A Bunch of Lazy People, A Gift From Ron, Back to the Hun

 

Whatever Happened to Doing Your Own Research?

There was a time, and it wasn't all that long ago once you think about it, when those of us who embraced serious scale modeling had a hobby that worked on a number of different levels. We didn't have all that many decent kits to choose from as far as accuracy or even availability was concerned, so our very first task was to pick a subject and locate an appropriate kit in whatever our chosen scale was, a simple chore at first glance until you remember that whole availability thing, because it was as real a problem as real can be. A lot of us learned how to scratch build and do significant modifications back in those "good" old days, because we were largely dealing with "authentic scale models" that had begun life as toys, or maybe basic desk models. The point is, we had to research pretty much everything, and that was back in the days before anyone had invented either the internet or aftermarket. We also learned how to research using the limited tools available to us in that time and place.

That's right, folks; we only had books, magazines, photography and, for an extremely limited number of us, various documents and reports gleaned from archival institutions and museums, as well as from other collectors of such things, to help us in our quest for knowledge and polystyrene accuracy. It was a struggle sometimes, but it was also fun and satisfying as well. We researched our next project and found a kit, or something that could be converted into what we wanted if no kit was available. We found the appropriate paint and, if any were even available, which was most assuredly not a given at that time, aftermarket decals. Perhaps most importantly, although we often failed to realize it way back then, we learned how to research, and how to dig things out of long-neglected archives or, more often than not, books that were inadequately researched and needed help in their own regard. The point is, we learned how to do it. In short, we worked the problem!

Skip ahead to today and it's an entirely different world. Yes, books and magazines are still there, albeit barely hanging on in this age of electronic miracles, as are web sites full of information to be had for nothing, which, unfortunately, is often exactly what they're worth, but that's a topic for another day. The reports, technical papers, and photography that often caused us to make a road trip to Maxwell, or Dayton, DC, or P'Cola back in those halcyon days of long ago, can now be had at everyone's convenience if they only care to look for it in the appropriate places online. The stuff is there, and available to anyone who cares to put the electronic sweat equity into research.

With that said we are, in so many ways, back to a worse place than we were 50 or 60 years ago. Yes; the information is there for the taking, but so are modeler's web sites with public platforms and that, my friends, has given birth to an entire category of modelers who sign onto the forum of their choice and ask questions ranging from "what color should I paint it" to "what markings were used on the airplane I want to make", or even "What should I build for my next model?" Why bother to learn how to research when you can just ask, thus taking advantage of the accumulated communal knowledge and expertise of any number of self-appointed experts, along with the infrequent actual authority, to look things up for them. To some folks (ok, to a LOT of folks) it makes sense to do things that way too, sortof, because it's fast, easy, and free. Of course, anyone who chooses that route tends to miss the most important part of the whole deal, which is learning how to find things out for yourself and validate the information that's discovered. Besides, just because someone has been anointed as an authority on something doesn't mean they actually are, it may just mean they have a good game. 

Let's leave this typically mindless ramble of mine with a thought. You obviously have a computer, or access to one, or you wouldn't be reading this blog. You probably go to a number of other sites as well, and read a few, or a great many, of those modeling forums, and you might even ask some of those "why is there air" sorts of questions from time to time. Maybe you should take the bull by the horns and learn how to do those things for yourself instead of asking someone else all the time? Maybe you'd discover you enjoy doing it, and in the process learn how much fun digging for information can be, and then discover the absolute joy of finding what you're looking for even though you didn't think you could? Or maybe you'd prefer to let somebody else do that sort of thing for you and be willing to settle for whatever they produce be it right, wrong, or totally indifferent. 

My conclusion is obvious, and it's more than a little bit trite, but the choice is yours and I think you should go for that brass ring!

I rest my case.

A Hog You Might Not Have Seen

I've known Ron Picciani for a very long time, a span measured in decades rather than in years, and I've occasionally run images from his seemingly bottomless collection on this site. He recently contacted me saying he'd come across a fairly unique Corsair that he wanted to share, an offer that simply wasn't to be refused, so here it is!

It's possible that you've seen this one before but we sure haven't! The airplane is a Goodyear-built FG-1D (BuNo 92434) attached to the Navy Reserve component at Columbus. The image was taken by Harold Caldwell and provides us with a fine view of a relatively unusual airplane.  Picciani Collection

Many thanks for sharing this one, Ron---keep 'em coming, please!

A Monogram Masterpiece

A few issues back, and well over a year ago, I ran a piece co-authored with Doug Barbier on how to build a model of the North American Aviation F-100D in Southeast Asia during the bad old days of the Vietnam War. In that article we discussed two of the three 1/48th scale "Hun" kits available to the modeler; those by Monogram and Trumpeter---the ESCI F-100D was deliberately ignored due to its relative rarity and overall poor accuracy---and came to the conclusion that the Monogram offering was definitely the 1/48th scale way to go. Allow me to reiterate that right now by saying that the boys from Morton Grove got things mostly right dimensionally and pretty much nailed it from a detail fidelity to the real thing standpoint as well, which we'll get to in just a minute. Further, and quite likely to the utter chagrin of a great many modelers, I'm going to climb out on an extraordinarily short limb and say that the Trumpeter kit, which as I previously discussed over a year ago, is after all largely salvageable, and is a great model airplane but not a particularly good replica of the F-100D. I'm also going to highly suggest that you go back to the September 20 and December 23, 2020, issues of this very blog and become familiar with the F-100D in SEA articles that reside there. In fact, it's actually fairly important to what we're discussing today that you do that, since they laid the groundwork for what you see before you now.

With all that said, it's my intention to completely ignore that Sino effort this time around but let's do it with a caveat: Those guys at Trumpeter have an A-Team that are capable of tooling some incredibly impressive and accurate kits, models that can stand on their own terms with pretty much anything out there. They also, however, have their very own Junior Varsity, a group of individuals who seem to do the research for the kits that aforementioned A-Team are not involved with. The "Hun" was apparently, and quite unfortunately, not an A-Team effort. Feel free to build it if you'd like, but it just doesn't float my boat, so I'm off to see the Wizard and spend some quality time with a dinosaur to boot. Care to join me?

Late in the day and getting ready to rumble, we find a pair of Huns receiving final inspection prior to launch out of Phan Rang on their way to some air-to-mud mischief during 1970.  NARA Image

Let's Talk About the Kit---The Basic Offering

Monogram's 1980-vintage Hun kit was as good as it got as far as polystyrene scale models were concerned back when it was released, but that was 44 years ago, give or take, so you could be pardoned for thinking of that edifice as a woefully obsolete reminder of The Age Before Aftermarket. Doing that would constitute a considerable disservice to both the kit and to yourself, however. We'll get into the details of things in a few minutes but first let's take a look at the Big Picture, and let's also presume that you've got yourself an original early 80s white box version of the kit, which is kit # 5416. That particular issue was done in Morton Grove and was pretty much as good as things ever got, Monogram Hun-wise, and it's worth your while to track one of them down because several of the later boxings were done offshore and have some of the flash and fit problems that are often the result of such poorly considered economics. Yes, fit was always an issue with Monogram kits, or with almost any other plastic model done prior to the frequently dubious benefit of computer-designed tooling, but that whole deal gets worse the further you travel from the well, if you get what I mean, so stay with the earlier kits if you can. 

We know there's going to be some issues with fit, then, and we also know, or will shortly learn, some of us anyway, that the model has raised panel lines and related details because that's what most of the companies producing plastic kits did back in 1980. We mention that because nowadays people often consider raised details to be a major deal breaker---I don't, and you shouldn't either, but no matter how you feel about raised surface detailing, working with this kit is far and away your best shot at an accurate 1/48th scale F-100D.  

We also know, or at least you do if you read that first article way back in 2020, that Monogram's Hun represents a late aircraft sporting the lower wing "bandaid" reinforcements and most, but not all, of the RHAW gear worn by the airplane late in its Air Force, as opposed to Air National Guard, career. If you're building a late-war SEA bird, you'll only need to add the AN/APR-25(V) antenna that lives under the nose just behind the pitot tube mount and you'll be home free with the possible exception of adding a blade antenna or a beacon or two here and there. In any case, looking at photographs of the airplane you wish to model is a seriously good idea. With all of that in mind, let's get started with some actual modeling, and begin with...

Things That Will Annoy You

The Monogram F-100D was birthed in an era where "detail" was often synonymous with "open panels" featuring assorted lumps and bobs hiding behind them and there are two of those to be found in the kit, both on the port side of the forward fuselage and both related to the depiction of the airplane's Pontiac M39 gun installation. One is an ammunition access panel that lives just under the cockpit coaming, and it fits, mostly, but will still have gaps that need to be addressed. The other panel is down on the lower fuselage and covers the guns, more or less, but it won't fit properly; never has, and it never will, regardless of how you try to fix it. You can leave those pesky covers off to showcase the by today's standards totally inadequate detail that lives behind them, or you can enter the wonderful world of Putty/Sand/Scribe and fix the problem. It's your choice. (As an aside, if you decide to close the panels, you won't need to do anything about the inaccurate stuff that goes behind them other than omit them entirely, which is actually a positive when we get right down to it.)

Next there's the kit's basic design, which has lower wing panels connected by a web that fits between the upper and lower fuselage halves, which were designed that way to allow for maximum detail in the landing gear bays and speed-brake well. That mission was fully accomplished and said wells are highly detailed and present themselves well---for a 1980-vintage kit. They're a bit lacking if your experience lies with more modern offerings and will cause the upper fuselage to distort and bit and refuse to fit properly if you build the model per instructions. The solution is a simple if somewhat draconian one: Cut that web and leave a gap in the middle so the two pieces you've just created can no longer touch each other, then build the fuselage without the trapped wing assembly. If you do it that way you can add the wings later, just like in a more normal model but be sure to cut the "pips" off the upper side of the wing tabs before trying to slide them into place since those little bumps no longer have a function and will only make wing attachment a bit more difficult. The the insides of the intake isn't accurate in any way but it's also not overly noticeable unless you happen to be building for a contest and want a full intake trunk in there. I didn't, so I didn't do that, but I did sand off the lugs for the locating pins inside said trunk so their lumps were no longer visible. That's either a compromise or just pure laziness on my part, take your pick. At any rate, be careful with your assembly and either live with the resulting black hole in the front of the airplane, which will provide a great illusion of depth, or steal a compressor face from another kit and stick it way back in there after you do something to extend the intake trunk, once again going for effect rather than accuracy.  Oh, and the kit doesn't provide any way to depict the gun-laying radar that lives up there inside the upper nose on the real airplane. You can replicate it or not, depending on how serious you are about the project. 

Here's a mostly completed and partially puttied and sanded fuselage for your perusal. The fuselage has been assembled and all the big pieces important to it have been added. The tabs on the wings will go into those slots once all the bodywork has been accomplished and the plastic polished out, and the horizontal stabs have been removed to be replaced later, at the end of construction and painting. This is an earlier model of mine and has the horizontals dropped into the full-down position, although the Super Sabre I currently have under construction has those stabs still in place and also has far less putty thanks to better knowledge on my part on how to build the model. Let's call that one Learning From Experience...

