Trumpeter 1/32 Scale F-100D Super Sabre
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History
To look at it, it is difficult to see any resemblance, but the F-100
really is a super Sabre. North American Aviation initially set out to
design a faster aircraft, and naturally started with their very successful
F-86.
By the time they finished, there was very little left of the original
Sabre, but considering the initial design work was completed in 1950,
the progress in aircraft design in less than ten short years since Pearl
Harbor was all too apparent. The NAA design team called the new proposal
“Sabre 45” and with the Korean War going full blast, the Air
Force showed immediate interest. In November, 1951 they ordered two prototypes
and 110 production aircraft. This with nothing but a paper design, no
hardware and of course nothing in the way of flight test information to
see if it all would work. To make it even more sporty, there were a lot
of innovative design and manufacturing items being used for the first
time, and last, but certainly not least, a new, untried engine in the
J-57.
 First
flight occurred at Edwards Flight Test Center in May, 1953. The aircraft
went supersonic on its first flight and did it again that same afternoon.
That successful first series of flights looked good, but there were some
problems that seemed to take forever to work out.
The Air Force part of the flight test program revealed some things that
they didn’t like a whole lot. Probably the two major being poor
low speed handling and longitudinal stability at high speeds. With the
Air Force already heavily committed to production, these items were deemed
to be not serious enough to stop production or deliveries.
 The
first deliveries occurred in late Sept. 1954 and it didn’t take
very long for the Air Force to realize that the average pilot had his
hands full with this new bird. Several accident quickly followed and the
airplane was grounded, fixed, grounded again and modified again before
finally arriving at a much improved airframe with the delivery of the
F-100C. The C model was the last of the sports models. The D version had
a larger vertical tail, a revised wing trialing edge that incorporated
landing flaps and was a lot heavier due to 1200 pounds of additional structure
and avionics.
Eventually NAA rolled a bit under 1,300 D models out of the factory,
and they equipped most of the Fighter Wings in Tactical Air Command. The
F-100 carried the load for TAC until the F-4C started replacing it.
The Kit
 By
now, most of us are familiar with these big Trumpeter kits. A huge box,
and dozens of parts trees. This one is no exception, 15 trees of the usual
gray plastic parts, two trees of clear parts, a small photo negative instrument
panel backing, and a rather large sheet of mostly engine turbine blades
etched brass. Also included are black vinyl tires and an interesting tree
of main gear strut brake lines. Another inclusion in Black vinyl is the
ammunition chutes that go from the ammo cans down to the guns. Last but
no least are alternate White metal main and nose gear struts and a rather
large weight for the nose compartment. More on this later.
 The
surface detailing is extensive. There are panel lines and rivets everywhere.
They are crisp and clean, but perhaps a bit overstated, especially on
the rivets. I think a coat of smooth primer and they a finish coat should
tone those down just fine. The panel lines are not always accurate, but
overall the impression is good.
First, let’s look at all the “features”. The kit comes
with a detailed engine and stand for the rear fuselage so you can build
it with the back half of the engine exposed. While the engine is of course
somewhat simplified, a bit of effort and added details would make this
a very impressive model by itself. There are eleven rows of turbine blades
and a couple more of stator vanes on the etched brass sheet. The only
problem I can see that is after you get done doing all this internal detailing
on the J-57, there is no way to see any of it. There isn’t any clear
side to the engine case or any stand for the engine should you want to
display it outside the airplane. You have a big plastic cigar with all
that hidden stuff inside.
 Once
you put the intake ducting into the fuselage halves and stick the engine
on the back end you can see about the bottom 1/8th inch of the front of
the engine when looking up the intake with a flashlight. Far all the work
the engine requires, you end up with a really fancy spacer to mount the
afterburner nozzle on if you build the model with the tail installed.
Other options are separate ammo. Compartment doors, the gun bay is open
with four rather nice M-39 20mm guns, two different dive brakes and dive
brake wells, and two different refueling probes. Early F-100Ds had straight
refueling probes and the dive brake had a smaller cutout.
Cockpit Interior
 This
one is pretty darn good. The side consoles are not particularly accurate,
in that all the little panels, switches and knobs are not really in the
right places, but the overall impression is good. The instrument panel
is better. Most of the instruments are recognizable and generally in the
right places. Also included are the rather prominent drag ‘chute
handle on the upper left side of the panel and the gear handle on the
lower left side. An interesting omission is the very noticeable throttle
handle on the forward left console.
 The
seat is another matter. While generally shaped pretty decently, there
are some serious problems that are all fixable but annoying. 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. What should be there is a smooth
curved back pan to the seat with a strap running right down the center,
and two hanging shoulder harness straps. The shoulder harness was attached
to an inertia reel so they did not hang straight down either.
 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 on the seat overhaul
are those two armrests. The way the kit shows them would be fine for a
seat that has been used. Those two armrests pivot up to keep the elbows
from flying around during ejection. Normally they are folded down along
the outside of the seat. If you try to fix them, you need to know that
there is not any clearance between the seat and the side consoles when
you install the seat, so you need to cheat a little and move the armrest
down along the top of the seat side pan.
Fuselage
 Opened
panels frequently don’t fit at all well when you attempt to glue
them in the closed position. That is not the case with these. I used a
couple small strips of .10 thou. Plastic as shims, but the curve matches
the surrounding area near perfectly.
One item worth noting is that apparently Trumpeter initially had the
little tabs for the drag ‘chute bridle engraved on both the left
and right side of the aft fuselage just in front of the afterburner. It
should be only on the left side. They caught the error and filled the
scribing on the right side but it looks a bit unfinished and will require
a little clean up.
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. One nice touch
is the wing fence is etched brass, so it will look very thin. One item
worth noting is that all the control surfaces were hydraulic activated,
and did not droop or move after shutdown. The flaps were retracted immediately
after touchdown to improve braking, and not lowered again. The only displaced
surface on the bird was usually the horizontal tail that was a bit front
end up. For the purest, the main gear wells on the wing are nowhere near
deep enough, but probably will not be a big issue when finished and sitting
on the shelf.
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.
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.
Misc.
Overall fit appears to be excellent. I have done some assembly of the
kit and so far everything fits very well. The choice of metal or plastic
gear struts in nice, And the inclusion of a large weight that goes into
the forward avionics bay is welcome. But the open avionics bay with absolutely
nothing in there is odd to say the least. That forward avionics bay was
loaded with all kinds of Black boxes, cable and all sorts of stuff the
detail nuts would have really liked.
Conclusion
With the exception of a few things like the seat, the choice of ordnance,
and the decals everything seems very accurate, and the fit is outstanding.
I am puzzled by why they spent so much time plastic and etched brass on
the engine and then covered it all up. A clear engine side part would
have seemed a natural thing to do. Then to make a separate avionics bay
and cover with nothing in it but a big chunk of metal seems strange.
All in all, this is a really nice kit. The problems are minor and easily
fixable. The subject is one that really needed to be done in a large scale
and I am sure that the aftermarket industry will soon have a flood of
decals, resin, and other stuff to enhance what is already a good model.
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