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Probably the quickest build yet for here, but fun none-the-less....Not the best of kits, with a number of fitment issues and inaccuracies when it comes to the cockpit. It's a basic kit, it's not all that bad. I don't think it is worth the £32 price tag for the kit though. hey ho. Full build log here if you care for a look-see? Anyways, here's my version of the F-104C Starfighter of Capt. Jonathon Christopher from the Start Trek episode - "Tomorrow is Yesterday" Enjoy! Tried a little weathering around the engine. I didn't want to overly do it. I thought I'd try a little "action" shot of the Starfighter "taking off" looks OK> 🤣 And my lazy bottom co-pilot through-out the build - Willow... Hope you all enjoyed the pics and the build? Next up with be over in the vehicle forum for the Polar Lights DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future 2..........

Hello! This is my newest project, a cold war icon. It really brings speed to one’s mind just to look at her. Nice kit, decals ok, one or two almost were ruined when leaving the film. Another one I did it myself, with some Tamiya extra thin glue on it. I must say they didn’t go along fine… And also, at least for me, these colorful paint schemes are way better than the boring low vis we have today. Cheers!

The wing pylon on the F-104A and F-104C is mounted at 90-degree to the wing. However, the wing-mounted droptank is installed with its fins parallel to the ground. Am wondering whether there is an adapter to mount the droptank to the canted pylon or the droptank is actually mounted diametrically onto the pylon directly but the tailcone with the fin is rotated to have the fins parallel to the ground. A close-up photo of the pylon/droptank interface will help, but has been searching in vain. Or is there someone who is familiar with this and can provide leads ? Warmest regards, YK

Hi everyone, This is a 1/48 F-104C Starfighter built as the rather colourful 'Really George' aircraft from the 479 TFW at George AFB. The kit is the nicely detailed Hasegawa version with 2 exquisite Aim-9Bs added from Eduard. This was my first attempt at a NMF finish so I went with Alclad paints which behaved very well over a gloss black finish. You do have to be very pedantic about the surface finish though as blemishes are difficult to hide. I toned down the rivet detail on the wings a bit and then decided to make things really easy by adding some internal lighting. This was quite a challenge as the F-104 is not a large aircraft and at 1/48 scale there's not a lot of room for wires, batteries and lights! Anyway, onto the photos: Many thanks for looking!

Hello everyone, The latest bird in my colorful George E. Laven collection is the 1/72 scale Revell F-104 A/C kit, along with Microscale's #72-358 decal sheet and an unnamed F-104 resin cockpit, probably an ancestor of CMK or something. The resin set had parts for the radar, fuselage spine and area behind the cockpit, but as I wanted to show the sleek lines of the aircraft, I only used the cockpit and vacuform canopy. The directions for the resin set were not very specific, and it took a while to get everything located to fit. I ended up using the vac canopy, because the resin ejection seat wouldn't fit under the kit hard plastic canopy, even after sanding. The decal set was a little misleading, in that the simple illustration provided showed some decals on the wrong side of the aircraft, such as the colored stripes on the air intakes (which had to be installed, trimmed and masked before the kit was assembled!) , spiraling in the wrong direction. In addition, the tiny delta on the fuel tank decals needs to be on the top of both wing tip tanks, the illustration shows one up and one down. Also, the U.S. Air Force decals are a little bit too large, which precluded applying some of the minor decals on the nose sides. The nose stripes decal is best installed AFTER the anti-glare panel is painted, then install the decal, and trim to fit with a sharp razor knife, before the decal sets fully. Lastly, the decal sheet call for a white nose and underside of the wings, which should almost certainly be FS 36495, a very light grey. Also the decal sheet calls for an olive drab anti-glare panel, but it should be FS 34079, as was the standard. To help me determine these things, I used the following photo, found in several places on-line. I do not own the rights to this photo, but I cannot explain my observance of the above-mentioned errors without it. It may get taken down if the owner requests, so grab it, if you want it, while you can. Otherwise, PM me an email address, and I will send you a copy. This is the only photo I've found that shows the various colors on the wing tip tank fins. Many other decal sheets ignore this factor. Of course, at various times, maybe these weren't painted at all... Note the clearly light grey nose cone, and the placement of the lightening bolts. Contrary to other postings on-line, these are the correct sizes, if installed according to this photo, and NOT as the decal sheet illustration says. Anyway, as always being not quite perfect, here she is, in all her colorful glory: It was sort of a tough kit to build, for a ham-handed guy like me. The landing gear HAS to be installed at an early stage, and predictably, it got broken off several times. There doesn't seem to be any way to work around this, due to the kit's design, so be wary if you build one. Also, the very thin tabs that hold the wings to the fuselage were broken off a few times, when I tried to hold the model by it's wing tips (wearing a white cotton glove!), and applying decals. Don't hold the model by it's wings! But, despite the kicking and screaming, I am proud to add this model to my collection -- AND I'm glad it's over...!!! Ed

QB72 409 Lockheed F-104C Starfighter Ejection Seat 1:72 Quickboost by Aires The F-104 Starfighter had a bot of a chequered history with ejection seats. These were made initially by Stanley Aviation. The C-1 seat initially fitted was a downward firing seat due to the Starfighter being a high level interceptor. This presented problems with low altitude ejection and 21 USAF pilots died due to this. The C-2 seat was then developed which fired upwards. However the aircraft still had to have a forward speed of over 104mph to work correctly. Many export Starfighters were fitted with Martin Baker seats to overcome this limitation. In addition the first F-104G's for Denmark, Italy, Turkey and Germany were delivered with this seat, before they were changed to the martin Baker one. Airies have presented us here with the Stanley C-2 seat, complete with seat cushions, harnesses and the foot plates. The detail that Aires have managed to accommodate in this seat is very good. The structural details are pin-sharp, whilst the seat cushions and fabric harnesses look just like the real thing. The parts are superbly cast in grey resin and there are no traces of bubbles or flaws in the resin. Overall this is a superb item and can be highly recommended for use in any F-104C kit. Designed to be used with Airfix, Hasegawa, Heller, Italeri and Revell kits. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of distributed in the UK by Hannants Ltd.