While we're discussing those horizontal stabs, the same engineer who designed the wing fitment also saw fit to mold the horizontal stabilizers integral to the upper fuselage half. That's no big deal and can be easily dealt with as long as you're careful with your assembly and subsequent sanding, but you may want to display your model with the stabs in their full-down position instead, which is how the Hun was often parked. The kit's position is just fine, however, so you can leave things as they are if you're confident of your ability to properly assemble and sand that area of the fuselage. Otherwise, you can drill a hole straight through the aft fuselage and insert and pot in a piece of aluminum tube (because it's easy to sand), thus making a bushing for the brass rod you'll use to connect the two horizontal stabs to the airframe after all your bodywork is done.

See how easy that was? You might also note all the putty used on the fuselage. Yeppers: She can a putty queen if you aren't careful, but all the work is worth it in the end!

While we're here, and jumping the gun a bit since you still haven't put the interior in place, let's determine what sort of Hun you're building since the kit comes with different afterburner components; the one North American Aviation thought the airplane should have and the more reliable F-102 item that an Air Force crew chief decided was a better mousetrap late in the Hun's service life. Remember, though, that those Deuce ABs were only fitted to Huns in the ANG, and even then not to any of their airplanes that went to SEA. The regular as-manufactured afterburners were back there for the type's entire service in Vietnam.

There's at least one bit of aftermarket out there dealing with the "regular" afterburner you'll need for a wartime airplane, but I didn't use it, choosing instead to give the jet-pipe some depth by cutting out the solid back of the exhaust pipe and sliding a piece of brass tube over the resulting flange I'd created. I also cut out the well for the tail bumper and boxed it with a piece of plastic channel to give the illusion of depth back there. It's really simple, and it works.

We Ought to Have an Interior

And the stock Monogram one is just fine, thank you very much! As you might expect, there's an Eduard photo-etch set for the Hun, but it's dimensionally too big to fit the Monogram kit because it's scaled to fit the over-large Trumpeter model. QuickBoost do make a seat that's worth using but you can get to the same place by modifying the existing Monogram offering, which is a polite way of saying that aftermarket isn't required for this kit's interior unless you want to tell your friends you used it, so they'll think you're one of the cool kids. About the only thing you might want to do is figure out what sort of RHAW gear the airplane you're modeling had---that's relatively easy to determine just by looking at the lumps and bumps on the vertical stab of the real thing---and adjusting the black boxes on the top of the instrument panel to match, keeping in mind that Monogram's as-offered kit is accurate in that area as well and provided the boxes appropriate to the kit's RHAW fit.  You'll need to do some backdating for anything else, but the kit's gunsight and associated black boxes are entirely appropriate for the late jet that Monogram modeled for us. You can detail all you want, of course, and a little bit of Modeling 101 will go a very long way in this cockpit. should you choose to go that route.

Sticking the Fuselage Together

This really ought to be a no-brainer, but if you're building your first Monogram Hun kit, you're probably going to pooch it and end up re-learning all those words that the generations far more genteel than the one we presently live in once considered to be highly naughty because of all of the fit issues you've just created.  It's a bit redundant since we sortof discussed that very thing just a paragraph or two ago, but here's how you can avoid doing that.

First, like we said up there in the beginning, cut that wing web so you can build the fuselage without interruption, as it were. This would also be a good time to carefully (can we say that word all together please: CAREFULLY) cut the horizontal stabs off the upper fuselage half if you intend on showing them in their full-down position. and mark the centers of both the stabs and the fuselage where those stabilators once lived and put a witness mark on the fuselage as well so you can drill a hole there later on. You can also just leave the stabs as they are and work around them, which is perfectly viable and entirely representative of the real airplane, or you can cut them off and butt-join them to the fuselage after all your bodywork is done---it sounds somewhat crude to do it that way but it works as long as you use something like Tamiya's hot-rod super thin super-fast super-duper glue and do it prior to painting. This would also be a good time to improve the appearance of that quartet of GM M39 20mm cannon that live under the nose. Simply drilling the muzzles out will work for most people, or you can drill, chisel, and file out the guns and replace them with blunt hypodermic needles, or even completely rebuild the entire area. The choice is yours, but you really ought to do something down there!

There are different ways to attach the horizontal stabilizers should you choose to remove them from the fuselage either for ease of assembly or to pose them in the full-down position, but however you decide to do it you really ought to consider marking both the fuselage and the stab so you'll know where to drill your mounting holes if that's the path you want to follow. By Guess and By Golly is a technique that works great for some things but not at all if you're trying for any sort of semi-precision alignment of identical things that sit on opposite sides of a fuselage, right? Anyway, extend those markings to the appropriate position and put in a pilot hole with a drill somewhat smaller than your final connecting pin and bushing will be, then deal with it after most of your bodywork is done. 

Anyway, get your interior finished, and maybe put a couple of lead weights in front of the instrument panel and on top of the intake trunk; that's a just-because sort of precaution since the kit really doesn't need the ballast but that could change if you decide to hang things made of solid resin under the wings. (CG is a real thing, ya'll, even in plastic.) Stick the landing lights, parts 68, into the lower fus halve per the instructions or not, depending on how you want to depict those landing lights (but keeping in mind that they don't fit very well as given and will require attention no matter what you do), then put the interior in in place in the upper fuselage, taking care to align everything properly. All of this is in preparation for glueing the fuselage halves together, which you should do exceedingly carefully, a little bit at a time, and taking care to align things so the fuselage halves actually fit properly as you go along. That aforementioned Tamiya super-duper cement is your new best friend here, should you choose to use it. Inch your way along, glueing and holding and all the while matching up the fuselage halves until both sides are done, the goal being to minimize your employment of significant sanding and puttying once everything is together. The intake ring goes on next, aligning things as best you can, and then the tail cap and jet pipe. Let everything sit overnight, then sand the resulting seam smooth. If you did it right, you'll end up using a tiny bit of putty here and there and performing a modest amount of sanding; less care at this stage will result in more work to clean things up, but you'll get there either way. Care and precise alignment as described should get you the best result, but that's in your hands, right?

This is yet another earlier Hun of mine and has been glued, sanded, puttied and polished, and is in the process of having its primer polished as well. Note that the fairing for the RHAW gear that lives on the trailing edge of the vertical stab has been substantially reduced in thickness. This model ended up representing an F-100D during its initial deployments to Vietnam with the 481st TFS so the as-built fairing is being represented, and was achieved by simply sanding things down until the appropriate thickness was reached. 

Accomplishing those things will get you to a good place airframe-wise unless you want to replicate an early D-model with the original speed brake, a configuration which will require you to modify or rebuild the speed brake panel and, more importantly, the speed brake well. My personal modeling interest in the airplane tends to span the years I spent in Misawa (1962-65) and the Vietnam War so I've never been in the position where such modification was necessary. I've been told that the Trumpeter speed brake will work just fine as a modification set in this regard, since both styles with their wells are provided in that kit, but everything else related to that model seems to be a bit oversized, something to watch out for if you decide to try that particular modification. I've never done it myself so I can only tell you that it's possible.

The Vertical Tail, and Mr RHAW

That subtitle is a bit misleading, of course, because that whole RHAW thing includes not only the vertical tail but ultimately a bit of related chisel-shaped gear up under the nose as well. Monogram provided us with optional aerial refueling probes so we could enjoy a bit of markings variety right out of the box, which means building an earlier configuration jet, but in every other respect the kit represents a late F-100D right down to the wing bandaids, wing beacons, and antennae, and, of course, the representation of the APN/APR-25 RHAW gear on the vertical tail. We'll get to the bandaids in a minute, but you need to be clear on that whole Radar Homing and Warning thing if you plan on modeling an F-100 as used in SEA. (In that respect I'm going to be really lazy and refer you back to my 29 September 2020 issue of this blog, as well as several others scattered throughout this ongoing literary project that have featured the F-100 in one manner or another. That September 2020 issue defines the SEA-era RHAW fit better than I plan on describing it here, and there's no point in repeating everything so let's just go with the basics: A pre or early-War Hun will have the really flat equipment panels back there, just above the rudder, while the later birds, to take in most of the camouflaged ones, while have the bulkier equipment fit, possibly to include the "eyeballs", and the chisel-shaped sensor up under the nose. 

This particular RHAW treatment is what you're after if you're modeling an early jet. Note how "flat" it appears in comparison to that of a wartime bird. The fuel dump is a normal thing regardless of which RHAW fit is on the airplane, as is the anti-static wick and the red and white position lights seen at the back of the fairing. Note the APW-11 antenna sticking out of the top of the vertical stab; it's not that unusual to see it in place pre-1962 or '63 but was almost never seen on airplanes used in Vietnam. This airplane is an early 60s UK-based D-model (the famous 20th TFW "Triple Zilch" now on display at the Late Great Kelly AFB).    Ben Brown Collection

This shot was used a couple of years ago, a part of the first significant F-100 piece on this blog, but if you can get past that you'll have a valid comparison between the early (the photo immediately preceding this one) and later RHAW fairing treatments. This fairing is the one Monogram provides molded onto the vertical stabilizer of their kit and it's accurate, albeit inappropriate for an early-War (1965-67) jet.    Friddell Collection

That Elusive LWNAVS Thingy

The "PACAF mod" (LWNAVS, for Light Weight Navigation System) is an installation that confuses and confounds almost everyone who discovers an interest in silver wartime Huns. In its simplest form, it describes the installation of a long-range over-water nav system fitted only to those F-100s (Ds and some Fs) assigned to PACAF prior to the war, but there's a catch. Very few if any Huns actually had the mod in the Pacific prior to the mid-Sixties when airframes previously stationed in the United States but tasked with assignment to that watery bit of real estate in the event of war were modified or provided with modification kits. You can tell the jets that were so modified by the large fiberglass antenna panel on the bottom of the aft fuselage and its related cooling scoop, found up at the "kink" in the vertical tail. Keep in mind also that the mods could be performed at the unit level and frequently were, I think both in (Vietnam) and out (Cannon AFB) of theater, but I'm not at all certain of the where and when since I don't have hard documentation supporting it. You may recall that Doug Barbier shared a partial listing of modified jets with us way back there in 2020, which will help in the identification of many airplanes that actually received the mod. In my world that calls for a conclusion, so I'm going to blithely close my eyes, stand way out there on a limb, and say that I doubt you'll find a documented image of an F-100D or F in Japan, for instance, that was so-modified when the Cannon jets began their steady march to the mainland Far East. I'm open to correction here, of course, but only if it's accompanied by a dated photograph---no speculation or assumption allowed, because I've already done enough of that myself! Whew! 

The Wings

One of the easier tasks to accomplish with this kit is the assembly of the wings. Most of your time here should be spent carefully trimming, fitting, and aligning the upper and lower halves. Remember that the Hun's slats were deployed on the ground and were not gravity operated, so don't cut those actuator arms off unless you plan on replacing them with something more to scale and closer to the real article. 

