Hello my fellow modelers, I have done it again… Today I went to the local hobby shop to find a pilot figure for my ongoing projects. I did find one, but couldn’t leave it at that of course[:o)]. No, there was this nice Trumpeter YF-107A Ultra Sabre kit staring at me from one of the shelves. Of course I succombed right away and took it to a better home[:D].
This brings me to my current dilemma: no paint numbers are given in the kit. I was wondering if anyone could give me an FS number or Humbrol/Gunze/ModelMaster, whatever number for the bright red on the airframe? Being slightly color blind (this has lead to a very rare experimental trainer yellow/green Jagdpanzer iV in the past [:0][:D]- but I digress), I hesitate to try to find a match visually. It’s painting by numbers that does the trick for me[;)].
My books says FS 11136 Insignia Red. The natural metal areas are in fact aluminum laquer, which can be duplicated perfectly using Model Master Non-Buffing Aluminum oversprayed with a semi-gloss (or gloss) clear of your choice. The cockpit should be FS 36231 Gray with black cockpit coaming and inside of canopy. Hope this helps. Also, read reivew of this kit in the FSM Reviews page. And do a Google search on the F-107. I’ve lost the address, but one reviewer went on and on with shape problems, then finished by highly recommending the kit. Some people of the picky persuasion are saying the signature dorsal air intake is too shallow. I love this plane, which lost out to the Thud in the supersonic fighter-bomber competition held by the U.S. Air Force in mid to late '50s. Makes you wonder if, had the 107 prevailed and gone to Vietnam, would more than 1/3 of the total production run have been shot down as was the case with the F-105 (which I also have great affection for). Just a thought. Hope the colors help.
Tom Bell
Thanks, I can use the info, too! I appreciate it.
Thanks a lot for the information Tom, I owe you one[8D]
I had the same thoughts about loss rates as you do, when I read about the F-107’s history. I would think the loss rate couldn’t have been much better, because most Thuds were shot down by AAA. Because of the low-level missions they flew, they were bound to get shot at a lot. Maybe the F-107 could have evaded more sams, I don’t know. Fuel and load-carrying capability would probably not have been as good as the Thud’s though.
As things are, i judge both planes by their looks, and there’s really no contest.[:D]
There is an F-107A, at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson. I took a photo of it which I will present here. 
Sorry I didn’t get more, but the camera batteries quit right after I took this image. Not like I live nearby so I was fumed! But I hope this helps.
A natural metal finish with red trim. Too dark, to be insignia red in my opinion. Walking up to her, and actually seeing the real thing for the 1st time, I was amazed at how clean the design was. The F-100 was down a few yards and you can clearly see the likeness of the 2 airframes. Only seeing the F-107 in pictures, prior to this trip, I didn’t even know it was there, so I was pleasantly surprised.
I’m hoping you will be able to share some progress pics if you decide to build this kit.
Chuck
Fly Navy
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I agree that the shade of red on the 107s I’ve seen in pix, and there are many color pix of this bird, show a darker, richer shade. Maybe try Model Master Guards Red acrylic. Guessing by the Spittin’ Kittens F-106 parked next to the 107, I’m surmising Pima (which, dammit, I haven’t got to visit yet) has the century series in numerical order.
Quck quiz: What was the F-110? This one’s easy.
Sharkskin, you’re right, thats to easy, Everyone knows thats a F-4B that was modified into the first USAF F-4C. How about the YF-113?
OK, Sharskin has been shamed two times in one mssg. What is YF-113, Great Bestower of Shame upon the Ignorant. Before I insert long and sharp knife, honor me with answer to this question: What was last Century Series Fighter to roll off the line, and when.
Okay, this one was a trick question. There are two seperate YF-113s’. The original Have Blue was at one point the YF-113. And to confuse the matter several of the captured MiG-27s’ were designated YF-113G, also known as Have Donut. The last true century series inthe traditional use of the word was the F-111 and I believe the last one of the line was sometime in the late 70s’. But, if you want to be technical about it then the F-117 would be the last century series, and I don’t know when its production run ended.
