As already
mentioned in my previous articles on ARC, I am a big fan of colourful
USAF-Jets of the Cold War in their shiny natural metal finish and I
couldn't wait to build Trumpeters Hun in the big scale, after having
already filled my display cases with Monograms F-100's in 1:48.
I can say that
Trumpeter's F-100 is one of their best kits ever released, apart from
the fact that this kit has it's shortcomings too, but they are fixable.
The kit allows
to build different versions of USAF's workhorse and I choose an early
F-100 D (serial number 56-3307) flown by the commander of the 417 TFS/50
TFW while stationed at Ramstein A.B. Germany in the late
fifties. The squadron markings consisted of a red band around the nose
and two horizontal parallel bands across the fin with white stars
superimposed on the bands. The squadron badge was placed in the center of
the fin between the two bands. 56-3307, the boss bird, had a smaller
third band in which the squadron badge was superimposed. But the
eyecatching difference were the drop tanks painted in solid red and had a
big silver oak painted on them to signify the rank of Lt. Col. The
fins on 275-gallon drop tanks had white stars too.
All markings
on my Hun are selfmade using computer techniques, except the national
insigna. The finish is simple kitchen foil I had already talked about in
my previous submissions to ARC. Very important is that only the backside
of the foil is used; when using the shiny side, the model looks
unrealistic.
Early natural
metal Huns had no arresting hooks and parts L 6 and L 17 shouldn't be used
in this case. Early Huns (prior to about 1960 or so) had straight refueling
probes and the small cutout in the dive brake.
Only a few
aftermarket products for Trumpeter's big Hun are available at the moment,
so I used only the Avionix cockpit set, which has one point of criticism,
the parachute pack is molded integral with the seat. In USAF service
the parachute was stored and maintained in the life support shop and never
left in the aircraft. I've tolerated this on my model, hoping that
the aftermarket will eventually offer a seat without the parachute pack.
Click on
images below to see larger images
As you can see
in the pictures, I've built my model with all panels closed up.
My
main interest was to show this bird in its colourful markings and the
clean lines than one in apparent overhaul.
The 200-gallon
fuel tanks on both inner pylons are taken from Hasegawa's F-86F, because
70% of the photos I've seen before starting my project, shows the Hun in
such a configuration.
While taking the
pictures of the model, I couldn't resist to set it in front of a modern NATO
shelter, although no shelters were in use at the time this bird showed up in the
european sky. I was impressed by the realism the photos showed. I highly
recommend to take photos of finished models in the open air and
under sunny skies.
I'm sure that in the
future the aftermarket will bring us a lot of correction and conversion sets
for that great model and as far as I know Cutting Edge is preparing decals for
more colourful early Huns. Above all, the intake needs a correction and
that's what I'm waiting for before I start building another Hun.
Let's keep our
fingers crossed, that the twoseater F-100F, announced for this year, comes out
in the same quality.
Peter
Click on
images below to see larger images
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