Jump to content

Your cold war kid's attempt on an early Starfighter...


Recommended Posts

In my case postage wasn't that much, as he sometimes makes trips to germany and send it from there - post from germany to austria is reasonable, sometimes. You'll see, his stuff is great.

Edited by Chief Cohiba
trips, not rips. Bluetooth swallowing keystrokes...
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And the engine. Nothing special here, it really falls together. Parts are provided for the earlier GE11 as well as for the later MTU engine, and consequently I build the earlier.

 

40729338fn.jpg

 

40729340hs.jpg

 

Again, the quality of he kit is just great. The interior of the engine is also well depicted, but can hardly be photographed (and seen in real life, I'm afraid). Dryfitting also shows good fit in the fuselage halfes.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

And starting to work on the Radar and the wheelbays. Nothing to post so far on the wheelbay parts, just gave them a grey/silver base coating, then starts the washing/drypainting procedure to work out the structure.

 

But a few impressions from the radar; the base assembly and painting is done:

 

40795757mw.jpg

 

40795756bu.jpg

 

Sorry for the poor quality, but just wanted to use the phone cam, and that's as good as it gets in the dim light there.

 

Structure of the radar module is good, but pictures show this is just covered over and over with cables, so I'd add at least a fev random cable trees running across the edges. I'll do a few with this step and a few, when the module is mounted on the closed body halfes. I'm not planning to leave it open, but hey, it's there so I have to add at least a bit. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And some more progress on the radar unit. Added some lines and did the assembly:

 

40807429as.jpg

 

40807431tv.jpg

 

40807432js.jpg

 

Lines are only trying to depict the tons of wires running around the actual module. Will add a few more once installed, but as I don't even plan to show it open, that how far I plan to go, I guess. 😉

 

Currently working on the wheelbase, where I created a bit of a mess. Nothing to big, just decided to add the Eduard wires, after I've painted it. So, after scrapping the molded in cables, I have to repaint it. But: that 's modelling, right?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

And a little more pieces, I tinkered along. I worked on the parts for nose and main landing gear wells, scraped away some of the molded-on structures (which is a pity, as these are very nicely done), and added some photo etch and wires.

 

Nose well parts:

 

40871030bu.jpg

 

Main well parts:

 

40871033qy.jpg

 

Dry fitting show that these really fit well and tight together as well as the fuselage halves, showing again the quality of this kit.

 

What it does lack, though, is some more wires and structure to depict the crowdiness of the wells, so I plan to work s bit more in here. Luckily, this isn't something that can't be done with rather basic material, and Danny's bóok again proofs to be an indispensable source. So I'll add some more, when partly building this together - to lower expectations here, not all of the wires shown on the pictures, but just a few to add a little more crowdiness. 

 

I guess the most relevant thing here will be to find a reasonable order to do this, to avoid wires being in the way of parts to mount. I expect some fiddling. 😉

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also I went along with the specific machine to build.

 

As mentioned above, I plan to build an early bird as a part of quick reaction force (QRF), carrying the a nclear bomb. In the early days this was the B43 1 MT bomb, and as far as my researches go, were located in Norvenich, home of JG31 Boelcke, and Memmingen, base of JG34 (at least until 1975).

 

Current favourite is  DA + 237, shown in Danny Coremans book carrying a B43, as well as shown on some pictures on the web, dating this to 1965, so this would match.

 

For obvious reasons, information on this specific topic is a bit more rare, so all additional infos from your wisdom is welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Biggles87 said:

Just a thought, but how much of any extra detail will be seen with the main doors closed, or do you plan to leave them open?

 

John

Yes, I plan this to sit on the ground, with wheel bays open. Otherwise I wouldn't do it, I'm a rather lazy guy. 😉

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 31/03/2021 at 11:58, Chief Cohiba said:

Current favourite is  DA + 237, shown in Danny Coremans book carrying a B43, as well as shown on some pictures on the web, dating this to 1965, so this would match.

How is your research and build progressing, I mentioned back in March that I had ordered Danny Coremans book and decal sets for the F-104, but I heard nothing afterwards and the cost never appeared on my credit card bill so I thought there was a problem?  Today (07 May) I had an email that my order has just been posted from Germany.  When they arrive I can start my Starfighter builds.  I too fancy building a QRA aircraft with a special weapon. :winkgrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Needs to watch this thread as I want to do a Kinetic Luftwaffe Starfighter.  I seem to have accidentally built an Alphajet, Gina and an RF-4E and the line up needs an F-104G.  I remember them well from UK airshows, especially in the pre Ramstein disaster days when they would approach or fly over the crowd.  Dutch, Italian and German Starfighters always sounded great.

