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This will be an F model North American F-100 used as a Misty FAC by the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phu Cat AB, South Viet Nam. It will use the 1/48th Monogram F-100D as a basis plus the C&H Aero Miniatures conversion set to make it a two seater. It will also include after-market parts for the seamless intake trunk, exhaust/afterburner set and 275 to 335 gallon external fuel tank conversion. This will be the first time that I have used aftermarket parts other than decals and seats.

Darwin

The parts at the starting gate

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C&H conversion parts

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Edited by yardbird78
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Quite a daring project if you havn't used more resin than a seat before.

/Bosse

I have built a couple of Anigrand all resin kits, so I have some experience with resin, but this is still going to be a daunting project.

Darwin

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I have removed the pour stubs and flash from the two fuselage pieces and have already spent about 2 hours fitting and sanding and they still have a ways to go. The cockpit tub doesn't have any locating pins so it is a by guess and golly as to exactly where it goes. The inside of the fuselage needs to be dug out for the CP tub to fit at all. Judging by what I have done and seen so far, this project is doable, but it is really going to require a lot of work.

Darwin

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Thanks Texgal. I just hope that I can live up to your expectations.

Today's update: I have spent a total of about 10 hours sanding, filing & test fitting the two parts of the fuselage. The bottom fit the wing saddle perfectly, but the sides of the top were warped in over 1/8 inch so they didn't fit the wing or the fuselage bottom. I cut a couple of pieces of scrap sprue to make spreader bars to hold the sides out where they belong. The intake trunk was too big for the front of the fuselage so the interior of both the top and bottom had to be enlarged. This was a VERY time consuming process of file, test fit, repeat, repeat, repeat and repeat some more until I finally got it right. This same file, test, repeat process was necessary for the fuselage joint and the wing saddle.

Wing saddle in upper fuselage

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Upper & lower fuselage joint

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Air intake trunk fitted in lower fuselage

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Air intake trunk fitted in upper fuselage

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L-R, intake trunk, exhaust/afterburner, 335 gallon resin AM fuel tank, 275 gallon kit tank

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Small update for this morning. I decided to let the fuselage sit for a little while and turned my attention to the external fuel tanks. The F-100 had three different external tanks, only one of which was rated for super sonic speeds. It had a capacity of 275 gallons and the USAF wanted a bigger tank, so they put a 28 inch plug in it to make it a 335 gallon tank. The Monogram kit comes with the 275 gal tank and I wanted the bigger one, since that is what was used in Viet Nam most of the time. I wasn't overly happy with the shape of the resin AM tank, so I took the kit tank, cut it in two at the factory splice point and inserted a plug to add .58 inch to the tank. The plugs were the pour stubs from the two ejection seats. It added .61 inches, but I figure that is close enough. The plug is about 1/8 inch too small in diameter, so I filled the difference with CA glue and Bondo filler.

Darwin

Top to Bottom: resin AM tank, original kit tank, plug installed and filled, tank pieces and plug.

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Edited by yardbird78
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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got enough work done on this thing to make it worth while to take some pictures.

Nose intake part from the kit attached to the resin upper fuselage and the AM seamless intake trunk attached to that assembly. The gray nose piece was too wide and shaped wrong for the fuselage, so it took quite a bit of shaping and sanding to get that right. The face of the intake trunk shape does not match the back of the nose piece, but I couldn't come up with any way to fix that. I will just have to live with the difference.

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The recessed troughs for the guns would be too shallow to allow the bullets to exit with hitting the aircraft, so I elongated and deepened the left one. The right will get the same treatment.

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The two instrument panels, pilot on left, GIB on the right. I painted the panel black, repainted some it gray, dry brushed the instruments and then filled in the instrument faces with several coats of Future.

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The instrument panels with the cockpit tub.

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Darwin

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I took the giant leap and glued the upper and lower fuselage parts together. Since they are resin, the glue had to be either CA or epoxy. I am super allergic to CA, but the epoxy takes too long to cure, even the 5 minute variety. I have to have a fan blowing across my face while wearing goggles and an organic vapor resipirator. Even then, the fumes sometimes get to me. Anyway, I glued one side from tail to landing gear, then the other side the same amount, then one side from LG to nose, then the last forward fuselage section. The upper wing has to go in the upper fuselage prior to joining the two fuselage parts. I had the whole join line sanded & filed to a pretty good dry fit, but managed to get a fair gap in a couple places while glueing. Since I was using CA anyway, I just applied a bead to the joint, hit it with accelerator and then sanded it smooth. I have rescribed some of the lost panel lines, but need to do some more.

