Chris McG F-86 Sabre Dog build blog

I know exactly what you mean!

Hello Chris, I'm watching with a great deal of interest. Not had too much building time on my model just recently, but I am keeping up with everybody else's.

Really looking forward to seeing your progress.

All the best.

Simon.

Hi Chris

I am one of the silent followers of your thread and all the other build threads on here. It may feel lonely but it is not that you are wasting your time, it's just that some people don't want to comment too often.

I guarantee a thread like yours is worth a 100x the typical threads we see these days moaning about CAA or offering endless arguments for which battery to use or not use.

Keep up the good work!

+1 Masher, well said

No snoring here, didn't like to interrupt when you where waffling.

Follow all the PSS mass builds, one of the highhlights of the year.

... ooh well... what an 'avalanche' of posts suddenly... anyway, thanks a lot, gents.

> I can imagine you know what I mean, Martin.

> get back asap to your build, Simon... so I can pinch some useful tips...

> I do get your point, Masher & Dave. Certainly the CAA stuff and the 'battery' stuff as well. Should I open a new 'can' and ask about what servo to use? ...

> I couldn't imagine you were snoring, John. But keep yourself 'awake' as the F1 tests in Barcelona are still far away . So, keep visiting & commenting... Iris & Gaston need you...

Thanks again for your posts, gents.

Cheers

Chris

Martin, your posts are succinct and VERY helpful. Many of us, we friggin' RELY on them.

Chris, you are a skilled and meticulous creature, duly crazy. 

So Chris, in your honor/honour, I stole this from one of your fellow Belgians and, so, here you go...

Affectionately,

John in Boston, who has Dane family living in Antwerpen since the 1920s, and whose parents actually met whilst working on the F-86D design/engineering program!

Edited By John H. Rood on 05/12/2019 23:35:24

Hi there,

John HR is right, Martin. We really need your info and answers so please, keep posting.

@ John > although it's not a 'seagull'-type, I doubt very much that a 300 SL Cabrio could be a 'Real Bargain' nowadays...

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris, just to back up some of the other comments, keep on posting! It's great to follow these Sabre build blogs.

Hi Harry,

Thanks for your 'back up' comment.

I guess I have a confession to make.

After pinching your swept wing rib jig idea some time ago, I'm afraid I'm going to copy your 'Montana' wing halves assembling method.

With the amount of mods needed for my Dog fuselage, I'm pretty convinced it's the best way to go for me.

No nasty 'visions' yet but they could appear quite soon...

Cheers

Chris

OOPS... one should read "your 'Montana' FUSE halves assembling method"...

Maybe my 'visions' have started already after all... sorry for that...

Cheers

Chris

Hello again,

After a lot of pondering, planning and drawing, I finally decided it was about time to switch from 2D to 3D.

First step was to prepare all my bits with sanding and filing where needed. I also had to slot out all of the stringer mortises for my metric 5mm wood.

At the front, I ‘discovered’ that I will be able to use the aft part of F11, the front part – between F1 & F2 - being replaced by Blue foam. Yippieyeah…

I also took all the measures for the formers F7 to F10 and I must be able to keep them but of course with some ‘bulkier adaptations’.

More about that later…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Adaptations Control

Hi out there,

Due to overlapping household and social priorities, I wasn’t able to drive to La Grotte for some bashing session.

Nevertheless, I had some laptop time allowing me to finalize the radome nose and shark mouth shapes.

As I don’t have any fancy CAD app, I prepared it in Publisher - part of your MS Office - which allows me to have it printed at the right scale, stuck to ply and cut it out.

The side view is to be used to make a cardboard or ply template to obtain the correct radome shape.

The idea is to make the nose ‘removable’ and the dashed yellow line is where I plan to ‘split’ it.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Nose Control

Hello again,

To be honest, I totally got envious with Dirk T’s post when he showed his ‘speedy’ progress so far…

But then I must realize he’s an experienced builder and I’m not…

So, I went on with the Dog stuff. After checking all my measurements again, the good news is that I still can use Gordon & Martin’s formers instead of having to ‘create’ my own.

Obviously, they need to become ‘fatter’, but not that much. I decided to laminate some balsa strips around the formers F7 to F10 using Superphatic.

They all received an extra 3mm ‘skin’, except F10 which only needed 2mm. To be honest F9 only needed 2,8mm extra but I guess the Scale Police won’t even notice the difference…

This is just a ‘wet’ fit, but all went well with the soaked wood in luke warm water with around 20% ammonia.

I will have to laminate them in two sessions as I ran out of ‘cork-pins’ around half way the job…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Scale Police Control

Hi,

I thought I would share some info I found on the net and it could be quite useful for your paint masks or decal transfers.

It concerns the official USAAF font - in true type font (TTF) format – downloaded for free from www.dafont.com under the name ‘USAAF STENCIL’.

It includes two versions: the normal typo for large reg. numbers or squadron identity (when using your standard keys) or the ‘stencil’ format for smaller lettering when you type in CAP letters - using ’Shift'. There is some punctuation missing but you can easily type those using the ‘Verdana’ font (standard on most pc’s).

Even non-Yankee deco schemes often use the standard Air Force font. As for example, all NATO countries, including my chosen Q-259.

Very probably, most of the PPSA Gurus will already have it installed, but if it helps only one modeller, it was worth posting, IMHO.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Stencil Font Control

Edited By McG 6969 on 10/12/2019 20:28:18

Thanks for posting that Chris, very helpful indeed.

Good to see the 'mods' taking shape on your build.

All the best.

Simon.

Thank you for your post and grateful words, Simon.

You must be the “only one” I mentioned as my post seems to be lacking other interested parties…

Regarding my ‘mods’, there doesn’t seem to come an end to them as I just noticed an error in F12 (the bottom keel) as there seems to be a 3mm step between the projected foam and the ply parts. My fault totally of course. Erase, draw and cut some new wood out again, they say.

I‘m now wondering if it was such a good idea to start thinking about a ‘Dog’ Sabre…

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Thinking Control

Hi there,

I had a bit of progression today regarding my previous mistakes. Corrected thankfully and (nearly) forgotten.

I also had some finalizing of all former bits including the filling up of the now too deep former mortises.

I guess some pics would be welcome now, but then i forgot them... I was so busy correcting the bits that ... well...

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Memory Control

That's not a mistake Chris that's just fettling 👍, enjoying following your build keep up the good work .

Paul.

Thanks for commenting, Paul.

Well then, from now on I'll mention my mistakes with the words "fettling around"...

By the way - mentioning 'fettling around' - are you still 'in holidays'... ?

Cheers

Chris