I am currently cobbling together an old ESCI G model that will take on Dutch colours, but the Kinetic kit appeals as it must be higher quality, so watching with interest

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, bar side said:

I am currently cobbling together an old ESCI G model that will take on Dutch colours, but the Kinetic kit appeals as it must be higher quality, so watching with interest

Even though I have some old Monogram F-104C kits and a Hasegawa F-104C in the stash I bought a Kinetic Dutch F-104G to build a 322 Sqn aircraft, it is a very good model, fine engraved panel lines and fits together without any problems.  There are different options in the box, C-2 and Mark.7 seats, engine exhausts, Sidewinder missiles and fuel tanks but no centre line pylon or any other weapons.  If you get the two seater TF-104 it also has the option to build the single seat aircraft so you end up with a spare fuselage and lots of other spare parts.  I have the Eduard pylon set  and Kormoran missiles to build a German Marine aircraft, I'm sure after I receive my Daco decal sheets I will be tempted to build a few more. :winkgrin:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/7/2021 at 11:42 AM, Retired Bob said:

How is your research and build progressing, I mentioned back in March that I had ordered Danny Coremans book and decal sets for the F-104, but I heard nothing afterwards and the cost never appeared on my credit card bill so I thought there was a problem?  Today (07 May) I had an email that my order has just been posted from Germany.  When they arrive I can start my Starfighter builds.  I too fancy building a QRA aircraft with a special weapon. :winkgrin:

Sorry, I've been away a bit for this and did care for my Sopwith over there. So many kits, so little time... 😉 

I bought Danny's sprue for the special weapons in the meantime, and it did arrive in almost no time, say, a week or so - that is from Netherlands to Austria. So no issues on my side, rather the opposite. Early QRA means B43 here. 

As with all the stuff included there will definitely be another G to build, if not two (thinking of a Marine all grey scheme or/and a Norm 83). 

 

 

20 hours ago, bar side said:

I am currently cobbling together an old ESCI G model that will take on Dutch colours, but the Kinetic kit appeals as it must be higher quality, so watching with interest

 

I just can add to what Bob said, the kit's quality is amazing!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

So many kits, so little time... 😉 

Tell me about it...:winkgrin:

4 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

I bought Danny's sprue for the special weapons in the meantime, and it did arrive in almost no time, say, a week or so - that is from Netherlands to Austria. So no issues on my side, rather the opposite. Early QRA means B43 here. 

I do not know why there has been a 2 month delay in sending my books and decals?  I would have liked to have bought some of the Daco sprues for the special weapons and new wings for my Hasegawa F-104C which I intend to build as an orange/red drone but with just the books and decals the postage from the Netherlands to the UK was 32.50 Euros!  :doh:

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/9/2021 at 1:08 AM, Retired Bob said:

...but with just the books and decals the postage from the Netherlands to the UK was 32.50 Euros!  :doh:

When I ordered books and decals in January, it was some 22,- including tracking, but that's within the EU, of course. So 32,50 sounds realistic to the UK.

 

In both of my purchases it went pretty smooth. When he said that he shipped from Germany, it might be a delay there, as it might have been due to some restrictions that he couldn't go there for a while. I ticked shipping from Belgium, as it's only a few Euros more, but that's within EU, of course. My guess is german shipping is considerably less.

I can remember last year I waited half a year for the Barracuda Wicker seats, so I guess it's the time a bit. 😉



 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Chief Cohiba said:

When I ordered books and decals in January, it was some 22,- including tracking, but that's within the EU, of course. So 32,50 sounds realistic to the UK.

Books and decals arrived today and they are well worth the wait, I bought 3 books in all, Starfighter, F-16 and F-4 Phantom plus the decal set for the Starfighter, with an extra sheet of stencils.  I also bought the Daco decal sheet for the F-16 at Spangdahlem and the reinforcing plates,  All together it was a large, heavy parcel so I wasn't complaining about the shipping cost, it's just more than we usually pay in the UK.  So now with with the book and all those decal options I have no excuse now for not building my Starfighters....well apart from which ones to make and finishing the StuG builds that I have in the Panzer III STGB.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...