Reviewed by Rodger Kelly
 

This sheet is Cutting Edge’s second effort in their series covering the F-86 and it covers two colourful Korean War era machines.

The first of them is the well-known F-86F-1, 51-2897 Huff of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing’s (FIW) 39th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS). If any F-86 typified the USAF’s penchant for bright markings then this is it! The aircraft is in overall natural metal finish with the early black and yellow banded theatre markings. Complete markings (Buzz numbers, serials stars and bars, USAF titles, turbine warning stripes and flap no-step areas) minus the theatre bands are supplied for this aircraft. Some nice touches and options provided by Cutting Edge include:

• The Huff himself is supplied in two different forms. The first one is all-inclusive whilst the second one is lacking the black outline. The black outline is supplied as a separate decal that overlays the second decal. I guess that Cutting Edge has gone this way to address any register problems but I have to say that the all-inclusive decal was in perfect register on my example.

• The 51 FIW fin checker markings have been supplied as hard edged whilst the one-to-one scale example was roughly applied and had a feathered edge. Reference to the excellent instruction sheet points this out and suggests that the modeller apply the decal first and then carefully airbrushes the edges to duplicate the effect.

• The yellow lightning bolts for the drop tanks are also supplied as a single decal that has been split at the nose so, as they will conform to the drop tank. Also supplied are the thin red outlines for these markings as it is not certain that they were actually applied to this aircraft’s drop tanks or not.

• The name “Miss Jerry” that was applied to the starboard side of the fuselage is supplied as a red decal and a black decal. As there are no known colour photos of the aircraft Cutting Edge have hedged their bets and supplied both likely options.

The second aircraft is F-86A, 49-1129 “Lady Luck” of the 4th FIW, 334th FIS. Again, the machine is overall natural metal finish with the early yellow and black banded theatre markings. Whilst not as flamboyant as the Huff this option does provide colourful markings that will stand out in your model cabinet. Markings include

• A full colour and larger than average size painting of a nude “Lady Luck” herself for the port fuselage side.

• The 344th FIS badge.

• The 4th FIW yellow and black fin marking.

Should you choose this option be aware that you need to purchase the Cutting Edge conversion CEC48196 modify your chosen kit back to –A standard.

Notes on each of the aircraft are provided on a separate page. These notes are very detailed and advise the modeler on the various “must knows” to complete your model as well as a comprehensive bibliography of which I found Jose Herculano’s Huff website at http://www.almansur.com/aviation/f86fdetail/huff.html to be of great assistance – visit the site!

The notes also point out the pitfalls of comparing the wartime Huff to the restored F-86 in Huff markings that is currently flying in the US. Also included is a full-colour A-4 sized instruction sheet/header that gives decal placement.

This is an excellent effort by Cutting Edge. With the arrival of two very nice 1/48 scale kits of the F-86 available courtesy of Hasegawa and Academy as well as Alclad, this sheet is very welcome indeed. My only nitpick is that a set of theatre markings and are not included in the pack. Should you want to apply these as a decal rather than tearing your hair out and mask/spray them you have to purchase a further decal sheet (CED48028) which supplies them as well as stencil data for the F-86.

Recommended.
 

Thanks to Cutting Edge Modelworks for the review samples..

Review Copyright © 2002 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 08 October, 2002
Last updated 09 November, 2003

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