Hasegawa 1:48 F-104J Starfighter - JASDF Special

[Tiger331]

 

Hi Folks,

 

Missed the F-104 Starfighter GB some time ago but having recently joined the IPMS Asian Air Arms SIG, thought it was time to have a crack at a Hasegawa 1:48 F-104J Starfighter. I have assembled a fair number of aftermarket items, decals and references over the years to help me work through this one.

 

 

Aftermarket includes a Black Box resin cockpit detail set, Eduard Brassin Resin Exhaust Nozzle, Master turned brass pitot probe and ResKit wheels (not shown and I may swop these out for a set of Hypersonic items).

 

I have yet to decide on the colour scheme and it may not be any of those featured on the two sheets I have but I will need a combination of decals from both sheets. The stencilling on the Platz sheet is sublime.

 

 

Downloaded from material from the internet to give me some further inspiration.....

 

 

I quite like the 'Forest Camouflaged' single-seater portrayed on the profile page.

 

So.......I've made a start on the kit...

 

 

Carved out some of the Hasegawa plastic to get the Black Box tub in place. I had read some very negative reviews about the fit of this set but I have not found it to be too bad. I have done a lot of test fitting and the instructions do leave a lot to be desired but it will go in. I have previously used an Aires CDS and that WAS a nightmare....I had to thin the fuselage sides down until you could practically look through them and the set still resulted in a bulging of the forward cockpit area which precluded fitting the canopy in the closed position. The fit of the Black Box set is much better but I have, for example, cut away quite a bit of the cockpit coaming in order to get the IP to fit properly, the gap will will be subsequently hidden by the resin instrument panel coaming. Extreme care should be taken when sawing and then sanding the base of the cockpit tub. As you can see there is no floor. As many of you will know, the F-104 does not have a floor. The seat (whether it is the C2 or Martin-Baker GQ-7 variant) is mounted on rails that connect to the rear cockpit bulkhead and, in the case of the C-2 at least, the footrests sit on the two tabs that protrude from the area where the Instrument Panel is mounted, both on the real thing and in this kit.

 

Incidentally the instructions in the superb DACO improvement set recommends NOT cementing the central undercarriage bay assembly in place since it can be neatly trapped between the fuselage halves, as demonstrated here.

 

 

Close up of the cockpit area. The Black Box instructions also omit to tell you to remove a large part of the kit cockpit sill in order to accommodate the resin parts. I managed to chip the forward portion of the starboard sill so will need to do some repair work in due course (once the IP is fitted). The rear portion is not a chip but a deliberate indent required in accommodate part of the rear console area.

 

 

The excellent Eduard Brassin resin exhaust Nozzle (early)....A simple drop in fit using the resin inserts that are fitted to the inner fuselage.

 

 

I've also made a start on some of the superb stuff included in the DACO improvement set. The mainplanes are drop in replacements (without the rivets of the originals). The only minor issue was the need to fit very thin plasticard shims to the inner ends of the main flaps to close up the gap with the fuselage. The completed article is vastly superior to the kit parts.

 

 

I have also made a start on the drop tanks. The forward parts are from the kit but the fins are another item included in the DACO set, again to counter the effects of the Hasegawa 'rivet man', who must have been on loan or an apprentice from Trumpeter. They are not a perfect fit and need a bit of filler to blend in with the kit parts. I've got quite a bit to do with the drop tanks themselves too.

 

In reality, I will not actually use much from the DACO kit, other than the rest of the flying control surfaces and the Red Dog AIM-9 launch rails and a pair of AIM-9Js but there is plenty left to equip my RF-104G and F-104S projects in due course. For those modellers that would baulk at forking out for a complete set, DACO do offer the possibility to purchase individual sprues so you can, if you wish, just purchase the set that includes the wings and flying control surfaces or the additional drop tanks seen on so many  TF/F-104s and not available in any of the Hasegawa boxings.

 

That's it for this installment...Thanks for looking

 

Mark     

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Nice start, Mark! I’m in Looking forward for the further cockpit assembly.

 

Cheers! 🙂

[Tiger331]

Time has crept up on me and I have not, until now, made much progress. That said, I've got the resin cockpit trimmed to fit and it was not as bad as some would have me think. Here's some pre-weekend work......I've done a fair bit more now and the build is progressing well and back on track.

 

 

 

I used the Black Box instrument panel but decided to try out some of the Airscale Instrument Dial decals for the larger instruments.....They worked pretty well with some Humbrol Clear and decal solvent followed by another layer of clear (on the dials only) to simulate glass.Weathering was completed with one of Florys washes and some Tamiya weathering pastels for the floor (what there is of it - the cockpit is 'open' (i.e. without a floor) 

 

I have also installed the forward (rear ?) section of the Eduard Brassin exhaust nozzle prior to buttoning up the fuselage since leaving the whole assembly off until final construction could be problematical. I discovered the tolerance on the two resin sidebar guides that are fitted to the inner fuselage sides is very tight and I may have struggled to get the whole exhaust nozzle in as a result. It will be far easier to fit the actual nozzle towards the end of the build.

 

 

More to follow shortly,

 

Mark

   

 

 

[Tiger331]

Starting to make a bit of progress now......fuselage buttoned up, wings, intakes and nose radome are now on. I've discovered the joys of masked filling this weekend......Cannot work out why it has taken so long for me to adopt this......I've now managed to avoid obliterating, or having to restore, detail to large sections of the model (and I'm normally very careful with the application of filler). It will mean a massive increase in consumption rates of Tamiya masking tape however.

 

 

The Black Box supplied instrument panel shroud is too big for the Hasegawa kit and has to be shortened (at the front end) by at least 2-3mm. It also needs to be 'lowered' in places in order for it to fit under the kit windscreen. The sides also need some gentle sanding to clear the sides of the windscreen. Constant test fitting does, however, yield a good result and in spite of the trimming it still looks sufficiently 'busy' and is far superior than the kit supplied item. 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

   

[Tiger331]

In my last installment, I mentioned the joys of masked filling.....here is the most 'extreme' example to date...

 

 

At the next stage I encountered two of the more 'challenging' aspects of this build so far. The first relates to the construction of the JASDF specific AIM-9 'catamaran' from DACO. Due to the finer details of these parts, which are a direct replacement for the kit parts, it proved difficult to get them to align properly. The attachment points are very fine so I had to use the model as a 'jig' to align both the mounting frame and to obtain the correct angle for the actual missile rails. It may have been easier to just permanently mount the entire structure directly to the airframe but it eases the painting process to have the catamaran detached until almost final assembly. 

 

 

Once the whole structure had set, I was able to lift it back off the model and set it aside for later.

 

The other area of concern is in fitting the upper fuselage/cockpit section behind the cockpit. This is, so far, the worst fitting part of the kit since it is marginally slimmer than the rest of the airframe leaving a small 'step'. I did try the DACO supplied replacement (which is actually designed to be displayed open to show the avionics bay) to see if the fit would be any better. It isn't but then, as I say, the DACO part is designed to be fitted in the open position anyway. So, I suspect there will be several repeats of the masking process until I can blend in this part with the rest of the fuselage.

 

 

   

Hope to get a bit more done over the long weekend.....stay tuned

 

[Nikolay Polyakov]

8 hours ago, Tiger331 said:

In my last installment, I mentioned the joys of masked filling.....here is the most 'extreme' example to date...

Yes, it’s a very useful approach, especially for the fine-engraved details. But I prefer to use a stretched sprues or a plastic chip instead of a putty.

 

Good progress, Mark! 👍I have mine stashed, I want to build an USAF bird in NMF.

 

Cheers! 😎