Working on a scale model aircraft again.

[Blazer]

And this time it's a Lockheed F104 starfighter and it's rather small. I mean really tiny.


The Fuselage, already painted. To show just how small this one is, I placed it on top of the box of a PS2 game and put the brush I used to paint it in front of it.

It's a bitch to get this one right.

[Barklessdog]

You will go blind working in that scale.

I used to build all kinds of model kits. Then when I became a teenager we burned or blew them up with firecrackers, M-80's etc. You learn a lot about vehicles by building model kits of them.

[Blazer]

Here it is finished, putting on the transfers was by far the toughest job with something THAT small.

[Barklessdog]

http://www.aural-innovations.com/robertcalvert/calvart/catch.htm

Catch a falling starfighter
Put it in the pocket of your jeans
You can use it as a cigarette lighter
Or as an opener for a can of beans
Catch a falling starfighter
Shine it up and wear it on a chain
You will find that it will be much brighter
If you empty out it's cockpit down the drain
If you empty out it's cockpit down the drain

[godofthunder]

John you crack me up "If you empty out it's cockpit down the drain"  Nice job on the F 104 ! I'm avid builder my self though I buy more than I build these days.

[TBird1958]

I love building models........HO trains are more addictive than drugs    Nice work on the F 104!

[uwe]

With Luftwaffe splinter camouflage and iron cross isignia - the full works.

We lost over 110 of those things in real life. It was on the news like every other week in the sixties and seventies - some somber-faced anchor man saying: "This is the hundredandsomething Starfighter loss of the Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr ...".

Even as a child I always thought it looked more like a racing plane than a military fighter and it probably was. With its torpedo/rocket like looks and those stubby wings it certainly didn't look like it could take a beating and still bring you home safely.

Erich Hartmann, Germany's highest scoring WW II ace (352 kills, mostly Russian, but also a couple of US Mustangs that had made it to the Rumanian oil fields with their huge range) was vocal in recommending against buying the F-104 for the Luftwaffe in the late fifties (after 10 years of Russian POW camp, he returned to West Germany in 1955 and was sought as an advisor to the new Bundeswehr). His argument after having flown one was: "It is too much of a technology jump. Most of our pilots come from piston engine experience or at best the Me 262. We should equip the Luftwaffe with the F-86 Sabre, which is a plane at the end of its development cycle, has done well in North Korea under harsh conditions and is in many ways a logical progression from the Me 262. The F-104 has nasty handling characteristics though it is no doubt a technological achievement." Franz-Josef Strauss, then (corrupt) defense minister and on Lockheed's pay roll (as it later turned out), chose not to listen to Hartmann, had him dismissed as an advisor and ordered the F-104s. The rest is history:

"The introduction of a highly technical aircraft type to a newly reformed airforce was fraught with problems. Many pilots and groundcrew had settled into civilian jobs after World War II and had not kept pace with developments, with pilots being sent on short "refresher" courses in slow and benign handling first generation jet aircraft. Groundcrew were similarly employed with minimal training and experience. Operating in poor North West European weather conditions (vastly unlike the fair weather training conditions at Luke AFB in Arizona) and flying at high speed and low level over hilly terrain, a great many accidents were attributed to CFIT or Controlled Flight Into Terrain (or water), which it is fair to say was no fault of the aircraft. Many Canadian losses were attributed to the same cause as both air forces were operating in the same country. An additional factor was that the aircraft were parked outside in adverse weather conditions (snow, rain etc) where the moisture affected the delicate avionic systems. It was further noted that the Lockheed C-2 ejection seat was no guarantee of a safe escape and the Luftwaffe retro-fitted the much more capable Martin Baker GQ-7A seat from 1967, and many operators quietly followed suit. In 1966 Johannes Steinhoff (Uwe's comment: another WW II Luftwaffe Experte fighter ace with 176 kills and a lot of Me 262 experience) took over command of the Luftwaffe and grounded the entire F-104 fleet until he was satisfied that problems had been resolved or at least reduced. In later years the German safety record improved, although a new problem of structural failure of the wings emerged. Original fatigue calculations had not taken into account the high number of g-force loading cycles that the German F-104 fleet was experiencing, and many airframes were returned for depot maintenance where their wings were replaced, while other aircraft were simply retired. Towards the end of Luftwaffe service, some aircraft were modified to carry an ADR or 'Black Box' which could give an indication of what might have caused the accident."

[Barklessdog]

Officer: So you want to be a fighter pilot.

Recruit: A Starfighter Pilot, Sir.

O: And why particularly the Starfighter?

R: Because Sir, I am in love with this aircraft. This magnificent engine of steal and gleam.

O: That's very poetic. Please continue.

R: This aerocynamic Delilah. Its uptilted wings and sidewinder rockets.
Its clear curving cockpit cover, the whirling of dials and needles.
The illustrious uniform of the Federal German Airforce. The click of the heels in salute, the flare of the jacket, the wide, long-skirted hang of it, and oh, the low shiny peak of the cap.

O: I think that's enough.

R: But Sir, the danger, and the glory of death.
A young and dashing life gone up in flames. Blonde maidens weeping.
To die for one's country.
To set forth in a silver lance to joust with the forces of darkness.

O: They don't always crash, you know.

R: It would be an honour to crash in such a plane.

O: To be mangled and scorched?

R: To be hideously mutilated beyond the recognition of one's own mother.

O: Is that makeup you're wearing?

[uwe]

Calvert was great. And this solo stuff is quite a bit removed from the sonic onslaught most Hawkwind albums were.

Re the Starfighter: Did it actually ever see combat anywhere? I'm not aware that it was used either in Vietnam (where Phantoms did most of the work) or in the Six-Day-War (where the Israelis preferred the rugged French-built Mirage or their own license-rip-off version of it). A real "Schönwetterflugzeug".

[Barklessdog]

A lot of cold war air force aircraft never saw action including the F 104, The Delta Dagger & Dart, They were built as interceptors with limited range and pretty much useless in Vietnam.

The only ones I'm aware they used were F 105 Thunder Chiefs (Lead Sleds) bombers and the navy planes like the Grumman Corsair, Crusader and SkyHawks. Park the carrier off the coast and send the planes in.

Being an air force only plane limited a lot of fighters. Obsolete when they were born, except for sales to other countries much like french Mirage's

[Blazer]

Calvert was great. And this solo stuff is quite a bit removed from the sonic onslaught most Hawkwind albums were.

Re the Starfighter: Did it actually ever see combat anywhere? I'm not aware that it was used either in Vietnam (where Phantoms did most of the work) or in the Six-Day-War (where the Israelis preferred the rugged French-built Mirage or their own license-rip-off version of it). A real "Schönwetterflugzeug".

I'm sure that the Luftwaffe and the RNAF would have flown the English Electric lightning or the Saab Draken if the Starfighter wasn't around.

Anyway, Starfighters saw action with the Pakistani airforce in the sixties in a war against (who else) India where they were used as fighter bombers.

[uwe]

I'm surprised it could carry bombs, much less fly low enough to drop them with any accuracy! Always thought of it as some high altitude interceptor. Probably why NATO spend so much time and development on the Tornado fighter-bombers and their extremely good low altitude flying characteristics.

Nice fin the Paks had though, kind of desert foxish.

[Barklessdog]

Or a three curry camo