"The Year I Was Born" F-100D Super Sabre

[billn53]

This morning I masked the canopy for painting. I used a mask designed for Trumpeter's F-100. Because that kit's canopy is too narrow, I had to improvise to make best use of the masks. I used Humbrol Maskol for areas that the paper masks didn't cover:

 

 

 

After painting, I removed the masks and checked the canopy for fit and clarity. Even though I had polished and dipped the canopy, it still had distortions that prevented my cockpit detailing from being seen:

 

 

 

There was also a fit issue, which caused the front of the canopy to stand high over the fuselage:

 

 

 

Given the above, I went with Plan B and carefully cut the kit's canopy apart. Now, the windscreen fits fine and, with the canopy open, it will be easier to see the cockpit interior:

 

 

 

 

 

I will, of course, have to devise something better than Blu-Tack to hold the canopy open haha!

 

A couple more pics before I sign off for today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Now, to me, that looks much better, Bill. You’ve performed some great work there. I love the natural metal finish you’’ve achieved, and particularly the rear end :). 
 

Martin

[billn53]

The weekend's here and my first week of classes are over. No homework yet, but that'll be changing soon ☹️

 

This morning I focused on finishing off the area around the cockpit. I installed some PE framing on the canopy sections:

 

 

 

and added the rear deck from the Aires set:

 

 

 

Next was a very fiddly task to build and install the HUD:

 

 

 

Once that was accomplished, I added the front windscreen:

 

 

 

I'm trying to think what to do next . . .  I mean, I have a long list of "to do" items, but what's the next in line? 

 

Ah ha! Decals!!!

 

Stay tuned!

[Vesa Jussila]

Looks impressive. As others mentioned burned metal section looks good. I need to remember your method.

[billn53]

I was a bit premature in thinking it's time to apply decals. I still had a few things to do before that milestone.

 

First, I had to putty the seam around the canopy windscreen. Which meant, of course, that I still have some touch-up painting to do.

 

 

 

Since I was working on the canopy, I went ahead and devised a way of attaching the raised canopy section to the fuselage. I added a brass rod to the back of the canopy, and drilled a hole for it to fit into.

 

 

 

Looks like it'll work!

 

 

 

Then, I wanted to make sure my Hun would have the correct stance on its legs. The combination of ESCI landing gear and Trumpeter nose bay was the cause of my concern. I temporarily attached the landing gear, using Blu-Tack to hold them in place (that's when I discovered the attachment hole in the Trumpeter nose bay was too small for the ESCI strut -- out with the drill!)

 

 

 

Happily, my "Franken-Hun" has the proper, nose-high attitude:

 

 

 

Since I had the landing gear out, I went ahead and added final details to the main gear -- tricky little PE 'Y' pieces, and some wires to represent brake cables:

 

 

 

My decal sheet includes the yellow lightning flash along the side of the fuselage, but 79th TFS aircraft at this time also had yellow noses and wingtips.

 

 

 

There was an extra decal on my sheet, for another scheme and with the same color as the 79th TFS markings, so I used it to find the best shade of yellow paint for the nose and wingtips:

 

 

 

The Vallejo "Gold Yellow" (72.007) looks to be perfect 🙂

 

That's it for my Saturday evening report (Day 13 of this build). Decals tomorrow, I promise! 🤞

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Again, nice work, Bill. I am curious, though, about your order of painting. I am sure mine isn’t the best but to me, to avoid touching up, why not get the windscreen fitted and puttied before applying the outer coats? It would keep things smooth and seamless. I suppose we all have our ways and none are perfect ;). 

 

Martin

[billn53]

3 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

Again, nice work, Bill. I am curious, though, about your order of painting. I am sure mine isn’t the best but to me, to avoid touching up, why not get the windscreen fitted and puttied before applying the outer coats? It would keep things smooth and seamless. I suppose we all have our ways and none are perfect ;). 

 

Martin

I don’t have any hard & fast rule. If you recall my Red Baron F-104 build (just before this one), not only did I add the canopy before painting, but I puttied, reshaped, sanded & polished it, too. 
 

In this build, I knew I was going to be adding the PE HUD, which must be added before the windscreen, and that I’d be doing a lot of handling while painting the heat distress areas. I was afraid if I did the HUD and windscreen early, I might lose something during the painting process.

 

(Another reason for painting early was that I got tired of looking at all that ugly tan plastic!}

[Retired Bob]

12 minutes ago, billn53 said:

(Another reason for painting early was that I got tired of looking at all that ugly tan plastic!}

I had to laugh at that sentiment. 

[billn53]

As promised, decaling is underway and it's been a lot more problematic than I had hoped.

 

The decals I have for the 79th TFS F-100 were produced in France and sold under the name "Colorado Decals"

 

 

 

I had purchased two sets, "just in case". Well, that's where the troubles began!

 

I started with the yellow flashes on the fuselage side. The first one to hit the water immediately broke up into multiple pieces:

 

 

 

Not terribly worried (because I had a spare set), I sprayed the sheet with Testors decal bonder and let it dry. The second fuselage flash then went into the water and . . . broke up!

 

 

 

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!

