Ben Brown

IIRC, the worst part of the kit is the fit of the windscreen. One of the online reviews gives a detailed account of how to fix it, but I can't remember which review it was. They've also apparently not corrected the wheels in the T-Birds release. It's still got the F-5's "balloon" tires instead of the T-38's "bicycle" tires. Ben

I put some on one of my F-4s years ago. The pylons look better than the kit ones. I don't know if they are more accurate, but they've got more surface detail on them. The missile rails are too wide to mount the kit Sidewinders on. I seem to remember having to make some repairs because of air bubbles in the resin. HTH. Ben

Hi, I'm Ben, and I'm an F-100 Geek. F-100Ds up through 55-2783 had the narrow cutout in the speed brake. A bunch of Fs had it, too, but I don't have the serial numbers. Looks like the Trumpeter kit is molded as a pre-2783 F-100D. The AF started painting F-100s silver as far back as 1958. I have pics of the famous "Triple Zilch" in the markings you get in the Monogram kit and it was silver lacquer in late '58. Cheers! Ben

I originally typed "*****ted" but mis-corrected it. :) Ben

No offense taken here! :) I'll probably pick up a set, just to have them around. I keep thinking of an F-4S or maybe a Sundowners B/N. As if I actually had the space for another 1/32 F-4 after the three I'll eventually have built, not to mention the three or four Trumpeter F-100 projects I'd like to do. Cheers! Ben

You guys seen these? http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpB...pic.php?t=10828 Ben

Great photo! Thanks for posting! I seem to remember that photo was taken at a base in Florida, but I can't remember any details. Cheers! Ben

Hi Darren, The differences between the two kits are the FG.1 has slatted stabilators, a nose gear door with approach lights, and the nose gear strut with a second oleo scissors between the wheels. The FG.1 kit also included an extended nose gear strut. HTH. Ben

Wow, the price is one cent less than Seamless Suckers' intakes! I expected them to cost twice that! I'm glad CE is doing these new intake sets, since Dave has the production and distributing capability to keep everyone supplied, but I hate to see Robert Brown's (Seamless Suckers) business take such a hit, since he started the whole resin intake thing in the first place. Somebody just needs to tell Dave they're "vari-ramps," not "spitter plates." Ben

I don't have any F-4C/D pics I can offer, just F-4E pics, but I stumbled across this page with the Collings F-4D while looking for F-4 pics the other day: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/Mis...oAir/index.html I wish the Collings Foundation would bring her to the East Coast some day. BTW, I saw a post on the F-4 Yahoo group that due to high demand from air shows, the Air Force is going to add 14 more low-time F-4s to the Heritage Flight operation! Pretty cool! Ben

Peter, That is one FINE-looking model! I' ve never built one of C&H's F-100F conversions, only Fox 3's and War Eagle's. Might have to get one, now. Cheers! Ben, the F-100 nut

If you don't want to go the Seamless Suckers route, here is a way to do it using sheet styrene: http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/J...ildWeasel1.html It's the second-to-last photo on the page. The Seamless Suckers work great. Pass on the old Cutting Edge "seamless" intakes. They're not. I would imagine their new ones will be very nice and fairly pricey. Cheers! Ben

That's it! I'm ordering the Welsh KC-135 now! Thanks for posting all of these great photos, David! Ben

Hi Diego, I'm looking forward to those F-100 decals! Have you considered doing them in 1/32, too? They should sell well since Trumpeter is releasing both an F-100D and an F. Just a quick note on one of your subjects: The "Navy" F-100F was actually an Air Force jet that got "zapped" by the Navy. The Navy never operated the F-100. I can't remember all of the details or the serial number, but it was an ex-Wild Weasel Block 20 (58-xxxx serial number) jet and still had the WW antennae fitted. I'll look up the letter I got from Dave Menard & post more deatils later. Cheers! Ben

Hi Andrew, Was that you that asked this Q on the F-4 Yahoo group? I meant to reply there, but I got busy & forgot. Sorry. Anyway, I've seen a photo somewhere of that airplane landing, and it has a great view of the belly. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it to post here. The entire underside is overall light grey, most likely Neutral Grey. You can see some hints in this photo: Link where the landing gear doors and slat actuator fairings under the right wing are light grey. Like John says, the original underside color in the Hill Grey I scheme was Light Ghost Grey, but to my eye, this jet on

True Details did a photo-etched set. I think Airwaves may have done one, too. Black Box had a cockpit for it. It's a very nice kit. The only things it really needs are some photo-etched FOD screens. The kit ones just don't look right. Plan on using the intake covers, unless you want to go through some ugly filling and sanding on the intake ducts. I don't remember having any fit problems anywhere, but it's been over ten years since I built mine. Ben

One of the best places to be when they launched to the north was at Wilbur's Barbecue. It's right off the end of the runway, so close that the RWY 26 approach lights are just behind the parking lot. They would almost shake your iced tea and hush puppies right off the table. Thanks for posting all of these great photos, Dave! Ben

One you guys are back up and running. I'll be up for some J-79 nozzles and F-4 aux air intakes! If you're looking for suggestions for future projects, how about some seperate ailerons for Hasegawa's 1/48 F-4 kits, like KMC used to sell. It's a PITA cutting them out of the kit wing without damaging them. Cheers! Ben

I've posted these before, but thought they'd go well with this thread. My dad took them at Hamilton AFB as the Thunderbirds were leaving for the depot in Alabama following Capt. Devlin's crash. He saw the accident and said the plane came apart so fast, it looked like it just went "poof." Note the bomb bay fuel tank on the parked Thud. I don't know if they carried fuel in it or if they used it as a travel pod. I've got a couple of Dad's photos of silver F-105Ds somewhere, too. I'll post them when I find them. Ben

An F-100F, too!!!! Ben (the F-100 nut)

Hi Chris, Ask here: http://www.airlinercafe.com/index.php or here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/airlinermodelling/ You'll get a lot of info from these guys. From what I've seen and heard of the kit, you won't get many positive opinions of it. It's supposed to be a real dog of a kit. HTH. Ben

Great photos! Thanks for posting them! Ben

They're not scale intakes. They have a shortened intake, with a small compressor face, sort of an attempt at an optical illusion so it looks deeper than it really is. I guess it's better than the kit set-up, but not as good as what you'd get with Cutting Edge's or Seamless Suckers' full intakes. Ben

If you don't want to go through the hassle of modifying the kit engines to Advanced config, you can get some Braz 737-200 resin engines from Airline Hobby Supplies. They also carry decals to do the corogard on the tops of the wings and detail decals that will give you door outlines, windows, stencils, etc. You can almost triple the price of that old Airfix kit (if you're working in 1/144 scale). Here are the links: http://www.airline-hobby.com/ Engines http://www.airline-hobby.com/shop/index.cf...amp;ItemID=6408 Detail decals http://www.airline-hobby.com/shop/index.cf...amp;ItemID=70

I found one at a hobby shop a year or so ago. There's also a build review of it over at Modeling Madness. Meteor still lists them in their catalog, as well as decals: http://www.meteorprod.com/cgi-bin/meteorse...7_17.dat+19.99+ http://www.meteorprod.com/cgi-bin/meteorse...7_17.dat+19.99+ I think Maintrack may have done a series of 1/144 X Planes, but I don't know which ones they did or which ones were dropped by the Buff. HTH. Ben