F-100D Model accuracy. Does anyone out there know of the best 1/72 F-100D and why. Thanks to all members. RJK

[Robert Klopp]

Do F-100 models come in great detail as  ESCI did in the past or are they trying to play catch-up with those Trumpeter models seem to be doing. I remember the old Super Sabre from the Hasegawa line . Engraving occurring only in the articulating surfaces of the original jet. Still have to correct improper detail and sizes I believe. I look at the F-100 jets of Tamiya, Hasegawa , ESCI, Trumpeter and herd that ESCI was copied by Tamiya, which was copied from ITALERI, or some way or other. Please set me straight on this perceived topic.

[Mizar]

In 1/72 you have the original Esci kit which was then partially fixed and reboxed by Italeri, by Revell which either had the original Esci or the Italeri revision and then by Tamiya.

 

AMT/Ertl possibly did the F-100F cause I don't remember seeing any F-100F box by Esci, also most if not all AMT kits have the soft plastic filled with flash disease and supernova-gloss decal film

 

Trumpeter F-100F is too long

Trumpeter F-100D you need at least to fix the nose/intake area by stealing parts from Esci kit, someone, somewhere on Britmodeller forums did extensive fixes on Trumpeter kits because they are wacky.

 

As for now like the A-7 and many others in 1/72 you just have kits resembling the real aircraft until you start to notice obvious things that many others do ignore

 

Luigi

[Ben Brown]

The Italeri, ESCI, Revell, AMT F-100D and F kits mentioned above are pretty good, shape-wise. They just lack detail, especially the cockpits and the lack of extended slats. The same can be said for the Hasegawa F-100D, plus it has raised panel lines, IIRC. I think there were some aftermarket resin cockpits to dress these kits up, but I'm not 100% sure, since I don't normally build 1/72.

 

There was a 1/72 "F-100C" by Pioneer that is best avoided. Revell also released an F-100C back in 1964 that is actually 1/70 and isn't worth building.

 

The Trumpeter F-100 kits in all scales are a mess. They just basically scaled up the CAD, so issues travel across all three scales. I'm not sure the F's length can be fixed at all. The F-100C kits have incorrect cockpits (the C was different from the D cockpit provided, with a very different seat) and the tail dimensions are wrong. The wings are too thin and the main gear tires are too large, which causes the models to sit horizontally, instead of having the F-100's characteristic nose-up stance. I personally don't see any reason to pass over the older AMT, ESCI, Revell, Italeri F-100 kits for the newer and more expensive Trumpeter kits.

 

The best F-100 kit in any scale is still the old Monogram F-100D from 1980. It mostly depicts an F-100D late in its service life, but can be easily tweaked to represent an earlier one.

 

Ben

[SERNAK]

"There was a 1/72 "F-100C" by Pioneer that is best avoided. Revell also released an F-100C back in 1964 that is actually 1/70 and isn't worth building."

 

Got it as a gift back in the late 80s. It's going to be made as a Davis Monthan "relic", with all the covered areas, and bushes around!! But, like Ben said, you should avoid this kit.

[Robert Klopp]

 

👍 got it thanks

 

[Robert Klopp]

Thanks guys I will be doing some more studying on those F100 kits to see which one I can pull out and build that's proper. Thanks

[Teeradej]

As far as I know only Esci F-100D and AMT F-100F come with 335 gallons drop tanks. 

[Paul Boyer]

I agree with Ben Brown on everything, except for:

 

The original Revell kit dates back to around 1957. I built one when it was new (showing my age).

The Italeri kit seems to be a copy of the Esci with a couple changes, including a fictional framing brace engraved in the single-seat canopy. Weird. They also made wheels that were different - don't know if they are right or wrong.

The Italeri kit was repackaged by Revell and Tamiya.

[Rob de Bie]

My build report of the Esci F-100D contains details of the various reissues, and the photos will give you an idea of the kit's quality:

 

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/f100.htm

 

Rob

[Ben Brown]

Thanks for the correction, @Paul Boyer. I didn't scroll far enough back in time when I checked Scalemates! 😄 

 

Regarding that odd canopy frame in the ESCI kit, I wonder if someone mistook part of the nuclear flash hood for a frame? Photo won't hotlink, so see F-100.org here: F-100D photo with flash hood

 

If you don't have access to the ESCI or AMT kits and need the Vietnam-era 335-gal drop tanks, you can just add a 28" (scale) plug just forward of the leading edge of the pylon, just like they did on the real tanks.

 

For another drop tank option, you could use a single 275-gal tank on the starboard side, a Mk-7 nuke on the port center pylon in place of the drop tank, and rob the 200-gal tanks from the Hasegawa kit for the inboard pylons.

 

Ben

 

[TheRealMrEd]

For the build threads about correcting the Trumpeter 1/72 F-100 series mentioned above, here are the links:

 

F-100C

 

F-100D

 

F-100F Wild Weasel

 

When all the kinks are worked out, they are very accurate. 

 

Ed

 

 

[airmechaja]

IMHO, there are way too many "kinks" to work out with the Trumpeter F-100 series to make it worth your effort. Accuracy is still ruled by Revellogram.

 

 

[JackMan]

2 hours ago, airmechaja said:

IMHO, there are way too many "kinks" to work out with the Trumpeter F-100 series to make it worth your effort. Accuracy is still ruled by Revellogram.

