|
|
ITALERI 1/72 F-100D SUPER SABRE
Reviewer: Kevin Ronayne
(kevin.ronayne@nuigalway.ie)
Kit
Built
and Review
submitted:
February 2001
The F-100 was the first USAF production jet fighter to reach supersonic speeds in level flight. As the first plane in the 'century' series, it was part of a trend towards ever-faster fighter aircraft. In the end, the F-100 never saw much air-to-air combat - there are records of only one very probable, but unofficial, MiG kill over Vietnam. Apart from a period of escort duty, it's main combat role over Vietnam was as something of a 'bomb truck'.
This kit represents the 'D' version, which was the main production variant. The main visual difference from the 'C' model was the kink at the base of the wing root trailing edge. I mention this as it comes up as a side-issue in the painting and decal guide. More of this later.
This is a relatively recent release from Italeri, probably from about three years ago. The box is the standard one-piece box for a kit in it's price range (about STG £ 5/6). The kit is moulded on two main sprues, in standard-issue light grey plastic, with engraved detailing. The transparency sprue is minimal: just a single-piece windshield / canopy, and a gunsight. Total piece count is about 70. Italeri have yet to cotton on to the notion of bagging the sprues - even just bagging the transparencies would do in most cases. There is hardly any flash to speak of anywhere. However, an annoying 'join line' is visible on some small or thin pieces, probably due to a very marginal misalignment when the two halves of the mould are brought together during production. I'm afraid to say that this is a common problem with a lot of kits, and requires a lot of delicate scraping and paring during construction. Very unusually, parts of a few panel detail lines have not been scribed properly - again, a production problem, one suspects.
Note that I just said this is a recent 'release' - I'm not sure that this is a brand new tooling in the strictest sense. I have an unmade ESCI kit of the F-100D, albeit not the same one as reviewed by Geoff Goldfen. My ESCI kit has decal options for Turkish and French aircraft, and has no stores other than the distinctive fuel tanks. Although the sprues of the Italeri and ESCI kits are completely different in layout, the similarities in construction and detailing are striking. In fact, there only appear to be a couple of areas of real difference between the kits, the cockpit being the main one.
To take this a bit further, I remember reading somewhere that Revell's recent release of the F-100D was based on a refurbished tooling of an ESCI kit. Not only do Revell licence kits from Italeri, but they also licence kits that Italeri licence from other companies - the KP kit of the Mil Mi 8/17 Hip is an example. As ESCI were way ahead of their time amongst European manufacturers, the end result is very good. The bottom line is that this is a typical recent Italeri kit - good, but not at the level of, say, Tamiya or Hasegawa. Or even Revell or Academy ..
The instruction leaflet is a standard Italeri fold-out affair, and is fairly comprehensive. Paint and decal schemes are provided for three aircraft: a 'bare-metal' USAF machine (1958), a similar Danish machine (1961), and a camouflaged French aircraft - sporting 'sharks teeth', operating from Djibouti (1978). I chose the first option. The decal sheet is, surprisingly, produced by Cartograf. Long-time builders of Italeri kits may remember that Cartograf were Italeri's main decal suppliers for many years. I always felt that these lacked something in quality, and particularly in adhesion. Then, about ten years ago, Italeri switched to a new supplier called Zanchetti, who were a big improvement. These particular decals are of very good quality, however. In terms of detailing, the decals are OK - just don't expect the rash of microscopic stencilling provided on some kits.
The cockpit of this kit left something to be desired. A single piece 'bath' forms the basis of the sub-assembly. Neither it's side panels nor the main instrument panel are provided with decals - it's all relief detailing. Personally, I didn't mind the painting work involved there. I found the fit of the 'bath' itself to the fuselage was a problem. A couple of tiny positioning notches on the fuselage wall seemed to be too low for my liking. The exact location can only be deduced once the instrument panel is in place first - something that itself required some 'trial-and-error' and 'dry-runs'. The main problem in the cockpit is the ejection seat, however. It is a three-piece affair (two side parts and a central seat) that looks OK by itself. However, it wont fit into the cockpit without some vigorous sanding down along the sides. A very strange problem. The canopy fit seemed OK to me.
