There is little that I can add to the reams of paper that havebeen printed on the Hun. As to a recap, it was the USAF's first straight lineoperational supersonic fighter. It was built in large numbers and stayed inservice over 20 years. Those that were in service prior to the toning down ofunit markings and eventual camouflaging were decked out in some very colorfulmarkings, which makes the F-100 popular amongst 'fighters of the fifties'modelers.

Rather than spread out all the sprues of this kit, I'll just say that there isno difference in the parts from this or any of the other three (perhaps more)releases of this kit since 1980. The only difference in the plastic is that thistime it is in medium grey (others were silver or olive drab). The kit ispractically devoid of flash, though there are the usual ejector pin marks insome very hard to fix places (gear door interiors and struts come to mind).Panel lines are all of the raised variety. To those of you who consider this tobe substandard, then you'll have some scribing to do. 

Aswith the previous kits you have a relatively complete cockpit with raised detailon the instrument panel and consoles. There is also a nice, deep intake trunk,though filling the seam will be a real challenge. There are removable ammo andgun access doors on the left side with nice representations of the 20mm cannon.The slats are molded in the extended position. This is the normal sit of thesewhile on the ground as they were gravity operated. The canopy can be positionedeither opened or closed. For things under wings, you get two of the medium sizeddrop tanks that are applicable for the period decaled. You also have twoBullpups for the inner pylons and two mk 80 series slick bombs with fuseextenders (not applicable to the period) bombs for the outer pylons. I'm notpositive that the Bullpups are applicable for the decals chosen either. You alsoget two afterburner cans. Only use the one noted in the instructions as theothers were taken from F-102s and put on ANG Huns in the late 1960s. 

Themajor improvement in this kit over the others comes not in the plastic, but inthe packaging. First of all, the miserable 'donut box' kit box is gone. This onehas a real box with a top and bottom. It also is a decent size, being the samesize as Monogram has used for this kit since day one. Next the instructions arereally first rate. There are several major construction steps and each of thoseis broken down into substeps. Color information is given for each part using astandard nomenclature. The paint charts in the instruction sheet offer either FSnumbers or Testors paint numbers. 

What is really incredible is the decal sheet. Thisbaby is huge and nearly fills the bottom of the box. The registration is spot onand the decals are crisply done. They are even nice and thin. Folks, I thinkthat these are probably the best kit decals that Monogram (excuse me,Revell-Monogram) have ever put into a mainline kit that didn't carry theProModeler label. They appear to be quite thin and not at all like previousdecals (see the image to the right).

Markings for two aircraftare provided. One is the box top aircraft, a plane from the 31 TFW FighterWeapons Team when these guys were based at George AFB. All the appropriatelygaudy markings are provided on the sheet. The other is from the 79 TFS/ 20 TFWfrom Woodbridge in the UK. These markings are predominately yellow and you willhave to paint on the tail and wing/stab markings. 

Now Ireally must be quite honest and tell you that the Monogram F-100 will not be theeasiest kit you will ever build. It does have some fit problems and you'll haveto use filler on it. However, this does not detract from the fact that it is thebest F-100 available in 1/48, and until Hasegawa or Tamiya produce one (not alikely thing to happen), this is it. Heck, perhaps Black Box will reissue theircockpit set for it!

Ohyeah, you also get a neat little embroidered patch to add to your collection.With only about 50,000 of these being produced, it is bound to be a collector'sitem!

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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