1/48 High Planes CAC Avon Sabre 

by Scott Brown (Ozgenie)

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  Australia Day 

 

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) were the Australian owned Aircraft manufacturers that built the CAC Avon Sabre. The Sabre commenced service with the RAAF in 1955. The locally built Sabre was based on the North American F86 Sabre but was modified for local conditions and requirements. These changes included the installation of Rolls Royce Avon jet engines (resulting in a more barrel like fuselage than the NA counterpart due to modified air intaked required to accommodate the larger engine. A revised cockpit layout, increased fuel capacity and the installation of two Aden 30mm cannons instead of the six 0.5 inch machine guns fitted to the American version.

The first of the CAC Sabres flew on3 August 1953 and, during its test flight, it became the first Australian aircraft to break the sound barrier. These aircraft are still considered to be the best combat aircraft ever produced in Australia. In 1965 the RAAF began to phase out the Sabre, replacing them with the Mirage III0 and D models. The last of the Sabres was officially retired by July 1971.

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The aircraft I have depicted flew with the RAAF 76 Squadron Black Panthers aerobatic team between 1961 and 1965. This aircraft was the first of the local production Sabres. It was built as a Mk. 30 model but later modified to Mk. 31 standards. This aircraft was scheduled to be converted to components in December 1966 but survived and is now housed in the Bankstown Museum , since 1999. The prototype aircraft is currently preserved at the RAAF Point Cook museum.

The High Planes conversion kit contains significant parts of the Academy F86- Sabre kit with replacements parts for the fuselage, engine air intake fairing.

Instruction sheets are clearly written and the kit is relatively straight forward to build, with a few exceptions. The conversion parts have been moulded in a thicker plastic than the original kit parts and a lot of thinning and sanding is required to obtain a correct fit in some places, such as fitting the cockpit tub.

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There are a number of cutouts in the conversion parts (eg Air Brake recess and underbody intakes that require some cutting in order to square them off properly. Taking all this into account this kit, with a bit of work, results in quite a good representation of the CAC Sabre and is well worth the extra effort it requires.

The decal sheet provides decals for a number of aircraft including A94-901 (as shown here), A94-971 as flown by 3 Squadron RAAF, A94-922 and A94-371 as flown by 2 OCU's "Marksmen" aerobatics team, A94-368 as flown by 76 Squadron's "Black Panthers", FM1983 as flown by the Royal Malaysian Air Force(RMAF) 11 Squadron and FM1369 as flown by RMAF 11 Squadron.

Scott

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Photos and text © by Scott Brown