Slatted Six: 1/48th Airfix F-86F-40 Sabre Mk.6

To my knowledge this 2022 1/48th Airfix F-86F-40 kit is the first standard Sabre to come out featuring an extendable slatted wing. Prior to this, Hasegawa had released a number of Sabre kits including the CL-13 Sabre Mk.6 kit, however the slats were fixed retracted (as was Airfix's previous Mk.4 Sabre kit release), so unless you wanted to try some sort of 'kit bash' using the Revell "Dog" Sabre wing, or aftermarket, you weren't going to get your vision of a slats down on the ramp Sabre.

Notable Kit Features:

• Two different ejection seats provided

• Intake trunk and exhaust pipe moulded with decent results

• Option to show open or closed gun as well as ammunition bays

• Speed brakes can be open or closed

• Gear parts for "Down & Dirty" or "In-Flight" display

• Separate parts for extended or closed slats display

• Engine and exhaust cover plates provided

• Two-piece canopy

• Seated pilot figure

• Good instructions

  
  

Build Inspiration:

For some time I had wanted a Sabre Mk. 6 in RCAF markings with the slats down to feature this aspect. This Airfix kit finally delivered the closest proximity to what I needed. In Europe, the F-86 Sabre provided daylight air defence against the Warsaw Pact. RCAF 1 Air Division were on alert from daybreak to nightfall, with eight aircraft maintaining five minute alert status and eight maintaining fifteen minute status. While on alert, the five-minute aircraft were often ordered to scramble by the RCAF Radar unit in Metz, France. These scrambles were ordered without prior notice and, once airborne, the pilots were advised that it was a practice to test their reaction time. Scrambles were also ordered to intercept any aircraft that could not be identified by NATO radar stations.

Canadian pilots also established themselves as excellent marksmen. In 1958, an annual NATO gunnery competition was established called "The Guynemer Trophy", which Canada won every year until 1962.

Heads-Up Report:

• Cockpit accuracy and detail (including the Bang Seats) are not up to today's standard

• I had to scrape down my cockpit a bit at the edges in order to fit it in the fuselage

• Panel lines would not qualify as fine

• Overall parts are a bit chunky

• Careful with the alignment of the intake as this is easy to miss by a bit and it will be noticeable - I fitted the nose (B18) after I had put the fuselage together

• The fit of the deployed slats is mediocre at best (I had to file down most of the rail parts in order for them to mesh with the slots (They look clunky to begin with)

• I thought it easier to paint the gear doors before they were glued in place so I cut the small tabs off the doors that attach to the main gear and left the wheel bay doors unglued, so they could be fitted post paint

• Wing tank attachment pins were larger in the front than rear so I had to file these down to plug into the wing drill-outs

• Several parts fit required filler and sanding, Fuselage panels, Tail fillet piece, wing-tank fins

• The rear deck behind the cockpit is simplified

• I believe the canopy in the kit is a slightly new type than found on Canadian Mk.6 Sabres

Kit Additions / Modifications:

A few relatively minor edits had to be done to the Airfix kit If you want to build a Mk. 6 Sabre in RCAF livery.

• The Sabre Mk. 6 (eventually) had the later slatted "6-3" wing which was the same span as the F-86-30. The Airfix is a F-86-40 therefore the wings require a bit of a span trim to correct them

• All Orenda engine Sabres (Mk. 5 & 6) had the aft-facing vents in both sides of the fuselage above the wings; and were missing other vents as well as having some slightly different panels around this area in particular

• A small section of the leading edge of the Mk. 6 (& Mk. 5) wing by the ammunition bays need to be separated and then connected to the ammo bay door, if you decide to have the doors ammo bays open

• RCAF Orenda engine Sabres Mk. 5 & 6 had "Sugar Scoops" eventually retrofitted to the underside vents on the fuselage around the trailing edge of the wing. This retrofit started in the 1957-58 time frame. They were fitted sometime after the Mk. 6 replaced the Mk. 5 in Europe. As a general rule, if your building a Mk. 6 and it has only the two-letter codes you could opt for either, however once the RCAF showed up on the fuselage, the scoops had been retrofitted. As always, find a good reference photo to be sure

• The surface should be smoothed off where the vertical tail meets the fuselage (aside from inlet vent)

• An IPMS Canada membership provides some great articles regarding building these Canadian aircraft - Membership Highly Recommended! https://www.ipmscanada.com/

Finishing:

Spray painting began (after blocking off the already painted intake and exhaust) with the underside Vallejo Air PRU Blue, which was faded out a bit for scale. After that had cured, I masked off and sprayed the upper Dark Sea Gray (using Tamiya Acrylic stock), followed afterwards by masked the gray off and spraying the Dark Green camouflage colour (also Tamiya Acrylic). Some weathering was done on the fly here as this aircraft had seen some service in France for( a while. The fin-tip light gray was masked and sprayed on as a final airbrush detail. I utilized an AK paint marker for the black anti-glare panel, as well as for de-icer boots. After the paint had cured, I did my gloss coat using Pledge (floor finish) in preparation for the decals and panel washes. The decals were beautiful to work with and this Leading Edge Models 48.10 sheet is highly recommended if you want a RCAF Mk.6 Sabre. The final matte coat was a Model Master water-base finish. With all that dry, I removed the canopy masks to reveal the final results. All done except for the re-attachment of the landing gear parts, slats, fuel dump and landing lights (all the small details that take so long!)

The After-Build Report:

This 1/48th Airfix F-86F-40 Sabre offering brings some good as well as some deficiencies to the table. It was great to see a 1/48 Sabre kit with slatted-wings, as well as the option to have the gun and ammo bays open (the ammo bays being a real bonus as these were more often open and typically not depicted in other kits.) Having said that, the Airfix surface panel lines and detailing fall short of both the older Hasegawa and Academy kits. More recently introduced into the Sabre fray, we have the release of Clear Prop's 1/48th F-86A Series to net model makers an early slatted Sabre to add to our aircraft collection, so things are looking up for Sabre builds.

Completed build #280 - July 2025 using the 1/48th scale Airfix #A08110 kit.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions - Keep on building, gain experience, challenge yourself if you like, but try not to stress yourself out over the build - it is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby after all - Cheers