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
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images below to see larger images
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