1/48 Hasegawa CF-104 1st Canadian Air Group TAM 1980 FINISHED!

[modelling minion]

Time to throw my hat into the ring and actually make a decision as to what to build!

I am going to build a Hasegawa F-104G as a CF-104 of the 1st Canadian Air Group which was based at Baden Sollingen in Germany. The aircraft I will be building is 104806 as it was painted during the NATO Tactical Air Meet at Ramstein from 20th June until 3rd July 1980, during this exercise the aircraft had a large letter C painted on the tail, and even more interesting colour wise the aircraft had a replacement starboard wing which was painted in a different camo scheme from the rest of the airframe (overall green as opposed to the dark green/grey over medium grey of the rest of the airframe).

I will be using decals from Leading Edge 48-20 which has the markings I need for this aircraft and has resin parts for the RWR's carried by the Canadian CF-104's during this time.

I shall post some pics of the kit and any goodies I decide to use soon. I won't be starting this kit for at least a couple of weeks until I can clear other builds off my bench so I thank you in advance for your patience and interest.

Craig.

Edited August 14, 2016 by modelling minion

[Lex77]

Nice choice!

Never enough Starfighters!

[Arniec]

I like the F-104 in Canadian colours a lot!!! I will be watching this one.

Cheers,

[PaulR]

Sounds like a very distinct project! Will be book marking this one!

Cheers, Paul

[CliffB]

I'm looking forward to seeing the unique camo Craig

Cliff

[Col.]

This does indeed sound an interesting machine. Plenty paintwork required.

[mirageiv]

Nice! Another 104, really look forward to seeing it in the lovely CF-104 camo scheme, sure it will be another cracker

edit, I have the Hase 1/48 S kit so will be certainly some great ref material here!

Edited April 15, 2016 by mirageiv

[modelling minion]

Thanks for the interest guys, much appreciated.

And thanks for the votes of confidence as to how it will turn out, hopefully I won't let you down!

Having had a look at some more piccies of CF-104's they seem to carry pylons under the wings more often than not so I think I need to invest in a set of these as the Hasegawa kit is devoid of them, might also get an Aries cockpit or at least a replacement seat once I figure out which type was fitted to CF-104's.

If anyone can help with letting me know the usual ordnance carried by these aircraft then I will be extremely grateful.

Craig.

[modelling minion]

Not so much of a progress update this, more of a here is the kit and decals update.

I'm sure most of us are aware of the 1/48 Hasegawa F-104 family but here are some pictures of the boxing I will be using and the sprues from the kit to prove that It hasn't been started yet.

And here are the decals by Leading Edge which shows the colour scheme that will cover the majority of the airframe. the decals look very nice but I have never used any by them before so if anyone has and knows of any peculiarities of them it would be great to know beforehand, the small bag at the bottom right of the picture contains the resin IR sensors.

And here is the aircraft I will be making, it's the top one on the sheet, but the sheet only gives a line drawing of the airframe and points out the position of the specific decals for this a/c.

And here are a couple of the references I will be using for the build, when I am able to get around to it.

I hope to be adding some resin goodies from the Milton Keynes show next Sunday, I shall post some pics of them after that.

I also found some 80's references on 80's aircraft which I had forgotten I had, mostly black and white pictures but they remind me of all the aircraft which were around that I took for granted at the time.

Oh to have had a decent digital camera back then!

Thanks for looking.

Craig.

Edited April 17, 2016 by modelling minion

[Arniec]

Nice, very nice!!! I will watch this one.

I just bought this weekend a leading edge set as well. Only mine are for the all green and silver scheme. I found the leaflet a little bit confusing. I will try to use the decals with the F-104 STGB.

Cheers,

Edited April 18, 2016 by Arniec

[mirageiv]

Looks like a good amount of ingredients in this one Craig! The Daco book seems brilliant, doubt you will be short of any references with that one

Are you modelling it at the TAM meet or just that particular jet in the 80's? I've only seen tip tanks, centre luggage pod and maybe some practice munitions on the wing pylons at these sort of gatherings, but you can tool it up quite nicely if you want: http://canadianstarfighterassociation.org/images/weapons2.jpg. The twin BL755 set up is pretty cool, will do that on a German -104G eventually

David

[Lex77]

Nice one!

Got some good references.

Looking forward to your build.

[modelling minion]

Nice, very nice!!! I will watch this one.

I just bought this weekend a leading edge set as well. Only mine are for the all green and silver scheme. I found the leaflet a little bit confusing. I will try to use the decals with the F-104 STGB.

Cheers,

Thanks Arnie,

Yes the instructions aren't the best it has to be said, not exactly comprehensive. I look forward to seeing your build in the STGB, it will be nice to see one in the green scheme, I suppose I will have to join that one as well and build one of my others, probably a JASDF bird.

Looks like a good amount of ingredients in this one Craig! The Daco book seems brilliant, doubt you will be short of any references with that one

Are you modelling it at the TAM meet or just that particular jet in the 80's? I've only seen tip tanks, centre luggage pod and maybe some practice munitions on the wing pylons at these sort of gatherings, but you can tool it up quite nicely if you want: http://canadianstarfighterassociation.org/images/weapons2.jpg. The twin BL755 set up is pretty cool, will do that on a German -104G eventually

David

Thanks David,

I have a feeling the Daco book might be a bit too good as it will show up all the things I haven't added to the build!

