Euro Decals 1/72 North American F-100D Super Sabre Collection Part 1
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was an attractive plane in its original natural metal finish, and units often augmented that with highly colorful markings. By the time the Vietnam War rolled around, though, camouflage became the norm and those colorful markings quickly disappeared in favor for simple tail codes and maybe some nose art. This new sheet from Euro Decals, though, takes us back to those colorful years, and as Part 1, we will likely see even more.
The Decals
The decal sheet comes with options for four F-100D Super Sabres, all dating from 1958-59. The first option is 56-3433, an F-100D from the 352nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina in 1959. This plane has a yellow tail with black trim that includes small arrows. This motif is repeated on a band that wraps around the nose intake. While this scheme is a colorful one, the decals have a slight flaw in that the black details on the tail band are a bit faded, letting the yellow show through.
The second option is 56-3404, an F-100D Super Sabre from the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, 832nd Air Division, based at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico in 1959. As a Wing aircraft, this plane has all four squadron colors in its trim, which consists of a four-color sunburst on the tail in green, red, blue, and yellow and those same colors repeated in stripes around the nose. The tail also has the 27th TFW emblem on the tail.
The third option is 56-3307, and F-100D from 417th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 50th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Ramstein Air Base, Germany in 1959. This plane is decked out in red trim, including three red bands on the vertical fin, all with white stars in them. The center band also has the unit emblem. The nose is also red, with a single line of white stars. To further add to the red trim, the wing drop tanks are overall red, with white stars on the fins, and the nose wheel door is red as well with a white letter A. Overall, this is probably the most colorful scheme on this sheet.
The final option is 55-3775, and F-100D Super Sabre from the 615th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 401st Tactical Fighter Wing based at England AFB, Louisiana in 1958. This plane is not as colorful as the rest, but it is no less striking as the vertical fin is covered with black checks. For a splash of color, the intake gets a band of green, while unit emblems reside under the canopy.
Conclusion
Aside from the one slight issue with the first option, these decals are well printed and should pose no problem in application. The only real challenge will be trying to decide which one to build first, a challenge that will undoubtedly be made all the more difficult with the release of additional sheets in the future. My thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample.