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Chris McG F-86 Sabre Dog build blog


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Thank you all for the kind words, gents.

Quite motivating after the amount of time spent to the canopy/cockpit area.

I had a look at Dirks frame cut-out and I was amazed by the - sometimes subtle - differences between the F-86's and the Dog's versions.

Cheers

Chris

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Hello gents,

I’m getting quite close to the end of the cockpit saga now.

But still a few things to handle before I can drop all these delicate bits into a cozy shoe box…

1171_canopy_interior01_900.jpg

I gave the inside of the frame a coat of Liquitex - Carbon Black - as an anti-glare paint at the appropriate front location.

When I saw the resulting picture on my PC, I thought it wasn’t going to help visualize it a lot for the visiting forumites… blush

1174_canopy_interior02_900.jpg

So, I made another pic when the paint was dry and I think it’s a bit ‘clearer’ now. If hesitating, please just remember that you are looking at the ‘inside’ of the frame… angel

Hakuna matata & also stay ‘clear’ all…

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Black Carbon Control

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Hi again,

Some time ago - well, the last week of April - David S asked some hints regarding the throttle and other levers for the cockpit deco.

Here are some of them.

1177_cockpit_details_900.jpg

From top left to the right, the flap handle is - quite obviously - just a piece of Q-tip enveloped at the top with of few ‘turns’ of masking paper.

The white rounded bit represents the throttle lever and is a lamination of 3 styrene roundels of 1mm thickness obtained with a common office perforator. The middle one being cut in the middle to give some room for the sewing pin.

I also thought a rear view mirror would be a nice addition to the upper part of the canopy.

Same process with styrene parts and chrome foil for the reflecting part.

Yesterday, I went for a quest for red fuselage paint in my favourite craft shop. The red tainted peg on top is a first test piece. More about that later on…

Hakuna matata & stay clear all

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Small Bits Control

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Some great ideas there Chris, thanks for the inspiration and for remembering my request. For my throttle control I purchased a crochet marker from my wife's wool shop - yes she made me pay ! I am still working on the dashboard and have managed to get the colours toned down, I have also corrected some of the instruments. For the dash i've been using photoshop at the pixel level - amazingly satisfying but not for 'normal' people ........ hey - we arn't normal nerd The 3d effect using cutoutsof a printed board is not proving very effective but I shall persist. If I do not get satisfying results this week I'll move on.

Dirks cockpit mould is superb. My version using polyurethane is not as sharp but has enabled me to curve the frame a little as it is very flexible. I'll upload pics when I can.

Thanks again Chris, keep safe

Te githe te mirat.

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You're mostly welcome, David.

Good luck with your Photoshop journey and your 3D quest. cool

Don't forget to show us some pics...

As for your ending sentence, I was pretty sure it wasn't Swahili or Lingala. It could possibly be Maori but it took me some research to find out it was Albanian. surprise

All the best to you too...

Cheers

Chris

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Quite fun to read you were living in Albania, David.

In my very early twenties, I was 'travelling' with a friend from Rijeka - North of ex-Yugoslavia - to the Southern city of Sarajevo.

Our transportation of choice was a Citroën 2CV Camionnette, equipped with a splendid double sleeping facility and a Camping Gaz bottle to have some great hot fresh coffee - read Nescafé - in the morning... cool

On the go, we decided to have a journey towards the Albanian border to get into Greece and to have that feeling of 'brand-new-explorers'. Bad luck as we never got into Albania, restricted by the then very communistic (Chinese?) ruling concerning entry visa.

Apologies to the visiting forumites for being totally off topic here... blush

Cheers & keep safe, please

Chris

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Hello out there,

I went on with the last bits for the canopy.

The rendering of the Lexan milling for the canopy turned out to be problematic.

The planned sand blast type vinyl is quite thicker than regular adhesive vinyl and became much to ‘intrusive’ inside the canopy.

1182_rearview_mirror_900.jpg

Plan B called for white Automotive Mactac vinyl which is very thin but offers a mid-grey coating at the back to avoid the underlaying colour(s) to shine through. From the outside it will show being grey, showing white on the inside but which will never be seen when the canopy is in place, unless it gets very envious of Dirk’s ejecting one… wink

On a side note, the F-86 has 6 lanes of milling while the Dog of course has... 7. Not wondering anymore... cool

This was the best moment to glue the rear-view mirror.

It got a layer of dark grey and some Chrome and Clear Laminating vinyl - for more ‘depth’ - at the reflecting side. Still kept in place here with a sewing pin through the acrylic till the glue dries.

