Kittyhawk 1/32 F86K Sabre Dog Part One

When I came across this kit last year, I was a little bit more than excited as there aren't many offering of the F86s in 32nd scale in the market and I was looking forward to doing one finally.

The first thing that hit me when I started the kit was looking for the parts that do not exists.Then I realised that Glenn could have either change the instructions immediately or to retool the label on the corner of the tree. The E and G were swopped over. But this stingy fellow can not only take criticism but attacked people who meant good on social media. Something of a regret I have about social media these days that everyone is trying to take the shortest route out to come up on top of each other for no prizes in the due courses ends. Everyone raves about this kit without even trying to build one. Wow this wow that. That is not even a review. A review is when you take time, like Florymodels and the IPMS USA guys, to build one and fine out whats going on inside the wow looks.

First IRKING point, ejection pins that is D shaped allowing overflowing plastics to ooze into after filling up the molds. This is a cop out method using low pressure single sscrew extruders and soft plastics with little or no silica in the resin. So, when I came across this type of thing, I know deep shit AKA Trumpy Tomcat or Su27 is coming again! Down memory lane again, but with Freddie the Nightmare on Elm Street! The problem of small time brains using cheap machines with cheap mild steel molds to make their kits. Obsessed with making money instead of building a brand and then make money, aka, HK brainchild with no pride in their work. Slam Bang, no thank you ma'am.....and left no pay nor tips behind type of attitude towards doing business.

 

The shit continues everywhere.

It hurts most when its on parts that you can visibly see. I mean, if you want to be a thief, at least try to do it so that your criminal activities are at least faintly disguised, right? to do it on the intake ducts is a no brainer. It could have been machined on reverse and leave the pin columns, excuse me, not just pin holes, on the reverse side to be hidden from view. This type of Superman Wearing Underwear on the Outside syndrome should not be even happening in this day and age of EDM mold making technology. What hurts you even more is that for SGD$179.90, I am paying for $4.00 of materials and box for this kind of crap. Its like buying an iPhone for crying out loud. Pay US$599 for something they made for like peanuts level $23 bucks is a crime. Ok,ok, I am exaggerating. Trying my best not to hyper ventilate. The Taiwanese club Military Modelling Techniques Research and Resource Centre renamed it Shittyhawk, its there for a reason, unfortunately, I should have prior notice earlier.

 

Making the best of the worst. I shaded the cushions in black, brown, red, then highlighted it in orange to show depth. Then the brass belts were added and shaded as well. Then I made the floorboard a little dirty just to make it a little busy,

 

Then I struggle for about 4 hours till 3am trying to get the two halves to fit. Ee reminded me if I chickened out using Evergreen strips I am postponing my troubles till later when I put in the canopy.....sure. Sobering thought!

  

I do not understand why do we have to have 9 parts to make up a wheel well? Then I guessed its for economic reasons. So that the tool base can be less than 4 inches and is a lot more cheaper to make flat panels than to buy an extra inch of steel to make a box AKA Tamiya style. After cutting the wing apart, I manage to put the wings in, but there is a hole in the wells for the side panels of the fuselage to slot into. But the wing root doe not match. The Taiwanese were right, its SHITTYHAWK.

The very best out of a bad situation.

With the halves together I realised why the tub has a gaping hole in the middle, they were tyring to save parts design and engineering by allowing the external walls of the intake duct to form the centre portion of the gun bay well. And making something like 50 parts of the engine is great for the kit. But the model cannot be assembled with the engine outside on display because it was designed as a structural part of the model. This is a real BRAIN IN THE DRAIN BRAINDRAIN.

Top halves joint is shitty at best.

This is the great Kamali, so to speak. 1.5mm gaping hold is something I cannot take it lying or sitting down! Not in today's world of CAD CAM. Who engineered this? Fred Flintstone?

Having 8 parts joining together does not make sense. Nothing fits.

Guns protruding out of the gun bay. But the other one, cannot be located as it was short molded.

A better picture to show the missing gun in front and also the great fitting SABREDOG. Its a sabre that will cut you and hurt you, making you shag like a dog while you try to make it on your own on this kit. That's in the label F86K - K for Killer, SABREDOG - cantonese, I chop you to piece, you dog.....斩到你一段段，你呢只狗。SHITTY HAWK.

Completed Academy 1/32 F18D Bats!

Finally, the Hornet is almost due to complete with small niggles left off till we go competition. It was quite a nice build with most of the assembly work done by Ee Keok Lye. I wanted to put in the pilots but the heads of the pilots provided are like the aliens of MARS ATTACK movie. Unfortunately, that is why I had those kit seats installed. After the said decision to ditch the pilots, I am left aghast looking at the beautifully molded Resin Seats that Ee bought from Quickboost.

Overall, I did not have much trouble with the build as mostly was done by Ee. However, for the tail fin decals, it was a huge semi transparent decal that is very thin and really need care to get them one nicely. I am quite happy to report that the thing came out quite nicely.

