of silvering evident in the centre of this decal which I can attack with a little more MicroSol and a pin. Generally I'm quite chuffed how they've come out, this is the first time I've printed waterslides myself at home! Onto the fuselage...

Good to see you back at the board Chris! PS - my wingtip light domes are too big as well! Right shape, right position, just the wrong scale! ? Never mind!

It's a great size for the slope, and your plans capture the shapes and character of the original really well - I look forward to seeing you and Chris testing them out this season (and perhaps starting mine shortly too!?)

Just to explain with us having moved the Sabre Mass Build back once again to 18th/19th September 2021 we can keep the T-shirt order book open a little longer! I will go to the supplier in July with our final numbers. Many thanks to all who have ordered and paid for your shirts in advance. If you're still looking to purchase one (or more) of the Sabre Mass Build Event shirts please send me an email to [email protected] stating the number you require and your chosen size(s) - see first post in this thread - the shirts are £18 each - payment methods and delivery can be discussed by return mail. Many thanks!

Important news regarding our SABRE 'Mass Build' Event. Following the announcement this week from Weston Park that the usual weekend in June is now just a B-Cert 'Fly-In' and that the full public show has moved to September 3-5, we have identified the clash with our planned Sabre Mass Build event. We have elected to make changes, deferring our Mass Build event by 2 weeks to allow PSSA members to attend both events in full. Our Sabre ‘Mass Build’ Competition will now be run Saturday 18th September with prizes for Best Newcomer, Most Innovative Build and Model of the Event categories. Sunday will be used as a contingency date for flyable conditions. Note - All PSSA events in 2021 will be run in a manner compliant to the Covid-19 guidelines applicable to the time and location of the event. So with that change announced, our events calendar for the year now looks like this... hopefully no more changes required! Please make note of the change of date - see you there!

Great to see you back at the bench with an update to your build blog Steve! ?

2021 Events Calendar Revision Following Westminster’s recent roll-out of the Covid-19 Roadmap we have been forced to make the following changes to our events calendar to remain compliant; Events planned during ‘Step 1’ or ‘Step 2’ (any event before 17th May) are to be cancelled due to travel and outdoor group size restrictions. This effects our Great Orme opener on 10th / 11th April 2021 and our planned trip to fly with the SWSA at The Bwlch 8th / 9th May 2021. BOTH EVENTS CANCELLED. If all goes to plan, our first event will be on the Great Orme 22nd / 23rd May 2021 – after a lengthy lay-off, we will run this as a standard Fly-For-Fun event, moving the advertised Sabre Mass Build event back to our September meet in an attempt to maximise participation. Note we have agreed to re-run the SWSA event at The Bwlch on 24th / 25th July – many thanks to Steve Houghton for his help with this quick reaction ammendment – Great that we are still planning to meet in South Wales this season! A reminder that all our events will be run in a Covid compliant manner.

Thanks Danny, much appreciated! Yeah the instructions with the media I bought explains the need for the clear coat too.

Many thanks for all the comments! Frustratingly, with just a few bits of detail painting and some panel lining left to complete the airframe ready for the gloss coat and balance, an operation this weekend on my right shoulder sees me in a sling now for 4 weeks, meaning I can't continue with the airbrush. Thankfully, I can still operate a PC and mouse and with the forced downtime I've drawn up some of the key F-86 nomenclature in PS which I can now print onto clear media to make some water transfers. I've not made my own transfers like this before, hopefully they will turn out ok!?

Good morning Chris, I had given this some thought too! ? Truth be told, I'm really not sure if the black is more decorative than functional, gloss or matt? I can only find a couple of grainy, B&W photographs of the real jets in this scheme on the net, and it's impossible to tell. My logic was I couldn't see them paiting the canopy frame in the matt 'anti-glare' paint, I don't think its as hard wearing as the gloss paint (same with the models!) and in keeping with the overall gloss of a military display team jet I was going to put the gloss finish all over! Of course there may be a little artistic license required here, as there is already in other areas of my chosen scheme if I'm being totally honest! The events scale police with have to take the magnitude of this decision into consideration on the day! ?

Got the black cockpit and nose section painted up today. Was dreading painting the black over the yellow but got away with no bleeds and a nice crisp edge. Can't wait to take the tape off the cockpit glass to reveal the details inside but it all needs some gloss clearcoat before I can do that! The last of the vinyl decals added...

A few panel lines and the fin and rudder are complete. Black paint on the canopy and nose next.

Lovely stuff Gents! - captures the Canberra really well - and a lovely day up on the Orme - feels like so long ago nowl!! ?

The red paint was a bit over-thinned I think and I got some bleeding from the red into the yellow and the white in places. This cleaned up of with a damp rag against another taped border with just a thin corrective coat. The none operational rudder can now be glued on.

A bit more stressful airbrush operation - well - the masking is stressful, the airbrushing I quite enjoy tbh... time for the Yugoslavian fin flash. There is something quite theraputic about peeling the masking tape off too, until you discover an unplanned bleed!

Superb work Dirk - fantastic to read and see your methods. I like the DZUS solution too - that way they'll all look identical for sure only the 1/4 turn alignment to worry about!

A little bench flying this evening just so I could check all the yellow and blue lines matched up well...I've also touched up some of the little bleeds from earlier.

Blue paint done! I'm mostly happy with it, there are a couple of small bleeds into the yellow - even after I sealed the edge of the tape with yellow paint (how does that happen!?) but worse than that there are a couple of small areas around sharp edge areas like the wing saddle where the tape has removed a little yellow paint down to the grey primer... these will have to be touched up by hand filling the 'void' - which has a depth of many layers of airbrushed paint! Masking, masking masking... And with the tape carefully removed!

The elliptical curves are now cut around the nose and the edges have been sealed for bleeds with a couple of light passes of yellow paint. Tomorrow we paint the blue bits!

Hiya Pete - no I just have some on a roll here - was intended to line the inside of the engine nacelles on the A-10 one day for drag reduction if needed, but this only used a small amount. It's 1.5mm thick and cuts easily with a scalpel and a good straight edge.

Finally got the fuselage stripes all masked up and ready for some blue paint. I'd struggled to position an accurate stripe on my first attempts, even with an extra pair of hands - my metal metre rule would not conform to the curved fuselage well enough, I tried paper and then card templates but both got too 'floppy' towards the tail where the stripe tapers to zero thickness. The solution was to use thin ABS plastic sheet which cut well with the knife and had just the right properties - stiff enough in one plane to remain straight - whilst flexible enough in the other plane to take the contours of the fuselage - if that makes sense!? Anyway once taped down the template was marked out each side, and masking tape was then applied just outboard of the pencilled lines! There's a couple of ellipse shapes to cut into the green tape at the front before the rest is masked off and we are ready for the paint.

very cool laser set up Tony, impressive!! Good to see another Sabre with the gun ports fitted too - is that 3 of us now? Or maybe more?? I do hope they whistle when the plane is being pushed along!