1/32 Trumpeter F-100D

by Terry Chan

--------------------

 

This is my Trumpeter 1/32 F-100D Super Sabre model.  I've always liked this kit, but not enough to pay the full Cdn$150 retail (plus the government's cut) for it.  While I was vacationing in Hong Kong in November 2008, I found it for HK$700, which translates roughly to Cdn$90.  Hence it was promptly added to my growing stash of big scale jet models.
 
It didn't stay long in the stash, though.  I was looking for something big, and relatively easy to build.  The "Hun" kit has a simple parts break down, and a relatively simple paint job should I go with the silver scheme.  I figured I can finish it within a month if I don't use any fancy aftermarket accessories.  I did end up finishing it in just over 3 weeks, but I didn't build it completely out-of-box.  I added a resin seat and intake cover from AMS Resin; Eagle Strike decals for the 20th TFW were also used.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

 
Construction started with the cockpit.  The kit supplied cockpit tub and instrument panel were very well done.  I'm sure a resin version from Aires will offer improvement, but I eventually chose to use the kit's parts plus the AMS resin seat because they're adequate.  The rear deck area of the cockpit (right behind the seat) doesn't have much detail.  I just left it as is because I wanted to stick to the "within a month" time constraint.

Considerable amount of parts in the kit were dedicated to the engine and its trolley.  Since I want to finish my model in one single piece instead of having its tail removed to display the engine, I assembled the engine parts (rather sloppily I might add) and buried them inside the fuselage.  There were glue stains and unfilled gaps all over the engine, but they're all invisible inside the jet's body now.

The fuselage was made up of 4 large sections: front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right.  Overall, the fit was fairly good.  I used just a little bit of putty to ensure seams are flawlessly filled for the eventual silver paint job.
 
Next up were the wings.  They also went together easily.  In fact, the fit on these parts were even better than the fuselage parts.  The extended slats had a number of smaller parts, hence assembling them required some extra care.  The wing-to-fuselage joint was also pretty good, I don't recall using any filler there.  The slats were left off until after painting.
 
The kit supplied a number of ordnance to hang under the wings.  I only chose to use the fuel tanks because that's what the 20th TFW jets used.  The rest will go into my spare box, and hopefully will be used in one of my future projects. 
 

A lot of non-camouflaged F-100 jets were painted silver (rather than bare metal) for corrosion purposes, including the 20th TFW jet I was modeling.  I started painting first by spraying Tamiya fine primer in a rattle can.  After the primer cured, I polished it with 2000 grit sand paper to give it a silky smooth surface.  Some pre-shading with black paint ensued.

The first layer of paint went on the engine area on the rear section of the fuselage.  This was the only area on the real jets that were left unpainted.  Using my trusting Iwata Eclipse, I sprayed Alclad Steel over it.  After the Alclad cured, I used my fine tip Iwata HP to spray various shades of Tamiya smoke, clear blue, clear yellow and clear red over the Alclad to simulate heat staining.

I masked the engine area and went to work on the main colour.  I chose to use Gunze silver lacquer instead of Tamiya silver acrylics because I know lacquer will truly adhere to the primered surface via its mildly abrasive thinner, as oppose to acrylics adheres by a gummy latex compound that's prone to be peeled off by masking tape.  This is a big model.  Hence even with just one main colour, I still needed 3 separate painting sessions (plus several other touch-up sessions) in order to have everything painted silver.  The silver lacquer I used was heavily thinned, which meant I needed to go over a given area a few passes to obtain good coverage.  The result was a very smoothly painted model, but the pre-shading I did was almost all gone.

The darker green chromate in the opened gun compartment and wheel wells was lighter than silver, hence it allowed me to reverse the painting sequence.  After I painted everything silver, I painted the green area with a custom mix of Tamiya yellow green and Tamiya flat green.  This is where the decision to use silver lacquer paid off - I suffered no peeling whatsoever of the silver paint for the masking that I did for painting green.  The machine guns were painted Alclad jet exhaust, dry brushed and glued in place.

The decals from Eagle Strike were applied.  They were thin, adhered well, and looked fantastic.  The stencils from the kit were also applied.  There were plenty of spelling mistakes on the stencils, and I only used those that looked correct.

After decaling, I sprayed Mr Super Clear semi-gloss in a rattle can over the various parts.  To my utter dismay, the stencils silvered under this top coat.  I found this ironic considering they silvered on silver paint.  Fortunately, I only sprayed the top coat on the peripheral parts, NOT the main fuselage.  I was able to salvage the situation by sanding off the paint on the impacted parts and repaint them.  At the end, I used no top coat at all.  I liked the shiny silver paint job so I chose to leave it as is.

After the mini top coat hiccup, I attached the various odd bits - the landing gears, fuel tanks, pitot tube and such.  The resin intake cover was painted red, with the "36" decal from my spare box applied, and heavily weathered.  I don't know if it's accurate to give it that treatment.  I did it because I didn't want the red cover looking like lip stick on a Hun.  The final finishing touch was applying post-shading with Tamiya smoke to replace the pre-shading.

This was an enjoyable build.  Construction was relatively straight forward, and the parts fit quite well together.  The kit's decal sheet was the weakest link and I recommend using an after market replacement.  The rest of the kit may be used out-of-box to build a good looking model.  I highly recommend this kit.

Terry Chan

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

Photos and text © by Terry Chan