Most D-model F-100s had a fence that lived on each wing and I've yet to see a photograph of a SEA-based Hun without them, so it's pretty much a given that you'll need to build them. They have a "cap", for want of a better word, that gives the assembly the appearance of a T when seen from the front. The kit doesn't provide any sort of hard location marks for the ones it provides but they're easy enough to eyeball in place. I generally use the kit items as templates and cut my fences out of .010 styrene, but I've also used kit parts in the past and have also omitted adding those tee caps on one model. That was an oversight on my part, but I did it and nobody who's seen the finished model has ever commented on it and I haven't gone back and fixed it, for whatever that means. You may see things differently...

While we're speaking of seeing things, one of the late-Hun features that Monogram included on their wings was the pair of teardrop-shaped lights located out towards the upper surface wingtips. This is very much a late-War thing, and those lights may need to be sanded off depending on the jet you're building. This is the part where I would normally say that photos are your friend, but the chances of you finding a photograph that actually does or does not show the lights on the exact airplane you want to model is highly unlikely. My personal rule of thumb for my own models is no lights pre-1970. That's a guess on my part (I'm honest to a fault) so let those cards and letters roll but beware of the wing lights!

One thing you probably should fix are the wing caps found tight up against the fuselage on the lower wings, sitting on top of that line of segmented doublers that also lives down there. Once again they're there because Monogram modeled a late jet and almost all of the later F-100Ds and Fs had the reenforcements once a couple of wings failed in combat due to age, fatigue, and the occasional overstressing of components during combat. The bandaids are easy to spot, but a bit tricky to remove---see that raised detailing up against both upper and lower wings, right up beside the fuselage? That's not them, but the conglomeration of lumpy things scabbed onto those same details on both lower wings are. I've removed them carefully with a micro-chisel and sandpaper, and also by sanding all that detail completely away and doing some careful work with strip styrene and a scribing tool to replace the now-missing factory detail, and you don't have to do anything at all if you're modeling a later jet (1966 and later, I think...) but any silver Hun you replicate will most likely require a bit of bandaid removal. 

This photo, taken of a restored F-100D by Bill Spidle, shows the configuration of the reinforcement that lives under the wings and tight up against the fuselage. Look closely at the side closest to the main gear and you'll see the airplane has had the bandaid applied to the original wing root doublers. While we're down here, take a look at the base of the refueling probe as well. This is a wonderful photograph in so many ways!  Bill Spidle

Here's a slightly different view of the same area of that restored Hun, showing the base of the refueling probe to what some people might call Good Advantage. It also helps to clarify the way the infamous bandaid mod appears as modeled on the Monogram kit---they actually overstated the mod just a bit and it's heavier than it ought to be, but it's entirely usable as-is for most SEA-era Hun models.  Bill Spidle

One further thing you may want to deal with is the wing slat actuation mechanism, which is far busier than Monogram's kit would imply:

Note the slat actuation mechanism; Monogram gives the actuators as basic rectangles sticking out from the wings to attach to the underside of the slats, which was about as good as things got when the kit was new way back in 1980. The aftermarket hasn't bothered with reproducing the slat actuators yet and I honestly doubt they ever will, which is a shame since the whole business is fairly busy and would be somewhat difficult to scratch up, although modern 3-D printing could simplify the task. They may be better detailed in the Trumpeter kit, which could provide an option in that regard, but I've never owned one, so I just don't know!   Bill Spidle

That takes care of the basic wings. You'll want to be careful with the refueling probes once your model has been mostly assembled; two different ones are provided in the kit, (two different bases and two different probes) from which you can easily model any one of the ten or so variations of that assembly that existed on the real airplane once you've got a handle on what those variations are. Dave Menard allegedly had all of that nailed down, but I have yet to see anything definitive that defines all of them, or even most of them, so once again photographs are your friend. 

Those Accursed Wing Pylons

You'll have to add them sooner or later, but we aren't going to do that right now. For the time being it's enough to make sure what's in the kit have been cleaned up and fitted to the wings as well as they can be---they tend to suffer from Gaposis when in place but that's easy enough to deal with. You should, however, make up your mind right now as to what you intend on hanging under your finished model. The kit pylons are accurate, if only that, for a war-time Hun, but once again there were variations, and a great many of them too, or so it seems, and I'm going to tell you right now that I don't know what all of them were nor, apparently, do my go-to guys, so true accuracy may have to be one of those Someday things in that regard. Still, what's there will look a little better if you cut or file off those long attachment points on parts 42 and 72 (the inboard and outboard weapons pylons respectively), then take a close look at the "tabs" that stick out from their sides. That's one of the later configurations for that part, modified as combat experience was gained very early in the air war. If you're modeling an early, or pre-war, jet, you'll want to span that web and the easiest way to do it is to measure things, cut off the existing parts, and re-make them from .020 sheet styrene. Otherwise, thin them down at the very least, and do your best to duplicate what you're seeing there.

The middle pylons (parts 49 and attached to the kit's gas bags) are modeled integrally with what the kit provides as a fair representation of the pre-war 275-gallon aux tanks. That means you can use what's in the box for any pre-Vietnam War-era Hun with those tanks, should you choose to do so. You can also employ aftermarket bags, of which our current favorites are those from ResKit, whose superb set of tanks will allow you to model either a 275 or 335-gallon tank straight out of the box. They're cleverly designed and only require a modest amount of cleanup and minimal assembly in order to become a highlight of your F-100 build. If you need a pair of the 450-gallon tanks instead, you can source them from Gerry Asher at Fox 3, who can also set you up with a centerline pylon if you're modeling an early or mid-60s SIOP bird that's carrying a centerline weapon, or you can scratch up a pair by stealing the tanks from a Monogram F-101B and putting fins on them. 

A detail often missed by modelers, and pretty much everyone else who studies the Hun, is the fact that those middle pylons have an airfoil shape to them to aid in stores separation since the tank pylons are permanently attached to the tanks and go with them when they're jettisoned. You can easily modify the kit pylons once they've been removed from their tanks and, although I can't offer you dimensions, I can share a photo or two that Ben Brown took that shows the shape:

This view shows the curvature of the airfoil on the starboard mid pylon. Note the somewhat severe curve and the bump that accompanies it. This is one of those things you just can't un-see once you know it's there.  Ben Brown

Here's a view of the top of the pylon showing the subtlety of its shapes. Ben risked snakebite to take this shot for us, so you should be suitably grateful!   Ben Brown 

Both if these images are copyright to Ben Brown, by the way, and you ought to respect that and give credit where it's due should you decide to share the photos. 

You can also hang a Mk 7 on the port middle pylon if you're doing an early SIOP bird, but in that instance it's a dedicated pylon and you'll have to scratch one up or modify one from another kit, since nobody that I'm aware of makes such a thing for the Hun in any scale.

The inboard pylons, parts 42, can be used to hang a TER from, but that's only a late-in-the-war thing, or AN/M65s, or Mk 82s, or nape cans, or, very early on, before they learned better, the AGM-12 Bullpup, on those airplanes configured to carry it. You could also hang a 200-gal gas bag there, but its use was heavily restricted during the war because it only exacerbated the F-100's already-squirrely low-speed handling characteristics and drastically reduced the airplane's limited weapons carriage ability. 

The outboard pylons, kit parts 72, can be used for nape cans or Mk 82s or maybe an SUU-7 bomblet dispenser. They were a frequent sight on the F-100 as used in SouthEast Asia and are readily available from several aftermarket sources. 

A couple of other notes while we're discussing pylons: First, the outboards and inboards were generally removed from the SIOP birds; Huns that used the centerline special weapons store (think the 531st TFS at Misawa, but staging out of South Korea when sitting armed alert) tended to carry a centerline weapon plus a pair of 450-gallon tanks on the mid-wing positions, while earlier SIOP aircraft have been photographed with a Mk 7 weapon on the port mid-wing station, a 450-gal bag on the starboard mid-wing pylon, and a pair of 200-gal tanks on the inboards. 

The point to be taken from all this is that pictures are your friends if you choose to arm your model, and you really shouldn't just stick things on there without proof of what you're doing. 

That Darned Bullpup

Way back in the 1950s Martin designed and built an air-to-ground command-guided missile known officially as the AGM-12 and, to pretty much every plastic modeler who's ever touched a kit of a 50s-60s American jet fighter, simply as the Bullpup. Most F-100 kits include a replica of the initial service variant, the Bullpup A, in their offerings and it's not uncommon at all to see the missiles firmly attached to completed models of the Hun. Unfortunately, most Bullpup-armed models are incorrect in their presentation because the missiles had their very own dedicated launcher to replace the inboard pylons, and those are the installation that went to war with the F-100D. Nobody has ever kitted those Type Xs that I'm aware of, mostly because so few people know of their existence. That's a configuration thing and it's important if you want to build an accurate model. Keeping that in mind, let's consider a couple of things that will matter to you should you want to incorporate the missile on your model.

Here's a spiffy drawing that shows the Type X Launcher better than almost anything else, provided to us via the Jim Wogstad collection. 

This photo, which has begun showing up in all sorts of places recently but was first identified to me by Ben Brown, shows a really murky view of the Type X launcher. Between that drawing and this image it should be possible to mod up something appropriate for a model, but keep in mind that the Bullpup wasn't used all that often by any airplane that shot it in anger and wasn't very effective in any event.   Ben Brown Collection 

 

After you've done those things you'll want to narrow your search down to a particular airplane, and we can offer a bit of advice in that direction. First, Bullpup use in theater was a fleeting thing because the weapon didn't work as advertised; it's small warhead and requirement for a launch platform that flew relatively straight and level during delivery (I'm pretty sure the guidance system allowed for only a 10-degree deviation from the aforementioned straight and level flight, a consideration much appreciated by enemy antiaircraft gunners at the time.) That simple fact limits your Bullpup window to the 1965-time frame, which also limits you to the early silver jets. To be a bit more specific, there are photographs of the 416th and 481st Tac Fighter Squadrons  with Huns actually armed with the missile in theater and there may be others, although I don't think so (a subjective opinion, that, but one based on looking at a lot of photographs; if you can offer a documented photo of an airplane from a different unit, or one in SEA camouflage, carrying the weapon I would love to see it and promise to be appropriately contrite in my correction!).  Doug Barbier provided us with an incomplete yet fairly extensive list of the jets that could carry the weapon and I published that back in 2020---keep in mind that you can't accurately stick a pair of 'pups on just any F-100. The airplane would be configured for it, and once again reference to that 2020 article is your friend. (See, I TOLD you you'd need to have that piece too!)

The Speed Brake

The Super Sabre utilized two different speed brake configurations, with the earlier one being the one less-often kitted in plastic. Monogram's kit duplicates the later, modified component that was cut away in order to provide clearance for and allow the carriage of a container of Instant Sunshine, most often a Mk 28 Special Weapon, on the centerline. A few Huns carried primitive combat documentation pods (cameras) in that location early in the war in Southeast Asia but only briefly and generally only on the silver jets. It can be up or down when the airplane is parked but that's a configuration that was deliberately selected by the pilot or crew chief; it didn't droop of its own weight. The gear doors and slats didn't do that either, in case you were wondering, and in that vein, I'm going to strongly suggest you embark on a study of F-100 photos so you can better understand what's going on there configuration-wise. 

