Italeri F-86E Sabre full build video 1.48 scale model kit

Описание: thanks for watching everyone
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The single engine jet fighter F-86 was developed by North American Aviation in the late 1940s, and became a key aircraft in terms of post-war military aviation. The 1.48 scale Italeri Sabre was a joy to build. I have seen a few different boxings of Sabres from Italeri, including the f-86f, from the U.S.A.F.E aerobatic team: 'Skyblazers'. After unboxing, I was impressed with the kit quality, the last Italeri build I completed, was the F4U-5N Corsair (1.72), which was decent.
I chose to paint this one in Luftwaffe colours, mainly because that was the box-art example, and I tend to go with the box art schemes.

The plastic quality and moulding quality was spot on, with barely any hard seem lines, minimal flash and clean details. The cockpit was somewhat lacking in detail for a 1.48 kit, however I resisted the urge to acquire after-market accessories and decided to work with what I already had, straight out of the box. Three decals were applied to the instrument panels inside the cockpit after a coating of flat black, the seat needed a little work in order to fit snug. Again not much detail to the seat, but still, raised selt-belts, which looked realistic. After the two fuselage halves were together, only a little filler was required, and that was being picky! Mostly the fitting was consistently great all round.
The instructions didn't note to drill holes in the bottom wing halves if you wanted to include the sidewinders (which I did), after the wings were attached to the fuselage I marked the areas to be drilled, measured up and drilled using a 2mm pin vice. I liked the fact that you could present the air brakes open, and I chose to do this myself. Engine cowling, horizontal stabilisers and the nose came next, and it was coming together well!
After the main build was finished, landing gear parts assembled and ready for painting, I built the drop tanks, sidewinders, and masked up the canopy, which was also top quality in my opinion, and with a few extra details fitted inside the canopy, I attached it using PVA glue and let it dry overnight. There was a slight gap between the canopy back and front section, but nothing major. The landing gear parts were given a coat of primer first, then XF-16 (flat aluminium), and the wheel details were highlighted with Molotov chrome markers.
The painting started with painting the wing tips with XF-7 (flat red), I sprayed the wheel wells, and the inside of the air brakes, then attached the air brakes in the closed position, for the main part of the painting. I roughly pre-shaded the aircraft with flat black. I started the camo with Tamiya XF-82 (ocean grey), however this wasn't exactly the right shade so later I sprayed over a darker shade mixed from the ocean grey and a tad of black. The reference paints noted in the instructions were for Italeri paints of course, which I don't personally use, I mostly use Tamiya colours and Vallejo, my substitutes for the Italeri colours were sourced from Tamiya. The second colour for the camo was dark green (Tamiya XF-81), which I sprayed free-hand, leaving a nice soft edge on the camo. The underside was swiftly coated in flat light grey (XF-66).
There were plenty decals, (at least 70 that I counted). From small details to significantly sized, starting with the nose decals I applied them one by one. The decal quality was top notch and I only suffered one small rip, in part of one of the nose decals, however this was rectified during positioning. The positioning of the nose decals could've been better, mostly on my part, however they went down great and adhered very well to the surface. Vertical stabiliser decals next, which were applied with no difficulties. I did notice a few air bubbles in a few decals, which were mostly removed successfully using a cotton bud. The rest of the decals were applied over the course of two nights, and all adhered brilliantly to the model's surface in conjunction with micro-set/sol. I noticed there were some landing light decals included, but no landing lights, so I quickly scratch built some, decalled them, and attached them using cyanoacrylate (superglue). Decals were also included for the side winders and one of the drop tanks. With all decals in place and sealed in with a semi gloss coat, I removed the canopy masks and attached the landing gear and the undercarriage parts. Air brakes were opened and fixed this way using the rods provided. This concluded the build.
This was a top kit! I would give this kit of solid 9.5/10 and the only extras I would've liked to have seen would be more raised cockpit details, landing lights, and perhaps an optional footstep to the cockpit.