Italeri F-104

[JohnS74]

I've just about completed the Italeri F-104G but I've had a couple of issues with the build and I was wondering if anyone else had found the same.  Overall the kit is a pleasure to build and certainly looks like a Starfighter but benefits from a bit of 'After Market'.

 

I used the Aires cockpit set which, as usual, is a wonderful piece of moulding.  However, I thought that the resin instrument panel was too opaque to be of any real use and I used the Eduard panel instead.   Locating the cockpit in the fuselage was a bit iffy  and it seemed to be way too wide.  I shaved so much plastic from the fuselage sides that the plastic was almost 'see through'.  I also thinned down the Aires sidewalls but even then there was still a gap at the nose and the fuselage was too wide for the windscreen.  We're only talking of a mil or so here and when its all together its not really noticeable bit it was a bit of a pain getting there.

 

By the way Aires made a bit of a boo boo with their cockpit (which the've now corrected) in that the control column was too far forward and conflicted with the instrument panel.

 

The other issue I had was with the decals.  I've done the Marineflieger version so I can only speak for the those but It seems to me that the Version C decals are oversize.  The general stencils are fine.

 

Cheers

 

John

[onosendai]

The problem with the decals of 104 Italeri has already been discussed several times, for this version i don't know the size of + cross, sure the "marine" is a bit slim, also the MFG2 logo is oversized. To be honest though if I look 100 sheets of decals that I've in the house at least 60 have errors like these.

 

Edited November 27, 2014 by onosendai

[Tony T]

The Astra decals are super, but at about fifty Euros a set they really deserve a double or triple build, or sharing...

 

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ASD3216

 

I'm going Greek (Mount Olympus), and thanks for the cautionary notes about the cockpit fit.

 

Tony

[Kagemusha]

The Astra decals are super, but at about fifty Euros a set they really deserve a double or triple build, or sharing...

 

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ASD3216

 

I'm going Greek (Mount Olympus), and thanks for the cautionary notes about the cockpit fit.

 

Tony

 

The price of the Astra deals is eye-watering, luckily I got a set on ebay for a nice price.

 

Thanks for the info about the fit of the Aires cockpit set, pity it's so bad.

[Zero77]

Astra decals in DACO website are a bit less expensive than Hannant's, and you can order only the stencils, or the first print with a few color issues at bargain price.

http://ultra.glo.be/daco/KAst16.html

Edited December 2, 2014 by Zero77