The Landing Gear

Monogram got things right in so many ways when they cut the tooling for this kit, and the landing gear is a prime example of that. The gear legs, doors, and tires/wheels are just real darned good and can stand their own against any of the newest whiz-bang Wunder Kits if you do your part. Be careful, pay attention to what you're doing, and take your time cleaning up the mold lines. The results of a bit of diligence here could astound you, presuming you're prone to such things. You might want to take a look at those folding gear doors on the centerline while we're at it, because this ain't no Mustang or Sabre, ya'll, and those doors, just like all the others on the F-100, don't hang as the hydraulic system is allowed to bleed off pressure. 

While we're dealing with the landing gear you should probably consider refining the arresting hook too. It's not that bad in basic detail but is way too thick and clunky and looks toylike in comparison to the rest of the model. Some time spent carefully cleaning it up will yield remarkable dividends, or you can just scratch up a replacement if you've got the chops---it's a simple component to make.

The Pitot Tube

You can use the kit item if you'd like but it's almost guaranteed that you'll break it during the cleanup process. Master, they of the exquisite turned brass gun barrels, manufacture scale pitot tubes as well and they make one for the flawed Trumpeter kit which just happens to work like a champ on the offering from Morton Grove. I'm going to suggest you buy one and use it and not even consider the kit item, but that's your choice. 

The Air Refueling Probe, or Let's Get Confused!

It's possible to have some fun here, or to be pedantic, or to even do or be both things at once, but you have to understand the game and I'm here to tell you I mostly don't. I've tried; Lord knows I've tried, but I just don't have the tech manuals available to figure it all out. That said, we can at least get to a place where things will work for you, so pay attention, dang it!

The bugaboo here is the sheer number of probes we're talking about. The Monogram kit offers two; a straight probe without a light and a bent probe with one. That's pretty basic to the whole game, and I might even be able to describe several variations to you, but I can only figure out maybe five or six of those variants and I'm told by The People Who Know that there are at least ten different ones, based upon the research done by the late Dave Menard, aka Mr F-100. To be perfectly honest with you, if Dave said it I believe it, but the aforementioned People Who Know have yet to define all ten of those items, or at least they haven't shared what they know with me, so you're stuck with me telling you what I know and, even worse than that, what I think I know, but I do know one thing for sure: The refueling probe bases would accept all, or at least most, of the probes, which means mixing and matching was highly possible at the squadron, and certainly at the depot, maintenance levels. 

First, we've got the straight probes, and there was at least one shorter one of those too, I think, and a longer one, both without lights. I'm pretty sure there was one with a light as well, so it's back to the photo stacks on that one, but that gets us up to three at any rate.

In theory the "bent" probes are a little easier, maybe, but then again maybe they aren't. I think the early ones could have been without lights, and after that I know there was a streamlined light and a "bumpier" late one, which is the one Monogram provides with their kit, although they apparently didn't know there was a light and a lens there, and which is appropriate for a late F-100D. You can use what's in the kit or you can mix and match the bases and probes, or just modify the bases, or maybe even steal one from the Trumpeter kit, but whatever you do I would suggest cutting out the "lens" portion on that late Monogram probe base and making a proper one from clear sprue. 

With all that said, I'll give a big sigh and wait for the two or three people who still read the pitiful remnants of this blog, or maybe even those nefarious People Who Know, to contact me with the straight skinny regarding the mysteries and vagaries of the Hun refueling probe. I'll publish the results if they do, and I won't if they don't. Seems fair to me!

The Canopy

This really ought to be a no-brainer, but there's some stuff inside the canopy rails that's not included with the kit and will show if you choose to display that item in the open position. Have a look at some photos and duplicate what you see because the detail, or lack of same, will stick out like the proverbial sore thumb against the flat black of the inside of the canopy frame once you know it's supposed to be there. 

A Summary of Sorts

The Monogram F-100D is a seriously good kit somewhat flawed by fuselage engineering that wasn't quite up to the task at the time the kit was tooled. When completed it looks like a Hun, it sits like a Hun, and those of us, including myself, who were privileged to be around them when they were still operational with the regular USAF, can attest to the fact that the boys from Morton Grove got it mostly right way back there in 1980. Yes, the kit will take a bit of work in order to get it up to contemporary standards and, to be perfectly frank about it, your results are going to depend a lot on your ability to plan ahead and your existing skill sets. There are people out there who aren't quite ready for the kit yet; you can generally tell who they are because of their excessively negative comments regarding it. It's not perfect, and certainly not up to the computer-assisted standards many of our polystyrene compatriots are used to working with, but it's an entirely viable kit that will yield splendid results with just a little bit of forethought, planning, and elbow grease.

Let's Look at Some More Pictures!

But this time let's do it with real airplanes instead of models! The images I'm sharing today are somewhat of a hodge-podge in that they're all D-models, but some are distinctly pre-SEA War, while others were photographed in the thick of things; the variety is quite deliberate because I wanted to illustrate a fairly compact part of the Hun's history, specifically those years between 1960 and 1970. It may, in point of fact, be of more importance for everyone to understand what this piece is not intended to be rather than what it is! Specifically, it's not a serial number listing nor is it a definition of the myriad of units that flew the Hun. nor is it a weapons treatise, and I'm most assuredly not attempting a potted history of the air war over SouthEast Asia during the 1960s nor a tech order by tech order listing of all the changes made to the airplane during its service life. I wish I could, but I just don't have those resources at the moment. Look on these images as an aid to our comprehension, if you will, and nothing more than that. (I will, however, insert the somewhat blatant statement at this time that I'm always looking for photography of American military airplanes and the Century Series in general and images of The Silver Air Force and the Hun in particular. If you hold such photos and would like to share, you can reach me at replicainscale dot blogspot dot com.

Now, are you ready? Let's look at some pictures!

Let's start with a couple of pre-War PACAF birds! The squadron is the 80th TFS and the location is their home drome at Itazuke AB, Japan. I think the year is 1959, although that may be off by a year or two, and these airplanes illustrate a number of the features we've discussed in this article to advantage: The tailplanes have been positioned in their full-down position to allow easy crew chief access to the access panels at that end of the airplanes, and all of the landing gear doors are down, as well as the as-yet unmodified speed brakes. Both aircraft are carrying a pair of 200-gallon tanks on their inboard stations, not a popular thing with pilots due to their unfavorable impact on the aircraft's flight characteristics in some flight regimes, and they feature one of the several variations of straight refuelling probe. The airplanes are being pre-flighted and readied for a mission, thus providing us with a great insight into the daily operations of the squadron during their time on Kyushu during the late 1950s.

You've seen this one before, but it's worth seeing again, first because it's probably the oldest image in this series but also because it shows the airplane the way it appeared when it sat on SIOP alert in Korea during the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s due to the Japanese government's steadfast refusal to allow special weapons in their country. This shot of an 8th TFW F-100D was taken at Osan during 1959. The airplane is manned and that's a Mk 7 on its port mid-wing pylon, with a 200-gallon bag on the inboard station. The starboard wing would have been configured with the same 200-gallon inboard tank as well as a 275 (or possibly 335) gallon tank on the mid station. The outboard pylons were removed since their capability wasn't required for the mission. Modelers note the horizontal stabs, which are in the neutral position, and the wing fences which appear to be painted the same color as the tail flashes.   Bob Dorr via Jim Sullivan Collection

Here's an evocative shot of some D-models from the 354th TFW through Lajes, in the Azores, during 1960. Note the straight refueling probes with lights and the flat ECM panels up on the vertical tail, as well as the tailplanes sitting in their full-down position---that's a crew chief thing, done to allow drogue chute access and to make life easier in general for the ground crews. I've said it before and will say it again: The hydraulics on the F-100 did not allow for control surface, speed brake, or landing gear door "droop", so the only times you'll see those things moved around on the ground will be if somebody deliberately did them.  The gas bags are noteworthy; they're the 450-gallon variety normally utilized for maximum range or special missions. In this case it was a maximum range thing.  Don Jay Collection

Here's a lovely study of a 20th TFW Delta on a taxiway at Upper Heyford, also during 1960. The flat RHAW fairing is evident on the vertical tail and there are covers over the afterburner, intake, and pitot boom. Note how that canvas burner cover is attached to the fully deflected horizontal stab, and the silver-painted landing gear struts, as well as the overall silver paint on the airframe itself, excluding the sheet metal around the jet pipe which is heavily discolored by the heat of the afterburner. The airplane carries a pair of 450-gallon external tanks, but all other wing pylons have been removed, a fairly certain indication that this airplane was tasked with the SIOP mission.  Don Jay Collection

Here's a lovely study of 56-3123 sitting on a wet and dreary ramp ca 1960. She's wearing a pair of 335-gallon tanks on her midwing stations with empty pylons both inboard and outboard of them---note that original "flange" on the bottom of the outboard station because it will change within a couple of short years to more of a "bikini" sort of shape once combat shows the additional weight and presumed functionality to be unnecessary. All the gear doors are hanging, and the tailplanes are in the full-down position. She's a beauty in this shot but ended her days at the hands of an AIM-9P, as a QF-100D drone. It was a sad end for a proud girl...   Jim Sullivan Collection

55-3616 is another 20th TFW bird and of particular interest to us. The photo was taken at a public display at Weathersfield, UK, date unknown, and once again we're looking at an airplane configured for the SIOP mission---note the pylon for a Mk 28 weapon on her fuselage centerline---and those slick wings indicate that she would normally be carrying a pair of 450-gallon aux tanks there, which are not fitted in this shot. Of interest to modelers is the complete lack of underwing pylons; F-100Ds fitted for nuclear delivery during the late 50s to early 60s frequently carried only the special store on a centerline pylon (with modified speed brake) and a pair of gas bags under the wings. The pylons that mounted said tanks to the wings were permanently attached to those tanks and not to the wings themselves, just like on an F-86. The devil's in the details.  Friddell Collection

The 405th TFW was based out of Clark AB in the Philippines during the late '50s and early '60s and was heavily involved in deployments throughout the region. This shot, which shows 55-3603 on the ramp at Clark, depicts a clean airplane with only a pair of 200-gallon bags to spoil its clean lines. The Hun's pitot boom was articulated near the intake and folded upwards as depicted here, thus simplifying parking requirements on the ramp. The airplane's canvas covers are all in place, presumably to protect the airplane from the area's frequent rain showers, but the canopy is up, and the airplane is still on the towbar; the activity in the main landing gear well could signify pre-flight concerns, or it could be the airplane was just being serviced prior to parking.    Merle Olmstead via Mark Aldrich Collection

A bad day at Nevada's Bike Lake. 56-3125, from the 522nd TFS of the 27th TFW, suffered a collapsed nose gear in this 13 February 1961 incident, but the photo provides us with some nice details for the modeler. The only pylons are on the mid-wing stations and are mounted with 450-gallon tanks, while the refueling probe is an early variation of the bent variety and is apparently sans light. The forced landing was the direct result of fuel starvation, which seems odd given those enormous gas bags, although I don't know any further details regarding the mishap.   Don Jay Collection 

