Academy 1/72 F-100D Super Sabre

The North American F-100 Super Sabre was an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. The first of the Century Series of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight. The F-100 was designed by North American Aviation as a higher performance follow-on to the F-86 Sabre air superiority fighter.

Adapted as a fighter bomber, the F-100 was supplanted by the Mach two class F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam. The F-100 flew extensively over South Vietnam as the air force's primary close air support jet until being replaced by the more efficient subsonic LTV A-7 Corsair II. The F-100 also served in other NATO air forces and with other U.S. allies. In its later life, it was often referred to as the Hun, a shortened version of "one hundred".

ANG F-100s were retrofit with F-102 afterburner nozzles, which were much less maintenance intensive than the North American versions. This was also fitted to some NATO planes. The type was finally retired from military service in the US when a 113 TFS F-100D was flown to the boneyard in December 1979. Hundreds were expended as QF-100 drones. The type lasted in military service longer with other nation's air arms. At this writing, there are seven F-100s flying as warbirds, six of them two seat F-100Fs. 

This kit is the Italeri kit in an Academy box.  At first glance, one would think that this was little more than the older, but still nice ESCI kit. This is not the case as this kit is a complete retooling, though perhaps based on the ESCI version. Like the ESCI kit, it is a pretty simple kit. There is a single piece canopy, a fairly nice cockpit tub with a three piece bang seat and no decals for the instruments, though there is raised detail instead.

The instructions recommend nose weight, but don't say how much. I'd say about 7 grams should do it.  Fortunately, even with the cockpit and nose well in place, there is room to place it. There is a single piece nose section which means no intake trunking, the depth of the intake being about an inch. Wings have a complete lower piece with separate upper halves. All the holes for the pylons are already opened and there is a separate hole for the two different refueling probes (one straight and the other 'cranked'). Wing fences are separate.

On the bottom of the plane is an insert for the two inner guns and a separate speed brake, which can be posed lowered. This was normal as the hydraulics bled down. A tail hook is provided and one gets the option of a standard or F-102 burner nozzle. You won't be using the 102 burner unless you are going to model an ANG plane. Landing gear and nicely molded and there are separate inner main gear doors. I mention this as often times these inner doors were latched up. Same is true for the large nose gear door.  With three pylons per wing, you'd expect something to put on them. The kit provided two large fuel tanks, a pair rocket pods with aerodynamic fairings and a pair of M117 bombs. These latter two items are nice, but would benefit from replacements. I would be remiss if I did not mention a glitch in the kit. For some reason, Italeri thought there was an additional frame about two thirds the way back on the canopy. This does not exist and you'll need to sand this off.

In brief, this is not the ESCI kit though it is similar. Major differences in this kit are:

A spurious extra frame on the canopy that shouldn't be there, the ESCI canopy is correct.

The shorter 275 gal tanks, the ESCI kit has the larger drop tanks.

Improved main landing gear parts with brake cables and slightly more detailed wheels.

A cockpit with raised switch/gauge detail while the ESCI kit had a smooth instrument panel and side consoles for use with the cockpit decals provided.


A better ejection seat.

The kit comes with M117 750lb bombs and rocket pods while the ESCI kit did not have any stores.

You do not get the Sidewinder missile rails with either kit.

Instructions are well done and provide a number of paint company options. I'd take some of the painting info with a grain of salt. I'm not sure if the intake was ever chromate yellow or light grey. The interior was probably not light ghost grey but dark gull grey. So use period photos if you are concerned about color accuracy. Markings are for three aircraft, two of which actually saw service in SEA. The box art plane is in the SEA scheme and was from the 309 TFS, 31 TFW. It is named Coleen and has SS tail codes. The other was 'Pretty Penny' from the 481 TFS, 37 TFW in overall unpainted metal (though it also may have been painted aluminum). Finally, the very colorful option is with the 20th TFW in the UK in 1957. This is in unpainted metal.  None of these options are unique to this kit, but the decals look to be very nice and offer all the stencils you will need.

I bought this one as I was wondering if this was a rebox or if Academy had actually done a new tool kit (the box top makes no mention of Italeri). That it is the Italeri kit is not a bad deal and thanks to Italeri's generally high prices, this would be a good option for a nice 1/72 Hun. I should also mention that this was ordered directly from Korea. The shop there simply put it in a tear-resistant bag and as a result, the box was not in perfect condition when it arrived.

May 2018

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