Trumpeter 1/32 F-100D Super Sabre
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History
I did an “in the box” review of this kit in the July
2007 issue. Probably no reason to kill off more electrons with more
of the same, so head on back to that first review for your history fix.
The Build
Perhaps the first thing I should do is establish my viewpoint as I suspect
it does color my opinions and viewpoints here and there. For the past
45 years or so I have build almost exclusively 1/72 aircraft. So if at
times you get the impression that I am thinking something like “Wow!
This thing is big” you understand why.
 I
spent a couple years around the F-100 and when this thing showed up on
the local hobby shop shelves it was too much temptation.
Another item before we venture into the land of glue and xacto blades.
The kit provides parts for both early and late model F-100Ds. The differences
are early birds had straight refueling probes, the small cutout in the
dive brake, with a matching well, and no arresting hooks. If you want
to build one prior to about 1960 or so, all of the above would apply.
If your choice is a later bird then go with the alternate parts.
Cockpit Interior
Since the front office seems to be the place to start construction most
of the time, we can start this one there as well.
Overall, the interior parts are good. The cockpit tub is a good fit,
and reflects the sidewalls of the F-100 pretty well. The individual panels
are not really accurate, but since these tended to move around and change
some with updates and new equipment additions to the real bird, they do
give a good impression of the real thing when carefully painted. Only
thing that needs to be added is the throttle.
 The
seat is another matter. While generally shaped pretty decently, there
are some serious problems that are fixable but annoying. The scan from
the pilot’s manual should help you a bit with the modifications.
First, the backrest has some odd cushion like item in it. Not sure what
it is intended to represent, but it should not be there. The fix is really
pretty quick and easy. I separated the offending bottom part of the backrest
from the upper back portion, then, used the bottom cushion part as a pattern,
cut an identical sized chunk out of the side of a soft drink can. The
curve is near perfect and then I super glued the top part onto the new
back part. A bit of filing and fitting and it fit the rest of seat near
perfectly.
 Next
on the seat was the seat bottom. This is actually a survival kit with
an O. D. cushion on top that stays in the seat at all times. There is
a big cutout in the front for control stick clearance. The kit bottom
part does not have this cut out. The fix for this is easy; all that needs
to be done is to cut out the notch.
The last item on the seat is the two armrests. Apparently Trumpeter
copied a museum seat that had the armrests in the up position like they
would be after the seat had been used. Normally these were folded down
alongside the seat pan and back, with the hinge at the aft/rear end. The
fix is pretty simple, just cut them off and relocate them. But the seat
takes up all the available width and if you attach the armrests to the
outside of the seat you can’t get it into the space between the
side consoles. You have to cheat a bit and glue the armrests onto the
top of the seat pan, not the outside as they should be. When it is done
and in the model it looks just fine.
 The
seat cushion is actually a survival kit and stayed in the seat at all
times. The two etched brass parts intended to be lap belts are near perfect
for the two harness connections that sit on top of the cushion. The lap
belts were rather complex and included a flexible tube that comes from
the right side of the seat to the center latch area. None of that is included
in the kit. One very noticeable omission is the cut out in the front of
the seat cushion for control stick clearance
.
Last item in the cockpit is the instrument panel. It is probably the most
accurate part in the cockpit. Most everything is where it should be and
reasonably accurate. The oversize gear retraction handle can be shortened
and the drag chute handle on the upper left is good when painted yellow.
They did miss other yellow pull handles on the lower corners of the instrument
panel, but they are easy to add.
 One
suggestion on the instrument panel, the overly thick panel, combined with
the clear backing that sticks through the holes makes the film backing
sheet impossible to see and everything looks clunky. Sand the back of
the panel to as thin as you feel comfortable with, then discard the clear
part. Paint the back of the film white, then glue it to the thinned panel
and fill the shallow instrument holes with Crystal Kleer or something
like that.
Fuselage
 I
built mine with all the panels and stuff closed up. I was more interested
in the markings and the overall model than one in apparent overhaul. I
had some concerns about fit of all the different panels and rear fuselage.
With this in mind, I decided to close all the panels before I glued the
two fuselage sides together. That way I could access both the front and
back of the panels while fitting. I am happy to report that everything
fit very well. I think I used just a little putty on a couple corners.
Apparently Trumpeter did not bother to look at both sides of the fuselage
because the kit has pretty much the same panels and stuff on both sides.
They did catch the fact that the drag chute cover plates are only on the
port side, but it looks like they caught that at the last minute and had
to go back and fill the row of bridle doors on the right side. They didn’t
really get it clean, but a little work with the filler and sandpaper makes
it good. The other differences are mostly panels and vents and stuff like
that. Better to ignore the differences than to drive yourself to distraction
trying to fill and re-scribe it all.
Engine
This thing probably has the most detailed jet engine ever put in any
plastic kit! While a lot of it is somewhat simplified, all the stator
blades, compressor blades, afterburner spray bars, etc. are there. A complicated
model in itself. And pretty much a total waste of plastic, brass and effort.
