Trumpeter’s F100D 1/48 or Monogram?

[nzsabredogfan]

Hi all,

Been reading about some of the crews in Vietnam, and would like to build a F-100D.

Would like some feed back on the Trumpeter’s 1/48 F100 kits please?

Have heard that the intake is wrong and maybe the wheel?

Are there ready available replacement parts, or is it better to one buy a monogram kit and cross- kit or just buy and build the Monogram kit?

Thanks Steve

[82Whitey51]

The Monogram kit is pretty awesome and relatively cheap. It builds into a great replica of the "Hun". The draw back today would be that it has the "dreaded raised panel lines"!! I, for one, am not put off by raised panel lines, in some instances they are more realistic than engraved lines. If they are overly heavy I just knock them down with a little sanding.

I have a Trumpeter "F" two seater and it looks like a great model, nice surface detail, engraved panel lines etc. The experts say the intake is a bit mis shapen and the wheels are too big in circumfrence leading to an odd "stance" for an F-100. "AMS" resins made a correction for the intake and the wheel situation can be remedied by replacing the more accurate wheels and struts with either Monograms or by using "SAC"s metal landing gear replacement for monograms F-100 and "Royal Resins" F-100 wheels. That will give you the proper "stance" of the F-100. I believe "Aries" makes an interior cocpit set for it as well, I think the seats are a bit inaccurate.

[Ben Brown]

It depends. If you want a relatively easy build that looks like an F-100 from across the room, you can go with the Trumpeter kit. If you want the most accurate F-100 kit available, and don't mind having to do a little work, spend half as much $$ on the Monogram kit. I hate to say "try using the search function" because it always comes across as kind of rude, so I did a quick search and found... nothing! There were a couple of old threads that had a lot more info, but this was the only one that had part of what I was looking for:

Accuracy: Monogram by a mile. You can put every bit of resin and photo etch available on the Trumpeter kit, and it still won't be as accurate as the Monogram kit, and by the time you've finished installing all of that aftermarket, you could have put the same effort into the Monogram kit and had a better model. The trick to the Monogram kit is to cut off the stabilators and build the fuselage without the wings. This makes it easier to clean up the seams on the aft fuselage and really reduces the ugliness of the seams forward & aft of the wing. The wing pulls the sides of the upper fuselage half in, which causes the nasty seams on the sides. You'll still need some filler, but not much. Split the 1-piece wing in half & add the wings like you would most other kits. I made a spar with some brass tube, but I'm not sure that was really necessary.

Easy to build: Trumpeter. Can be identified as an F-100 from across the room. There are old posts here and one in the Jet Aircraft Tweaks section over at

Zee Oh En Eee-5 dot net (This forum still won't let anyone even mention that other web site, so I can't give you the direct link. Childish.)

The same can also be said about the 1/72 F-100D & F. The AMT F and Italeri, Revell, & ESCI Ds are all better and less expensive than their respective Trumpeter counterparts.

For a Vietnam jet, you'll need to pick up some of Harold's (AMS Resin) 335-gal drop tank noses to update the kit's 275s. Monogram's cockpit and tail represents a RHAWS (radar warning stuff) jet, with the widened fuel tank vent fairing and azimuth display in the cockpit, but they left out the antenna fairings under the intake and on the aft end of the fuel tank vent fairing. All of the aftermarket pits are for non-RHAWS jets, so to be technically accurate, you'd need to sand down the tail fairing until it is about half as wide. Pretty easy to do. If you head over to Prime Portal ( http://www.primeportal.net/the_airstrip.htm ) and compare the F-100D (non-RHAWS) with the F-100F (RHAWS), you'll see what I'm talking about.

HTH.

Ben

[Ben Brown]

Whitey beat me to it! :D AMS also has a very nice seat that's a drop-in for the Monogram kit.

The problem with the Trupeter kit's stance is a combination of the wings' being too thin, which has the effect of lengthening the gear struts, and the main wheel tires are too large in diameter. You have to replace the main wheels and chop the tops off of the gear struts to get the model to sit right. This goes for all of the Trump F-100s in all scales. I don't know if SAC's struts address this problem.

Cheers!

Ben

[chriss7606]

I have both and I have to say Monogram by a long shot. Monogram is cheaper and is an overall nicer and more accurate model. I got a Monogram kit over the weekend because I can't motivate myself to continue with the Trumpeter model.

[ChippyWho]

It's all true! If you look at a finished Trumpeter kit, it seems OK until you do a walkaround -then lots of little issues make themselves apparent. It wouldn't put me off building one, but as is so often the case, the older Monogram kit is more accurate overall and (with work and commitment) can be whittled into a stunning model. It does have a rather unusual top + bottom fuselage breakdown as opposed to Trump's more conventional left + right, but how big a problem that is depends on you!

Quite honestly, for an SEA aircraft I'd eBuy myself a Monogram kit every time (the paint job will be more forgiving of my usual amateurish surface work than a NMF) but some aftermarket for the cockpit and a Royale Resin wheel set will fix it up a treat.

[bugs3144]

As for decals, Cam Pro does several in sea camo for ANG birds. Superscals has 2 for 1965 pre sea camo birds in Viet Nam. And Xtra Decals has several nice sheets available. I was offensive fire control tech on the sled/hun from 1963 till 1966 and we developed the wild weasel system before it went on the Thud. I have 3 of the Monogram kits in my display cabinet.

