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YGBSM, F-100F the first Weasel


Christer A

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Hello!

My contribution for this GB will be the F100F Wild Weasel I. I've had the deepest respect for all crews involved in the SEAD/DEAD mission (or rather, I remember how tricky it was in the good old PC flight Sim EF2000 back in the 90:s)

During the Vietnam war it was clear that something needed to be done about the SA-2 threat on a more permanent basis, and the Wild Weasel concept was born.

A fast(ish) two seater was needed, and suitable modded to pick up and and locate the SA-2 radar. Once found, they would then mark the target to lead a bunch of strikers to take the site out.

The aircraft chosen was the old (that that time) F-100F because they were available, not because they were the best choice. Equipment were different radar detectors and homing devices and to deal with the threat it was then attacked with cannon, rockets or napalm.

Unfortunately the F-100F was slower than the strike team the were supposed to protect, and after less than a year it was replaced in theater by the much more capable EF-105F and the F-105G, which had the speed, equipment and weapons to be a better Weasel.

This little picture sums it up best:

YGBSM1.jpg

 

There is a lot more to read up on the F-100F and its Wild Weasel missions on the net, and I might add that to the reference thread later on.

Anyway, the plastic I've chosen is this:

32438525257_e19d09a359_o.jpg

Trumpys model is lovely detailed and has plenty of parts which is always nice. I know about the fin having the wrong sweep angle, cockpit being way too long and its also missing all the stuff to make a Weasel out of it. I do not plan to change the cockpit nor the fin, but will make an effort to scratch all needed ECM and radio stuff.

Just to show that I haven't started yet, here are the runners:

32438525167_4736340627_o.jpg

 

 

32438525047_68c3281204_o.jpg

 

32438524957_3d13bda271_o.jpg

 

32438524767_e38a34ae6b_o.jpg

 

32438524657_5f1bf48143_o.jpg

 

32438524477_fd534f98a3_o.jpg

 

32438524557_9d91bc831b_o.jpg

 

32438524277_cccaa7d7e9_o.jpg

 

Since I'm almost unable to build models without some AM stuff, I tried to keep my AMS in check and have only got this:

32438525207_1255d623d2_o.jpg

 

LAU-3 and napalm canisters will be taken from the old Hasegawa weapon sets.

I can already say that I have no idea of how to paint the rear fuselage with it's massive heat distorted paint/metal but I look forward to experiment on it!

 

Edited by Christer A
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welcome along with an awesome model!!!

 

I love this aircraft and one I've been wanting to build for quite sometime. Being the originator of the Wild Wessel concept she's very welcome to see. On a side note I have what was to be her big brother, the F-107 (in 1/48th) that I'm sort of hoping to turn into a Wild Wessel, turning a single seater into a two seater is the hard part as there never was one........anyway back to the thread!

 

Good luck with the build, I'll be following this one with real interest, look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

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F-107G Wild Weasel? Yeah, that'll turn a few heads!

Thanks for the welcome Rich!

I have made a start during the weekend, but just to make things interesting and a bit contrary I started with the weapons instead of the cockpit.

Just a teeny tiny update today.

It didn't take long before I noticed the raised panel lines of all the weapons in Hasegawas old weapon set, and the BLU-27 Napalm canisters were also supposed to be finless.

No two ways around that, chop of the wings and add a new flange.

47406117751_f0ce38a833_o.jpg

 

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Thanks Col!

I think the top picture sums it all up :)

 

But not it's time for a little more proper uppdaterad!

My plan is to do a lot of the boring stuff before I start on the fun things, hence I'll focus on , weapons, pylons and landing gear for a while instead of cockpit and wheel wells.

Starting with the pylons I soon discovered that they were a detailed brunch, and also included a TER and an Y-rack for Sidewinders.

Looking at some references it seems that both the napalm canisters and the rocket pods attach directly to the pylons without any intermediate adaptors. Good!