Thanks for the picture and info Chuck! During my years in photography I have learned that there’s one thing you can count on: Murphy’s law[:D]. If it doesn’t go wrong at the shoot, it gets messed up at the lab or in the mail. This goes double for irreplaceable stuff like negatives of a family member’s wedding[xx(]. The one pic you took’s a great one though: thanks! Posting pics is not that easy because I usually only take ‘oldskool’ pics on slide material, but I’ll see what I can do. The F-107 is about three kits down from the top of my to-do pile. I’ll build it legs-up on a display stand.
What about the F-108 and F-109? Has everyone forgotten them already?
The XF-108 and the XF-109 never progressed beyond the paper stage. I beleive there was a mock up of the XF-108 built but it was destroyed many years ago.
Both the F-103 and F-108 made it to mock up stage and Anigrand has some very nice 1/72nd resin kits of them. The 109 was only on paper.
There are various claims for the F-109 designation. One is what became the F-101B; the other is the Bell VTOL jet fighter, which did reach mockup status - twice, first as the Bell designated “F3L” for the Navy. The US Air Force serial numbers used by Bell are also bogus: The mockup has 92019 on the tail, which stands for 59-2109, which is in the range of 307 serial numbers assigned to the Boeing Bomarc missile. A cutaway drawing of the D188A is marked 02715, which would be 60-2715, which is in the range of 960 serial numbers assigned to the Martin Bullpup missile.
However, the Air Force bureaucracy must have assigned F-109 to something, because the Navy F4H was initially bought as the F-110…
Mercy, but you guys are a bunch of dogmatic model builders. When I axed yez what was the last Century Series Fighter off the line, I meant the ones we traditionally consider to comprise that series, to wit, the F-100, 101, 102, 104, 105 and 106. And the answer to my simplified question is an F-105F which rolled out of Farmingdale in Jan. 1964 (probably just in time to get shot down in VN). But, back to the dogmatism, I’ve always been interested in the AF’s short lived use of fighter designations on missiles. For example, I remember reading that the AIM-4 originally had a – don’t quote me – F-90-something designation. Now the Bomarc, with a big ape of a rocket engine and two ram jets, not to mention a lovely profile, was pretty much an airplane without a pilot. But a little AIM-4? Oh – and this is the last time I mention the name – while we’re off on subject of rockets and missiles, the Tiny Tim (which subject was flogged by me recently), I’m now reading, did its best and more peaceful duty as a booster stage for early sounding rockets like WAC series.
i believe paul boyer did a kit review of the f 107, and used guards red. if he dosen’t answer back before i do tomorrow, i will look at the review and tell you what he used.
I just checked out the review, and he used Testors Guards Red, just as you said. Thanks for the tip!
FK,
Check out the Air Force Museum’s web site for it’s pics of the F-107. The three aircraft produced were SNs 55118 (now at Pima Air Museum), 55119 (now at the U. S. Air Force Museum), and 55120 (which was damaged in a landing accident while piloted by Scott Crossfield). The aircraft was considered too expensive to repair so it was used for firefighting exercises and destroyed in the process.
The anti-glare panal on 55119 is a light olive green color, but some earlier pictures will show it as being flat black. Look at the pictures closely and you will see a couple of rear fuselage panels are natural aluminum. The Pima aircraft has been completely painted, for its protection, and is not representative of the aircraft as it was in service.
Cobra Company at www.cobracompany.com makes a resin cockpit kit for the Trumpeter kit. It is excellent and gives you parts for the distinct cockpits of 55118 and 55119, and the different side panels for 55120. If you want to display the model with the canopy raised, look at pictures of the aircraft with the canopy raised. The canopy raises straight up over the cockpit. It does not open “clamshell” style like most other aircraft.
The Cobra ejection seat is also excelent. If you just want to put in a better ejection seat get a seat made for an F-100 kit.
I closed the air brakes and had to fill some of the wide gaps with sheet plastic and rescribe the lines. The air intake has fit problems and I’m using sheet plastic stock and stretched sprue to fill and reshape the area. Putty is dificult to rescribe (it cracks).
The kit has a few minor problems, but overall it is a nice kit and is going together well. I,m not looking forward to the masking! rangerj