Frank

ATL

[F4DPhantomII]

I have had 2 Trumpeter F-100D's and a lot of Monograms.I prefer the Monogram every time.Ben B has the secret in how to build it every time.

[Ben Brown]

Caracal also has some very nice decals for ANG F-100s, and some Vietnam jets are on the way (Disclaimer: I helped a little with the research).

If you can find them, Experts Choice did two excellent sheets for Vietnam Ds.

I'd steer clear of Xtradecals' F-100 sheets. They have all kinds of accuracy issues, and I don't mean the kind that only someone who spends way too much time looking at F-100 pictures might notice (now who could that be? ). One wonders if the decal artist even so much as looked at a photo of the subject. Now that I think about it, they'd probably go well with the Trumpeter kit.

Frank, did you happen to be involved enough in the Wild Weasel program to know anything about if/how they modified the F-100F's rear instrument panel for the Weasel role? I've talked to one pilot who thought they just slapped the displays on top of the rear panel's glare shield, a historian who said he saw a photo of a rear panel modified to hold the displays, and read a note from an engineer who basically said they built a new panel. What the rear panel looked like has been sort of my F-100 Holy Grail. That, and what the RF-100A's panel looked like....

Cheers!

Ben

[Phantom726]

Steve,

I would say buy the Royal Resin F-100 wheel set and give the Trumpeter kit a go. It goes together nicely and is a joy to build.

I did this OOB a couple of years ago and I only altered the intake profile slightly, shortened the MLG and added a few bombs. Is it 100% accurate? I have no idea. Do I care? Not really. It still looks like a Hun to me!

HTH

Bjarne

Edited April 16, 2013 by Phantom726

[bugs3144]

Caracal also has some very nice decals for ANG F-100s, and some Vietnam jets are on the way (Disclaimer: I helped a little with the research).

If you can find them, Experts Choice did two excellent sheets for Vietnam Ds.

I'd steer clear of Xtradecals' F-100 sheets. They have all kinds of accuracy issues, and I don't mean the kind that only someone who spends way too much time looking at F-100 pictures might notice (now who could that be? :rolleyes:/>/>/> ). One wonders if the decal artist even so much as looked at a photo of the subject. Now that I think about it, they'd probably go well with the Trumpeter kit.

Frank, did you happen to be involved enough in the Wild Weasel program to know anything about if/how they modified the F-100F's rear instrument panel for the Weasel role? I've talked to one pilot who thought they just slapped the displays on top of the rear panel's glare shield, a historian who said he saw a photo of a rear panel modified to hold the displays, and read a note from an engineer who basically said they built a new panel. What the rear panel looked like has been sort of my F-100 Holy Grail. That, and what the RF-100A's panel looked like....

Cheers!

Ben

Ben I don't remember exactly as that was about 47 years ago. I think a new panel was made. As for the RF-100A, I never got involved with the A model, only the D and F. Plus RF100A "Slick Chick" was gone before I entered service and there were only 6 built. Really wierd looking with that camera fairing under the fuselage. I would imagine the instrument panel would have been standard with camera controls on console.

Frank

ATL

Edited April 16, 2013 by bugs3144

[bugs3144]

Also we had a D model hun at Eglin in 66 that was camoflagued with "Balls Five" on the nose. AC number ended in 005. Only one of our 7 ac that had anything on nose.

Frank

ATL

[k5ikl]

AMS also has a very nice seat that's a drop-in for the Monogram kit.

Cheers!

Ben

I am working on a Monogram Hun at the moment and was going to use the AMS seat

but it doesn't fit, front to back. Got an email from Harold last night stating that

the AMS seat is for the Trumpeter kits and NOT Monogram. He suggested trying to

sand down the seat rails a bit at a time for a possible fit. Sanded mine until

they are almost gone and still doesn't fit....I have the Blackbox cockpit set and

the seat from it doesn't fit the Monogram tub either. Guess I'll have to try the

BB set on my next Hun build.

Cheers,

Jerry

[ChippyWho]

Noting the above responses regarding aftermarket seats, there are some questions over the fit of AMS and Legend resin seats/cockpits (the latter being specified for the Monogram kit).

I'm looking for an answer to this myself, but haven't found it as yet!

Hopefully, using the entire BB/Avionix cockpit should solve the problem...?

[Ben Brown]

Thanks for the info, Frank! Apparently, just about everything involving the RF-100A was thrown away when Rockwell took over NAA.

The Black Box seat, and it's Legend copy, are about 4mm too short in the seat back, so they can't be fixed. Both companies added a riser to the cockpit floor to jack the seat up. If Harold's seat won't fit the Monogram kit, it would be a shame, because it's such a nice seat. Aeroclub made a white metal seat for the Monogram kit that was pretty good, as far as white metal parts go. Here are the BB, Legend, Aeroclub, and kit seats (can't recall if the BB seat is the resin seat on the left or right):

Ben

[habu2]

How does the old ESCI kit compare to these two?

[KursadA]

How does the old ESCI kit compare to these two?

It doesn't. ;-)

[ChippyWho]

Here are the BB, Legend, Aeroclub, and kit seats (can't recall if the BB seat is the resin seat on the left or right):

Looks like the BB one on the right: the Legend pair I have (albeit without the optional cast-in harness) resemble the other one, with a deeper base.

Edited April 16, 2013 by ChippyWho

[Andre]

How does the old ESCI kit compare to these two?

On a scale of one to ten:

it sucks. :-)

Esci's 1/72nd F-100 is a little gem, but the same can't be said of it's 1/48th stable companion.

Cheers,

Andre