The Hasegawa Sabres provide a very basic cockpit for this scale. A problem, as is common with many other Hasegawa kits, is that the side console walls are cut short at the front. Use sheet plastic to correct this, and while at it, increase the depth of the instrument panel center pedestal and place the rudder pedals further back.

The seat is also rather basic, and if the pilot figure is not installed, it needs detailing.

If you opt for aftermarket products to improve your cockpit, my suggestion is to use the Eduard photo-etch set with the Verlinden resin set. The only problem left, then, is the front depth. The only cockpit set with the correct front depth is the Teknics, which is cruder in other aspects.

2 Intake and exhaust trunks

They are full length and accurate, but suffer from a nasty problem: 4 big molding marks to fill and sand per piece… that’s 16 hard to sand spots to take care off. Hasegawa provides accurate intake and exhaust covers that can be a solution. If you like to see down the openings, then you must either correct at least the intake (exhaust trunk, due to contours, is not so visible), or buy some aftermarket stuff. Two resin intakes are available, and each has its merits. No aftermarket exhaust trunks are available as yet.

Seamless Suckers was the first on the market, and their one-piece trunk is an exact match of Hasegawa’s, but is fully assembled and free of seams. Kendall’s intake requires you to cut the Hasegawa trunk at the rear, but includes the nose cone integral to the trunk. My preference is for the Seamless Suckers resin. It is harder to fit, but avoids the big problem with the Kendall piece where you’ll have to engrave (on the inside) the very noticeable panel line between the intake and the trunk, plus the intake upper lip radar contour, and that’s hard work.

3 Fuselage

Hasegawa at it's best, and at it's worst. Very accurate in shape, nice panel lines (except for the lower ammo bay doors - panel lines are partially absent on both fuselage halves), but some refinements need to be made.

The speed brake wells, although accurate in general, have detail that is too flat, and look unconvincing on close inspection. The hinge arms are right in plan shape, but their recesses do not show the correct angle on the interior of the wells. If you’re serious about correcting this, cut off the well bottom and the front panel, rebox with plain sheet, and detail. Teknics has a detail set that has very nice speedbrake actuation arms, but if you’re taking the trouble to correct the whole thing, it makes little sense to use them. When assembling the speedbrakes, take care with their positioning angles, and note that the lower hinge has a trap door over it (can be made using small etch strips).

Kit Pt13, the original Hasegawa Sabre issue (F-86F-30 USAF), had a problem in the fuselage. The small recessed intakes aft of the wings’ trailing edges were reversed, that is, the opening was to the front, whereas it should have been to the rear. Both of my Pt13 kits have this problem but all subsequent issues of the model have this corrected in the mold. So I am expecting that newer production runs of Pt13 will have this fault corrected too – however, do check.

The square exhaust and intake piece just in front of the tail fin is fairly good, but the intake could use some very careful reshaping.

On the right fuselage half, just in front of the speedbrake well, there is a very nicely done scoop... that is not correct in most Sabres. It is an after-production improvement that first appeared in the F-86F-40. Early F-40s had the slatted 6-3 wing with 24 inch tip extensions, but no scoop. Latter F-40s had the scoop installed, and F-35s that were refitted with the slatted 6-3 wing with tip extensions usually had this scoop installed too. So:

4 Windscreen, instrument panel top and canopy

Windscreen and canopy are well molded. The top of the instrument panel and the gun sight are a bit crude, but Eduard and Verlinden help. The part that attaches to the bottom of the canopy, A15, that is an integral part of it, is also crude. Verlinden’s replacement helps a bit, but Eduard etch helps a lot.

And now you have a major problem. Hasegawa molded A15 with a tab on the bottom that slides over a groove on top of the fuselage immediately behind the ejection seat. If you assemble a closed canopy, you are OK. If you place it in the open position, you are not. Opening it leaves a blank area with groove between the back of the seat and part A15. This is completely wrong. Sabres have a very complex tubing and triple rail system in that area and it is quite noticeable with the canopy open. Two aftermarket sets tried to address this: True Details has a crude resin piece to glue on top of the fuselage; Teknics cockpit includes some fine metal parts to glue there that are somewhat better.

With the Teknics, the model does look better, but it’s still inaccurate. That area is not flat on top of the fuselage, rather, it is recessed, as you can see in the detail pictures on this site. The only way around this is to cut out that top fuselage area, use sheet plastic to make a new shelf with the correct depth and angle, and scratch build the details. A lot of work, but then the Sabre will look like a Sabre.

5 Wings

These Sabres have 6-3 wings: The F-1, F-30 and F-35 have the original hard 6-3 wing with top fences, while the F-40 (that can be used as a base to build later, retrofitted, F-35s) has the slatted 6-3 wing with tip extensions.

The Hasegawa wings are very nice, with one glitch: the slatted wings do not have separate slats. On the ground, by simple gravity effect, the slats drop, unless physically locked with a pin by the plane captain. The vast majority of pictures show the slats out. Cutting out the slats is easy; making the area under them is not.

If you fancy dropped flaps, go with Kendall’s control surfaces.