Skipping ahead a few years and proving that even the most famous of airmen can have a bad day, here's Harold Comstock's 55-3604 from the 416th TFS on the ground at Vung Tao in June of 1965 after an unscheduled arrival due to battle damage and what seems to have been a small airframe fire. The airplane is sitting high on its gear and therefore light, and all of the wing pylons have been blown off prior to recovery. The drogue chute is still attached to the aircraft, and the aft fuselage shows significant staining, as does the area forward, up around the quartet of Pontiac M39 guns that live there. Comstock was a Second World War ace and his airplane was prominently marked with mission markers and his WW2 kills in the area immediately above the U.S. in the U.S. AIR FORCE logo, although that seems to have been either painted over or retouched out of the image by someone for the purpose of the photograph. The 416th's blue alars on the vertical tail had been in use at least since the squadron's time at Misawa with the Hun back during the late 50s and early 60s, but this jet came over with the squadron from England AFB after they had been transferred there during mid-1964. Note the inlet duct in the leading edge of the fin signifying the fitment of the lightweight nav system to the airplane.   Don Jay Collection

And here's the culprit; streaming jet fuel from a fuselage fuel tank punctured in multiple places by an enemy 12.7mm machine gun during a strafing run. The aircraft recovered safely, and Col. Stockton wasn't injured during the event, but this pair of images proves once again that there are no easy days flying combat.   Don Jay Collection

Here's a somewhat happier image of a 481st TFS Hun on its way to some mischief in the summer of 1965. The wing tanks are the by now ubiquitous-in-theater 335-gallon items while the bombs, attached to both inboard and both outboard pylons, are the AN/M64s fitted during the early days of American involvement in SouthEast Asia, prior to the introduction of the M117 to the combat zone. There's a small amount of staining from powder residue and gun grease up around the gun ports but the airplane is essentially clean, which may indicate that the photo was taken fairly early in the squadron's TDY deployment to Vietnam. The Hun tended to accumulate staining on its belly if not frequently cleaned.  

  USAF

In an obviously staged image Major L.R. Leavoy, operations officer of the 416th TFS, stands in front of his silver Hun prior to a February 1966 mission. In so many ways the image sums up air operations during those awkward early days in South Vietnam; An Operations Officer's Thanatopsis might be an appropriate title for the photo, although we sincerely hope that Major Leavoy survived his tour!   Don Jay Collection

The Hun began wearing camouflage fairly early in the war, as demonstrated by this 31st TFG D-model photographed about to taxi out on the 1st of January 1967, carrying a pair of nape cans on her outboards and bombs, quite possibly M117s by now, on her inboard stations. The photo is a bit murky but is clear enough to show how the pylon webs bearing the weapons have been cut away from their original configuration.    NARA DN-SF-82-00895

Here's another image you've seen before on these pages, but this time displayed in a somewhat less annotated version. She's from the 309th TFS/31st TFW and was photographed on 25 November 1967 prior to her pilot manning up. The RHAW gear has morphed into a variation of its later appearance but is still relatively streamlined. This jet would be a fine example to mimic if you were wanting to build a model from the late-1967-time frame.    Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

1968 saw the 308th's 55-3550 armed up and sitting on the ramp at Tuy Hua, devoid of underwing stores other than her 335-gallon bags and proudly wearing her boar's head in front of the wings. In a grim bit of irony, she was the last Hun to be lost in the SEA conflict.   Don Jay collection

Yet another previously seen image, "Snooper", of the 90th TFS sits at Bien Hoa during 1968 and provides us with a look at what seems 56-1440, although I'm willing to stand corrected on that one. The blast treatment around the gun ports is noteworthy since it appears to be painted black instead of being the far more normal stainless steel, and the visible inboard pylon provides us with an excellent look at that cutaway feature above the bomb's sway braces.    Don Jay Collection

"The Goodship Lollypop" was from the 615th TFS at Phan Rang and was photographed there just prior to leaving for the party back in 1969 and carrying a full load of bombs. There's plenty going on here to interest the scale modeler, starting with the TERs hanging off the inboard pylons, a fitment seen with a few squadrons late in the war. The F-100 was never designed for multiple weapons carriage on a single station, so the triple ejector rack was of limited use in many situations due to clearance issues with other weapons. All the gear doors are hanging on this airplane but not the dive brake panel, and the RHAW gear seen on the vertical stab is typical of the late-war period. 55-3674 would make a fine subject for a model if depicted in this configuration---any takers?    Don Jay Collection

Here's the 306th's "Peg O' My Heart" on the ramp at Tan Son Nhut in January of 1970 illustrating a Super Sabre pretty much as presented to us in kit form by Monogram. The RHAW presentation is the late-war variation, although the boys from Morton Grove somehow managed to miss out on the nose-mounted component of the APN/APR-25 gear. As with almost all of the late-war images presented today, we're pretty much guaranteed the wing bandaids are there under the wings, and the deployed speed brake shows off its SIOP-inspired reshaping to good advantage. You get another fine view of those cutaway pylon sway braces in this view as well---look at the inboard stations to see that---and, as a bonus, the articulated pitot boom is folded providing us with an excellent view of it in that position.  Don Jay Collection

Aside from some tasty artwork, this shot of 56-2942 of the 352nd TFS, taken at Phan Rang in August of 1970, provides us with a fine shot of a pair of TER racks as installed on the Hun late in the war. Never an Every Airplane Had Them sort of thing, their installation greatly enhanced the F-100D's ordnance hauling capabilities. The RHAW installation under the intake and the stainless steel panel surrounding the 20mm cannon muzzles are particularly well-illustrated in this shot.   Don Jay Collection

Let's end our photo essay of the real thing with this superb shot of 56-3379, also from the 352nd but this time taken at Phu Cat on 16 March 1971. Of particular interest here is the candy stripe on her pitot boom and her overall clean appearance that's somewhat offset by her heavily heat-stained rear fuselage. Her speed brake is deployed and she's carrying a pair of camouflaged firebombs on her outboard stations---it's a good guess that the inboards have a pair of Mk 82s attached to them as well, but that's impossible to know from this image.   Don Jay Collection

Maybe It's a Conclusion, and Maybe It Isn't!

But let's say it is! It's my opinion (my opinion; MY opinion, maybe not yours but most assuredly mine) that the Monogram 1/48th scale kit of the North American Aviation F-100D is far and away the most accurate "Hun" kit available to the plastic modeler, and that's regardless of scale, manufacturer, or timeline. It's a dinosaur for sure, first seeing the light of day back in 1980, and it has all the hallmarks of a Monogram kit of that era: An accurate cockpit, finely detailed and mostly accurate landing gear, adequate wheel wells and gear doors, and fidelity to scale and accurate dimensions that its far more contemporary competition can't match. It builds up into a fine replica of a late F-100 and requires very little in the way of help in order to get there.

There's a downside, of course. There always is, and in this case the issues are difficult basic construction due to the design of the model's larger components, coupled with the kit's raised panel lines. I personally don't see either of these things as any sort of significant issue, but rather more of a challenge that calls for a little bit of Modeling 101. Anyone who learned their chops on modern kits, say anything past 1995 or so and most assuredly most kits designed and produced after 2015, may well have an issue with this "Hun" but in that case it's nothing more than an opportunity for personal growth, right? The thing is, it's got good bones, is essentially accurate, and presents a fine opportunity to learn how to scribe a plastic model, although that last part isn't strictly necessary. Yes, it requires some skillsets that many less-experienced modelers may not currently possess, but it's just not that tough a date. You absolutely positively can get there from here, and your end result will be far more accurate than it would have been had you used a different kit. 

Here's a recent build of mine of the Monogram F-100D using aftermarket gas bags (Reskit) and weapons (Eduard's Brassin'), Master brass pitot tube, a modified QuickBoost seat, plus Furball decals. It isn't perfect but it's far better than its 1/48th scale ESCI and Trumpeter competition. Some modeling skills are required, however!   Friddell

This isn't the last you'll see of the "Hun" on these pages, since it may well be the most misunderstood and poorly documented of the Century Series of USAF jet fighters and there's so much more to cover. I'd love to hear from you if you have anything to correct or add to this piece and I've listed the email address at the bottom of this blog. 

Under the Radar

I actually have several books I'd like to make you aware of, but I'm just not prepared to stretch this issue out any longer than it already is, so let's agree that I'll try to do that next time.

Happy Snaps

Not today. (That's getting old, isn't it?)

The Relief Tube

Let's see now... 

I haven't published anything, not one darned thing, since August of 2023, so the tubes don't require relieving at the moment. On the other hand, I'm always up to hear from our readership and recently decided I ought to publish the more germane comments received, so I'll actually do that if I get any. That suitably hacked up email addy is replicainscale at yahoo dot com. Spammers and vehicular extended warranty salesmen need not apply!

Whew!

I could probably run this missive on quite a bit longer, but that's not the thing to do just now so I'll sign off instead. Be good to your neighbor, and we'll meet again sooner or later!

phil

 

From a Friend For a Friend

Memories of Corsair Jim

I had known Jim Sullivan (Corsair Jim) for decades, both as a contributor to this project and as a friend. He jumped aboard this project with a vengeance once he discovered that I was attempting an electronic rebirth of Replica and, somewhere along the way, he introduced me to Don Jay, a former Nimrod from the Bad Old Days in SEA as well as an image collector and photographer of considerable merit. Jim and Don spent uncounted hours on the ramps and flightlines of the American East Coast chasing airplanes and remained friends long after both of them had hung up their cameras and active airplane hunting. It was Don who first advised me that Jim was ill and, later, that he had passed. 

Don and I communicate fairly often and share photography with one another as well. Jim's passing was cause for considerable reflection for us all, and Don asked if he could share a group of Jim's images with us. We're honored to be able to do that, so please enjoy this special edition of RiS and maybe take a moment or two to reflect upon Jim's contributions to our hobby as well.

