Planebuilder62 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Hi there I am planning on building a camouflaged Starfighter for the Vietnam group build. Were these fitted out for Sidewinders under the fuselage or only for iron bombs under the wings? Regards Toby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 By the time camouflage was introduced, most F-104 missions were ground attack, so the armament was usually one bomb under each wing with tip tanks. Previously the type operated as a fighter in Vietnam and in this case the armament was Sidewinders on the wingtips and a tank under each wing. I can't remember any picture of a 104 in Vietnam with launchers under the fuselage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Was there even an option for fuselage launchers with the C? G-model had it and I think also J but not sure about C? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 23 minutes ago, reini said: Was there even an option for fuselage launchers with the C? G-model had it and I think also J but not sure about C? Not from the beginning: the ventral catamaran for sidewinders was introduced on the C in 1961 as part of an upgrade named Project Grindstone. The catamaran was however not popular in USAF use 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Camouflaged C's dropped mostly M117 iron bombs and BLU-27 napalm according to my references. Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty84 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Hi Toby, don't know if you've already seen this but the International F-104 Society has some nice (and picture heavy) articles about the Starfighter in Vietnam which may help you with the loadout: https://www.i-f-s.nl/f-104s-in-combat/ Cheers Markus 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 On 9/27/2020 at 11:24 AM, Giorgio N said: By the time camouflage was introduced, most F-104 missions were ground attack, so the armament was usually one bomb under each wing with tip tanks. Previously the type operated as a fighter in Vietnam and in this case the armament was Sidewinders on the wingtips and a tank under each wing. I can't remember any picture of a 104 in Vietnam with launchers under the fuselage Agreed, Giorgio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planebuilder62 Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 In the Italeri set I am building is the centreline store shown below. Does anyone know what is? There are some pictures from Thailand with this on the Starfighters. Regards Toby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 1 hour ago, Planebuilder62 said: In the Italeri set I am building is the centreline store shown below. Does anyone know what is? There are some pictures from Thailand with this on the Starfighters. Regards Toby travel pod I guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 It's a SUU-21: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Luke/63-13251.htm or the similar MN-1A: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wC765.htm Jari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael A. Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 The SUU-21 drops the BDU-33 Practice bomb or one of its close cousins. Nothing particularly special about that. However, the SUU-21 pod allows the pilot to practice arming sequence for 'other' weapons that would only be dropped from the centerline station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 ... and we all know what kind of load was to be carried on the centreline Polonia of NATO Starfighters... The SUU-21 was also a very common sight on the F-104 in peacetime and Esci has to be commended for supplying one. The 1/72 offering however was not great, the one in their 1/48 kit was nicer. I'm not sure if many others are available in 1/72, I have a set from Flightpath that unfortunately only offers closed lower doors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now