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Canadair Sabre Mk.5

Hasegawa's Canadair Sabre Mk.5

Introduction
When it comes to personal preference, I really like modern jet aircraft more than props. Recently, however, I realized I have been building many many propeller driven aircraft, but my shelves had no jet aircraft whatsoever. To remedy this situation, I decided to take a look at my notorious stash and see if I could find a decent, easy to build jet kit. When I found a Hasegawa Sabre kit in my stash, I knew I was good to go. Hasegawa's Canadair Mk.5 Sabre kit
For this challenge, Hasegawa's Canadair Mk.5 Sabre kit seemed perfect. It's not very large compared to newer jet aircraft like an F-15, for example. The kit, which is actually an F-86E Sabre kit, is pretty easy to build with no important fit issues. There are only three issues if you want to build an accurate Canadair Sabre. First, the base kit is an F-86 and some minor changes are required to convert it to a Canadair Sabre. Secondly, Hasegawa got their colors wrong! The undersurfaces are shown as Light Aircraft Grey, just like RAF Sabres. However, Canadian aircraft have PRU Blue undersurfaces. Lastly, the maple leaves in the kit decals are wrong, they are modern leaves. You need replacement decals for those if you want an accurate kit.
I should say that since I was looking for an easy build I only applied correction number two and painted the undersurfaces PRU Blue. Otherwise, my kit looks like an F-86 Sabre with wrong era decals! Blame Hasegawa, not me :)

Construction and Painting
The model was assembled completely out of the box. If you want an accurate Canadair Sabre, you need to remove the large scoop on the right side of the fuselage, since this wasn't a feature of Canadair produced Sabres. I only went berserk with the cockpit. I added photo-etched seatbelts, built a seat cushion for the pilot and scratchbuilt oxygen hoses and radio cables. Looks better this way, since the large canopy allows you to see the cockpit clearly.
For painting, I acquired the necessary Gunze Sangyo colors. During painting I confirmed that Hasegawa really got the undersurface color wrong and I had to remask the grey areas and paint them again. Since I didn't have PRU Blue readily available, I mixed US Navy dark blues with some other blues and got a good-enough looking mixtures compared to reference photos. After the model was painted, I started to play around with the colors as I wanted a slightly worn-out look on my jet. I was afraid of exaggerating, but in the end it turned out okay I guess.
If you want to build the "Carte Blanche" decal option, which is the one I built with the huge yellow crosses, be careful applying those decals. They might tear up easily while trying to align them and they look semi-transparent. It might be a better idea to mask and paint these crosses if you have the time and patience (which I didn't as I was trying to get my kit ready for a show... then, of course, they told me the kit couldn't get a prize as it looked like a rush job...).

Conclusion
This is a fun and easy to build kit for anyone who's interested in the Sabre, early period jets or just looking for good enjoyment. Just remember to make the necessary corrections and get the right style maple leaf decals if you want to build an accurate Canadair Mk.5 Sabre! (or get any F-86 E Sabre decals you like and build the kit was you want!)