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Back end modified, repainted and modified FG-786 decals I have long had a wish for the Starfighter amongst my collection of prototypes but never thought that I had enough information to produce one until I came across a drawing which, apart from the lack of anhedral, purported to represent the proposed layout of the F104. The drawing matched an old Monogram 1/72 F104C, languishing on the shelf of doom, sufficiently well to show that the latter would be a good source of parts for an XF-104. The original model would have to be shortened and would require a new rear fuselage and intakes. The fuselage spine would have to be removed and the front u/c leg moved forward as the XF-104 had a rearward retracting leg. The cannon would need to be faired in and a new, longer, nose probe created. The centre section, nose and tail unit looked as if they could be used as they were although I had a suspicion that the fuselage was not as deep as it should be. So much for theory! I won’t bore you with the whole sad story but it took longer than expected resulting in a labour of love turning into labour which resulted in a bout of ‘get finished-itis’ so I am afraid that certain aspects, particularly the finish, are not as good as they should be. The configuration and markings represent ‘first flight’ status but lack the Lockheed logos. If anyone knows where I can obtain some of the correct size please let me know. The basics are described in the WIP, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235017784-xf-104-starfighter-prototype/ which has been updated with details of the tribulations. John PS. For anybody without the brainpower to realise that this is a project to avoid I have just discovered that there is a very good selection of pictures of the XF-104 in Jay Miller's book about the Lockheed Skunk Works published by Aerofax. It includes some of the original rear end, which I have seen nowhere else. PPS. From the above you would be right in assuming that I was not terribly happy with the finished article but I posted it anyway as a number of people were interested in how it turned out. It sat in my display cupboard for most of last summer giving me a reproachful look that said I could have done better and in the end I gave in and stripped it down, did some modifications and gave it fresh coat of Alclad Airframe Aluminium. I then found that I had done the Alclad so well it was like a mirror so I had to give it a light spray of Aluminium to make it less shiny. The first 3 photos show its current state. The last one is of the original because I forgot to take that shot when I photographed it this time. Notice that I managed a reasonable looking Lockheed logo. John

I have long had a wish for the Starfighter amongst my collection of prototypes but never thought that I had enough information to produce one until I came across this drawing which, apart from the lack of anhedral, purported to represent the proposed layout of the F104. The first drawing matched an old Monogram 1/72 F104C, which was never finished, sufficiently well to show that the latter would be a good source of parts for an XF-104. However the fin looked wrong and the second drawing seemed better in that respect. The original model would have to be shortened and would require a new rear fuselage and intakes. The fuselage spine would have to be removed and the front u/c leg moved forward as the XF-104 had a rearward retracting leg. The cannon would need to be faired in. The centre section, nose and tail unit looked as if they could be used “as is”. Whilst the model looked OK in the plan view it looked a bit thin from the side and when I cut off the tail section I could see that the cross section was oval, rather than round, as I expected. I decided that there was nothing I could do about this. Anyone contemplating doing one of these might well be advised to start with a different model. What follows is not a proper WIP as I wanted to see if my ideas would work before going into print. I have got sufficiently far to show that it is feasible even if things go pear-shaped from now on. Note that all of these modifications are based on unauthenticated drawings, what photos I could find and the ‘Mark 1 Eyeball’. The first step was to cut the fuselage, throw away the rear section and shorten the front section. Next step was to simply remove the intake bullets and add the ‘fence’ ahead of the intake. To say that this did not work would be an understatement. The bullets are hollow and whilst this might have worked if using parts straight from the sprue I couldn’t manage it with them fitted to the model. The intakes were removed and the inside sections created by first wrapping thin sheet around a curved former and dunking it in hot water. They were then glued to the outer sections. To get the shape matched to the fuselage the inside and outside sections were held against the fuselage side whilst the glueing took place. Once set they were removed and trimmed to shape. Next the boundary layer slot had to be made. The main problem here was trying to determine what was going on between the intake and fuselage. I could find no information and what I ended up with was a ‘best guess’. There appears to be a slot so two roughly shaped pieces of about the right thickness were glued to the fuselage with a gap between them to represent what appeared to be a slot for (cooling?) air. These were then trimmed to a shape which matched the intake. Next came the rear fuselage. I made a tailpipe by turning a former out of balsa wood, covering this with Micromask and then tacking pieces of plastic road together to form a sheet and then wrapping it around the former to make a tube which was then attached to the rear bulkhead. Pieces of sheet were then glued to the tube and shaped to give the right outline in side and overhead views. Circumferential formers were added and shaped ‘by eye’ and then the assembly was ‘planked’ However when offering up the tail assembly it became apparent that it had not been tilted up sufficiently so it was cut off and corrected. I then found that the rear fuselage now seemed to be a bit too short (Mark 1 eyeball again) so it was cut off again and a piece of thick sheet inserted to bring it up to the ‘right’ length. The fin had pieces of sheet glued to the bottom to match the shape of the rear fuselage One unresolved problem is what to do about the fairing between the fin and the exhaust nozzle. It seems to be just a cover over the rear fuselage rather than being part of the fuselage and thus the leading edge would stand proud of the fuselage surface. Does anyone know the answer?

There is a fairing around the tail at the base of the fin. It has been suggested that the leading edge of this fairing was not faired in, as if the fairing was placed over the rear fuselage skin. Can anybody please clarify this? Also, is there some form of radiused fillet where the fin meets the fuselage, or is it a sharp right angle? John