Warbird Information Exchange

Finished the Oshkosh prep today. She awaits her debut. Look to the skies tomorrow afternoon.







More details, vintage toggle switch boots. Yes the chromate panel is now Gull Grey...

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Very nice! The red detail on the aircraft is quite dull isn't it? Almost as if she's been sitting outside for ages. But I presume this is an authentic colour. Funnily enough it's not that far off the matt red my Auster has on the top of the engine cowling and on the fuselage stripe and on the tail round the rego.

Actually, the red is Federal Standard Insignia Red, flat.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

very awesome

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documenting restored B-17s and those undergoing restoration to flight:

Probably a dumb question, but when you polish a machine like that F-86 and keep polishing it what happens to the pure Al cladding on the Alclad skins...must eventually wear right off? Probably myth but I heard a story about RAF VIP aircraft having to be reskinned due to excessive polishing around the front end.

No myth: Queen's Flight Andovers. Subsequently painted (fuselage) to avoid this, among other things.

The story I heard referred to an RAF VIP Avro York some 60 years ago, not sure which VIP

The RNZAF used to polish their Bristol Freighters, Devons and Dakotas. However when they found the skins getting a little thin in places they went back to paint. Only one Dakota(possibly two?) was left with the polished exterior and that was the VIP aircraft NZ3551 now on display at the Air Force Museum.
Photo taken in 1980, Dakotas were retired in 1977.

This entire plane since we took over was polished with a chemical system from California Customs, virtually no abrasives. Step one is a deoxidizer solution that takes off any oxides but no material. Step two is their Purple Metal Polish. It reacts with the deoxidizer some way to produce a beautiful shine. The alclad issue on our bird is from the two full paint jobs SAAF and Corporate Jets and subsequent stripping processes. People actually sanded through the alclad.

Corporate Jets


SAAF

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Once you have done the plane with the two part system, it is maintained only with the Purple Metal Polish. Check them out http://www.californiacustom.com/

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Beautiful job, but I'm quizzical about that matt finish: unit insignia and markings in the '50s are in my experience mostly (always) done gloss. I know Rich Sugden's Sabre 6 also has a matt finish when in-period it would have been gloss: I'm assuming there's a maintenance reason?

Sadly photos of 435th FBS F-86Fs aren't exactly common, but those I have would concur with 'gloss' statement above.

I'm not the expert but you see more and more of the WWII fighters in matt finish. We relied on the input from Canmil who created our stencils and on his talent base of scale modelers for specifics. That group knows colors and finishes perfect. The red is actually Federal Standard Insignia Red, matt.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Scott,

Not trying to be nitpicky but I think your source is wrong on this one: matt finish is pretty unheard of (unless dayglo) for USAF F-86 unit markings; ditto F-84, F-80 etc. I've a great deal of experience providing F-86 data to various restorations and model manufacturers and I hate to say it but the modelers themsleves are not foolproof.

Insignia Red no doubt, but I think gloss rather than matt. Clincher here would be to see if matt Insignia Red was even available from USAF stocks in the 1950s. I can't think of a use for it, whereas gloss IR was most certainly in use, for both insignia and Arctic Conspicuity markings (where it's often erroneously referred to as "Arctic Red").

Still an incredible job you've done and hopefully not too late to get the finish right. Happy to discuss.

Thanks for the input. I'd send it up to the booth for further review but the bottom line is that is what the owner wanted, so I followed his directive and we created a unique Sabre in the few flying Sabre community. Oh, and i like the look, just me...

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

I like the look too, and I'm just fine with a bit less authenticity if I like the looks of an airplane more. These things are not in service any more -- why not go with the owner's taste?

Of course, I'm still a great lover of civilian Mustang paint jobs too...

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---