Canadair Sabre Mk.4

My 5th lockdown aircraft mode build!

For as long I can remember, the one non-british made aircraft which has fascinated me more than any other has been the North American F-86 Sabre.

Based on the design of captured Messerschmitt 262s at the end of WW2, the F-86 Sabre entered service with the USAF in 1949, one year before the Korean War in which it proved its exceptional capabilities in combat against the Russian Mig 15, also heavily influenced in its swept wing design by the Me 262. One interesting factoid about these two jets was the distinguishing characteristics of their engines which made it very easy to distinguish, from some distance, which was friend or foe. The F-86 was powered by a General Electric power plant and the Mig used a reverse engineered Rolls Royce Nene engine which the British government had crazily gifted to Stalin in the early post war years! The Sabre left a smoke trail a Red Arrow would have been proud of, while the Mig’s exhaust was smoke free .. quality British engineering!

I’ve made more model kits of the Sabre jet than I care to remember but never this variant. This is the 1952, the Canadair Sabre Mk.4 which served with the RAF until mid-1956 when they were replaced by Hawker Hunters. Britain needed to look to the United States at this time as it had no jet fighter capable of standing up to the Mig-15. During the Korean War, British jet fighters, such as the famed Doodlebug chasing Gloster Meteor, were found to be inferior to the Mig. Britain was actually supplied with Sabres via Canada, who built the Sabre under licence and gave it the designation of the Canadair CL-13.

Canadair Sabre Mk.4 112 Squadron RAF

The colours of this model is probably that of one delivered in Jan 1954 to No 112 (F) Squadron, RAF Bruggen, W. Germany. 112 Squadron’s aircraft carried Shark’s teeth beneath the nose and a white fin letter. The use of shark teeth date back to 1941, when inspired by the unusually large air inlet on their P-40 Curtiss Tomahawk, the squadron copied the "shark's mouth" logo painted on some German Messerschmitt Bf 110s seen earlier in the war. This practice was later followed by P-40 units in other parts of the world, including the Flying Tigers, American volunteers serving with the Chinese Air Force and most recently, my last build of the Desert Storm Tornado.

Sabres eventually equipped 10 RAF fighter squadrons in Germany and 2 in the UK as part of NATO's 2nd Allied Air Force; their main task was to patrol the Air Defence Identification Zone along the "Iron Curtain" and standing on alert to be scrambled to intercept unidentified aircraft. Until replaced by Hawker Hunters 1955-6 they provided air cover for the defences of Western Germany and the Rhine Army.

My picture of the F-86 taken in 2011 at the Duxford Korean War Airshow

There are a couple movies in which you get to see the F-86 in action but none, in my view, better than 1958’s The Hunters, staring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner, set In 1952, during the Korean War. The air scenes are fantastic, obviously using real aircraft with smoking engines and not a model in sight!

PANAVIA Tornado GR.1

Here’s the 4th of my lockdown builds, the PANAVIA Tornado GR.1, in the colours of ZA447/EA 'MiG Eater' RAF No.15 Squadron, Operation Granby, 1991 ‘First Gulf War’.

Introduced into service in 1979, the Tornado replaced the Lightening which, you may recall, started me off on this model building epic. Coincidentally, just as my Lightening adorned an unusual green paint scheme following its posting from UK to Germany, the Tornado dropped its tradition green and grey camouflage following its posting from Germany to the Gulf!

This model is painted in that specialist desert pink camouflage over-wash and carries a distinctive shark teeth nose art decoration, which has been a feature of many military aircraft through various campaigns (I can see a future possible theme here).

Carrying the name 'MiG Eater', this aircraft was thought to have destroyed an Iraqi Air Force MiG-29 fighter (hence the name), whilst completing an airfield denial mission, over Iraq. It was later discovered that it was actually a Mirage F.1, but ZA447 was one of the busiest Tornados over the Gulf, completing 40 combat missions for coalition air forces.

Messerschmitt Me262

Finally glad to get this aircraft out of the hanger! It’s a deceptively tricky one to build and I’ve never found the results worth the pain; yet I return to it time after time in a vain attempt to beat it!

This, as I suggested last week, is the Messerschmitt Me262 that became the first victim of the Mustang flying Red Tails. It was the world’s first operational jet powered fighter aircraft which understandably set the standard for the development of post war fighters. Design actually began before the start of WW2 but it wasn’t until the tide started to turn badly for the Axis powers that work was speeded up; eventually entering service in April 1944.

Able to out accelerate any opposition’s aircraft, similar to our own Lightning, it also suffered from having a short range and although its straight line speed was outstanding, the Mustang for one, was able to out turn it in a dogfight.

It was, fortunately for us, too late to turn back the tide of defeat. Most of the Me262s built failed to even take to the air due to a lack of parts, fuel and trained pilots, or were simply destroyed on the ground by the relentless waves of Allied bombers.

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The Model ...

Make: Airfix 

Model: Supermarine Spitfire Pr.XIX 

Scale: 1:72

Part No: A03088

Year of Release: 2017

North American P-51 Mustang

Continuing the lockdown Airfix building program, I have 2 kits lined up for this VE75 weekend .. and of course a detailed backstory to follow!

The first of my 75VE Day Airfix builds is complete.

This is the North American P-51 Mustang flown by 1Lt Spurgeon Ellington, 'Tuskegee Airmen' 100th Fighter Squadron, Ramitelli, Italy December 1944. LOLLIPOOP II was named for Ellington's wife and American Jazz singer, Marie. Spurgeon was subsequently killed in a flying accident in October 1945, and his widow later went on to marry singer Nat King Cole! Marie met Nat King Cole while they were both singing at the Zanzibar club and also sang with Duke Ellington, though, I can not so far find any relationship between Duke and Spurgeon.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African-American pilots who were brought together to form the racially segregated 332nd Fighter Group. Their story is a fascinating one, not just because of their successful fight for racial equality, but also because of their combat honours and backstory. They painted their aircraft's tails red to let everyone, the bombers they supported and the enemy they fought, know who they were. They never lost a bomber to air attack, something almost previously unheard of. They received the Presidential Unit Citation for its longest bomber escort mission to Berlin and they were reportedly the first shoot down a Messerschmitt Me 262, Germany's and the world's first production jet fighter.

There are 2 good films about the Tuskegee Airmen: the 1995 film of the same name, a historical piece which follows the airmen from the early days through to the war and George Lucas's more recent 2012 film "Red Tails" which is a CGI and cliché packed dogfight fest .. you've been warned!

The next aircraft in the lockdown model factory is the famed Messerschmitt Me 262. Keep tuned

English Electric Lightening F.2A

Keeping idle hands and mind busy on the last day of my lockdown vacation .. have had this in the loft for the last 5 years awaiting such an occasion!

My model of the English Electric Lightening F.2A, is complete. Most commonly seen in silver, I decided on the camouflaged variant as flown by Wing Commander R.K. Barcilon, No. 19 Squadron, based at RAF Gutersloh Germany, in late 1974. 

Entering RAF squadron service in 1960, the Lightening represented a quantum leap in capability and performance over the RAF’s previous interceptor jets, offering Mach 2+ performance as well as a phenomenal rate of climb. 

Having done a bit of digging it's interesting to see the Lightening was also used in a display team back in 1963!

Eventually replaced in 1988, superseded by the Tornado, the Lightening remains one of the RAF’s fastest fighter jets of all time; even the new F35 Lightening II now entering service can only boast Mach 1.6!