F-100D Super Sabre at Étain-Rouvres AB

[Pete]

Hey all

This is my second build for this GB. I will be making the 1/72 Italeri F-100D.

into this: http://www.f-100.info/images/f-100d_53691.jpg

using these decals:

Building process starts in the next post.

[Pete]

Overall it's a nice kit, but it has some shortcomings. The cockpit isn't that great, the canopy is a one piece affair, so if you want to open it, you need to cut it. The intake is only 1cm deep, as is the exhaust (at least they give you both the original one and the F-102 type).

I didn't take any detailed cockpit pics, as there's not much detail to be seen. I did deepen the exhaust using some styrene tube and an old engine part from a Hasegawa (I think) F-104 at the end.

This fitted neatly in the fuselage:

And I think it looks pretty nice:

After I fitted the cockpit tub in as well, the fuselage could be closed, and puttied:

As you can see, I filled most of the holes in the wing, as I will only use the fueltanks on this one. More on that later.

More in the next post.

[Pete]

And after a lot of sanding (gotta have that smooth surface for the NMF paintjob), it looks like this:

Not too bad, if I may say so.

As I said in the thread title, this will be a Victor Alert bird. Basically, this meant that a plane was armed with a nuclear weapon 24/7, standing by to be launched when the call came. For this model, I will use a B28 thermonuclear bomb, coming from the Trumpeter RA-5C. This does mean I need to make some changes to the kit. First, it doesn't come with a centreline pylon, so I decided to make one myself. I used 2 pieces of styrene strip for this, glued together and cut and sanded to shape. I scribed some detail in it, using some pics in the Detail & Scale book. I'm pretty happy with the result:

Now, the F-100 originally wasn't designed to have a centreline pylon, only during the later blocks of the D model this capability was added. This mean that the landing gear doors couldn't be opened all the way down anymore, but "stopped" pointing slightly outwards. Also this meant that changes had to be made to the airbrake. Normally, when it opened, it wouldn't hit anything, but with the centreline pylon in place this wasn't a good idea. First, they equipped the pylon with a kind of rod that would hit a switch inside the fuselage, preventing the airbrake to deploy when the pylon was in place. This didn't work very well, so later in 1963 they decided to just cut a bigger hole in the airbrake so it could move freely around the pylon and the store.

Trumpeter gives you both types of airbrakes on their 1/32 kit, BTW.

At the left the later style, at the right the original airbrake(pic "borrowed"from cybermodeller)

For this model I need the early solution, since mine is from before 1963. Unfortunatly Italeri gives us the late option, so I had to fill and rescribe some lines on the closed airbrake.

Now, since the cockpit can only be build closed, I decided to add a pilot. It doesn't sound logical to me to have a plane loaded, on alert with an empty and closed cockpit.

I found a decent pilot figure in the Revell/Monogram F-105, which is more or less a contemporary of the F-100.

Pre paintjob:

How it looks now:

So, that's it for today. I will post some more later.

Thanks for looking.

Edited January 25, 2010 by Pete

[Pete]

So, after adding some more parts and masking the canopy, it was time for the paintjob. I decided to use Alclad on this one for the first time. Alclad reccomends a gloss black base coat for the Polished Aluminium, which I planned to use.

For this, I used Revell gloss black enamel, but unfortunatly this didn't give the smooth base I needed. So I sanded it down with some very fine sandingpaper and coated it with a layer of future.

Maybe I will use a Tamiya spraycan next time, as recommended by Alclad.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead anyway:

I don't think it looks too bad. Now I will mask some panels and give those a different shade. Oh, and as you can see, I masked the rear portion of the model off. I will use a ModelMaster Metallizer here.

[cpoud117]

Nice job pete !

[Eric2020]

Looking very good!!! Looking forward to see more!!

[pkrasna]

Flawless!!!

Primož

[Pete]

So, after finishing other kits first, it was time to focus again on the F-100.

I masked some panels and gave these different shades of aluminium Alclad. For the rear portion, I used ModelMaster Burnt Iron Metallizer paint. This didn't go quite as planned, as the first jar I used was too old and the paint was full of clogs. So I stripped the area and bought a new jar, and this time it went much better.

Today I started decalling. Most decals come from the Microscale sheet, with a few stencils coming from the Italeri sheet. For the roundels, I wanted to use a special roundel sheet I once got in a trade, but these decals shattered with the slightest touch. I didn't want to use the Italeri decal, because the red bar in it sits too low. I finally found some good ones in the Revell issue of the same kit, which I was going to do as a French bird anyway.

Here's a pic of how it looks now. Taking pics of NMF is tricky, so for the final pics I will have to practice a bit more, maybe chance the background color too.

BUT.....

When decalling I suddenly noticed something when reaching the canopy area. There was a frame on the kit that wasn't in the instructions or any other pic I could find. It turns out that Italeri really screwed up here, adding a frame on the canopy that doesn't exist on the real thing. ;) And ofcourse I only found out after all the masking and painting. :) So I guess I will have to carefully sand and polish the canopy, hoping that I won't ruin it.

Here's a pic to show what I mean:

So, if you're going to build this kit, PAY ATTENTION to the canopy.

Thanks for watching,

Pete

[Skyraider Maniac]

Here's a pic of how it looks now. Taking pics of NMF is tricky, so for the final pics I will have to practice a bit more, maybe chance the background color too.

Pete,

Superb looking Super Sabre! I am impressed! :P Looks like the real thing (aside from the canopy issue you noticed - good luck on taking care of that!)!

Keep up the good work! :D

Justin

[Pete]

Thanks Justin! Where do they have that F-100 you posted preserved? It doesn't look like Europe.

Anyway, here's a new pic with more decals on. I also managed to get rid of the canopy frame.

Thanks for looking.

[Skyraider Maniac]

Where do they have that F-100 you posted preserved? It doesn't look like Europe.

Pete,

Not a problem, figured you'd like to see the real deal :)

You're right, that's definitely not Europe - it's Holloman AFB, New Mexico - current home of the 49th Fighter Wing.

I'll actually be doing the F-100 in those same colors (except in 1/48) probably sometime over the next few months for a 49th FW Diorama.

Great job on the finished product! Looks great! :lol:

Cheers,

Justin

[VG 33]

Hi Pete

This is a very nice F-100.

Etain is not far from I live now and is a helicopter AB.

Patrick

[Pete]

Great job on the finished product! Looks great! :)

Cheers,

Justin

Hi Pete

This is a very nice F-100.

Etain is not far from I live now and is a helicopter AB.

Patrick

Thanks Justin and Patrick :)

It's finished now:

Who knows , I might do another build for this GB.