Back in the early 1970s, Hasegawa pretty well held the lead in terms of the USAF's Century Series fighter kits in 1/72 scale. True, today, these things are woefully inadequate in terms of detail and most modelers will shun this one. However, they are pretty inexpensive as things go, especially when ordering direct and do make into quite passable models for one's display shelves.

This is a 2016 release that has two kits in one box. Unlike the original releases, this one is molded in a standard grey plastic. In addition, the plastic is not as hard as the earlier releases and there is flash on several parts as well as some sink areas that will need to be taken care of.  The cockpit is quite Spartan consisting of little more than a seat with radio bits behind it, a floor and a pilot to put into the seat. The instrument panel is molded in with the anti-glare panel and takes a decal for instruments.

The instructions don't indicate any nose weight, but I'd add some just to be sure. Both the intake and exhaust pieces are somewhat shallow, but no worse than what you'd get on the ESCI kit. You only get the early exhaust so if modeling something from its later history where it had the F-102 burner can, you'll have to source that from somewhere else. The kit has a single piece canopy to cover your pretty empty cockpit. Wings have a full span lower wing with upper halves and separate fences on the outer wings. All of the pylon holes are already opened up.

Wheel wells are equally Spartan as the cockpit with no real detail. Fortunately, the inner gear doors will cover up much of that. The speed brake can be positioned down if one wishes. There is also a separate tail bumper. Gear legs are fairly well done, though a bit light on detailing. The nose gear on many early kits had issues with alignment on the nose wheels, but it seems that that has been corrected. You get two different refueling probes, an early straight one and later curved version. Note that not all 'foreign' planes had this so if modeling one of the options, that will require the holes being filled.

The kit comes with the long 335 gallon fuel tanks as well as the small 200 gallon versions. Note that the centerline has what is shown as a 'practice bomb'. I'd fill those holes and not use this bit. There are Bullpups for the inner pylon or one can attach dual Sidewinders. The Sidewinder pylon is wrong as it should be a Y shape, but the kit provides a T. The Sidewinders themselves are rather basic.

Instructions have been upgraded and use Gunze paint references. There are three markings options provided, all in unpainted metal. )one is from the 493 TFS in 1959. Another is from the same unit in 2004(?). The third is French aircraft from EC 2/11 in the late 1950s. Decals are nicely done and are the modern type so should work just fine.

CONSTRUCTION

This build was inspired by a new set of F-100D decals from Euro Decals. Otherwise this kit would have probably sat on the shelf a few more years. With no spares to upgrade the kit, it will be build pretty much as it comes from the box.

First thing was to glue together some subassemblies. In this case it meant the fuel tanks and the wings. Note that the holes for the kit pylons are already open so if one wants to not include those items, the holes will need filling. I was less than jazzed about the butt fit of the fuel tank fins onto the tanks themselves and even the tank halves had no locating pins so getting them together well was rather fussy. .

I then painted and installed the cockpit into a fuselage half. This is little more than a seat shape with attached radio rack that fits onto a plate. The pilot is supposed to cover the fact that there is no real detail in there, not even a control stick. I left the interior loose until the last minute before closing the halves so I could center it. I also put 12 grams of nose weight in it just to be sure it didn't tail sit. When I glued the fuselage halves together, I also glued on the nose and the burner can piece. Then began the usual sanding and filler process that is the norm with me.

Once that was done, the wing was fit into place. I was very much surprised at how well this went with almost no adjustment required. I then painted the instrument panel section matte black and attached the decal. This was then glued onto the kit.

The instrument panel/anti-glare section was then attached and after it was masked, the canopy installed. This was followed by the wings, but without the upper strakes as those need to be attached after decals are applied unless you are doing an SEA painted plane. Once I ensured that the plane didn't need any additional nose weight, I glued on the lower gun openings piece and the tailplanes. This seemed like a good time to do some painting.