I've learned that most American ordnance usually requires sway-braces in order to get a more secure attachment to the pylon and in the respect, Trumpeter gives me this:

47458724221_32f24afd5c_z.jpg

Gosh dang, aren't you the smallest of things?

Quite a nasty mold line too, almost impossible to clean. Let's hope no one will look that closely to notice...

 

Pylons, tanks, nape canisters and LAU-3 rocket pods was quickly glued together and neatened and shot with a blast of Ultimate Gloss Black Primer.
The weapon pylson are appearantly painted aluminium or bare metal, but the tank pylons are painted with undersurface color.
32516999927_b521aa82c7_h.jpg

I also treated the inside of the air intake the same way, safe in the fact that the ejection pin holes will not be seen.
47458723891_68eecd2b4c_h.jpg

Finding peculiar things in a Trumpeter kit might not rate as the strangedt of things, but I foundation this a little odd:
32517000077_411a254dad_h.jpg
Every wheel has three oblong indents in each side! Why?

Were they trying to add some tire manufacturer logo there or what? I haven't seen that in any walkarounds...
10011.JPG

 

Next topic : wings!
I'm quite fond of stickning things together with glue, but this seems a bit much.
47458724111_f48b05dc66_h.jpg
I guess one is supposed to deflect the control surfaces if one wish to do so, but it's really not cooperating to do so. In the end, it only adds gap between it all, masking it look a bit haphazard.

 

Next time, there should be some paint!

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Seems the standard thing with Trumpeter kits is to have some weird quirk of inaccuracy but those indentations on the tyre is a strange one. Not the worst though as you say. Nice start to the various bits of death to hang off this one.

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13 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

The Y objects are straps. Check out the photo’s about 1/2 way down.

 

 http://www.f-100.org/hun007.shtml

 

Hope they help.

 

Thanks for the link! I cannot find the exact photo your're referring to  though😶

12 hours ago, Col. said:

Seems the standard thing with Trumpeter kits is to have some weird quirk of inaccuracy but those indentations on the tyre is a strange one. Not the worst though as you say. Nice start to the various bits of death to hang off this one.

Kabloey stuff tends to lift ones spirits!

I think I need to add some Aires wheels just in case...

11 hours ago, trickyrich said:

correction Col, Trumpeter IS weird and strange!

 

Those wings control surfaces are a bit of an overkill as well.

Loose control surfaces increases the part count, and a bigger number to put on the box is better.

Or so Trumpeter would have us believe. 😎

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Thanks Dennis, now I understand what you were referring to.

I was looking for something completely different (I thought you meant Y-shape Sidewinder pylons for some reason).

 

Yeah, the Y-shaped strap on the wheel hub looks fine on Trumpeters parts, I was more concerned with the oval indents in the rubber tire itself.

But looking at those pictures above I also notice that the tire itself is lacking any sort of tread.  Why do I have the feeling that I will order resin wheels soon?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress isn't exactly fast, but there has been some things done during the last days.

I've completed painting on the ordnance:
46833775254_3437253e42_o.jpg
Dang!Those rocket pods look awfully misaligned up close :oops:
Well, it doesn't bother they eye that much when viewed in person, and hopefully once installed under the wing the problem will disappear. If not, then I'll need to make another set...

The landing gear was painted and recieved a wash to get a better look.
32614889837_ab64fa1343_o.jpg
From what I've seen, painted aluminium is the way to go, and at least the nose gear does not have that many splashes of color, or rubber/vinyl hoses and so on. Need to double check the mains later on.

 

Trumpeter provides a fairly decent J57 exhaust which I like to keep. It's a bit too small to replace with resin in this scale, since you can't really appreciate all details.
46833774994_cee18d29f1_o.jpg
I shot a few blasts of Vallejo metallics  burned Iron on the interior parts, and Steel/Dural aluminium on the outer part.

It isn't directly possible to attach the exhaust after the main painting (well, you could add the outer part later on) but I wanted to have good access to neaten the join before inserting the exhaust too,.

