Vietnam F-100

It’s very thin this stuff I’ve got. Almost water thin. I’d assume it’s sprayed at low pressure over multiple coats to build up the colour?

remember Vietnam was a giant rumor mill, and take this for what it’s worth. Stars & Stripes once said 24,000 lb. , and I doubt that. I’d say some where in the neighborhood of 10,000lb. to 15,000lb. The pallet is rolled off the back ramp of the C130 at around 8,000 feet in the air (maybe 10K). There are two chutes with a smaller one opening to help drag it off the ramp. A few seconds later a really big one opens up, and you watch the pallet sort of turn on it’s side. I’m not positive but the pallet must have been radio controlled to hit the center of the future LZ. The pallet explodes about three feet above ground (so it appears), and just moves everything in the blast sideways for a couple hundred yards in each direction. It looks like they used generic TNT as there was a lot of black smoke and a large flash (C4 & Comp B look different). A half hour later you fly in and can’t hardly breath due to the dust and heat alone. There also might have been a lack of oxygen. Even the ground is hot! I might add that after the first one (you went into); you will scrounge up a gas mask.

Going in there, you never found a single corpse! Everything is covered with this charcoal like soot. As soon as you contact the ground, you don’t think too much as you have several task at hand. Somebody is planting stakes in the ground where parapets are to be dug, and somebody else is staking out bunker locations. Thirty minutes later you get the radio message that eight Chinooks are ten minutes out carrying six howitzers and the parts to get them up and shooting. Right behind them is another six or eight Hueys with crews and a small hand full of HE and WP on each of them. The Sea Bees are already on the ground with their little bitty bulldozer (size of a VW ). An hour and a half later you are shooting and six more Chinooks are rolling in with max loads of projo’s and powder. The Chinooks will keep rolling in during daylight for the next two days every hour or so. About time you fire the first rounds, a group of slicks will radio in that they have six or eight infantry guys on each one, and need to set down ASAP. Real busy! Then finally the one Chinooks your most after brings in either a water trailer of a blivit.

All the while this is going on, you’ll hear gunships and rocket ships on the fire push in a steady hunter killer orbit. You don’t see them, but you know they are there. If you see fast movers over head, you know something’s gone wrong! I have seen that too many times.
gary

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The Alclad? Yes, it’s very thin, and doesn’t need to be thinned down any more - just sprayed straight from the bottle. And two or three coats to get good coverage. But IIRC the recommended pressure isn’t that low.

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Thanks Phil, I’ll have to find it out and try it sometime.

Been a busy week so haven’t managed much. Spent a bit of time this afternoon.
Rescribed some panel lines on the rear fuselage underside that been sanded back. While quite nicely engraved on the sides, the lines along the bottom are barely visible and disappear with even light sanding.

A couple are bit wonky, but happy with how they turned out.

Have tried to sort out the badly fitting panel under the cockpit. Used some thin plastic strip to raise it a little and fill out the gap at the rear.


Hopefully it will blend in nicely.

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Stephen, following along as I do like an F-100 although I do prefer a Thud, interesting fact on the Thud, a F-105D in 1961 set the record for bomb load on a single engine aircraft at 3 times that of the B-17 at 15,430lb (7,000Kg).

Anyway regarding Alclad there was a ‘How to’ on the old Aeroscale site linked here: AeroScale :: Alclad Adventures by Nigel Julian

You do need to make sure that the area being sprayed is completely smooth (except detail and panel lines of course) as it will show up any blemish in the plastic. You can vary the shade of the Alclad by using different colour primers.

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Thanks, Luciano I’ll have a look at the link. I’ll try it on something if I get a chance. The only one I have is the chrome, so an opportunity to use it has never really come up. I’m liking these Vallejo metallics though, really easy to use.

Funnily enough an F-105 is next on my stash reduction projects. It’s the ancient Airfix kit I’ve had for years. My plan is to build it as an F-105F Wild Weasel with Shrikes and CBU’s. I have the much better Trumpeter kit on order from my LHS, so the Airfix one will be a quick slap together and paint job. At least that’s the plan.

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always wanted to do an EF105f for some odd reason. They were in combat, but doubt there were many. I think the best start would be with the Hobby Boss F105g as it has much of the blisters used for the ECM. I’ve only seen one that was in one piece, and that was in Dayton Ohio. They refueled about ten klicks out front of me, but we never saw them unless it was in deep trouble. Yet we often listened in with their radio calls thru Apache Six. Guess the F105 was a serious user of JP4!