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I played around with the outboard weapons pylons a little bit. The stock kit part has some blob under the pylon that is supposed to represent the ordnance mount and the anti-sway braces. It looked like crap, so I modified it by carving away most of it, drilling small holes through the flanges, inserting a piece of fine wire and glueing a 1 mm disc to the bottom end. The picture shows the before and after, with the after having just one adjusting thingie installed. The discs were punched out with a .039 dia Waldron punch & die set. The remaining seven discs are those little white dots in the center.

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Darwin

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The last update showed the work on the outboard pylons and this one will show the inboard ones. There was no material to work with at the start so I had to come up with something different. I appropriated the anti-sway braces from the Monogram F9F-5P Panther kit and installed them in recessed areas that I cut under the pylons.

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The port lower wing panel fit fairly well, but the starboard one had a huge gap on the fuselage end. I filled it with a .040 shim and now it fits about like the other one.

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I attached the Legend AM resin tail cone and the vertical fin. Both required extensive sanding and fitting.

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The Legend tail cone and the kit tail cone were considerably different for the afterburner exhaust. I couldn't find any photo evidence to prove either one, but I think the resin version is closer. There is a variable exhaust to the AB plus the external eyelids similar to the plastic piece, but the AB exhaust is further back inside the fuselage.

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All F-100s have a rather prominent bulge under the top of the air intake for the AN/APG-30 Fire Control Radar. The kit does not have anything for this feature, so I added it with Bondo body putty.

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Darwin

Edited by yardbird78
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Today's building time was devoted to work on the canopy. The resin conversion kit included a vacu-form canopy for the two seat F model. It has a raised frame, but no other details. I used a 4mm piece of C channel plasti-strut, cut off one flange, tapered it to match the canopy bottom frame, twisted it to match the frame contour and epoxyed it in place. The plain cross brace came in the mod kit, but needed some detail. The front of the full scale brace has a rather elaborate mechanism of guide rollers, cams and latching pins to lock the canopy in the closed position. I duplicated most of that with various bits and pieces of plastic & wire from the scrap pile. I still need to add the two latching hooks on each side, some handles and mirrors.

Darwin

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Absolutely fantastic work. Just when I think that you have reached the maximum on detail work, you kick it up another notch and do even better. What other detail stuff do you have in mind for this project?

Grandma L

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finally got caught up on some required, non-modeling projects, so I could get back to the Misty FAC. I added the APR-25 RHAW antennas under the nose and on the tail for the threat warning system. They were made from some scrap resin. I also got the horizontal stabs cut off from the original D kit, drilled the mounting holes in the fuselage and stabs and made a pivot bar from .060 styrene rod.

Darwin

The RHAW antennas

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The stabs

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

I finally got some more work done on the Misty FAC. All of the basic construction is done, so it is time to start the painting. The first thing was two coats of Future as a primer then work on the heat staining around the afterburner that is so characteristic of the F-100. First was a base coat of Alclad Dura-aluminum over the whole area, then Alclad Pale Burnt Metal to give it some darker shading and last was Alclad Hotmetal Violet to give it the scorched look. I got a little sloppy with my shaky hands and didn't get the colors exactly in the center of the panels, but it will just have to do as is. Next will be masking off this area and starting the green/green/brown camouflage.

Darwin

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I took a GIANT step today and put the camouflage paint on Misty using Model Master enamels in the standard SEA green/green/brown & light gray colors. I added a few drops of black to the dark green to increase the contrast with the light green. The true FS numbers, there is barely a discernible difference. I need to let the paint cure for a day or two before adding a clear coat and the decals.

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The D and F model F-100s have an odd shaped wing fence on each wing near the tip. The kit included this item, but it was the wrong size and shape as well as one was a short shot. I took a piece of styrene "I" beam and made new ones. The aft 1/3 of the fence has a horizontal piece on the outboard side only that I have not seen replicated on any hun model.

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Darwin

Edited by yardbird78
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