One is supposed to trap the exhaust between to ribs in the interior, but by removing the outer one, it's perfectly feasible to slide the exhaust in later on. 

32614889697_f6aaedcd0d_o.jpg

That did the trick!
46833774874_98733b392e_o.jpg

However, the exhaust is a little to clean and shiny, but a quick job with Tamiya's make up kit (smoke) and a wash later it got a more lived in look.
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It wont be much better than that, unless I go for Aires, and I don't have any plans for that.
At all.

Really!


After that, it's finally time to add some stuff into the fuselage!

I started with fiddling the air brake bay in place.
33680669848_bbd9b6fa87_o.jpg
It seems that the brake itself is always deployed on the ground, so it pay of to detail it properly!

fortunately, Trumpeter provides a part the looks good, in fact very good for 1/72!

The tricky thing here was to avoid a step towards the fuselage for the center piece, but I found a good solution. I just built a a support strut to push the bay into proper alignment:
46833774844_f052de8ab0_o.jpg

The step is gone, and the amount of filler to be used here would be minimal.


After all this, I think it's time to get cracking on the cockpit!
32614889997_4fdf38bb6c_o.jpg

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great work, I really do like the landing gear, very nicely done. I often try to do a similar trick with the exhaust cans, does make life and painting so much simpler.

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Despite the need to change to summer tires on the commute bike, and my wifes (yes, I have tires with spikes in them, just like I had on my car), wallpapering the daughters room and all other chores this weekend I did get some bench time as well.

This was happily spent in the cockpit!

First, I cleaned up the parts and affixed them t some cocktail sticks.  
32666124437_592b372a5b_o.jpg

Then came a pleasant surprise, the bangseats!

These are molded in a 4 piece tool (not cheap!) and are made in one piece and have an excellent level of detail, for being in plastic! I think they are among the best plastic seat I've ever seen in this scale.
Are Trumpeter using their plastic models as commercial show pieces to tell the world how great they are at injection molding and tooling, like AMK?
46884332284_9a4482af10_o.jpg
Brilliant! I just need to add the headrest to them, and some careful painting off course....

After that bit o' fun, I sprayed the whole lot with UMP black primer, suing the spring cleaned paint booth.

32666326927_4b5b2d04d3_o.jpg

In the glaring sun the drying time was short, and in no time it was due to paint Dark Gull Grey , which I translated to Tamiya XF-54 that's supposed to be a good match.

I had a glaring suspicion though. Does it match the etch? Well....
46884332184_c7337fb1cb_o.jpg
No, this was quite far off.

What to do then?
I quickly sought out all light grey paint I had in stock and made a little test.
32666123317_5c130961a9_o.jpg
In the end, Xtracrylix RAF Light Aircraft Grey was the closest match, so that was duly sprayed on everything, making sure to spray at an angle to preserve some depth in the shadows.
32666123897_46e17cf806_o.jpg
After this, I started with the etch.

The largest panels were of the Self Adhesive kind, which I'm not a great fan of. Its sticky, tacky but the bond itself is weak. Very hard to clean off as well :(

Do I imagine things or have they stopped using this lately?
Anyway, on the right hand side a few boxes were supposed to be folded, and I don't regret at all that I've bought a folding tool for this.
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Unfortunately, I had used up all my me-time for the weekend so nothing more was done, except a quick check to see the finished result. 
46884331864_bf98e66a30_o.jpg

So far everything I did was visible!

Thank goodness!

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good to see you had you r weekend work priorities in the right order. 

 

The PE cockpit does look nice, same with the bang seats, should look great when done. Those folding tools are a must with PE, I'd be lost without mine.....and I hate PE!

 

 

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Well, the P-61 could go into either the sharkmouths GB (since I will be doing P-61A Jukin Judy, one that was shot down by a Ju-87D-5!!) or the D-day GB....

But I really need to finish a Sea Vixen, Car-Door Tiffy, 333Sqn Mossie and of course this Hun first!

 

Edited by Christer A
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