The base I bought from a Chinese company called Phoenix Models. Its a ala Miniart stype Vac Formed panels that came in two. The sides are slightly sloped and so, we anticipate some filling between the joint parts. We also required to put in more support as the ones provided by another piece of VAC FORMED sheet may not be able to form a flat surface that well. There is also a need to build up the sides to bulk the middle of the panels to prevent warping. Then painting is a breeze with 3 options given in the instructions.

 The kit's NACES seats were used as I initially planned to use the pilots, but MARS ATTACKED so....I am left with bare looking old Mother Hubbards.

I did made sure that I do not over weather this model as it was part of ceremonial kind of paintwork. Mark kept pointing out that this LGB is used by F17 Nighthawks....what the heck, it looked good on this plane, so, I used it.

Ee passed me some Rhinestones. These are 1.5mm diameter. Very shiny backgrounds. I filled up the nav lights cavity on the wingroots with Krystal Klear and position it near the inside rear of the semi filled cavity. Once the glue dried, I fill up the cavity again and repeated this several times till its flushed. I next painted them in clear blue and red. The shiny gem inside looked like the real stuff with lighting assembly!

I left out the yaw and airspeed probes in order to make sure they don;t go ninja on me when I pack the model for overseas competition and displays.

Finally, it's done. Goodie goodie. Really good kit this Academy new generation of models. Really looking forward to making my F18A plus and the F16 Sufa from the same. I have a Super Hornet from Trumpy that I do not feel as excited about as this two given this is my first Academy big model kit. I must say, I am very impressed. Unlike the Sukhoi and Tomcat nightmares of Trumpeter last year. A f=good turn of events I must say.

1/32 Academy F18D Part One

I was asked to help bring Ee's models home from his stash in office. When I showed up, He whopped my arse with a very expensive present! A almost done F18D from Academy! Yahooooooooo! With some minor work and its ready to rock and roll. He even primed it black to check for mistakes. Which I took over from there.

The top mid section there was a part that were not very well fitted and reqired some work of filling up and sanding it flushed. Then returning the lines and 2 rows of rivets. I also rever masked different panels and sprayed on olive, grey, beige and white to give it tonal excitement.

I used the masking tape as a guide for the riveting with 0.4mm drill bit, which I broke 2! Urgh....it also protects the other side while we tried sanding.

I prefer to normally put on the windscreen before I paint the actual plane. This is where I deferred from the other guys. So Ee left the canopy part off, I had to glue it on and putty it several times with liquid putty. Then cleaning up with ethanol. This is to prevent harming the details. There was some shape mismatch, so there is sanding, which is not preferred unless absolutely necessary.

Drilling back rivets.

 This picture shows the effects of clouding and reverse masking. The extra effort will pay off.

The oval panels were acrylics that was hand painted in using the glazing methods.

There is a need to mottle the single tone grey so that we will have some form of salt induced weathering. Since its not a battle scene plane that I am depicting, I tried to tone down on the contrasts with a 40% restraint over the efforts I put on my Tomcat. This I did with Masking fluids.

I chose two shades of grey and painted them on the paper to compare the tones, Once I have decided, I did dusting with two on the topside of the aircraft. This do not usually occurs on the bottom as the sea spray collects mainly on top. Besides, the bottoms is not easily observed by the people looking at the models.

Once the paintwork has cured over about 8 hours, I put the model under slow running water and washed it with a fine bristle tooth brush to remove all the masks. This revealed a mottling effect which is quite nice to look at.

The flaps were also painted in the same way and increased contrast as these parts normally takes on heavier beating and will need the contrasts so that it will show through and allow for a more interesting look. There are often oil streaks in these areas.

Some reference photos to show the flaps and differing tones on the actual planes. Some mottling on the top picture, the bottom one is Canadian which is land based so there is no mottling due to salt weathering.

I decided to junk the decals on the walkways and go for painting. At this scale, decals becomes a joke. I did the black, grey and mottling in lighter grey toning.

Turned out quite nice.

Some painful reworking on the nose area, so the masking! Also too the opportunity to paint the wheel wells.Unfortunately Ee did not have the chance to paint the wheel wells before assembly somehow! Man, orr he has some sick agenda to torture his friend! FIENISH.....FIENISH man!

The decals at the tials were a real pain. Its so thin in collapses onto itself once it leaves the backing paper! It took me 8 hours to do the two and cut the film insitu!

Another subject of extreme pain! The decal is rectangle, the surface us multi curved. How to keep it optically correct? Melt the whole damn thing in Mr. Colour Softer over 6 times and 2 hours and brushing it till the thing turns trapezoid so that finally it becomes somewhat rectangle!

Washing the plane, part by part. Its so big, it takes a week to do what we normally do in 1 session for 1/48 scale Hornets.

Precariously in progress. Not to worry, white spirits will clear it up later. I used only the Tamiya black and brown and a 3rd bottle which is a mixture of them both to do the marking and lines. Noticed the decal of US Navy emblem in the midst?

The details coming up nicely after some washes and the panel reverse masking is coming out nicely too. Happy with it so far. Before I streak it further to give it some more grime.

Weapons time!

I opted for triple tanks since this is the usual bombing run configuration, and two Side Winders for self defence. I also opted for the Lantirn III pods.

Added the Rhinestone to the pod. When the top cover goes on, it looked more interesting than painting the back of this cover silver.