Mike Dean Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 My next offering in the Matchbox group build is the two-seater Starfighter from 1986. Bought a while ago as a "no box, no instructions, no decals, cheap as chips", decals (with instructions) were acquired for a few pence so we're good to go. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted what the cheapskates at Matchbox did with most of their two-seaters in the late '80's. Instead of adding another ejector seat and pilot, they replaced the existing pilot with a second ejector seat. Hence, no pilots. Thankfully, they had deleted the stand by then, so we were spared aircraft up on stands, wheels up and no pilots. I have some spare Matchbox pilots, so they'll feel right at home. However, Matchbox added wingtanks to the two-seater, something that they missed off the single seater. Silver fuselage, white wings and some snazzy USAF decals, and that'll be your lot. This isn't going to take long (what am I saying..........?). 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Norman Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 ooh nice built a couple of them back in the day, Regret not joining up for this group build now. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Great to see this one join the GB Mike,looking forward to it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Great stuff Mike don't recall ever seeing this one before so all the better to have it here. Best of luck Cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 7 hours ago, George Norman said: ooh nice built a couple of them back in the day, Regret not joining up for this group build now. Hi George You are very welcome to join this Group Build at any time from now right up till we finish in June. Please take this as your personal invitation to build anything Matchbox, reboxes of original Matchbox kits are fine as well Dave has made a list of all the originals at the beginning of the build list thread. I look forward to seeing what you've chosen to build. Cheers Pat PS, sorry for taking up so much room in your build thread Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimJ Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Nice to see this making an appearance in the GB. As for it not taking long I built one in 24 hours a few years ago, which included spray painting in the garden at 2am. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, TimJ said: Nice to see this making an appearance in the GB. As for it not taking long I built one in 24 hours a few years ago, which included spray painting in the garden at 2am. It's definitely a candidate for a Blitzbuild, though mine will be spray painted in the garden shed at a rather more respectable 10:30. The kit parts are filthy. It looks like this will not be the first time it's been in a garden shed! Edited January 26, 2022 by Mike Dean 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 A plane to make a pilot really concentrate in its single seat version. Add all that extra weight up front, and a learner driver, and it starts to get properly frightening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Nice choice. Appearantly Matchbox knew something all other TF-104G makers did not and molded a Vulcan gun port on their twoseat Starfighter! Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 2 hours ago, Hook said: Nice choice. Appearantly Matchbox knew something all other TF-104G makers did not and molded a Vulcan gun port on their twoseat Starfighter! Cheers, Andre Thanks, I had hadn't spotted that. Someone a Matchbox wasn't paying very much attention when converting the single-seater mould to the twin-stick. I think I'll remove it. 3 hours ago, TonyW said: A plane to make a pilot really concentrate in its single seat version. Add all that extra weight up front, and a learner driver, and it starts to get properly frightening. The attrition rate of the Starfighter was appalling, particularly with the Luftwaffe who tasked it as a low level fighter bomber when it was designed as a high level interceptor, and far too many were lost over hilly terrain in poor weather. Other countries (notably Belgium & Canada) had similar poor accident rates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 The nose wheel is wrong as well. The oleo and wheel are in the right place but the doors should be to the rear and not to the front Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 34 minutes ago, Mike Dean said: Other countries (notably Belgium & Canada) had similar poor accident rates. Dutch Starfighters had a much better safety record than we had with Gloster Meteors. Also : The Spaniards were relatively minor operators of the type, but they had the major distinction of never having lost one of their 21 Starfighters in an accident during seven years of operations. Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 6 minutes ago, Black Knight said: The nose wheel is wrong as well. The oleo and wheel are in the right place but the doors should be to the rear and not to the front Like the Vulcan, another feature inherited from the original singleseater kit. Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 Honestly, I spend some time at work and away from BM and we have all these new WIP threads to record.... It's so hard to keep up! Great to see this kit here Mike and I've not seen the parts and kit differences either. Good to see you unearth this one for all of us to see. Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 On 1/26/2022 at 2:48 AM, George Norman said: Regret not joining up for this group build now. What's all this silly talk George, you're more than welcome to join up until the closing date of 5 June, Hopefully you will join us soon. Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted February 1, 2022 Author Share Posted February 1, 2022 (edited) The silver dart is up and running. Fuselage parts glued together, gaps filled and primed. The cockpit is taped up as the control panels, seats and pilots are all in place. I was all of a-dither of how to finish this kit. I wanted to have it up on a stand next to my single seater to have a duo in-flight. But I also fancied having it on its undercarriage with the canopies open. I found a compromise that if I do the wheels-up version first (with the undercarriage doors loosely glued in place), take some pictures with the single seater, and then do it wheels-down and open canopies. Should be do-able. Edited February 1, 2022 by Mike Dean tie ping musteaks 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Nice update Mike and looks like your pretty much ready to start painting this thing. Your photoshoot theory seems interesting, I look forward to seeing what you end up doing. Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 Progress has been made: updates tomorrow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 The silver dart is now shiny silver. The wings aren't attached yet as the white paint is giving me grief. The gloss paint I was using (Humbrol gloss white) kept blistering. It seemed to be reacting with the white primer, so now I've resorted to using the white primer and then adding a clear coat over the top. It seems to be working.🤞I made the mistake of not looking at the instructions , and also painted the horizontal stabalizer white. It should be silver, and once again the silver spray paint reacted badly with the Humbrol white. That has now been stripped back and re-primed. I know the primer and the silver spray are OK together, as it worked fine on the fuselage. I'm so glad I hadn't glued these parts on before painting. They've had more time in bleach than the kitchen dishcloth. I haven't made many changes to the kit. The gun fairing (on the port side) is no more, and I raised the back seat a few millimetres as the rear jockey was sitting far too low. He couldn't see out of the sides, let alone the front. I've left the front undercarriage doors as per the kit. I added a few instrument panels front and rear, as it'll be "opened canopy" later on, so there had better be something to see. The wing/fuselage gap should close up when the wings are properly attached. There's a smudge in the paint on the fin top which should be fixable. I broke off the pitot tube on the way to the spraying shed. Scrabbling about in the dark on my hands and knees with a torch, miraculously I found it! Still a way to go. There still a bit of detail painting to do, but once the decals start going on, it'll start looking the business. Who said "this isn't going to take long"? Oh, that was me.................... 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 It's giving me the right hump, and it's gone back in its box for now. I'll look at it again in a few weeks. I'll start another kit shortly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Never mind Mike, there's still plenty of time and starting another kits is a good remedy to get you going again. Best of luck with this when you return. Cheers.. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dean Posted June 11, 2022 Author Share Posted June 11, 2022 Thanks to the extention, I got my TF-104G staggering over the line. No further work was done on the paintwork, and it wasn't as bad as it first looked, so I went with what I'd got. The only construction left was to glue the wings and canopy on, and the decal application took about a hour. So here it is, in flight, The nose probe broke off more times than I can swear, and it now looks like a boxer who has had one too many fights. There is also a paint smudge above the starboard intake. The pilots didn't come with the kit, but I wanted an inflight shot to do this: Finally, here's a family shot of the Matchbox single-seater and two-seater family, in order of timeline. The Canadian CF-104 and the Luftwaffe version (with wing-tanks that didn't come with the kit) were in the first version of PK-28. In the second PK-28 version, you get the Luftwaffe version (again without the wingtanks) plus new decals for a USAF version (seen above). The TF-104G (PK-40) came along with a USAF and a Luftwaffe version with the extra wing tanks included. The only one missing here is the Luftwaffe two-seater - I have the kit to build but it didn't make it. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 Lovely lineup! Cheers, Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 A fine looking line up. The in flight shots look really good as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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