 

I then pulled out my spare decal sheet and gave it a liberal spray with a different decal film product, which on the can says "Perfect for Water Slide Decals". They must have a different definition of "perfect" than what I'm familiar with, because here's what happened:

 

 

 

So, I went to my last resort plan: Stealing decals from Italeri's F-100F kit:

 

 

 

which include an aircraft of the 79th TFS:

 

 

 

Again, I started with the flashes on the fuselage sides and fin:

 

 

 

The Italeri decals went on without any problems. However, the flashes should have a black outline, which aren't on the decals. So, I began the very tedious effort to add the outline, using decals from a sheet of black stripes of various widths. So far, I've finished the big fuselage flashes and am partway through outlining the fin flashes. I've used up almost all of the stripes, however. What's left will barely finish the job, assuming no more decal failures.

 

 

 

Right now, I'm taking a much needed break before getting back to decaling. Wish me luck!

[SoftScience]

Nice save! 

 

What product melted the other sheet? I'm on the market for something to help recovered old decals, so it would be good to know what to avoid.

[billn53]

19 minutes ago, SoftScience said:

Nice save! 

 

What product melted the other sheet? I'm on the market for something to help recovered old decals, so it would be good to know what to avoid.

This is the guilty product:

 

 

But, I honestly can’t say if the “melting” is because of this product, or the crappy decals, or my heavy-handed spraying. 

[billn53]

Okay. Got the black trim for the flashes squared away, and added the yellow nose decal from the Italeri F-100F sheet. That took some convincing with Solvaset (the nuclear weapon of decal softeners) and a hair blower. I also used some scrap pieces from the decal sheet to do the yellow wingtips, so now I know all my yellow markings have the same shade.

 

 

 

Lots more decaling to do, but first I need to take a break!

 

 

 

 

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, billn53 said:

Are you using inkjet printed decals without protective clear coat? 😁

Serkan

[billn53]

2 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

Are you using inkjet printed decals without protective clear coat? 😁

Serkan

Looks like it, doesn’t it. But no, these were commercial items. I am not impressed. 

[billn53]

I've been working most of the day, and I'm calling the decaling task complete. Mostly, I used decals from the Italeri "F"-model kit. Others came from a variety of sources, including a few I salvaged from the Colorado Decals sheet (subject of much verbal excess earlier today). A few pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow morning I'll clear coat with Alclad Light Sheen, and let that set up while I'm off to campus.

[billn53]

The Alclad Light Sheen went on with not problems, and I'm very happy about how it looks over the silver SMS Metallic. To my eye, it looks exactly like USAF silver lacquer in 1/72 scale.

 

 

 

I added the black panel to the nose intake using black stripe decal. I did the same inside the intake, based on a photo I found:

 

   

 

 

 

Now came the point in aircraft modeling which, for some strange reason, gives me great satisfaction: adding lights. It's a little detail that isn't difficult to do yet often overlooked by modelers. For this build, I made use of resin aftermarket lights which, if I recall correctly, are made by CMK. To glue them in place, I put a tiny drop of UV activated clear gel where I wanted the light, carefully placed the light in position, made any final adjustments, and hit it with my UV flashlight. Much more forgiving than CA!

 

Clear light behind the cockpit, and anti-collision beacon on the dorsal spine:

 

 

Two tiny lights on the back of the fin:

 

 

The wingtip lights aren't resin, instead, I painted transparent red (port) and blue (starboard) over the metallic silver finish:

 

 

The F-100 also had small position lights on the top surface of the wings, inboard of the fences:

 

 

Underneath, I used "Mirror" paint to fill in the recesses I'd made earlier for the retractable landing lights:

 

 

That's all for today, folks! All that's left now is the final assembly (horizontal stabs, wing slats, landing gear, refueling probe & pitot tube, underwing tanks, and canopy). 

[billn53]

She's all done, and just 16-days start to finish! I'm really amazed, considering this is anything but an "out-of-the-box" build.

 

I'll post an official RFI later this week, but until then, here are some quick pics I took this afternoon:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My gf wants me to build Revell's Razor Crest next, so it may be a while before I'm back in the aircraft section of Britmodeller. On the other hand, who knows? I just received decals for a P-51 Mustang in 79th Fighter Squadron markings, which would go along nicely with my Hun . . . .

 

 

**********************************************************************************************************

 

Edited 22 June:

 

The RFI is up, with lots of new photos, and can be viewed here:

 

 

[Jackson Duvalier]

Congratulations on another smashing build, Bill. You make it look easy!  😎

 

I've got to build a Hun sometime, I have some notions as to how I'd tackle the heat-discoloured section.

[RidgeRunner]

8 hours ago, billn53 said:

She's all done, and just 16-days start to finish!

Yuo put me to shame, Bill ! ;). Well done!!!! 

[Serkan Sen]

Looks amazing Bill. Congratulations.

Serkan

[Lord Riot]

I can’t get over the size of that stash! Incredible! I bet you could raise over £15k on eBay selling that lot, easily! I’ve been selling some of mine off as I thought about 40 kits in the loft was too many to ever build! 😂 

 

Absolutely stunning Sabre by the way. Love that early USAFE stuff. Outstanding build.

[Johnson]

Stunning, gorgeous!

 

The F-100 was always one of my favourites. It's missing from my shelf/stash and I'm most inspired by your model, I may have to find one!

 

A really great build and well done for persevering with the decals. 

[AliGauld]

Yet another stunning build and with the fight this one put up it makes it all the more remarkable.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Vultures1]

Really lovely job on your Hun!  The photos are great too - that last one in particular looks like the real thing.  Well done!

[Andwil]

Spectacularly good!

 

AW