Let's go flying in a REAL airplane! Corsair Jim climbs aboard for a hop in Brad Hood's FG-1D at Hickory, North Carolina, on 20 May 1995. Jim may well have been smiling because of the impending air-to-air photography he was about to engage in (we KNOW he was smiling about snagging a ride in that U-Bird) but smiling was a ubiquitous thing for him. With that said, however, Jim was more often found on the other side of the lens as the following images will show!    Bob Dorr via Don Jay

Way back in the way back! Jim spent quite a bit of time photographing the traffic at Shaw AFB, which is where he caught this C-121C (54-0175) of the North Carolina Air National Guard's 156th TAS on final. You can almost hear those engines throttling back as the airplane prepares to touch down in September of 1966...   Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Sometimes the arriving birds were a bit noisier. Even throttled back, this 363rd TRW RF-101C Jim photographed on final at Shaw in September of 1966 would have gotten everyone's attention. 56-0211 was a relative rarity by then as most Voodoos had long-since been repainted in the drab tan and greens of the newly mandated SEA camouflage scheme. She never deployed to the war zone, however, and survived to be surplussed out in 1978.    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Jim was a fan of the 'Doo and photographed them whenever he could. He captured this one rolling out at Wilmington in April of 1966. F-101B 57-0334 was from the 444th FIS' Det 1 and was a thing of beauty! Of special interest in this shot is the employment of a single gas bag, in this case on the port station. Two full bags significantly reduced performance for the mighty Voodoo and could create somewhat sporty aerodynamics in certain flight regimes so a single tank was not an uncommon fitment---modelers take note!  She was transferred to Canada in 1971.    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Very little escaped Jim's lens when on a ramp, as witnessed by T-33A 55-4380 of the 444th FIS basking in the Spring sun at Wilmington in April of 1966. The image is a bit soft (highly unusual for Jim) but the colorful uniqueness of this T-Bird more than makes up for it!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Here's another recon bird, an RF-101C (56-0044) from the 29th TRS about to touch down at Shaw in April of 1968. The gloss red paint inside her flaps, gear doors, and speed boards was normal, but not the red trim on her afterburner cans! She's carrying two gas bags and would make a great subject for a model!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Those of us with substantial time in the saddle chasing airplanes have all done it at one time or another, and Jim was no exception to the rule when an exceptional aircraft turned up unexpectedly. Here we find TC-54D 42-72695 photographed by Jim at Shaw on 09 March 1968. What was he standing on in order to get this shot, we wonder? At any rate, we don't know much at all about this somewhat rare bird and further information would be appreciated!     Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

The Carolinas were home to a number of interesting airplanes back during the 1960s and 70s, as typified by this EB-66C (54-0461) on short final into Shaw on 18 September 1969. Originally built as an RB-66, she spent some time in Europe prior to her assignment to the Southeastern United States. One of the rare ones, she never saw service in Southeast Asia.    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

The 16th TRS out of Shaw was photographed often by Jim during the 1970s. In this evocative image we find RF-4C 65-0897 about to touch down at the home drome on 10 May 1971. She eventually turned into a world traveler, ending up being expended on a weapons range in Spain after her active service days were done. It was a sad end to a fine recce bird!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Here's a shot of 0897 in living color, photographed while in her prime at Shaw on 19 August 1971. That paint demarcation line on the gas bags is both interesting and distinctive. The 16th's birds were usually spotless and well-maintained, although a great many of their stablemates---those on active service in Southeast Asia---were not.    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

As our readers might gather from the longish list of published books authored by Jim on American naval aircraft, he was a big fan of anything that flew with a tailhook. Let's finish out our tribute today with a series of Navy types photographed at Oceana by him---those were fine days for Jim as he and Don scoured the East Coast airfields together shooting airplanes. This A-6A (BuNo 157000) from VA-176 was sitting on the ramp at Oceana on 25 April 1974, back in the days before TPS arrived on the scene and turned the NAV boring grey. I know it's subjective but this is a gorgeous shot!     Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

A-4E 151988 was another Oceana capture, taken on a sunny 12 May 1977. VC-2 had some extremely colorful airplanes at the time and Jim's shot of this one illustrates that to a T! Jim was exceptionally fond of the mighty Skyhawk but it stood in line behind a couple of other birds as we will see. As for the airplane, 988 finished up her years of active service with VF-126 and was stricken in 1993.     Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Grumman's A-6 Intruder family was a pugnacious bunch of airplanes, and it really shows to advantage in this profile view of a TPS-painted A-6E (152603) from VA-162. Jim caught her at Oceana on 25 April 1992. She was relatively clean when she posed for Jim, a somewhat unusual condition considering how quickly the Tactical Paint Schemes weathered out in service! A grizzled veteran of numerous deployments including operational service with VA-176 during Desert Storm, 603 finished up her days with VA-85, finally going to the boneyard in 1994.     Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Then there were the Tomcats! This Easter Egg from Fighting 41's Black Aces was a clean machine in an era when most F-14s were painted in splotchy TPS colors. 160379 posed for Jim and Don at Oceana on 12 May 1977 during her days with Air Wing 8, where she spent her entire service career. She was a beautiful airplane and Jim's lens really did her justice!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

You honestly can't show photos of the Tomcat without at least one image of VF-31's Felix in the collection. Jim shot this ramp full of them at Oceana on October 10, 1987. The "Turkey" was still in her prime when Jim photographed the squadron that day. Sometimes it's hard to believe the F-14 is out of the Fleet but this sort of imagery makes certain she's not forgotten!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Before they transitioned to the F-14, VF-41 flew the mighty Phantom! This image is a classic and easily says it all---Jim caught 152208 on the Oceana ramp on 25 April 1974, while she was in her prime. Her days ended with VMFA-314 before she was sent to MASD for disposition; she was scrapped in 2004. Jim had an eye for composition for sure, and this shot proves it!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

And finally, here's Fighting 102's F-4J 153820 at Oceana on 25 September 1976. A survivor of sorts, she was upgraded to F-4S configuration and went into storage at NAD Cherry Point in 2003. The Mighty Fantoom was probably Jim's favorite jet of all time, and he definitely knew how to photograph them!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Finally, here's Jim with his son Jim Jr and Queenie, taken at his home in February of 2014. It's a fine way to end this photo essay, don't you think?   Linda Sullivan via Don Jay Collection

It's impossible to know how many lives Jim touched over the years. His photo collection was massive and he was never shy about sharing its assets with anyone who asked him for assistance. He was a prolific author as well as superb photographer, and his skills as a scale modeler were well above average. He did all of these things and more, and he did them all with dignity, aplomb, and considerable modesty. He was part of a special breed, as is Don Jay, and both of them are men I'm proud to call Friend. 

You'll be seeing more of Jim's photography as we go along, and probably some of Don's as well, but in the meantime I hope you've enjoyed these images selected for us and shared by Don. They were friends, those two, and always will be, and we're honored to be asked to run this tribute. Thanks very much, Don, and blue skies, Jim! We'll meet again.

The Relief Tube

Not today.

Happy Snaps

Although most of his lens work took place on the ground, Jim was an accomplished air to air photographer as well. Does anyone need convincing? Well, just take a look at this one!

Jim was a magician with an SLR as proven by this wonderful image of N142CA, a restored Harvard Mk IV, in flight over Hickory, NC, back in May of 1994. It's a great shot and a fitting way to conclude this tribute to Jim!    Jim Sullivan via Don Jay

Be good to your neighbor, Ya'll. We'll meet again soon!

phil

Sad Times

 

In So Many Ways He Made It Possible

The year was 1972. Jim Wogstad and I had finally gotten to the place where we were ready to spring a mutual dream of ours, the original print edition of Replica in Scale, on an unsuspecting modeling world. That first issue, known to us then and now as I/1, was a success in spite of itself, largely because we had great people helping with the project and an idea that turned out to be more than merely viable. Maybe it was luck, or maybe something else, but we had the skill sets required, and we actually managed to have a dollop of financially critical advertising from our very first issue to help us get started. What we didn't have was access to original photography for the articles we were planning to run or the expertise to understand the ins and outs of America's aviation assets. We never doubted that we'd get where we wanted to go, mind you. We just didn't know how it was going to happen, and that's the way things were until our first 1,200 copies of the magazine landed on the shelves of the handful of hobby shops willing to take a chance on us. It was in one of those shops that we began our climb to respectability and a modicum of fame.

Dibbles Arts and Hobbies was, and is to this day, a brick and mortar shop in San Antonio, and for decades it was the go-to place for anyone seriously interested in plastic model airplanes and living in the South Texas area. One of those many Dibbles patrons was an Air Force noncom then assigned to Lackland AFB named Norm Taylor, who saw and purchased a copy of our first issue during a visit to the shop. Jim's contact information was published in the front of the magazine since his home was serving as our offices and Norm wasted no time in making the phone call that, in so many ways, set the tone for Replica in Scale, Aerophile and, by osmosis and imitation, any number of other periodicals to follow us. In the space of that one phone call an offer was made to help us with photography should we need it, along with an equally kind offer to introduce us to other national and international caliber photographers and aerospace collectors and historians. One man made one phone call and suddenly our entire project became viable. We were on our way!

Norm was able to help us for a couple of years but eventually the Air Force decided they required his services more than we did and he was transferred to Japan, but the folks he had introduced us to were still around and that allowed us to perform the research we'd so often dreamed of way back in the beginning. Our dream had actually become reality, albeit for only a few brief years before changing circumstance did us in. Our day in the sun with the print version of Replica in Scale was a short day indeed but in so many ways a successful one, and in great measure we owed it all to Norm. 

It's amazing how few people in the hobby know who Norm Taylor was, since his impact on it was so massive. He was one of those quiet and unassuming men who didn't brag or do things to draw attention to himself. He didn't have to, because his photography and his willingness to share his collection spoke for him. He's been called the dean of American aviation photographers on more than one occasion, and it's an accolade that fits. His composition and technical skills were superior to most, and he had The Eye, a gift he used to advantage every time he walked on a ramp with his cameras. His photography, either by his direct contribution or via the shared collections of others, literally filled the aviation periodicals and books of the 1970s and 80s. Both he and his work were ubiquitous. He took the bar and helped to substantially raise it. 

We all moved on with Life as the years passed and Norm slowly slipped out of the mainstream, something that happens to most of us sooner or later. Those of us in the community spoke of him and his work often but few of us were in direct communication with him anymore, although the word was out that his health had declined over the past several years. Things didn't look good.

We found out a couple of weeks ago that Norm had passed. It's an inevitability of living that eventually happens to us all, but it's also painful each and every time we lose a friend. It never gets any better.

There's a bright side, though, because Norm, and all the other friends we've lost over the past several years, are still around. The photographs they took, the books they authored, the knowledge they all so freely shared are still there and in that respect they live on, both in our hearts and on our bookshelves and in our photo collections. They were all greater than life, each and every one of them: Norm, Corsair Jim, Marty, Dave, Maddog, and all the others who have gone West during the past few years. Legends to a man, they were also among the most modest and humble of human beings. They were, and they remain, special, and it doesn't matter whether you're a photographer or an enthusiast, or a modeler. If your interest lies in American military aviation, your life has been enriched beyond measure by these humble giants. 

Thanks, Norm, for what you did for Replica in Scale, and for us all. Blue Skies, Amigo!

Over and Over, U-Birds from Jim, Some Arachnids, A Different Time, and A Present From Norm

 

A Continual Rebirth

The year was 1961, and Monogram had just released their 1/48th scale F4F-4 (more or less) Wildcat to the modeling world and, perhaps more importantly, to 12-year-old Phillip. It was beautifully detailed---just look at all those rivets---and had working features too, what with its folding wings and rolling wheels. In later years we came to understand that a few things had been omitted here and there, such as the fuselage windows, the entire accessory section of the engine, and there was no cockpit to speak of. Fine detail, while good for its time, was on the sparse side as well (those universal head rivets were entirely accurate for the Wildcat's airframe, for instance, but were somewhat overstated) and it was, out of the box, a simplified replica of the F4F. To a skilled modeler it was an opportunity. To the aforementioned 12-year-old Phillip it was a gift from the gods.

Many years passed and that Monogram Wildcat remained the only readily available 1/48th scale kit of the type before the deities of the polystyrene world smiled once more and, in 1994, we were gifted with Tamiya's 1/48th F4F-4, a kit vastly improved over the one from Morton Grove. That Japanese kit still had a bunch of universal head rivets on its airframe but they were supposed to be there, and it was a revelation, for a while anyway. There was, of course, that little matter of a missing intercooler (a somewhat large and conspicuous item living in the engine's accessory section), and the sparse cockpit and simplified interior. There were some other things wrong with it as well but it was a quantum leap above the old Monogram kit and besides, the handful of errors could be easily corrected with aftermarket and the application of a bit of Modeling 101. The modeling gods had smiled again!