While you can leave the aft fuselage off the model, and show the afterburner
section sticking out the rear of the fuselage, there is NO provision for
showing any of the fancy interior or even for showing a separate engine
should you want to. When you get the model done you can see about 1/8th
of an inch of the bottom of the front of the engine by shining a light
down the intake. The tailpipe is the usual black hole. I assembled just
enough of the engine to allow me to glue it to the intake trunk on the
front, and glue the afterburner nozzle on the back. In other words, it
is a great big spacer for the afterburner nozzle.
After all the various bays doors, engine and misc. stuff is attached
it is time for the big test, gluing the left and right sides together.
Everything fit very well and there were no surprises or mismatches at
all. Before gluing the aft fuselage halves together here is something
to consider. All the control surfaces on the F-100 are hydraulic. So everything
but the elevators center on shut down. The only displaced item is the
horizontal tails. They go nose up to about 15-20 degrees. If you want
to do this you need to remove the little tabs on both horizontal tails
and fill the slot on the fuselage. Then drill and insert a short brass
tube into the end of the horizontal tail and a sleeve fit short piece
of tubing into the rear fuselage. The short part that goes into the fuselage
needs to be short. Otherwise it interferes with the tailpipe.
Wings
 Wing
assembly is really pretty straight forward. You get an upper and lower
main wing, with separate trailing edges that include both the ailerons
and flaps. The leading edge slats are the only serious assembly on the
wings, with all the little slat tracks as separate parts. While all the
little slat tracks are still moveable, you need to make sure they all
line up with the corresponding cutouts in the wing leading edge.
A note on those flaps, unless the bird was in heavy overhaul, they were
never parked with the flaps down. The flaps were raised at touchdown to
increase braking capability, and there was no reason to lower them again.
In fact, if you taxied in with the flaps still down, the crew chief would
signal (rather emphatically) to raise them The ground crews hated them
down because they were always in the way and seemed to just wait for someone
to crack a head on them. Doing a walk around/preflight on a bird with
the flaps down just about guaranteed a ding somewhere on your pink little
body and a lot of (not very) hidden smiles on the ground crew that usually
gathered to watch the fun. Unfortunately, the guy providing all the fun
was seldom the guy that left the damn things down in the first place.
But you only did it a couple times and did not forget to retract them
again.
The Hanging Stuff
 For
some reason Trumpeter ran off the tracks early on with their choices of
what to put with what kits. So far all of their big U. S. Jets have had
inappropriate ordnance, this one is no exception. The only really usable
items are the Sidewinders, the practice bomb dispenser and the two fuel
tanks.
There has been some discussion about the short 275 gallon drop tanks.
They would be correct for an early F-100D with a straight refueling probe,
the small dive brake and probably no tail hook, but most of the post-1965
tanks had a 28-inch plug just in front of the pylon to increase fuel capacity.
What some enterprising aftermarket guy needs to do is make a set of the
big 450 gallon fuel tanks.
Paint
Early F-100s were natural metal, later models were painted silver lacquer.
Then when Vietnam rolled around, they went to the S.E. Asia scheme. Prior
to 1960, TAC was full of very neat and colorful F-100s. In the winter
of 1959/1960 everything went silver with nothing more than the TAC emblem
and lightning bolt on the tail.
I choose to model one of the 48th Fighter Wings participants in the
1958 Fighter Weapons meet at Nellis AFB. They were certainly one of the
more appealing schemes during this period.
Decals
 Well,
it is big and initially very impressive, but there are some problems.
First, all the “U.S. AIR FORCE” and buzz numbers should be
a very dark Blue, not Black. And some of the buzz number lettering looks
a bit odd.
The stenciling is a riot of misspellings, odd words and nonsense. It
might not make much difference to the overall impression on the model,
but if you start reading them you start laughing a bit. One glaring example
is the white words in the red lightning bolt on the 31st FBW aircraft.
It should say “The Annihilator” What it says is….well
I don’t know.
Another item that will need attention is the two big “U.S. AIR
FORCE” decals for each side of the nose. The large rescue markings
panel and arrow should only be on the left side. The right side only has
a small panel saying you needed to go around to the other side to rescue
the pilot.
I replaced most everything with markings produced with Adobe Illustrator
and printed with an ALPs printer. As this is being written it seems like
all he aftermarket sources are gearing up for a bunch of resin and decal
offerings. Hopefully they will provide replacement stenciling too, not
just fancy squadron markings.
Conclusions
Somewhere about now I need to say “Wow!! This is one big hummer!!”
Now that it is done I have no idea where it is going to sit. My display
case is already nearly overflowing with 1/72 stuff. But the build was
as enjoyable and satisfying as anything I have done in a long time. Fit
of everything was excellent, and unlike my usual dinky scale stuff, each
little part is project in itself. It was fun to complete each little sub
assembly and then add it to the model and watch the whole thing grow.
I will happily go back to my little stuff for a while, but it was fun
playing in some one else’s playpen for a little while.
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