Kit: No. K3201
Scale: 1/32
Price: $36.95
Manufacturer: Kinetic Model Kits, from Stevens International, 856-435-1555
Comments: Injection-molded, 191 parts (1 metal nose weight), decals
Pros: Accurate surface detail, including dimpled aluminum skin
Cons: Thick moldings; intake too oval; curved, beak-shaped nose; tail fillet not sharp enough
As I looked at this kit's light gray sprues, the first thing I noticed was how Kinetic captured the dimpled look of the aluminum skin. It's a nice feature you don't often see in kit form.
However, the moldings seem a little clunky, reminiscent of kits from the '60s. The trailing edges are thick, the tail fillet looks way too round, and the whole plane looks a little bloated. The intake lip is too oval, and the top of the intake looks like it comes down too far - almost hawkish.
The kit has a removable engine as well as a tail section that can be set on a kit-supplied dolly. However, when it's joined to the main fuselage, the tail section fits loosely and droops. I just glued it in and discarded the dolly.
You get two types of fuel tanks - two 120-gallon combat tanks and two 120-gallon Misawa tanks - as well as two complete gun bays with ammo feed chutes. The gun bays and the cockpit side consoles are a single molding glued inside the fuselage. Also provided are two Side-winder missiles with launch rails, and speed brakes that can be posed open or closed, as can the separate landing flaps.
Covers for the intake and exhaust ports are given, but if you don't want to use the intake cover you'll have to remove the two stops molded into the intake nose pieces and blend in the intake trunking (as I did).
The two sets of markings are basically the same except for serial numbers and personal markings.
The cockpit is fairly basic: The instrument panel is nice, with a clear panel you paint black for the printed-film instrument faces. However, the panel sits too far forward in the cockpit and is almost lost under the instrument panel shroud. The seat is simplistic. Inserts for the inner vertical walls of the cockpit side consoles will need filling and blending. However, the cockpit floor, side consoles, and intake trunking fit snugly within the fuselage halves. (Don't forget the nose weight; a place is provided in front of the cockpit.)
The engine is OK but, because of the sloppy fit, you won't be able to display the engine both ways (in or out). I closed it up, as it just looks better when it's all in one piece.
The wingtip formation lights are molded separately but must be glued in place before the wings are joined. It's a nice idea, but you'll have to mask the lights for painting. I used a liquid masker.
The main landing-gear door braces (parts C23 and C24) look a little clunky. The wing fences are too thick and don't fit the curve of the wing. Part D21, the compressor overboard air bleed duct which goes on top of the fuselage in front of the tail fillet, needs a little blending with a sanding stick. Also, you'll need to rescribe the panel line or glue seam afterwards. No filler was needed, however, and the rest of the assemblies fit well.
You get two types of wing tanks, but the fins on both are too thick. The kit-supplied mirror for the top of the main canopy also is oversized; it would hit the pilot in the head when the canopy slid forward or back.
The decals went down nicely. The only problem was with the scallop decals on the wing tanks. You'll have to place the decals, slice them so they settle down with setting solution, then touch up with paint.
Still, if you can deal with the scale thickness issues and dimension problems, the result is not bad. It looks much more like an F-86 than I thought it would. Mine took about 25 hours to build - not bad considering my initial evaluation. A few years of modeling helps. - Larry Schramm