Times had changed between the release of that seminal Monogram kit and Tamiya's, however, and expectations were higher from those of us who actually built our kits rather than buying and hoarding them. It wasn't that the Tamiya kit was all that bad, mind you, but they only released it as the -4 variant, which left us all in the lurch for the other significant Wildcat variants. We could fix the minor issues with the kit, of course, and we did just that, while the somewhat skilled among our ranks could easily convert the kit to an early-War F4F-3 and the truly gifted could modify the kit into a passable FM-2 but, like we said, times had changed. The Monogram F4F-4 was now a dinosaur, suitable for entry-level modelers and small children on Christmas, and Tamiya's wunderkit had, through no fault of its own, entered into the realm of the has-been. We wanted something better in 1/48th and we were soon to get it, or so we thought.

2007 saw a relatively new company, Hobby Boss, release an entire family of Wildcats into our waiting hands. There, in one fell swoop, was an early F4F-3, a late F4F-3, an F4F-4, and, wonder of wonders, an FM-2! Life was Good and then, thanks to the realization that the company's research had been lacking, it wasn't good after all. None of the kits had those rivets that were so essential to the Wildcat's character and a great deal of detail had either been simplified or omitted entirely while the FM-2, that ultimate member of the F4F family that had never been previously kitted by a mainstream manufacturer (we call that opportunity), had a nose that was entirely inaccurate for the type. We began cross-kitting, the aftermarket guys began making aftermarket, and it became obvious that you could indeed get there from here, but only with a bit of struggle. It was time for another kit!

We got that kit too, boy did we ever get it! In fact we're now in the process of getting the entire Wildcat family, one variation at a time, from our friends at Eduard, and we finally have a decent shot at an accurate F4F-Anything or an FM-2 mostly out of the box. There are problems, of course. There always are; the short list includes ribbed tires which weren't used on carriers (at least not early in the War) and a missing main fuel tank, and those New and Wonderful Eduard decals which work really well except for when they don't. Still, the Wildcat that can be produced out of the box is little short of amazing. It's a wonder, a true revelation for the modestly experienced modeler. It's as good as it's going to get, until it isn't. 

There are a couple of lessons we can learn from this 60+ years of 1/48th scale Wildcat kits. Each and every one of them, and that includes the now prehistoric Monogram kit, were considered state of the art when they were originally released and all of them, even the Hobby Boss offerings, raised the bar a bit higher. We seemingly have reached the pinnacle as far as that airplane is concerned, but even the new Eduard kit has issues, albeit minor and largely insignificant ones. Someday somebody will release yet  another F4F or FM-2 that will push that truly amazing Czech offering to second place and we'll welcome that new kid on the block with open arms, after which the cycle will start over. It's the nature of our game, and it's a good thing. 

Amazing things have been done with that 1961-vintage Monogram kit. I've seen the results that can be achieved with it and the thing can be done, if only by a special few who possess the abilities required. Everything that's happened since that year has been gravy for the scale modeler as the kits and all that goes with them has improved, almost exponentially, with the passage of time. What was once exclusively the province of the top tier of modelers is now within reach of almost anyone. 

Here's our takeaway: The kits now available to us just keep getting better and better, and all of the older kits begin their fade into obscurity. It's the nature of things. The new whiz-bang kits age out and are replaced by something newer and astounding. The new kits are replaced in turn, and the cycle repeats itself. It's natural and normal. It's the way things are. 

And it's good. 

What Goes Up Must Come Down

And it doesn't always do it gracefully. Come down, that is. The military aircraft of the World War 2 era were particularly prone to being crashed, not because of any intrinsic flaw in the aircraft (usually!) but because so many were flying and, more importantly, being flown by pilots with varying skill levels. Even the most benign of airplanes could bite you, and the high-performance cutting-edge fighters of that era were often a handful for their frequently inexperienced pilots. The conclusion of hostilities reduced the number of airplanes in use and a larger percentage of the people flying them were possessed of a skill level vastly improved from that of many wartime aviators, but it was still a dangerous game. Here, from the collection of the late and greatly missed Jim Sullivan, are a few examples of times an airplane bit an aviator featuring Jim's favorite aircraft, the FG-1D Corsair.

This FG-1D (BuNo 87087) was assigned to the Reserve Unit at Grosse Isle and suffered a belly landing on 28 March 1948. Its untimely arrival in a muddy corn field resulted in little trauma to the airplane and none that we're aware of to the pilot. Not all crashes were so benign but this one was a walkaway with little damage. Note the V- that appears in front of the Bureau Number presentation on the tail, a fairly common prefix on late-40s Reserve birds.   Jim Sullivan Collection

Here's another FG-1D, this time BuNo 92575 of VMF-217, after a successful belly landing at NAS Squantum on 20 July 1949. As with 87087 above, the crash was a walkaway for the pilot with minimal damage to the airplane. The bird has been well-maintained and in wartime would have been quickly repaired, but we're not so sure that was done in this instance considering the fiscal constraints the American armed forces were operating under during the late 1940s.   Jim Sullivan collection

There's that pesky V- prefix on a bureau number again, this time on 92638 from the St Louis Reserve unit. It experienced a collapsed starboard landing gear while attempting to land at Vichy, Missouri, on 07 June 1948. At first glance there isn't much damage to the airframe but that bent propeller guarantees an engine overhaul and the wing is badly crumpled as well. There's a fair chance this one was given a quick trip to the scrap heap.   Jim Sullivan Collection

And the electrons hadn't even cooled when Rick Morgan sent a comment regarding the airport at Vichy:   Phil- Good stuff as always, the shot of the NAS St Louis FG-1 bent at Vichy got my attention. The small airport at that location was used by both Navy Reserve and Air Force Guard units out of Lambert as an ordnance loading facility for use at the range at Ft Leonard Wood. Seeing a Corsair there shouldn't have been that unusual during that period. Vichy had actually been home to a USAAF Recon Group during WWII that supported the newly opened Fort. It went back to full civilian ownership in 1957 as jets showed up at both reserve units. The field (VIH) is now called Rolla International Airport, based on the city located south of it.  Rick

And yet another belly landing! 76475, from VA-53B, went down near Akron on 22 August, 1949. The airplane isn't too badly damaged but an engine overhaul or replacement is required any time there's crash damage to a propeller due to the possibility of crankshaft damage to the engine, and there's a very good chance the airplane wasn't repaired. 76475 was an older FG-1D and may have been scrapped out rather than salvaged.    Jim Sullivan Collection

Sometimes it just isn't your day! 67074 (side number 65) lost a good bit of its empennage during a taxiing accident involving FG-1D 92264 (side number 54). The year was 1947 and the airplanes from the Reserve component at Oakland. In addition to the obvious damage to 67074, 92264's pitot tube is dangling from the leading edge of its port wing and there's undoubtedly more going on than we can see in this shot. Modelers: Note the overall eggshell rapidly going to flat paint finish of both airplanes. That's how things work in the real world, sometimes anyway...   Jim Sullivan Collection

I've known people who would overlook photographs of less than perfect airplanes simply because they were crashed or otherwise damaged. The logic of such a thing escapes me, but Jim wasn't one of those people and these images document some airplanes---FG-1Ds and primarily FG-1Ds from the Naval Reserve, that might otherwise have gotten away from us. We didn't call him Mr Corsair for nothing, Ya'll! 

A Scorpion or Two

Let's throw a jet or two into the mix today!

Northrop's almost legendary F-89 Scorpion family was star-crossed at best, a solution to the problem of protecting the United States from enemy aerial incursion during a time when ambition far outpaced technology. It was meant to be an all-weather interceptor and it was, for the most part, although it was never quite the airplane the Air Force wanted. Many ended up with the Air National Guard during an era when the active force seemingly sent the older types to the ANG, and that's what we're going to look at today.

49-2467 was an F-89B from Idaho's 190th FIS and this image, taken in 1956 at Boise, shows the colorful markings worn by many of the squadron's aircraft. This one hung around the 'drome for a while, possibly as an instructional airframe, but finally ended up at MASDC in 1959 and was scrapped out in 1960. A sad end!   Dave Ostrowski Collection via Mark Nankivil

Wisconsin's 126th FIS operated this D-model, 51-11410, for a brief time during 1960 before losing its air defense mission and converting to tankers. This airplane is very much a showboat with its scalloped gas bags and that checkerboard vertical tail with the scorpion emblem. They were operating out of General Mitchell Field during that time and must have added quite a bit of color to the place but it didn't last for long; it's a shame their time with the Scorpion was so short lived!   Dave Ostrowski Collection via Mark Nankivil

This late F-89, an F-89J, was originally built as an F-89D-60-NO and was assigned to Washington's 116th FIS (not to be confused with Washington DC, which is a different animal altogether) during the early 1960s. This example, 53-2530, is basking in the sun on the ramp at Geiger Field around 1960 and is a clean machine. Her unit markings are restrained but appropriate, while the airplane is well maintained and cared for, as were most ANG birds during the era.   Dave Ostrowski Collection via Mark Nankivil

As far as we know the F-89 rarely intercepted much of anything in terms of Bad Guy Airplanes, although they did manage to almost destroy portions of Southern California while chasing an errant F6F-5K Hellcat drone during what has become known as The Battle of Palmdale; here's a YouTube link to the affair should you have an interest in it:  

 THE BATTLE OF PALMDALE: A Remarkable Dogfighting Debacle That Exposed US Technological Folly - YouTube

The Scorpion also fired the only live shot of the nuclear AIR-2 Genie air-to-air missile during Operation Plumbob at the Yucca Flats test range on 19 July 1957. Although you can't see much of the F-89J that fired the weapon, here's another YouTube link showing the test:

Genie Missile Test - YouTube

The 57th FIS lost its last F-89J in July of 1962, while Iowa's 124th FIS flew the last Air National Guard sortie with the type in July of 1969, ringing down a lengthy if somewhat undistinguished career for the airplane. In retrospect it wasn't much of a much, but it held the line until its ultimate replacement by the Convair deltas. Many thanks to Mark Nankivil for allowing us to share these images with you!

Things Were Different Back Then

There was a war going on in the 1940s and it was a big one. The fate of nations and possibly civilization itself was up for grabs and American industry was working overtime to provide the weaponry necessary to win it. Mark Nankivil, He of those Scorpions you were just admiring, shared this image with us and it's just too good to resist:

We don't know the unit or the location although I suspect the photograph was taken at the Curtiss factory; in fact I'm almost certain of that location, but almost doesn't count! I don't know the date either, but it's a special image all the same. The airplane is a P-40F, s/n unknown, and it's an airplane that was purchased by The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen named "The Iron Eagle" and donated to the AAF. The verbiage above that image says "Given to Our Beloved Country, The United States of America, by The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen", a definite comment on that point in American history. We can see the aircraft data stencil in the photo but can't get a serial number from it---the leading edge of the port wing cuts that off right after "P-40F-5-CU". Can any of our readers further identify this airplane? If so, that email address is   replicainscaleatyahoodotcom   .    Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Many thanks to Mark for the images he shared with us today!

