August's September Sabre - FINISHED

[K5083]

Cheers, guys. The idea came to me when I was doing a P-47 this summer and got some unintended variations in the metal finish from underlying parts that I had neglected to prime over. If it works by accident I figure it might work on purpose.

It certainly is no less labor intensive than any other way of doing NMF. If it works, the advantage to the method, for me, will be just using a single shade of silver out of a rattle can. I don't airbrush metallics any more. They clog too much and all the best ones seem to be enamels and lacquers, which I don't airbrush if I can help it.

August

P.S. I agree Marky, it looks kind of sharp now and I almost wish there was an excuse not to paint it.

[K5083]

Well, here are the results. Generally I'm satisfied. The gloss white areas differentiate nicely under the silver; the flat black not so much. These pics give you an idea.







The effect is subtle, but that was the target. I'll use this method again, except I won't bother with the black. For a few more variations, I've left the panel around the gun ports in bare silver plastic, and I'll touch up a few small panels with brush painting or silver Sharpie pen.

Now for the next mini project, correcting the well known fault of this kit that the windscreen is slightly wider than the place where it goes and has to be thinned on the sides and then polished out.

August

[Dazzled]

Nice technique. Very effective.

[MarkyM607]

I don't know mate, I think the areas you undercoated black are visible in the pics from the rear of the model, you can see a slight difference, at least to my eye.

[ShaunW]

Excellent NMF August with nice subtle variations of tone, that technique has worked very well for you.

[K5083]

The build continues. Painting is now done. I started with the homemade schooner squadron emblem, knowing it would be the toughest. The rest will be real decals cut from various sheets.



August

[despondman]

Very nice work - really looking good.

[Clashcityrocker]

Looks good . Great work on the schooner emblem.

Nigel

[ShaunW]

Great work with the schooner emblem. That is turning out to be a fine looking Sabre.

[Stuart]

Thats looking really good - nice work!

[Old_Tonto]

I love those subtle differences in silver shades. Will have to try the white primer idea.
Looking very good.

[K5083]

I have been wanting to build a Sabre in this paint scheme for more than 20 years, since I first saw a photo of a line of RCAF 434 Squadron Sabres in a book somewhere. So I hope it's okay if I tell you all a little about it.

I modeled the lead ship in this formation:



This is the RCAF Fireballs aerobatic team in 1954. The RCAF at that time had 12 squadrons (4 wings) with more than 300 Sabres based in Germany, the largest and best-equipped of NATO's first-line fighter forces staring over the Iron Curtain. The Fireballs were formed from pilots and planes of 3 Wing at Zweibrucken, and this photo shows 19434 from 434 "Bluenose" squadron, two aircraft from 427 "Lion" Squadron and the slot plane from 413 "Tusker" Squadron. All the planes have those chevron-shaped bands around the fuselage but the 427 ones are red so they're hard to make out. For a brief time these birds were repainted bright red but the brass quickly put a stop to that.

434 "Bluenose" Squadron was named after the Nova Scotia racing and fishing schooner Bluenose, built in 1921. Bluenose was, at the time, a nickname for Nova Scotians. The ship, which won numerous races yet also won competitions for the size of fishing catches, had become a Nova Scotia and Canadian icon by the 1930s and has been depicted since 1937 on the Canadian dime. Schoolchildren in Canada learn to sing a song about this ship, or at least they did in my day, and a government-built replica of it is Canada's ambassador to international tall ship gatherings. I have a wooden model of the Bluenose which is very near the top of my list of Models I'll Never Build. 434 Squadron took the name after being adopted by the Halifax Rotary Club during World War II, although I've never seen a depiction of the ship on any of its wartime Halifaxes or Lancs. It was, however, used on the reactivated squadron's aircraft from 1953 to 2000.

I'm guessing that Sabre Mk.2 19434 was the 434 Squadron CO's bird. It figures that he would lead the aerobatic team and besides, what self-respecting CO wouldn't grab the plane whose buzz number was the same as the unit number?













August

[airjim]

August,

That looks really nice. Great job.

Jim

[TobyC]

Great work and I think your experiment in subtle shading of the panels has achieved its aim.

[Stuart]

A brilloant finish -lovely work! That scheme is really good!