USAF
F-100 Super Sabres

AeroMaster Decals
 

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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Shortly to be released from AeroMaster products is 48-548, USAF F-100 Super Sabres. 

Yes!  It is great to see AeroMaster covering the more colourful aircraft of the United States Air Force.  They paved the way with the two recent F-80 sheets and have followed through with this new sheet covering the F-100. 

Markings for two –D aircraft are provided, both in the overall aluminium lacquer paint scheme with natural metal tail cones and grey fincaps. 

First is 56-3277 of the 67^th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 28^th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa in 1963.  Markings comprise of:

• A black and yellow band around the nose.  This is supplied as a single decal with a smaller one to fit over the base of the pitot boom.

• A yellow panel that bears fictional pilot's and crew chief names in black.

• U.S. AIR FORCE titles in dark blue for the fuselage and wing.

• FW-277 buzz numbers.

• 63277 serial number for the fin in black.

• A red white and blue unit emblem for the fin.

The other option is 55-3691, the aircraft of the commander of the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing, USAF Europe based at Spangdahlem Germany in 1960.  Being the CO's aircraft it is brightly decorated.  Markings consist of: 

• A blue, yellow and red design for the nose.  Each colour is separated by a thin white line and the leading edge is in silver to save you the hassle of trying to paint it.  The marking is supplied as a two-part decal to ease placement.

• U.S. AIR FORCE titles in dark blue for the fuselage and wing.

• FW-6911 buzz numbers.

• 53691 serial number for the fin in black.

• A red, yellow and blue marking with a white lightning bolt for the fin and rudder.  This is a huge decal and it covers the entire fin and rudder.

Stencil data is minimal and confined to the larger more visible items carried on the airframe and the drop tanks.  However, two sets of everything is provided apart from the national insignia.  Aeromaster have supplied a couple of things that will make your life easier.  One item is the antenna on the intake lip.  This is supplied as a black block with the fasteners in silver.  A nice touch but you will have to make the one that is on the inside of the intake yourself – easily cut from solid black decal film.  The other item are the red remove before flight streamers that I'm sure will find themselves being applied to models other than F-100s. 

This set is made up of two sheets (three if you count the small errata sheet).  The main one contains the lager decals whilst the smaller contains the national insignia and other stencil data items.  As the title says, this is part 1.  Judging by the way the two sheets have been laid out I'm sur that we can expect to see more F-100 sheets heading our way.  The errata sheet supplies a further two sets of ejection seat warning triangles. 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The decals have been "Printed in Mexico".  I have used AeroMaster decals that have been "Printed in Mexico" before.  Whilst they are not as easy to use as Microscale ones they still are excellent products.  Patience and settling solution are the keywords here!  They are sharp and clear and the colours appear to be dense enough to survive application over darker colours, not that this is an issue on this sheet.  Carrier film is minimal.  To save yourself a lot of hassle, you might want to consider cutting the F of the USAF apart before trying to apply it over the wing fence. 

The placement sheet is AeroMaster's standard excellent fare being A-4 in size and in full colour.  It shows left hand side profiles of each aircraft as well as scrap top views of the fuselage and wings.  It also provides a list of references.  A reference that is not mentioned is the excellent website - F-100 Super Sabre – The Hun at: http://www.f-100.org/hun.shtml   This is a great site and it provides some great full-colour walk-around shots. 

The decals and the placement sheet come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

The recommended kit is the Monogram F-100D.  The same comment applies to this sheet as the recent F-80 ones - the Monogram kit is out of production and not easily found so perhaps the guys at AeroMaster know something that we don't and it is due for re-release. 

Nice stuff from AeroMaster. 

Recommended.