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Trumpeter 1/72 F-100C & Trumpeter 1/72 F-100D Super Sabre

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

Trumpeter has been releasing quite a few F-100 kits in various scales, starting out with their impressive 1/32 kit.  For those of us who don't build the big scale, we had to wait a while for the scale-down versions to show up.  This year we finally got that, with first the F-100C and now the F-100D.  The two-seat F-100F is scheduled to be out at the end of this year, completing the set.  As one would expect, these kits share quite a bit in the way of common parts, so this review will examine both the F-100C and F-100D.

The Kits

Both kits come molded in Trumpeter's expected light gray plastic, with finely recessed panel lines, a detailed interior, multiple options throughout the aircraft, separate flaps and slats, and comprehensive decals.  The major differences between the F-100C and F-100D are contained in the tail and the wing, so those parts are different between the two kits.  The rest of the sprues are common between the two kits, and the overall construction is identical.

Starting with the cockpit, this has a one-piece tub with a separate seat, instrument panel, and control stick, along with some other fiddly bits that will busy this area up.  The decal sheet provides side console and instrument panel detail decals.  The finished interior fits onto an intake trunk piece, which includes the nose gear well on the underside.  A separate instrument panel hood, complete with heads up display, along with a separate rear cockpit section, complete the main interior.

The exhaust section is made up from four pieces, with two choices of burner cans found in the F-100C kit.  This is odd, as it was the F-100D and F-100F that had both styles.  If your F-100D/F has that later style burner can, you can either buy the F-100C, or see if a fellow modeler has one and is willing to give up that spare burner can.  The other fuselage insert is the airbrake, and there are two options here, a straight one and one that is notched for centerline stores.

Moving to the wings, these have separate flaps and slats, which is a very nice touch.  The F-100C has two piece flaps/ailerons, while the F-100D has three parts per wing.  The F-100D kit also includes the wing fences.  Both kits include both straight and bent refueling probes, and the main gear well is very nicely detailed.  The landing gear is also suitably busy, with separate wheels and multi-part strut assemblies.

The decal sheets are well printed, with vibrant colors and good alignment.  For the F-100C, there are two options.  The first is an F-100C-5-NA from the 450th FDW, serialed 54-1775.  The second is an F-100C-25-NA from the 479th TFW, serialed 54-2076.  For the F-100D, there are two options as well.  First up is an F-100D-45-NA from the 48th TFW, serialed 55-2822.  All of these options are natural metal/silver finished.  Check your references to see if the specific aircraft you are building is in fact natural metal or painted aluminum, as many F-100s ended up painted silver (mainly F-100Ds, but there were exceptions).

Accuracy

In determining the accuracy of a kit, I generally rely on published resources, including popular books as well as available original information, such as tech orders and manufacturer specs.  For these kits, I had the luck of knowing someone intimately familiar with the F-100.  Norm Filer flew the F-100C back in the late 1950s, and has researched the type quite thoroughly over the years since then.  Given that level of attention to the subject, it was a no-brainer to hand the F-100C kit off to him to see what his thoughts were.  After some time examining the kit (and the subsequent F-100D), here's a summation of his findings.

Starting with the interior, the cockpits are identical, including the seats.  While the differences between the instrument panel layouts are not likely to be recognized easily, the seat differences are enough to make a noticeable difference to those who examine the plane closely.  Both the F-100C and F-100D kits contain the F-100D seat (along with a second seat, which I believe is the second seat for the F-100F).  As many would opt to replace the seat with an aftermarket resin example, this probably won't be much of an issue (once those aftermarket companies come out with the seats, that is).  For most, though, this is probably an area that will just need to be accepted, as the seat itself really is not that bad in terms of detailing.

Moving on to the fuselage, both kits suffer from an intake that is flat on the bottom.  This should be slightly curved.  The result is an intake that looks somewhat pinched.  Fixing this one would be extremely challenging, though, and it really is not too apparent.  Another one for the 'just live with it' category.  The tail, though, is a different story.  The F-100C has some serious, yet subtle, problems with the vertical stabilizer.  The chord is too broad, requiring the removal of about 1/4" from the leading edge, and the fuel vent is incorrectly shaped and placed.  These are significant differences when examined next to drawings, but are not readily apparent when looking at the model on the sprues.  In fact, one would probably not notice these discrepancies much at all, until one tried to position squadron markings on the tail.  Because of the too-broad chord and wrong placement of the fuel dump fairing, the geometry of the upper tail is thrown off.  As many squadrons used that area for squadron markings, often with unit emblems or geometric shapes, those changes become very apparent with the application of markings.

Fixing the problems is not too tough.  As it is the leading edge that extends too far, all one would have to do is slice off the extra chord from the leading edge and reshape the new leading edge.  The fuel dump fairing is a bit more challenging, but some work with plastic card would get you there.  The question is, would it be worth it?  Given that any aftermarket decal sheets will be sized for the uncorrected kit, you would therefore have to correct the decals as well, or create your own.  All of this is doable, but in the end, it may not be worth it, as the tail is still smaller than the F-100D tail, and looks like an F-100C tail.  While it's a big error, it's a subtle one that can be ignored without it being readily apparent.

The final F-100C mistake is another very subtle one, one which only someone who has crawled around the plane would notice.  The main gear doors are common between both kits, but they are F-100D/F main gear doors.  On the inside is a hinged line for a section of the main gear door to swing vertically, in order to clear the centerline stores.  The F-100C had a one-piece main gear door.  Again, this is an extremely minor issue, but it is included here for completeness.

There are several common issues between both the F-100C and F-100D kits (and will probably spread to the F-100F kit as well).  These are all constrained into the landing gear system of all the kits, and it is these issues that will make the biggest impact on your F-100 build.  First up, the wings are about 2-3mm too thin.  This results in a wheel well that is too shallow, which pushes the main gear leg down too far.  The gear length is correct, and the main wheel hubs are accurate in size.  However, the main wheel tires are significantly oversized, resulting in a wheel that is too tall.  This, combined with the thinner wing, results in a finished model that sits almost horizontally, instead of having that characteristic tail-down squat of an F-100.  Further compounding this is the fact that the nose gear strut has its oleo compressed, which drops the nose a bit.

This is an issue that definitely needs to be fixed, as it will be painfully obvious to even the most rudimentary F-100 fan.  The easiest fix would be to ignore the nose gear entirely and thin down the main gear wheels.  Check the stance of the model, and if need be trim more off the top of the main gear strut until the model has the right sit.  Alternatively, you could wait for the aftermarket wheels which will undoubtedly show up before too long.

Moving on to the underwing stores, these are, for the most part, quite nicely done.  The weapons included are common across all the kits, which means the F-100C comes with a whole slew of weaponry never carried by the type.  In fact, in almost all cases the only thing useable out of these weapon options would be the drop tanks, which are the smaller 275 gallon tanks.  These have a subtle shape problem in that the top of the tank is too flat.  They should be more rounded along the top edge.

Conclusion

While the long section on accuracy seems to be tearing these kits apart, that is not really true.  Aside from the landing gear issue, which is easily fixed by sanding down the main tires, these kits will build up into some excellent examples of the F-100.  Given that we haven't had an F-100C in 1/72 and the other F-100 kits are rather long in tooth, it is good to have a new tool F-100 series available, and I am looking forward to the F-100F when it comes out later this year.  My thanks to Stevens International for the review samples.