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USAFE Super Sabre F-100F


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Recently completed this Italeri 1/72 kit & got it done just in time for our local club competition.

I've always been very fond of the USAFE jet aircraft from the mid 50's to the late 60's with all the colours & especially in relation to all their local bases in the UK.

The plan is to slowly add to the collection of aircraft already built that reflects aircraft based at Wethersfield, Shepherds grove, Lakenheath & the Twin Bases, maybe Bruntingthorpe & Sculthorpe as well.

Sometimes wish I had been born a few years earlier!

This is the Italeri F-100F which overall is a nice kit, but the cockpit details are minimal & if you look close enough don't resemble the real thing.

So I added a new centre section & console & added some plasticard to support the reasonable decals present in the kit. I could have ordered a new resin cockpit, but tried to keep most of this build free of aftermarket gubbins. Also in reference to some online images of the ejection seats I added new straps & painted them accordingly. For ejection seat straps I always slice up strips from the Swann & Morton blade packets as it can be twisted & keeps its shape.

Painted with Vallejo Metal Color & some Mig acrylics.

F-100F 56-3893 79th TFS 20th FW Woodbridge Suffolk 1958

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There will be another "F" coming in the shape of the Trumpeter kit which has decals for 56-3730 which was based at Wethersfield.

Many thanks for looking!

 

Martin

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Martin,

 

That's a beautiful Hun! I agree- with some aftermarket help on the seats, cockpit tub, and afterburner nozzle, the Esci/Italeri kit is as good as it gets. Not real fond of the Trumpeter kits, as the intake is 'way too flat across the bottom, and I seem to recall a problem with the fin shape in some boxings, and the wheels- that, and I'm not a fan of recessed rivets. One nice touch, though, is the positionable slats and flaps. See links for reviews of the Trumpeter F-100C and D. I could not find a decent review of their 1/72 F-100F, but it would have the same intake, wheel, and nose gear strut problems as their two single-seat boxings. There are aftermarket 450gallon tanks, wheels, cockpit, seats, and replacement intake, but the intake from the Hasegawa/Esci/Italeri kit takes care of that issue, and you can use those wheels if you are building one of the Trumpeter kits. Hope this helps!

Mike

 

 

http://www.internetmodeler.com/scalemodels/flaviation/Trumpeter-1-72-F-100.php

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/tru/kit_tru_1649.shtml

 

 

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14 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Martin,

 

That's a beautiful Hun! I agree- with some aftermarket help on the seats, cockpit tub, and afterburner nozzle, the Esci/Italeri kit is as good as it gets. Not real fond of the Trumpeter kits, as the intake is 'way too flat across the bottom, and I seem to recall a problem with the fin shape in some boxings, and the wheels- that, and I'm not a fan of recessed rivets. One nice touch, though, is the positionable slats and flaps. See links for reviews of the Trumpeter F-100C and D. I could not find a decent review of their 1/72 F-100F, but it would have the same intake, wheel, and nose gear strut problems as their two single-seat boxings. There are aftermarket 450gallon tanks, wheels, cockpit, seats, and replacement intake, but the intake from the Hasegawa/Esci/Italeri kit takes care of that issue, and you can use those wheels if you are building one of the Trumpeter kits. Hope this helps!

Mike

 

 

http://www.internetmodeler.com/scalemodels/flaviation/Trumpeter-1-72-F-100.php

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/tru/kit_tru_1649.shtml

 

 

Thanks Mike!

Those 450gallon tanks, are they the longer type that are occasionally seen?

I've only had a quick look through the Trumpeter box, so I haven't properly looked at the shape inaccuracies. I do know from looking at a thread on here comparing the two, that Esci fuselage is a different length to the Trumpeter kit which leads to the Trumpeter canopy which is too long as well. I think someone tried an aftermarket vacform for the Trumpeter kit, find that it was to short for the kit.

It may be a matter of biting the bullet & just building as it is without doing anything to alter it. I have got a Hasegawa boxing which isn't the Esci kit & I could graft the nose on from that.

 

Cheers

Martin

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Great looking Hun! :) It's a good kit and my choice of kit when I wanna do F-100 (done two... so far). Cockpit is little spartan, yes - but you've done great job making it more believable by adding DIY details. Just proves that you don't need aftermarket stuff to make a great looking build. Awesome metal paintjob and the decals look good too (as it's usually the case with Italeri).

 

Both thumbs up! :)

 

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Lovely! Always had a soft spot for the Hun. My Dad took me to see the prototype fly in Columbus Ohio when I was very small. I have a memory, probably wrong, that it was painted a very pale green??

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55 minutes ago, reini said:

Great looking Hun! :) It's a good kit and my choice of kit when I wanna do F-100 (done two... so far). Cockpit is little spartan, yes - but you've done great job making it more believable by adding DIY details. Just proves that you don't need aftermarket stuff to make a great looking build. Awesome metal paintjob and the decals look good too (as it's usually the case with Italeri).

 

Both thumbs up! :)

 

Many thanks Reini, most of the decals were good as you say, but the yellow nose decal was the wrong shape to fit the nose so I masked & sprayed that. All of the main yellow markings should have had a thin black border but I had to draw the line there, pardon the pun! 

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22 minutes ago, seadog said:

Lovely! Always had a soft spot for the Hun. My Dad took me to see the prototype fly in Columbus Ohio when I was very small. I have a memory, probably wrong, that it was painted a very pale green??

Cheers mate, what memories eh?!!!

I think it's probably the best looking of the Century jets!

 

Martin

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That is a lovely looking Hun.  I too am a big fan of the colourful schemes on these early jets.  It looks much bigger than '72 scale.  I have built the Trumpy one as a Wild Weasel and want to build another F as a Fast Fac.

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The 450 gallon tanks were very large cylindrical tanks that had no fins on the back. They were used primarily for ferry operations and I don't belive they were ever used in combat operations. That's a beautiful cockpit and set of seats on your model. The model itself is very nicely done and I have to agree the colorful schemes back in the day were wonderful to behold.

Edited by SAT69
misspell
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17 minutes ago, SAT69 said:

The 450 gallon tanks were very large cylindrical tanks that had no fins on the back. They were used primarily for ferry operations and I don't belive they were ever used in combat operations. That's a beautiful cockpet and set of seats on your model. The model itself is very nicely done and I have to agree the colorful schemes back in the day were wonderful to behold.

Thank you very much SAT69.

I'll have to have a look through my photo references for those tanks then. I suppose used for trips from the UK to Wheelus for example.

These slim - finned tanks that I've got on this F version, weren't there longer ones of them as well?

1 hour ago, billn53 said:

Very nice! My father-in-law (now ex) flew 100’s with the 79th TFS in England, so those markings have a special appeal for me. 

Cheers billn53, very much appreciated!

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Superb F-100 (one of the few fighters that look as good in two seat config as the single seaters).

 

And an excellent lesson in how to doll up a basic kit with good ol' modelling chops, too!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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The early "slim tanks" had a 275 gallon capacity. The later longer ones had a 335 gallon capacity. The D and F and I believe the C could also carry a 200 gallon external tank on the inboard wing station. I recall reading somewhere those tanks made the airplane kind of squirrely to handle and I can recall only seeing one photo of an F-100D with those tanks only mounted on it and the airplane was taking off in the photo. 

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