F-100 question for Ben!

[Bill L2]

Thanks Lee.

[Lee_K]

Oh, their plain aluminum would be fine.  Spray semi- gloss clear over it after decals and that will replicate aluminum lacquer quite well.

Lee K

[Bill L2]

Thanks Ben and Lee. I went to Sprue Bros and found some decals I liked for a silver jet. Is there an Alclad silver finish that would work?

[BenB]

You'd almost have to build a factory-fresh early F-100D to get one in natural metal. The Ds started leaving the factory in silver paint before the production run was over. I'm afraid I don't have any spares for a silver jet, but Aeromaster has several sheets for silver-painted F-100Ds.

As far as mods to the kit, if you're really picky about accuracy, you'll need to thin the fuel tank vent fairing on the tail to about 1/2 it's current width. The T-Bird tail below has the original fairing, and the camouflaged jet has the wider one they fitted to house radar warning gear (RHAWS). Monogram's has the latter one, as well as the display in the cockpit, but they left off the antenna fairing on the back end of the tail fairing above the orange & white nav light and the one under the intake.

Bill Spidle photo

The RHAWS display is the little box & cylinder to the left of the gun sight, just above the drag chute handle. This was where they originally had two 3" round drop tank fuel guages.

Other than that, you can build a silver Hun right from the box. You don't necessarily have to use the straight refueling probe. Most likely, the jet you build will have had the curved one fitted. A post-1964 jet serving in Vietnam would have had the longer 335-gal drop tanks. Otherwise, just use the unmodified kit tanks. F-100Ds up to serial number 55-2783 had the F-100C-style 1-piece inboard main gear doors and the speed brake with the narrow cutout. This would include all F-100Ds that served with foreign air forces.

If you use any aftermarket, the Legend cockpit doesn't fit worth ****. Black Box's isn't much better. The seats from both companies are almost 4mm too short. Get one of AMS Resin's seats from Sprue Bros. Legend's afterburner nozzle looks a bit better than the kit one, but the "seamless" intake part that comes with it is useless. Aires makes a killer afterburner that costs $30+. Royale Resin just released a nice set of wheels for the kit, but I don't think they're really all that necessary for the Monogram kit.

I've found that if you build the fuselage without the wings, it will go together a lot easier. Then just split the wing and glue them on individually. You'll still have a seam forward & aft of the wings, but nowhere near as bad as if you build it with the wing as one piece. You might want to add a brass rod spar to strengthen things if you go that route. Remove the stabilators to make it easier to clean up the seams on the aft fuselage and it will be easier to paint the model, too. The intake looks OK once you remove the alignment pins inside. Then glue the nose piece to the duct first, so you don't get a nasty step between the duct and the nose piece. If you wait and glue it on when the instructions tell you, you'll have a step inside to clean up. Glue the nose piece to the upper fuselage half when you install the cockpit to make it easier to clean up the seam around that compound curve there. The worst seam will be under the nose, where it will be easier to clean up since the fuselage is almost flat there.

Let me know if I can be of any help with your project. As you already know, I suffer from Too Many References when it comes to F-100s.

Cheers!

Ben

[Lee_K]

I'm not Ben, but I play him on TV.   

Note that most (if not all) F-100s were painted in aluminum lacquer from that late 1950s on.  Only the rear hot section was left in natural metal.  This actually makes it a bit easier to paint, as you can use Floquil Old Silver for the main body and not have to pick out alternate panels with different shades of aluminum.  Ben will also tell you about some simple modifications you can make to the kit to make it even more accurate.

Lee K

[Bill L2]

Ben I purchased a 1/48 Monogram F-100 at the last club meeting. It is an older kit that comes with the T-Bird decals but has the big tail. I want to build a NMF airplane from the early 60's era. Can I use that kit or do I need to do some modifications? Also do you have any decals for a NMF Jet that you would like to sale?

Bill