AMT 1/72 F-100F Super Sabre

The North American F-100 Super Sabre is 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Adapted as a fighter-bomber, the F-100 was superseded by the high speed F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam.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".

The F-100F was a two seat trainer version of which 339 were built. Every F-100 squadron had at least one. This version was converted to Wild Weasel and Misty FAC aircraft during the Vietnam War.

When AMT/ERTL bought ESCI, they inherited the yet to be released two seat F-100F. As you might expect, the only difference between this and the single seat aircraft is the fuselage, additional seat and instrument panel along with the tub and an additional control stick. The seats are generic to the max and if you can find replacements, they will be a huge improvement.

For whatever reason, the fuselage has a pair of cannon ports. These need to be filled in as the F model only had the two lower cannon. To install any of the pylons, you need to open the holes in the lower wing. Most non-combat F-100Fs did not use the outer pylons. The inner pylons have the wrong shape adapter for the Sidewinders, providing a straight adapter instead of the proper inverted Y one.

Canopy is a single piece and fit is dodgy. For things under wings you have either Sidewinders or Bullpup missiles on the inside, a pair of fuel tanks for the middle one and no ordnance is provided for the outer pylons. Only the 'bent' air refueling probe is provided so check references to see if the plane you are modeling is equipped with this later item. The kit also comes with a tail hook.

Instructions are large and well drawn with some generic color information provided. The Scalemaster decals is quite well done and since I only popped the shrink on this nearly 30 year old kit prior to writing this, they are in perfect condition. You get two options, both in overall aluminum. One is the box art plane, which is the scheme chosen by a warbird now flying that is for the 353rd TFS/354 TFG. The other is with the 81st TFS/50th TFW.  

This one isn't going to wow anyone with detail. The light grey plastic has a lot of flash on the sprues with some of this leaking onto a few parts. Easy enough to clean up. Your only other real option for the two seat F-100 in this scale is by Trumpeter. That has much better detail and a horribly misshapen intake. This kit was later released by Italeri when they bought AMT/ESCI so it is pretty easy to find.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sabre

September 2021

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