F100’s almost never came out that far, and almost never that far north
gary

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I don’t think there were many F’s converted. I’m doing a bit of reading up at minute. Got a couple of books including Ospreys F-105 Vs Sa-2 which is very useful. From what I can tell the big difference between an F and G was lack of ECM blisters which were introduced on the G. Sometimes carried one on the starboard outer wing. F seems to have been a stopgap measure between the F-100F Weasel and dedicated G.
I bought the kit second hand at a model show years ago, the seller through in a set of Microscale decals covering both versions of the F-105, so I’m ok for markings.
Looking forward to getting the Trumpeter when it arrives. The Airfix one is a bit clunky, but should be ok. I don’t mind these older kits, good to practice new finishing techniques.

Some information and photos of the F’s can be found here.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-vs-sams-f-105f-wild-weasel-operation-rolling-thunder

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if memory is still holding up, the back seat on the F105G is much different than the F model. From what I’ve read, the G was mostly built via converted F airframes. There were two different Shrikes used on them, and the most desirable one was the long range unit. Do they look different? I don’t know. If your ever in Dayton be sure to watch the Red Flag movie! The first two or three minutes will turn your hair white.
gary

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I’d assume there would be some differences. Google should help with that. At 1/72 most of it I could put together with scrap plastic and punched disc’s.

The Trumpeter G arrived today. It’s light years ahead of the Airfix (there is some speculation it isn’t even by them, but a reboxed MPC), but I don’t think will be easy to back date to an F. Trumpeter moulded on the ECM blisters, whereas the Airfix has them as separate parts. Leave 'em off, fill the holes and you got an F. Given how fine the engraved detailing is on the Trumpeter, it’s not something I want to attempt. Building both will be a good double project. But, that’s a build for another thread.

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Stephen, sorry to have diverted your F-100 thread into talk on the Thud, anyway I’ll carry on :face_with_hand_over_mouth: I have the Trumpeter D in 1/72 and both their D and G in 1/48 I have considered one in 1/32 but then look at my flat and thing where the hell would I put that I even struggle with room for 1/72. Shame the only Thud in the UK is inside the fence line of a US intelligence base, point your camera at that and I think there maybe a few guns pointing back.

Right back to your F-100

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That’s ok, I’m always on planning the next build or two anyway before I’ve even finished what I’ve already started!

It is a BIG jet! I didn’t realise the size of it till I opened the box. A 1/32 would be a great model to work on, but where would you put it? I picked up Revell’s 1/32 F-4G at a really silly low price last year and I have no idea what to do with it now!
The Airfix Facebook page has been really funny recently with lots of people demanding a 1/48 Vulcan. Do they know how big or expensive that would be?

I finish work for the year on Wednesday so I can get straight back onto the Hun, the Lynx, Robin Olds F-4C and a few others I want to clear from the desk.

Late to the party as usual - how’d I miss this thread? Huns and Thuds are two of my four favorite Century Series. (Who am I kidding, they are all my favorites.)

Too late for this build but might be useful for someone else’s build - a F-100F walkaround:

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Thanks Fred, some very useful photos there. Especially the IFR probe as wasn’t sure how to paint that.
Welcome aboard.

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Hi Stephen,

Glad to help. However, I did not see the photos of the speedbrake area. I am certain I loaded them. They are not on this PC but I am 99.999% certain they are backed up. (Multiple places no doubt.)

If you would like, I will try to find them.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any detailed shots of a Thud.

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Thanks Fred.
I should be ok for the airbrake interior. It looks fine to me and I don’t think a great deal will be visible, even with the doors open.

Cheers

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Excellent set of photos Fred that set the creative juices flowing :smiley:
tim :smiley:

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For an F4g, I’d do one of the first planes that knocked out the radar sites for the F117’s to follow when the went deep into Iraq. Remember watching them return while the F117’s were taxing out to the runway for their first strike.

Back to the F105g. One has little idea as to the size of that thing till you see it in the flesh. That thing is huge! Pretty close in size to the F111 I’d think.
gary

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Actually, it was AH-64 Apaches that kicked open the door in the Iraqi radar line in 1991. But the F-117s were already on their way, unescorted, when the Apaches knocked out the radar sites. The F-4Gs flew SEAD with standard strike packages: F-111s, F-16s, or F-15Es carrying the bombs.

Stephen, if you need to see an F-100 up close and personal there is one at the Midland Air Museum by Coventry airport been there a few times and got some photos but unfortunately they are on a portable hard drive and I no longer have a pc to view them. From memory it has some great heat staining on the jet pipe and sits near by a genuine Vietnam veteran Mig killing F-4C.

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