Side note added in mid 2002: Many modelers were awaiting the Promodeler release of the F-86D Sabre Dog with high expectations, both for the model itself, and to get some 6-3 slatted wings to cross kit on the Hasegawa Sabres. The Promodeler turned out to be a fantastic model, but its wings showed some notable variation, mostly in the swept angle, when compared to the Hasegawa wings. After some research it was found that the Promodeler wing is accurate, whereas the Hasegawa wing is not. This difference is noticeable when viewing the wings side-by-side, it is hard to tell when seeing the models apart from each other. It is possible to use the Promodeler wing on the Hasegawa model, but it is a hard task. My personal suggestion for those who want to deploy the slats on their Hasegawa Sabres is to get the extended slats resin conversion from Cutting Edge.

6 Tailplanes

Nicely done, but remember that the F-86F Sabre had an all-flying tail. If you plan to position the tailplanes in a position other than neutral, remember to close the fuselage square mounting hole and replace with a circular one. Wire is your best bet inserted into a brass tube of appropriate diameter and cemented into position. Remember this if you are using Kendall’s control surfaces and plan to use the resin elevators. Do not raise or drop those elevators without altering the rest of the tailplanes’ angle. Check pictures carefully for angle relations.

7 Landing gear

The gear wells are basic, but correct. You can improve them by adding tubing and other items per the detail pictures on this site. Gear arms likewise are basic, but correct. Teknics has a metal set that is more detailed. Use it, or detail the Hasegawa parts.

Part B12, the nose gear front cover, is not that good. Use the Eduard that has correct thickness – it represents well the double part that it is. All other gear doors are usable, but thin them from the outside, as they are a bit thick.

The wheels are mostly OK. However, the Sabre’s front wheel hub had variations. By using the kits’ nose wheel and True Details "early style" wheel, you can model all variations. Documented examples:

The spoked, see-thru wheel was commonly seen in Korea up until 1953, and thereafter became rare. Try to document your particular bird when using aftermarket decals.

The later style front wheels also had two major variations. One had the more complex hub detail, as in the kit, the other the simpler one, as in True Details’ "late style" wheel. Japanese Sabres almost always show the one as in the kit, whereas American and western show a mix, but more of the simpler design is seen.

One problem, though – the kit’s wheel scales well. However, now put the True Details’ next to it: it is oversized. Not very noticeable, but there it is.

For the main wheels, use Hasegawa’s. True Details’ are inaccurate for A thru F model Sabres; the brake assembly is far too narrow, and very noticeably so.

For those who want an opportunity to take out the calculator and the calipers, here are the dimensions, in millimeters, of the real wheels:

8 Sidewinders

All the Hasegawa instruction sheets would have you install a pair of Sidewinder missiles under the wings. However, for the schemes proposed in the boxes, you can only use them with the F-86F-40 JASDF. Leave them off, along with their pylons, on all the others. If you are planning to use aftermarket decals to portray Korean War Sabres, do not install the Sidewinders.

Some later Korean War Sabres, and many post war ones, flew sometimes with bomb pylons installed. These pylons are very different in shape from the Sidewinder ones. You have to build them from scratch, or modify the drop tanks pylons.

9 Drop tanks

Two different drop tanks are offered: early, Korean War era, small tanks with fins; latter, bigger, tanks without fins. The first come with the USAF versions, and the second come with the Japanese ones.

A niece touch by Hasegawa is the inclusion, with the smaller tanks, of two pylon configurations – straight or swept leading edge – and two fin configurations – with or without side auxiliary fins. However, no indication is given on how and where to choose.

On the F-86F-30/35 USAF, use swept pylon with the tanks without auxiliary fins for "Miss Teena". For the 21^st FBG scheme, as for "The Huff", use straight pylons and tanks also without auxiliary fins. Your safest bet on all other non-Japanese schemes is the straight pylon and simple fin tanks.

The Portuguese Air Force Sabre documented on this website can be built from the Japanese F-40 kit, using big drop tanks and Cutting Edge decals.

10 Speedbrakes

Mostly good, except for the hinges. Use the site pictures as reference to sand out a little of the lower hinge external surfaces, and drill a hole on it. Carefully glue the arm to the corrected speedbrake well, and place a trap door over it made from simple etch frame.

11 Painting

Hasegawa’s instructions are mostly OK, however:

Korean War birds did not have the cockpit and seat in gray, but in black. The 21^st FBG scheme, at that time, should also have a black interior color.

12 Hasegawa’s "Super Detail" Sabre

This variation has several resin pieces by Jaguar. These include:

1. Cockpit; does not include seat, and is no great improvement over the base Hasegawa cockpit – Verlinden is better;
2. Seamless front portion of the intake trunk; better than the one on the kit, worst than those from Kendall or Seamless Suckers;
3. Open gun bay; far worst than the one that comes with the Verlinden cockpit;
4. Flaps, tailplanes, ailerons and rudder; fair, although the comments on the model’s tailplanes apply here as well. Kendall’s control surfaces are better.
5. Wheels; better than True Details.

Consider this release if you want to spend a limited amount in aftermarket details. If you want real detail, skip it.

13 Brief look over the decals

Mostly good, but the yellow on the bands of the USAF examples is too much on the lemon side. I recommend the Cutting Edge stencil and yellow band sheet. On the 21^st FBG scheme, carefully replace the yellow band areas with plain yellow decal sheet cut to match.

My thanks to my friend and fellow modeler Gene Korotky for his help on the preparation of this review.