 

 

 

I agree. Trumpeter is best avoided.  I quite like the Italeri, ESCI, Revell, AMT F-100D and F kits.  ESCI especially were way ahead of their time when it came to the panel lines. Very nice panel details. 

[Ben Brown]

Ed, you did a great job beating those Trumpeter kits into submission! I tried to fix the problems with their 1/32 F-100D kit and that killed my appetite for F-100s for years. 😄

 

Also, thanks for posting the pics showing exactly where Trumpeter screwed up the F-100F cockpit. I've been trying to figure out where they went wrong. Sadly, they did it on the 1/48 and 1/32 kits, too. Easy fix in 1/72 is the AMT kit, for 1/48 we have the old but accurate War Eagle and Fox 3 Studios conversions for the Monogram kit. The 1/32 folks are on their own, for now.

 

Ben 

[scorvi]

I agree wholeheartedly but I built the Trumpy 1/48 F-100D [below] with a boat load of correction parts from the Monogram kit like nose and and tail.  Which was pretty painless since the Trumpy kit was basically given to me. 

 

NOW in 1/32 and I have been contemplating a Hun in 1/32....Trumpy is the only game in town and it seems there are lots of problems that are only magnified in a larger scale.....  Are there any correction sets to correct most if all of the major defects for the 1/32 Trumpeter F-100C??

 

Now the cockpit will be replaced so that is a non-issue.  but wings adn tail are biggies!

 

Steve,

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by scorvi

[GeneK]

On 11/27/2020 at 10:01 AM, Ben Brown said:

... for 1/48 [F-100F]we have the old but accurate War Eagle and Fox 3 Studios conversions for the Monogram kit.

And the C&H Aero Miniatures conversion .... that Steve Corvi so nicely detailed in his dual F-100 build in Scale Aviation Modeller International, Vol5 issue 9, September 1999.

 

A timeless, excellent article over two decades ago, Steve!!

 

Quote

Ben also said (and Steve apparently agrees): The best F-100 kit in any scale is still the old Monogram F-100D from 1980.

 

Some day ... .

 

Gene K

[scorvi]

Thank you  That was a fun build.  C & H stuff was pretty good!.

 

Monogram rules the day for F-100's.....The older ESCI 1/72 kit is good too!

 

Now I guess I would be in for a boat load of work if I wanted to attempt a 1/32 F-100C from the Trumpy kit???   I see a new cockpit is needed .....probably a new Tail....I hear grumblings about the wing too.  I hope Trumpy just didnt recycle the D wing for a C...THAT will not DO...AND did they get the D wing correct???/   

 

ANYONE have good info on the 1.32 Trumpeter F-100 kits  .........Especially teh C????

Steve,

[Ben Brown]

Thanks for the reminder about the C&H conversion, Gene! I'd forgotten all about it. They had at least two versions of it. The first was too long and had a weird kink in the fuselage, so they reworked it to correct the issues. There was also a Maintrack conversion that was pretty crude: LINK

 

Since this thread first started, Reskit has produced some outstanding aftermarket parts for F-100s in all three scales, including drop tanks that can be built as 235-gal or the 335-gal versions. Their wheel sets look good. Hopefully, they'll release some early nose wheels with spokes or six holes. I sent them everything I had on them, so here's hoping. Sadly, their afterburners are intended for the Trumpeter kits, and are too large in diameter to fit the Monogram kit. Aires has a nice burner that will fit the Monogram kit.

 

Steve, for the Trumpeter F-100C and D kits, they can be built into passable replicas, but there are a few things that can't be fixed, mainly the wing thickness. Speaking from experience, you can drive yourself absolutely bonkers trying to fix everything on these kits if you are as anal about F-100s as I once was. 😆 I've built the 1/32 D and had the 1/48 C for a while. The errors in these kits are pretty much the same in all three scales.

- Use corrected main gear wheels and cut ~3 mm off the tops of the struts (for the 1/32 kits) and that will give the model a better nose-up "sit." You'll have to modify the gear retraction struts slightly to fit, or you can just glue them in the general area and hide them behind the drop tanks like I did.

- The C wings are okay, other than being too thin. The ailerons should be in the neutral position on a parked jet, so Trumpeter didn't need to provide them as separate parts. I've seen one build where the modeler apparently thought the inboard aileron panels were flaps and dropped them. 

- The C has a D cockpit and as far as I know, nobody currently makes a proper C pit for it. The A/C had a very different seat from the D/F. AMS had cockpit in 1/48 with a nice, correct F-100A/C seat. Oddly enough, photos of Aires' F-100F cockpit show a proper F-100C seat for the back seat. I don't know why. 

- The tail is too large and has an extra rib. Use the drawings in the Detail & Scale book to correct the shape. Dave Menard thought they were accurate. 

- The infamous intake shape: Zacto and I think Renaissance made corrections. Trumpeter has the panel line for the break between the fuselage and the intake lip part too far aft. This causes the pitot tube mount fairing to be too short and looks strange. Just move the panel line forward 3 mm and extend the mount. The pitot tube is too large in diameter, but aftermarket replacements are available.

- The tail hook on the C needs to slant to port instead of starboard like the D/F has. Pre-1962-ish jets didn't have them at all.

 

Those are the biggies that I can think of. Everything else can probably be ignored and most people won't notice. If you want to go overboard, here's the tweak list from LSP: LINK   I had WAY too much time on my hands back then! 

 

Cheers!

 

Ben