Ladia

Final HA2121 photos are up on HMC site.
https://www.hobbymastercollector.com/HA2121.html


But honestly - I´ve always wondered how could HM sold already 21 releases of such a weird looking model. Completely failed intake shape was always a reason why I never could force myself to buy one, although I like Super Sabres very much.
Frog´s F-100D was one of the first plastic kits I´ve made as a kid, so I see the sheer wrongness of HM intake at the first sight.














... not speaking about that childish blind intake reminding me Terebo Mig-17/19:






Over the years of production, also the geometry of the model started to suffer:


Anyway, one question:
in the real life, is the blind wall in the intake visible when you look on your displayed HM F-100?

Adour

IIRC, not on most releases because HM usually wisely paints the interior dark grey/ black. However that doesn't look quite right either as the intake should be a light shade with the gun radar antenna black housing clearly visible. I repaint mine leaving only the deepest part of the intake black. It's the best compromise I've found.

Intakes and canopies seem to give diecast manufacturers all sorts of problems. Some of the very worst models intake-wise seem to have sold very well. Corgi's dreadful early 1/72 Lightnings. Century wings fantasy SR-71s, Intruders and even their Tomcats aren't right. All those Dragon and Witty F-15s with the ramps stuck fully up. And the list goes on and on . . .

As ever in this game, what individual collectors will put up with (or in many cases even notice) varies tremendously.

FortunateSon

wrong shape or not, overall its a very satisfying little model. im happy to have several in my collection.

what gets me is how timid hm has been with releases in terms of schemes. the two recent ones, while having merit in that they were combat birds, are really dull. i just got a lot of 4-5 really well built f-100s in 1/72 from japan - one two seater and 3-4 one seaters. gonna post some photos when they arrive as they are really liveries that HM could/should do if it went back to its days of spectacular schemes like laven's (the first release IIRC) that in my mind more than made up for shape issues.

Ladia

Yeah, those with lower accuracy perception have definitely kind of advantage over collectors with strict accuracy requirements. they can be pleased with more models and also they make most of the sales which is good for the industry.

Collectors concerned about accuracy have to modify their models (if its possible / worth) or they just don´t buy. In the end we are all happy as not buying what you would´t like anyway has many advantages too.

Ladia

Completely agree, Adour. From some hideous reasons canopies and intakes are often big problem for manus. And not only shapewise ... also in terms of thickness!

I´m thinking about this for long:
We all understand limitations given by diecasting technology. I mean we all know there have to be some minimal technological thickness of diecast parts such as leading edges, wings, landing gears, wing fences etc.

But plastic parts? Why have to be also plastic parts thick as hell on diecast models?
Why are canopies thick as magnifying glasses?
Or have a look at Flanker / F-14 / F-15 / Mig-25 .... and even the all-new Eurofighter intakes.
Look at F-4 splitter plates.
Look at ALL landing gear doors.
Look at ALL missile fins & wings.

There is virtually no reason for these parts to be so thick. Or is there? Even when diecast uses different plastics from those used in kit modelling, why plastic pieces on diecast models cannot be more (...almost) in plastic kit quality?

Would really like to know manus opinions on this. I think its just the ossified thinking without any factual reason.

Ukrainian_Falcons

Yes it is quite visible on the F-100, actually it's visible on most HM models like the Spook, Viper, Hornet and Prowler. While Century Wings went that extra step and added fans inside the Intruder intakes.

Desir100

+1