Ben Brown

Beautiful! Ben

Or, you can go completely nuts on the Airfix kit like Don Hinton did! LINK 😎 Ben

In addition to adding fuselage length, you’ll have to reshape the #2 engine intake. It will probably be a lot easier to go from a -100 style to the -200 style than the other way. If you can find the clear cockpit part from a Minicraft or Daco 737, it will go a long way to making the nose area of both the Revell and Airfix kits look better. Ben

Oh, don’t tell me that! I’m still trying to reduce the size of my stash! 🤣 Ben

Looks great! I'm taking notes in case they release a 1/1000 or 1/1400 version. Ben

Nice review! I've been holding out in hope they'll eventually release a -700. I want to add to my Midway fleet and Liveries Unlimited is releasing decals for the Canyon Blue livery, soon. It's easy to convert a couple of -800s, but I'm lazy. 😁 Ben

Looks great! I've heard the Zvezda -800 is a fun build, and much better than the old Revell kit. Ben

I'm no help with the Su-27 or the F-117, although I would bet that at most, the Tamiya kit would just need a resin seat. For the F-100, it depends on the kit. The Monogram F-100D is the most accurate F-100 available. It's mostly a Vietnam-era jet, with RHAWS radar warning gear (wide tail fairing but no under intake or tail antennae included), but it has the pre-1964 drop tanks. It could use a little help in the cockpit. I usually just replace the seat and add a few knobs and handles. The Legend and Black Box cockpits look okay, but the seats are ~4 mm too short and the Legend pit doesn't fit very well. I have a pile of old Airwaves metal seats that I use, but I think AMS Resin's will fit. AMS also makes extensions to modify the kit's early 275-gal drop tanks to the later, Vietnam-era 335-gal type. Aires makes a very nice afterburner for it, and Sierra Hotel makes an F-102-style burner, if you want to build an Air National Guard jet. The Trumpeter F-100s are another story. At the very least, they all need a new intake inlet and wheels (main gear tires are much too tall). The F-100D and F are non-RHAWS jets, so the boxy fairing on the tail is narrower than Monogram's. The F-100C has a D cockpit, with the wrong seat and the dimensions of the tail are off (see AMS Resin's replacements, and here are some further comments on it). You'll need AMS's drop tank noses if you want to build a Vietnam-era F-100. I could go on (and on) with a long list of other problems with the Trumpeter kits that can't be corrected with resin (because I'm something of an F-100 nut! 😁), but that's out of the scope of your original question. I can explain more on the F-100 differences, if you're interested in a particular jet or era. If you just want to know what's available for the kits, you can do a search for "F-100" or whatever at The 48ers or Sprue Brothers. Cheers! Ben

Looking through my downloaded Thud pics, I'm not seeing any stencils on camouflaged tanks. Occasionally on natural metal tanks, there is some kind of red block stencil on top near the fins and an occasional NO STEP on the fins themselves. Ben

I had forgotten about Jun's drawings. They're probably about as close as you'll get. Ben

That F-102 sheet looks great! I’ll have to pick one up. My uncle was the most junior pilot in the 460th FIS, so he was put in charge of the enlisted guys and 3M reps who applied the tiger decals to the tails. Ben

Yes, Jeffrey's products are top-notch! I have his canopy details in almost all of my F-4 kits. The only reason I don't have them in all of my F-4s is I have to order a couple more sets. 😁 Ben

Hi Gunny! Unfortunately, one can't always depend on drawings to get it right, so I don't think checking it that way will tell you much. Looking at photos online, I don't see any major difference between the Z-M tank, the Hasegawa one, or the real one. Maybe someone here has the tank dimensions. If the tank is off a tad, I don't think it's as big of a shape issue as the fuselage's fat butt. Ben

The ink Draw uses is impervious to setting solutions. All it does is make the clear decal film conform to the model. Like Mike, I've had some success getting the printed parts to lay down by dipping a Q-tip in very hot, almost boiling water, and pressing them into place. It may not me hot enought to actually melt the ink, but it does soften it enough to be workable. It takes patience, but the results are usually pretty good. It is sometimes hard to blend fuselage cheatlines around the nose and tail, because the decals are thicker, so you get a seam where they meet. Ben

From looking at Ponoko’s minimum charges, you could get a photo etching system from Micro-Mark for about half that. I’d be considering one if I weren’t trying to avoid using PE on my models. 😄 Ben