F-104G DC+109 (JaboG 33 Büchel)

[Dutch Man]

Hello. Having some holidays, finally, and getting really exited with all the F-104 builds going on, I decided to take mine from the shelf.

Just curious where I left it, as always with some issues or lack of courage to get things done. In this case the old Hasegawa F-104G/S kit needs a full scribing and some riveting, to meet my standards. But I'm chicken with that part of modeling to be honest. More on that later. First some photos I made over the weekend that show were I am with the build.

  

Left back side of the cockpit. Cut out the "floor", because the early ones had the bang seat go down. That looks real different. My ambition was to replicate some details of that. Will see what is left of that.

Right hand side

Sliding rail is made of brass profile. Bang seat can easily move up and down.

Have to look up what AM I used on this part. Don't know anymore. 

Todays work. After fitting the Aires wheel bay (for Italeri kit not the Hasegawa) I like a little challenge yesterday, I started to rework the main landing gear.

White styrene is Evergreen tubing in various dia / sizes. Aires were to fragile and rough on detail. Still need to work on some actuators for the big doors. 

And here I am right now.

With some minor extra weight inside the nose cone it is not even a tail sitter. Happy me.

 

You can see the fuselage was already painted in a black primer. I made a start some years back to polish that off to get the lines and rivets on the surface. Idea is to scribe and rivet from white lines and dots. It went to the famous shelf. Well I'm almost finished scribing now, rivets still to do. A two days work in total. Hope it looks good with some new coat of paint.

More and better photos to come soon. Hope you all like it

 

Robert Jan

 

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Dutch Man
Spelling and added text

[Lothar]

That looks indeed excellent Robert Jan, I hope you'll stick with it and keep posting progress. I'd love

to see a Hase F-104 !!

Lothar

[GROWLER 96]

[Dutch Man]

Progress to show. It's so hot right now, best to stay inside, with some cooling from Air Con. Yeah! major problems this morning, big bang there goes a substation,. Took 3 hours to recover. Just before I started with some First Air Aid for my Koy the lights came back.

Had some spray paint jobs to do, no worries with the modeling.

 

Already looks the buzz down there. Has some lacquer on and ready for wash and details.

Pretty details pop up, only 1/3 will be seen. Other 2/3 will be covered like the photo shows below.

Like this. Hasegawa corrected the main landing gear doors. These are original from the kit, with no bulges (I think the C has them?) G/S version have the thicker wheels.

Provided by Hasegawa as separate Resin parts, bulged doors. The smaller ones come from Aires. Primed, painted and ready for a semi gloss.

Wheels on and a test to see if all is still ok. Light version, no tail & no nose cone

All ok. Now put some weight to the back...

Dry fit of the big and heavy tail. Nose cone with some weight keeps it nice and level.

Needs some extra details, yet to come are a hose, light bulb and the hinges for the doors. 

Perfect sit. Then my brother came in with some BEER. My prayers have been heard..

And celebrate this day. 

Thailand is partly on a Alcohol Ban, depends on where you live, but we cannot buy a nice and COLD BEER, due to the "Covid-19" crisis.

 So my brother's wife went for a shopping. 

It tastes so good...

 

Stay Safe everybody and enjoy life.

 

Robert Jan 

 

[Dutch Man]

What I'm really happy with, is how the black primer and scribing worked out on this one. That is exactly what I had in mind when I joined with the Sabre for the Cold War Jets campaign. Al least I had a good testbed with this. Gives so much confidence now. Hope it turnes out the same with the riveting.

Happy me (so far).

Back to the bench.

 

Robert Jan 

[Dutch Man]

How can I change the tittle of this topic?

It should be F-104G DC+109 (JaboG 33 Büchel)

 

Robert Jan

[LSP_Kevin]

2 hours ago, Dutch Man said:

How can I change the tittle of this topic?

It should be F-104G DC+109 (JaboG 33 Büchel)

 

Robert Jan

 

Just edit the very first post in the thread - you can change the title from there.

 

Kev

[Dutch Man]

Thanks for that Kev.

 

Robert Jan 

[chrish]

Very nice work!

[Derek B]

Outstanding work Robert! 

 

Derek

[Out2gtcha]

Yep, VERY nice!  Makes me want to dig out my stalled F-104 D.

[Astro32]

Looking great!

Thanks for reminding me of the Aires gear bays. Just ordered a set for my -C. I didn't want to spend the time scratchbuilding! BTW I have the Eduard photoetch set for the front office, and it has a recessed panel to represent the blanked-off hatch for the early down-firing seat on earlier '104s. I'm not 100% certain if all variants had this with C-2 or MB-7 seats, or what have you. Does anyone have a clear shot of the 'pit floor without a seat? I think this would be a big help for all the '104 builds out there.

[Dutch Man]

Thank you all for the head ups.

About the seat, I once saw a series of photos, don't know where and if I bookmarked the site. First check says no, but my logical system has remarkable outcomes sometimes.

Have to figure out if my build needs the C-2 or MB-7. I have them both in Resin. C-2 comes from CMK, MB-7 from Aires. I have the set from Eduard with the deep hatch under the seat. From the belly you see where it opens. I guess some rail and a few pipes, wires is all you can see. On Aero Scale there is a terrific build of a F-104C type by Steve Andrews http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=262925&ord=&page=1 

Did some research using his ongoing build, but can't find the link for the seat, almost sure I saw it there.

So my last day of a short holiday has already started, getting my second coffee and I'll continue working on my F-104G.

Ordered all kinds of silver and aluminium shades, delivery on Saturday, good motivation.

 

Have a nice day.  

 

Robert Jan

Edited May 6, 2020 by Dutch Man
spelling

[Chek]

3 hours ago, Dutch Man said:

 

Have to figure out if my build needs the C-2 or MB-7. I have them both in Resin. C-2 comes from CMK, MB-7 from Aires. I have the set from Eduard with the deep hatch under the seat. F

 

"A contract was signed on March 8, 1967 to re-equip the entire German F-104G force with the Martin-Baker seats. This took about a year to get done. The first successful use of a GQ7 seat to escape from a German F-104G took place during a ground-level overshoot at Ramstein on September 24, 1968".

 

Note that early GQ-7 seats had a notably rectangular headbox

while later ones have a more trapezoidal shaped headbox.

[Dutch Man]

Chek, thanks for the dates and photos. Now I can make decision on the seat used. 

Daco / Astra Decals sheet shows the JaboG DC+109 in a 'Metal Color' finish. I love the shades.

 

Regards and have a nice day,

 

Robert Jan