Hakuna matata & stay clear, gents

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Reflection Control

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Hi again,

I had quite a bit of research regarding the correct red hue for the final paint job of the Dog.

Way to early in my case to think about finishing stuff, but this C19 situation makes it all a bit slower here in BE, especially regarding stock levels and deliveries.

I found some notes, from the reconstruction at Chièvres Airbase, stipulating that it was ‘Rouge Vermillion’. That red is quite darker than RAL 3000 or Traffic Red. Imagine it has a ‘sniff’ of Burgondy in it.

The English translation is Cadmium Red and I remembered a McLaren 600 Vermillion some time ago.

1183_mclaren600_vermillion_900.jpg

Sometimes the Gods are with the Dogs, as I found some Liquitex Cadmium Red in 3 different hues.

With the Color Picker tool in Photoshop, the McLaren gives an RGB code result of 234 -12 - 31. Very, very close to the Liquitex as the medium hue gives a result of 233 - 35 - 22.

1185_color_picker.jpg

As the Liquitex paint is matt, it’s a tiny bit darker than the glossy car, but it will shine a bit more and look ‘lighter’ after receiving a final coat of satin varnish.

Me well chuffed…

Hakuna matata & stay clear please

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Shades of Red Control

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Hi to all,

Lovely weather here in BE this weekend and I thought right away of having a sunny sanding session with some bits in need of it. hot

Following Phil’s advice, I started tapering the thickness of the elevators to a thinner profile towards the tips.

1186_tailplanes_sanding01_900.jpg

I then went on to shape the fin but started right away with the taper instead of the airfoil profile.

Quite easier this way than if the procedure is reversed as I did with my elevator halves.

1189_tailplanes_sanding02_900.jpg

Today, I went on with shaping the fin tip, ended up with the finer sanding of all the bits and the tailplanes are now ready for some glassing.

Thanks again for the advices, Phil. yes

Hakuna matata & stay clear all

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Advice Control

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Hi again,

“I realize I’m a sinner but I couldn’t help it, Your Honour”… blush

After sanding the tailplanes and with the weather being sóó inviting, I decided to have a go with testing the Liquitex can on the canopy frame.

The rear view mirror seems to do its job properly with a ray of sunshine and the 'Lexan' milling substitute tape looks fine too, IMHO.

1192_canopy_red01_900.jpg

1196_canopy_red02_900.jpg

After a well-earned drying session, I found the Cadmium medium hue being sufficiently convincing and thinking now of having that one for the airframe later on. Decisions, decisions… angel

I then prepared a cosy shoebox with an inlay of soft tissue paper to protect all those bits in a proper way and to have them finally stored now… only hoping I will be able to find the box again in La Grotte when the time comes… wink

Hakuna matata & stay prudent all

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Shoebox Control

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Wow... amazing Chris.

And giving me a great excuse to buy some more shoes in case you need another shoebox.

Glad to be of help! smiley

Keep up the great work. I don't know much about building (actually I know nothing about building) but this looks perrrrrrrrrrfect!

Hakuna etcetera,

Iris

BRU - BE / CTR Shoebox Stock Supplier

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BTW - I'm becoming intrigued by your chosen scheme - much earlier posts suggested a silver/aluminium Dutch AF example - are we due to get a special scheme with this stunning red paint?? Don't feel forced to reveal - if now isnt the right time - just to let you know the splash of colour has us scale fans most interested!

thumbs upbeer

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Thank you for commenting, laddie & lad.

Unfortunately I don't need any shoe boxes anymore, my dear. But I do realize that it won't prohibit you from extending your shoe collection when you feel like it... angel

No secret at all, Phil.

I'm afraid I created some confusion when I posted a pic of the Dutch Q-305, my subject's 'brother', in polished aluminium, as it was the only colour pic I could find.

My subject - Q-259 - has been restored as Capt. - later Maj. - Yvan Deprins was fearing that the Red Devils would/could disappear after the Hawker Hunter got retired in October 1963. You can find the complete saga around it if you visit the early page 3 of this build blog.

1198_red_devils_hunter_900.jpg

The Dog will carry the wing bottom scheme - with the Belgian 'tricolore' of the Hunter but also repeated on the elevator bottom and both sides of the fin and rudder.

The top of the airframe will remain mainly red and that's the reason why I did spend some - read > a lot of - research time finding the right hue for it. cool

Hope this explains it a bit.

Cheers & stay safe all

Chris

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