My father served with the Royal Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years. As you can imagine he had a lot of stories to tell.
NATO was just getting it’s sea legs and Canada was deploying several squadrons to Europe. North Luffenham was the first stop on their way to the eventual bases on the continent.
This one was about how he was tasked with replacing the tail exhaust cone on Canadair F-86 Sabres in North Luffenham in the UK in the early 50’s.
This display draws parts from 3 kits. The fuselage is a 1/48 ?? Canadair Sabre, the wings are from a 1/48 ??, and the cockpit is from a third kit, ???
The decals come from all three kits and some from the spares box. The ladders are photo etched and scratch built from balsa. The depot equipment are from the spares box along with the figures. The base displays the 3 squadrons that Canada contributed in the first wave of deployment.
The story is that pilots would often take off and land with a bit too much gusto. This often put the nose too high and consequently subjected the tail to a meeting with the runway. This had a tendency to damage the thin aluminum of the cone surrounding the engine exhaust.