"The Sabre was the first jet fighter South African pilots flew in combat, and by the time the last few still in SAAF colours were withdrawn from service early in 1980 it had become a legend in its own time - as well-loved both by pilots and the man in the street as the Spitfire had been to an earlier generation". (Aircraft of the South African Air Force - Herman Potgieter/Willem Steenkamp)

INTRODUCTION

I received the Sabre half built and thought is a good idea to finish it in SAAF colors. Seeing that most SAAF Sabres are built in the all metal Korean finish (see Nils Mathisrud's article), I decided to do the later camouflage finish of light grey, green and sand.   Overall fit of the parts are not bad - taking into consideration that the kit is almost 15 years old. Obviously you cannot compare the kit with the new Hasegawa release for the same plane. The Hasegawa kit has flaps and slats whereas the ESCI kit only has panel lines. Fit wise, the only problem was that the cannon panels did not fit that well - but nothing that body filler could not save.