The main component fits were very good - the single piece lower wing fitted very snugly into the completed fuselage. The undercarriage assemblies seemed fine, although you may need to consult some references to get a really good idea of how the two parts of each main undercarriage fit in relation to each other. The instruction leaflet provides a plan view of where all the various undercarriage sub-assemblies are to go, but only confuses matters by mixing up some left- and right-sub assemblies. Ignore this - the rest of the instructions are correct.
The USAF version has a choice of IFR probes: straight, or with the distinctive upward kink - I chose the latter. A very minor irritant was that the cutaway notch provided for the probe was too small, and had to be expanded. Also, the inner and outer wing pylons did not fit snugly to the lower wing surface. I suspect that these are 'new' parts tooled by Italeri. The external fuel tanks, with built-in pylons, fitted perfectly - but they are part of the original ESCI kit. The inner pylons carry a pair of Mk. 117 750 lb. GP bombs. The outer pylons sport what look to be SUU-7 dispensers, with the rear end faired off, so as to look identical from the front and back. This stores load might be typical for a USAF machine of the time, but I can't say what the Danes and French might have used. Apart from the refuelling probes, the only other optional parts are the tail-pipes - the Danish machine has a different tail-pipe to the other two.
Another couple of niggling points: The under-nose panel for the two inner gun muzzles was a poor fit. Why this panel needs to be there at all is a mystery to me, although it was also in the ESCI kit. Also, the dive-brakes, if built in the open position, need to be modified slightly. The faces of the dive-brake struts that are attached to the brake bay wall need to be steepened, so that everything fits the way it should. If this sounds completely confusing, just trust me.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
The painting instructions follow standard Italeri practice; i.e., Model Master and / or FS colours. These should easily translate into whatever you have available. For my USAF aircraft, I used Revell aluminium as the main colour, and Humbrol polished steel (Metalcote) for the rear engine section. The instructions aren't quite consistent on the extent of this area - use your references !! The rest of the painting work was trivial, as you would expect with this scheme.
As already mentioned, the decal sheet is adequate but not overwhelming. For the USAF version, all the important details around and beneath the cockpit appear to be there. Note that the red band around the nose needs to be applied before fitting the aerial / pitot tube. This is not really obvious, and should have been pointed out. A more serious problem is that the main painting guides seem to show some wing panel layouts that bear no relation to what is actually on the plane itself. The under wing view looks as if it was originally a 'C' model, before someone drew in an extra line at the base of the wing root. The upshot of all of this is that you should be careful about using these drawings alone as a basis for positioning the national markings. For the USAF kit, the big fin / rudder marking decals are difficult to apply - a wraparound decal would have made life easier. I 'cleaned up' the area with a small spot of painting, to give a (hopefully) seamless appearance.
One final matter: the pair of vertical red lines that encircle the aircraft near the front of the fin. These are represented by two decals: one for port, one for starboard. However, if you put them in the correct place (and the instructions here are correct), then they do not meet each other on the underside. Get the paintbrush out again!
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
Despite my apparent griping, I liked this kit a lot. I have not been exposed so much to 'Tamigawa' kits that I regard any blemish as a critical flaw. The problems with this kit are minor, and - once you can identify them - quite easily corrected. Accuracy wise, the kit looks very, very good - forget the dodgy diagrams, the plastic is spot-on. For the price, you can't go wrong. All I want now is a Vietnam option in period camouflage.
Related Reviews:-
Italeri 1/72 F-100D Super Sabre (Gavin Reed)
SMAKR Home
| What's New | Submissions
| Information Requests | News | Links
| Reference Corner | Site
Info
1/72 Reviews | 1/48
Reviews | INBOX Reviews
