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F-104C, 1/48 Hasegawa

Old Dog

Well-known member
Since I'm somewhat of a jet noob I decided to go it alone rather than be embarrassed in the Star fighters buddy build. Here is the kit

f104box.jpg


And the obligatory start photos

f104-start01.jpg


f104-start02.jpg


Going to be pretty much out of box so if it's wrong, it's wrong :tomato

I did go with and after market bang seat from Quickboost, no assembly required other than removing the pour stub plus it has a molded on harness which almost always looks better than my attempts at using PE.

f104-am1.jpg


And since I was not sure how good the kit decals were I went with this set from Caracal, printed by Cartograph. The set provides marking for nine aircraft, two in natural metal and seven in camo. The main difference between the camo versions is tail number and aircraft name.

f104-am2.jpg


Probably be a couple weeks before I actually start, stay tuned !
 
:popcorn :popcorn
Frank
Side note from Wiki,
The last USAF Starfighters left regular Air Force service in 1969. The aircraft continued in use with the Puerto Rico Air National Guard until 1975 when it was replaced in that organization by the A-7 Corsair II.
Only 296 were built.
 
Ha-ha, :rotf a couple of weeks till start I said, well were down to 21 days and counting and I'm finally under way. Most of the parts have been removed from the sprues and cleaned up, a few small sub assemblies built and most of the basic interior paint work done. So far the fit of things has been excellent and since I'm not using any PE things should proceed at a reasonable clip...

f104-b01.jpg


The only disappointment so far has to do with the parts that due to their thin cross section were molded as one piece such as ailerons, flaps and slats which all have a collection of injector pin marks on one side. as shown in the photo below. :bang head Oh well, there are only 26 of them :facepalm

f104-b02.jpg


Oddly enough the horizontal tail surface which is also a one piece molding has no pin marks, go figure !

Anyway, onward and upward.

Thanks for looking !
 
OK, with ten days left and counting, it's time for an update...

The instrument panel hides up under the cowl and is only barely visible when installed so no sense going to a lot of effort on it. I used the kit decals. The bottom half apparently shifted when I applied the setting solution but over all it doesn't look too bad and as you will see later is not easy to see anyway.

f104-b03.jpg


Next up was the bang seat. It looked better to my naked eye than it does in the photo, best I can do these days with my shaky old hands.

f104-b04.jpg


f104-b05.jpg


And mounted in the pit. I was going to add some color to the side consoles but photos showed little in the way of color there and they also pretty much disappear once the fuselage is closed.

f104-b06.jpg


f104-b07.jpg


I have been most impressed with the fit and engineering of this kit, the only let down so far was the instructions which would have you install the IP after the fuselage is closed. Won't happen with the bang seat and joy stick installed. Luckily I was able to pop both out without any damage although I did break off the throttle lever in the process. The next two show how little you can see of the IP and side consoles.

f104-b08.jpg


f104-b09.jpg


Just about ready for a turn on final to the paint shop, just and little clean up and minor seam work to complete. The wings fit so well I considered leaving them off till after painting. The wing tabs interlock with the interior bulkhead to set the correct angle, nice engineering !

f104-b10.jpg


f104-b11.jpg


Next update should show some paint. Thanks for looking !
 
Great IP & pit, like that a lot. Starfighters seem to be a subject that a majority of folks 'rally around', no matter who's building them, or which colour scheme or version, folks [seem to] love an F-104 build !!



Ian.
 
I think it will be fine the way it is .

Taging on to what Ian said , you have to admit it is a remarkable looking aircraft . No matter what decade you saw it in . :D
 
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