A Link to Investigate

Everyone who reads this project is aware of Norman Camou, the man who can find anything on YouTube. He's expanded that reputation and bit and sent this a week or so ago. It's a link to a website that many people ignore but there's gold in them thar hills, so to speak, and you really ought to spend some time browsing this one.

Korean War - Carrier Combat (navy.mil)

Thanks as always to Norm for taking the time to share this link with us. It's much appreciated!

Happy Snaps

It's been a while since we've shared a reader's air-to-air shot with you, but here's one for today:

A KA-6D from Air Wing 14's VA-196 (151796) formates with a VAQ-139 EA-6B over Oregon on 26 June 1984. I'm guessing Rick was in the ECMO 1 station when he took this and the perspective couldn't have been better---what a shot! A big Sierra Hotel to Rick for this image!   Rick Morgan

Here's some more information regarding that shot of 151796, supplied by Rick after publication of this issue: The story behind the KA-6D shot: The two Whidbey squadrons in CVW-14 had each sent a jet down to Miramar for a CAG meeting. We came back the next day using the normal J-5 jet route that ran from LA to Seattle. The rule of thumb for a Prowler was that you needed at least 10,000 lbs of fuel onboard at Reno or you were going to have to stop for gas. It was pretty much weather and wind dependent and something we watched. The Milestone KA-6D, which I think was being flown by their XO, gave us a squirt over southern Oregon and we were good for the distance. Yes, I was in ECMO-1; if I'd been in ECMO-2 (right rear) I would've been looking right down the starboard wingline. Rick

I'm always looking for air-to-air imagery, as well as any other military aviation related photography. If you have anything you'd like to share with us, please drop me an email at   replicainscaleatyahoodotcom   and please excuse that goofy way of formatting the email address. It's to keep the spammers at bay and is unfortunately necessary!

The Relief Tube

Nope, not this time. It's been a very long time since I've had anything even remotely resembling a schedule for the project which means nobody has been writing in with corrections or additions to anything---it's hard to fix or comment on something if it isn't there, right?  If you'd like to correct, complain, or just say hey, please send an email or use the comments tag---yes, I've finally decided to open that feature up but anything that comes in will be scrutinized rather than automatically published so keep it clean and keep it relevant please!

And that's what I know. In the meantime, be good to your neighbor until we meet again. It's the right thing to do!

phil

Magic, A Couple of Sabres, Yet Another One, An Airacobra, and One More Thing

 

It Makes No Sense

The goofy stuff that goes on with some of the modeling boards to be found on the internet, that is. On the face of it those boards are nothing but a Good Thing, constituting a generally easy to access source of information and provocative thought for the scale modeling community, but there's another side to it as well and I honestly just don't get it. 

My love for this hobby is, or at least should be, pretty much obvious to anyone who pays attention to what goes on here. My first trip to a hobby shop with my cousin Jerry lit the fire back in 1955, and by the time I built my first very own kit in early 1956 I was hooked. There was, and for that matter still is, magic in the hobby if you care to recognize it, and I did. Airplanes, cars, ships, tanks, insects, birds, dinosaurs, buildings, figures, and imaginary things from the world of science fiction; I built them all. I played with them too (I was a little kid then, remember!) but most of those early models survived for quite a while because I was so enamored of them. I enjoyed them and I learned from them because they often led me to books and specialty magazines so I could find out more about them. They were magic then and, at least in my own personal world, they're still magic now. 

The part of the world I live in is blessed with four good brick and mortar hobby shops within easy driving distance of our home; two in the Austin area and two in San Antonio, and I'm equally blessed by being part of a circle of friends who feel the same way about the hobby that I do. The whole thing, the entire hobby and most of the people in it, is magic!

That takes us to those internet boards and the part that makes no sense. There's lots of discussion there and plenty to learn no matter how long you've been involved with the hobby---lots of super people with an equal love for the hobby and a willingness to share it are on those boards, but there's another group too. They're the guys who know more than anybody else does and want to make sure everybody knows it. They're the guys who don't have much use for the new guys and their questions. They're the guys who get into flame wars with other modelers and, unfortunately, they're also the guys who make other folks decide the squeeze isn't worth the juice and sometimes even cause them to leave the hobby. The Hobby; remember that word? HOBBY!

Let's go back to that key word I mentioned at the very beginning of this missive: Magic. The hobby of scale plastic modeling is still magic to me, just like it's been for every day of my life since 1955. It's a joy on a personal level as well as a joy I choose to share whenever I can. It's truly a blessing in my world, as I hope it is in yours, and that makes sense to me. The things that don't further that joy don't make sense to me at all and I try not to do them. 

You don't mess with magic!

Such a Pretty Airplane

Since we're already discussing things that are Magic, let's take a look at one of the prettiest American jet fighters ever built; the North American Aviation F-86E Sabre. These images were taken in Korea during 1952 and came to John Kerr's collection via Jim Mesko. John (aka Maddog) was kind enough to share them with me before he passed but we have to present them to you with somewhat of a caveat. They're duplicates of what I presume were originally duplicates in the first place so the detail is a bit soft, and they were apparently dirty when the initial duplication was made---there's way too much clutter to successfully clean up, unfortunately, so let's enjoy them for what they are!

50-0602 was an F-86E-1-NA assigned to the 16th FIS/51st FIG when this shot was taken at Suwon AB in Korea during early 1952. Note her slatted wings, typical of her breed, and the generally worn appearance of her fiberglass intake and that panel on her vertical stab. She had been accepted by the Air Force in 1951 but several months in Korea had marked her. To add insult to injury she was damaged by a MiG-15 in air to air combat on 02 April 1952, but she survived to lead a full career afterwards.  Mesko Collection via John Kerr

51-2733 was an F-86E-10-NA, another mount from the 16th FIS/51st FIW. Photographed at Suwon during early 1952, she was crashed short of the Suwon runway and destroyed on 05 April, 1952. She's noteworthy for her aluminum intake ring and generally pristine appearance in this shot, which may well have been her final pre-accident portrait. Nobody ever said it was safe!   Mesko Collection via John Kerr

Finally, here's 51-2737, yet another F-86E-10-NA, beginning to taxi out on her way to some mischief, a talent she was apparently good at; she scored a total of three kills against MiG-15s during the course of her deployment to South Korea. She survived that conflict only to be burned out in a ground fire at McClellan AFB on 23 October 1954. She was in her prime here, however!   Mesko Collection via John Kerr

Thanks to Maddog for sharing these photos before he left us. Now, if only we had a kit...

They Also Served

We normally tend to think of the Korean War when we discuss the F-86, but the type was ubiquitous within the United States armed forces and served for many years. Here's an image taken by Rick Morgan to prove the point!

55-3906 and 3948 were both built as F-86F-40-NA airframes and both served with Japan during much of their careers. Returned to the United States during 1989, they were converted to QF-86 status and served with the Navy's Point Mugu Test Center in November (3906) and December (3948) of that year. Rick photographed them on the ground at Roosevelt Roads on 01 November, 1989, shortly before they were stricken.   Rick Morgan

Many thanks to Rick for sharing this with us. It's a great look into an aspect of the F-86's service career that few enthusiasts ever consider.

A Peculiar Iron Dog

My normal interest, at least as far as the aviation combatants of the Second World War is concerned, tends to focus on those aircraft and units used in the SouthWest Pacific. This P-39 apparently saw no service there but the image is unique all the same. Let's take a look.

This Bell P-39F-1-BE, s/n 41-7325, is apparently serving in a training unit somewhere in the ZI, location and date unknown. The back sides of her propeller blades are black and the tips on the front sides of that prop are Insignia Yellow, and she's wearing a black anti-glare panel on her nose, but she's otherwise unadorned by any paintwork other than her radio call and nose numbers. We can't speak for her wings but there isn't even a national insignia on her fuselage! To further deepen the mystery, she doesn't have the lower wheel well covers on her landing gear either---that was a fairly common modification in the muddy SWPAC but this image obviously wasn't taken there! The more normally presented P-39 parked behind her only serves to create more questions than answers. She was reclaimed in Seattle in 1944, and we're guessing she never left the States, although we could be wrong about that. To add yet another puzzle to the mix, the photograph is originally credited to someone with the last name of Spoonts, and Leslie Spoonts was a P-39 pilot with the 57th FS flying out of Adak during the Aleutians Campaign. It's Mystery Meat for sure!   Spoonts via John Kerr Collection

As has been mentioned here many times previously, it's no secret that we have a well-schooled and exceptionally bright readership! If you know more about this enigma of an airplane we'd like to hear from you. As usual we're garbling that address so The Bad People out there in Internet Land don't glom onto it, but you can get in touch with us at    replicainscaleatyahoodotcom   using the appropriate symbols as appropriate. (Where, they asked, does he come up with this stuff!).

One More Thing Before We Sign Off for Today

It's not at all unusual for the people I know fairly well to ask what's going on with the blog, and why it's invariably on a schedule that could only be described as nonexistent. That question has generally been answered in person, face to face, but a couple of days ago I received an email from a regular reader who was asking what had happened and if the project was still alive. Talk about a wake-up call! Here's the answer to what is an extremely valid question.

First and foremost, neither myself nor Replica in Scale are going anywhere. I've been involved with this project since Jim Wogstad and I first began thinking about doing a magazine back in 1971 and I'm not about to throw all those years away. It's a part of my life and neither myself nor the project are going away!

The reasons for all the delays are of little concern to the readership but you're all part of the RIS family and you deserve to know something. Unfortunately, the best I can do for the moment is attribute it to Life and move on from there. There's nothing overly dramatic or tragic going on; it's just been tough to find the time. With any luck and my new-found motivation I'll start doing a little better with publication schedules!

In the meantime, let's all give Stan Kurcz a big thank you for providing the kick in the backside that's gotten me off my hind end and back to trying to provide you with a continuation of the publication we all enjoy so much! Thanks also for the ongoing patience of our little family. I can make no promises but I'll do my best to publish these things a little more frequently from now on!

SO; until the next time, smile every chance you get and be good to your neighbor! We'll meet again soon.

phil

 

                                             Friddell Collection via Replica in Scale

A Sad Day...

Let's jump straight to it. 

Jim Sullivan, a friend of mine for the past fifty years, passed away yesterday after suffering a massive heart attack a few days ago. Jim was among the very first of the heavy hitters in the aviation photography community to contact Jim Wogstad and myself back in 1973, when we were struggling to birth the original print version of what was to become known as Replica in Scale. Since that time he never failed to assist with photography, information, and insight. He shared his perspective, knowledge, and humor on many things over the years and was among the most unselfish people I've been privileged to know. 

Jim's skill as an author and photographer is well known to anyone who reads these pages. He was a noted authority regarding Chance Vought's immortal F4U Corsair and published a number of books and magazine articles on the type, as well as on other Navy airplanes. He helped a great many other writers with their own projects as well and it's a rare title about American naval aviation that doesn't have a photo or two in it from Jim's collection. 

He was one of those unique individuals who always gave and rarely asked anything for himself. He was a man of honor and integrity. He was generous, and he was kind. He was a gentleman and a devoted family man. He was a member of a rare and special breed, and he will be missed.

Blue skies, Amigo!

phil