Here's
my AMT/ERTL (ex-ESCI) 1/72 F-104C/G that I built a few years ago.
There was not too much done with this kit as
it is a fairly nice kit straight out of the box. The only glaring problems
I noticed were that the instrument hood overhangs the flat space it's mounted
on, to where there is an open space on each side that I did not notice in any
reference photos of F-104 cockpits. I filled these spaces with sheet
styrene.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The
kit wheels are only accurate for the later variant F-104's and are more commonly
associated with the F-104G which can be built from this kit as well. To
get the earlier wheels, I had to scavenge a set from the Hasegawa F-20
Tigershark as its main wheels were the only ones I could find at the time that
came close to matching the original style 104 wheels. I believe Revell/Monogram
have catered to this on their newer tooled F-104C in this scale.
The
fins on the wing-tip tanks were corrected as they represent the configuration
found on the later F-104G's. I have heard that the placement and size of
the tip-tanks in this kit are innaccurate, but they look fine to my eye, so I'm
not going to fret over it.
The
natural metal finish was accomplished with SNJ which was my first experience
with this product and I was thoroughly impressed. The different panel hues
around the exhaust were painted with the old Polly S Metalline series which was
excellent paint for being acrylic based... unfortunately it is no longer
produced and I have yet to find an acrylic based metallic paint that can match
it for fineness of the metallic particles and overall adherence and durability.
Markings
came from a Superscale decal sheet and I believe depict an F-104C deployed
by the U.S. to Taiwan as a deterrent to China in the Quemoy Matsu
Crisis between 1958 and 1959.
J.C.
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