I like the idea of a BL755 armed aircraft and looked at getting some aftermarket ones but they cost as much as another kit so that option is out (yes I am tight I know) so I might well go with a rocket pod under each wing as I have seen these fitted. I will make it when it attended the TAM as I know it had the odd coloured wing at that time and that's what drew me to it.

Nice one!

Got some good references.

Looking forward to your build.

Thanks Lex,

Yes I am looking forward to starting as well, I just need to finish some of my other builds first, but I must admit I feel myself weakening and being more drawn to the F-104!

Keep up the good work on your Greek one, it will be nice to have the two aircraft with different colour schemes.

Craig.

[mirageiv]

I have a feeling the Daco book might be a bit too good as it will show up all the things I haven't added to the build!

I like the idea of a BL755 armed aircraft and looked at getting some aftermarket ones but they cost as much as another kit so that option is out (yes I am tight I know) so I might well go with a rocket pod under each wing as I have seen these fitted. I will make it when it attended the TAM as I know it had the odd coloured wing at that time and that's what drew me to it.

Just noticed I had written TAM meet, opps! I understand and very much agree on the AM point, nowadays you can turn a £20 kit into £50 plus in no time at all with not much difference from the basic kit anyway.

Look forward to the Start

[modelling minion]

Finally got my two CH-53's out the way and I'm able to make a start on the F-104.

I've been doing a little bit in the mornings before I go to work and I am impressed with this kit so far, quite nicely detailed and well engineered. Having spent longer than expected to being able to make a start on this I've decided to forgo some of the detailing in the cockpit and I have built the cockpit pretty much straight out of the box, as very little can be seen inside the cockpit when the fuselage halves are this isn't going to be too much of a problem. This is how the cockpit tub looks prior to fitting it into the fuselage....

The instrument panel has also been painted and weathered, the only addition here being a small yellow and black handle next to the main armaments panel, and it looks like this....

Just noticed this pic doesn't have the handle fitted, will take another later, off to work soon.

I have a resin seat which I think is from Aries which I have painted, unfortunately it doesn't come with seat belts fitted and they are quite complicated for the C-2 seat but I will give it a go. I have also managed to break off (and lose!) one of the footrests but I am sure I can make one of those. This is the seat at the minute....

The only addition to it so far is the yellow and black handle made from some wire and painted up.

Hopefully there will be some more progress over the next couple of days. Off to work now so no more for today.

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

Craig.

[Lex77]

Made some good progress. Looking forward to the next update.

Edit; just looked in the F-104 spares box and I got the PE seatbelts (the difficult part of them) going spare on a Eduard set.

If you want I can sent them to you.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Lex77

[Jabba]

Yet again a very accomplished start.

[modelling minion]

Thank guys, much appreciated. Hope I can keep it up!

Lexx I have sent you a PM, thank you very much.

Craig.

[mirageiv]

Lovely work again Craig, glad you started and will really enjoy watching this one come together . The cockpit looks great (too right about it being damn hard to see anything when installed) and good luck with the tiny PE belts, I feel your pain with those!

Edited June 16, 2016 by mirageiv

[modelling minion]

First off here's the picture of the instrument panel with the yellow and black handle next to the armament panel that I should have posted earlier!

The cockpit is now installed in the fuselage and the two halves have been joined together, as well as this most of the other parts which make up the fuselage have also been added and it's beginning to look a bit more like a Starfighter.

Most of the parts fit together very well indeed with the exception of the avionics bay cover behind the cockpit which has had some filler applied to it.

The intakes fitted very well by comparison and have just been blended in.

The area at the rear fuselage (the pen nib?) will need some sorting out as there is a bit of a gap, I might try and cover this with some adhesive foil, we shall see.

And this photo shows just how little can actually be seen in the cockpit.

The two wing halves have also been fitted together.

AS you can see I haven't added the leading edge slats or the flaps yet, I am thinking of having these drooped to give a bit more interest to the wings but I am unsure on how often this would be seen on an unpowered aircraft. I have seen a couple of a/c in this configuration but the majority by far have them level with the rest of the wing, any advice here people?

The nose cone has been assembled, smoothed and filled and filled with an appropriate amount of weight, as has the front fuselage.

Well that's it for now, thanks for looking in and for your encouragement and as usual all comments and criticisms are welcome.

Craig.

[Lex77]

Looking good!

I see some familiar fitting issues.

[modelling minion]

Thanks Lex.

Yes one or two issues, but nothing too serious.

If my F-104 turns out as nice as yours i will be a very happy man.

[mirageiv]

Nice work again Craig! They build up pretty quick don't they? On the slats/flaps as you say on the ground they can be seen in takeoff position (15 deg both) or shut up and in landing config (but rarely and usually in testing/work on the a/c.) I know German 104s could be seen in both configs regularly but CF-104s on the most part seem all shut up. If you are having the canopy open I don't see why you couldn't drop them, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Lockheed_(Canadair)_CF-104_Starfighter_(CL-90),_Canada_-_Air_Force_AN2227503.jpg. It certainly would not be wrong to do so anyways and could add some more life to the model, though it breaks up the iconic wing profile somewhat.

[modelling minion]

Thanks David,

That was one of the pictures I came across that got me thinking, I agree that it does break up the iconic wing shape but I think it adds a bit of interest. I shall let you know my final decision.

[Gary West]

The 104 probably more than any other a/c epitomises the Cold War era and the Canadians had some of the best schemes IMO, your scheme being the last before withdrawal. A couple of good Videos on Youtube of Soelingen 104's from the mid 80s to inspire you if you havent already seen them.