The AEROPOXY F-86K model will be finished as a "later" F-86K Kaasjager of the Royal Netherlands Air Force that got RETROFITTED beginning nineteen sixties with a "F-40 Sabre type" wing. This F-40 wing has a larger chord and extended wingtip and again is fitted with slats. It is recognizable as it has a straight pitot tube. Of the HASEGAWA F-86F the wing (part #C1) is perfect and the also other parts of such a Hasegawa F-86F kit JS-084 will be used.   
 

AGAIN AN UPDATE:  Kitty Hawk released an injection F-86K kit 3rd quarter 2015. 
It was decided to continue modelling the AEROPOXY 1/32 resin conversion, otherwise it will end its life at the rear bottom shelf of the model kits stash forever.... 

Handling resin parts may be harmful, so read my resin handling tips here...

The resin parts are thick and of very hard resin. Walls are thick as well. 

The main parts are seen here and the vertical tail is rather thick. 

It was decided to remove the rudder and to refine the leading edge of the tailfin. So, a new rudder was made of plastic card and ot a nice thin trailing edge.
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There is a large gap at the lower wing position in the fuselage so I could fit inside a cockpit tub later on. It was also decided not to make an air tunnel inside, covers will be set in place and these are provided in the AEROPOXY set. So the large fuselage halves and nose could be set together. Two component Epoxy BISON KOMBI glue with a harder was used and this gives strong joints.
The nose fits not too bad either. With clamps all components were fixed and let to dry 24 hours.

The pretty large gaps were filled with white car filler (Dutch brand "Alabastine Autoplamuur") and when dried up, sanded and smoothened. This required some repeatment to get a good first result. 

The leading edge of the vertical tail got a strip glued on and lots of putty applied. This was sanded to get a sharp result with a much better appearance. The tailplane holes were also drilled out. 

The lower AEROPOXY wing root plate was not used. 
F-86K aircraft often later during their career got a wing modification with the larger "F-40" wing. These also could fire Sidewinder missiles. So this model was made as later F-86K and got the one piece HASEGAWA F-86F "F-40" wing. 
As compared to the F-86D Sabredog the F-86K has a slightly thicker belly, so a piece of card was set in place and the edges will be puttied. At the rear some some exhaust and details are seen. These will be added as well. The holes in the main gear bays were closed with card as well. 
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Inside the fuselage simply the cockpit tub #D21 of the Hasegawa kit was set in place. Detailling can be done later through the cockpit opening. A simple rear bulkhead was made from plastic card to close the gap. 

After that, the wing could be set in place. 
The grey wing (Part #C1) of the Hasegawa kit is seen here with the "belly" add on.  The gaps between the fuselage and wing needed loads of card and filler to close the gaps and sanded to get smooth results.

The result is seen here and some refilling and sanding is needed.

The upper wing root junctions also need some filling. Nice is that the Hasegawa kit have separate slats and flaps and on a real Sabre these droop down when an aircraft is parked at the tarmac. 
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NOTE:  the wing is bigger as the trailing edge flaps and ailerons are not seen below...

The assembly got a first coat of light grey base paint to check for any areas that need more filling and sanding. Any base coat will do, I used Revell Aqua 371 "Hellgrau" acrylic paint applied with the airbrush.

Some areas needed again some filler and sanding. I used a polishing block to remove any scratches as well. And another grey coat was airbrushed.... 


Various other parts needed were retrieved from the Hasegawa kit, like the slats, flaps, smaller wing tanks, wheel doors and so on. 

The large horizontal tailplanes are in the AEROPOXY set and these needed filler to clear the small resin holes. (not seen here)

As expected the canopy on a short run kit is always a challenge. Here a comparison is seen of three sets: Hasegawa F-86F, TIGGER F-86D vacuform and AEROPOXY F-86K thin vacu. 

(note: the Hasegawa F-86F canopy and windscreen have an different smaller shape as on early Sabres and are not further of use here; probably I will use it on the KINETIC F-86E kit as its canopy looks a bit odd..). 

The AEROPOXY canopy is very thin and a bit flumsy. The TIGGER F-86D canopy is good to use but the AEROPOXY windscreen looks better. And it was decided to used the base part #A6 of the Hasegawa kit as a reference. This was also confirmed by drawings I had. The canopy width of the TIGGER canopy has to be kept restrained, so a metal strip was superglued on top to strengthen the base part and keep it in shape. The vacu canopy will be glued outside the frame on the edges. 

So for this F-86K, the canopy itself is a combination of the TIGGER models vacuform F-86D rear canopy and the AEROPOXY windscreen. 

First, the internal details will be painted and the outside of the canopy masked off. Final painting will be done later. 

Back to the fuselage. Seen here is a small fairing at the rear and this was cut off the TIGGER canopy.
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After painting the lower instrument base coaming, the AEROPOXY windscreen was set in place. Putty was needed. Carefully mask the clear areas! 

Again, some base grey coat was applied. It seemed OK now.

(1) For the undercoat Revell Aqua "Schwartz 07" acrylic Gloss Black was airbrushed , thinned 40% with the Revell Aqua Color Mix thinner and 10% alkohol. Airbush pressure was set at 1,1 PSI. 
Ensure the paint is really gloss. The other parts, like slats, flaps etc were not forgotten. 
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(2) When dry, some panels were masked with low tack tape (from Tesa). This to get very simply some different sheens, see below how...
Also the big black radar nose was masked off.

(3) ALCLAD II ALC-105 Polished Aluminium was airbrushed. No thinning is needed but were gloves and a face mask and plenty of ventilation! This ALCLAD stuff is not good for your health.

(4) At mid way airbrushing, the low tack tapes were removed. These areas now also got the ALCLAD coat. This gives a different "panel" effect as the paint is less thick.

and the result....

(5) After 24 hrs drying, some additional panels were masked with the low tack tape. Particularly the large center wing panels have a different colour. This was airbrushed ALCLAD II ALC-119 Airframe Aluminium. The areas at the exhaust were given a coat of ALCLAD II ALC-113 Exhaust. 

(6) Now the green anti glare panel was , after masking, airbrushed olive green Revell Aqua 361 "Olivgrun". 
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(7) The main gear wheel bays and nose gear bay got a coat of Interior Green using WHITE ENSIGN MODELS ACUS09 "interior green" enamel with the airbrush. Masking was done with transparant food conservation foil and tape.

(8) The model now had all main coats applied. Some small panels were painted light grey at the vertical tail tip.