Egilman

Short answer Mark is no it isn't redundant but the part with all the detail is the exposed part that will have a chance of being seen behind the landing gear.. 95% of the PE goes into the space under the door or on the door insides itself.... the only people that usually get to see it is the people that made them or the overhaul people that would take those doors off... Just isn't any point to it..

Thanks Ken... One has to be careful when ordering PE, A lot of it, depending on the model, is redundant and some of it just plain useless cause it will never be seen... Now in defense of Eduard, the kit offers you an option to have the forward doors in their normal almost closed position as with all starfighters or fully open showing all that detail except that would never be the way the aircraft was in real life... I guess that justifies creating the PE.... Since I'm building a representation of a real aircraft in a specific moment in it's life I have to go with the real deal, so the PE is out, the doors will be partially closed... Just got thru doing the basic black parts of the engine, pre-assembly stage brother, although I did assemble and paint the engine stand... (gotta have some place to put it)

Yep, the health of fingernail polish... It's not something you want to drink for sure, or sit around sniffing for any length of time... it's one of those everyday chemicals that are harmless when used properly... There are two types of paint thinner for models, spirit based and acetone based... Mr Color Leveling thinner and Testors Enamel thinner are Alcohol/Mineral Spirit based, True North Enamel thinner on the other hand is Acetone/Alcohol based... Normal modeling usage shouldn't be any health risk at all

Good deal brother... is this the group build we were discussing a ways back? or are you doing a one off... Either way brother I'm here... won't miss this....

Well the next update comes fairly quickly.... The Main Gear Bays are an interesting conundrum... Plenty of detail to be added if you follow the PE manufacturers scheme, but none of it will be seen if you follow the Aircraft's configuration when sitting on the ramp.... Down & Locked LG position sitting on the tarmac... You have about 4" between the sill and the lip of the door... The opposite side... Look at the door in the gear down position... Then look at the bay behind the gear itself... How much do you see? Nothing... So I've decided not to install the PE on the inside of the bay, none of it will be seen.... and when sitting on it's gear the forward doors will completely cover it up... Another issue is parts of the PE are overscale... Clearly the PE parts do not fit the kit parts... I would have to trim that line of rivets off so the part will even fit... So, rather than go through a days worth of work making the 30 or so PE parts fit properly, and once done, covering them up, I'm not going to install them.... Not worth the work... I went ahead and completed the steps to finish the Landing Gear Bay build stage with this.... The third of the bay on the landing gear end will be seen, the rest will not... the Air plenum acts as the engine support when the engine is installed inside the model, I installed it cause I haven't decided yet if I'm building it with engine out or not... I think the dark highlighting of the interior of the bay works, given it will be dark and hardly seen.. it looks the part... The next step is assembling the J79-GE-7 engine.... Onwards Brothers... EG

Nice job Patrick! A well worn winter field applied whitewash... just the way it should look....

Thanks for all the likes brothers, today, another small update.. Main Landing Gear Struts.... In stages start to finish Initial painting in aluminum and first photoetch... Labels and brake line supports Brake Lines & Tie Downs.... Hinge Reinforcing plates & Wheel fold Drag Links... Final overall painted aluminum... This was a trip 15 parts altogether and some you couldn't see without mag glasses... And this is before the bay itself... This kits going to take a while... I can't say enough about this kit, clearly it is the finest large scale F-104 available... the detail is outstanding... The part sprues have alternative parts for the "G" model as well so both Italieri kits come from the same basic molds... this kit puts the rest to shame... Ten steps over the old Hasegawa kit and at least three over the Tamiya... Lots of work, but well worth it... Onwards to the Bays now....

Amen, it's what makes this place special....

Complete agreement...

Sometimes glue is just easier.... Beautiful work Aydin...

Ok the next step is the Main Landing Gear Bay... Spent the last day researching colors and configurations... Seems like the design didn't change any over all the various models although the "G" models had it beefed up for the greater all up weights the airframe had to carry... And they were all painted aluminum... (according to AF TO-10) The parts and instructions.... Not a lot here, glue it together and paint it... The photoetch is interesting though they include brake lines... gonna try and install them, they are kinda visible on this bird... Will probably coat it in future and do some highlighting to it to make the details pop... Onwards.... EG

Thanks Dan, as far as the document holders they aren't seen now and anything of an appropriate size wouldn't be seen either... Absolutely a requirement for a pilot to fly yes, but what's the point of putting in something that no one else can see...

Thanks Dennis, oh not that far along yet my finners are crossed as well, but I at least understand what needs to be done this time... but you know me, if there is a way...

I would have dropped a couple of papers in them if they would be seen brother, but they won't.... Yes they had boot clips they needed to wear, they were nicknamed "spurs" cause they looked the part and clicked on the floor when they walked... When you see a video if a pilot climbing in to an F-104 cockpit with a C-2 ejection seat, you see them pause for a sec and act like they are stomping bugs or something... when they get the other foot in they repeat the motion.. What it is, is the pilot hooking his "spurs" onto the ball end of the foot retracts.. Yes the seat has cable retracts that attach to the feet of the pilot so when he ejects the retracts trigger and pull his feet and legs into the seat frame and lock them there while the seat is fired from the cockpit... There are two arms (red) on the sides of the seat that attach to the webbing that looks all bunched up on the sides.. When the ring is pulled those arms rotate forward pulling the webbing up above shoulder level so the pilots arms don't go flopping around in the windstream ... The C-1 seat had the same equipment installed after Yeager's ejection experience, the reason he spent six months in the hospital recovering from it was he had two broken arms, a dislocated knee, and a severe concussion from his head buffeting around in the windstream ... A high speed ejection from a supersonic aircraft is no picnic ... (you could survive the damage to the aircraft but the ejection could kill you anyway, ejection was definitely the last and only option left) As an aside, Yeager had to get a special medical dispensation to continue to fly afterwards, he was too experienced/great a pilot to ground permanently, although his cutting edge test pilot status was lost as well as his shot at becoming an astronaut....

Finished Cockpit... Sorry bout the pics, it didn't want to photograph well for some reason.... I think it fits the picture of the real thing at least it resembles what it should be.... And the seat fits perfectly.... EG

I believe that 3D decals are the coming thing for doing ultra fine cockpits, they are expanding the line rapidly but alas probably won't get around to the less demanded models until they have saturated the the what everybody wants crowd first... So like this one the modeler will have to decide what works best to get the representation they want... This kit, painting the part is the best way to go IMHO.... Thanks, you know what they look like Ken, so that is high praise as far as I'm concerned... Update on the finished cockpit in a few moments... EG

Thanks Mark, I'm probably going to do Canopy open and a few other panels open as well... The kit gives you just about every option you could want including positionable slats... It will pretty well fit any situational display you can see in a pic... It's a great kit very very well done...

Thanks Ken, Appreciate it... Not cross eyed but definitely eye tired from looking through the magnifying glasses.... If your asking about the color I used for the scope, the previous one I used MM pale green, (FS 34227) but it was too light, so this time I used MM Euro Dark Green, FS34092, from a distance it gives a hit of green but up close it shows dark green... a lot like the detail pics I've seen... The side panels are pre-painted photoetch, (eduard #32819) and do have some texture to them, although they do look very nice, they do come off as a bit flat... And your right most of it won't be seen once the cockpit is in the aircraft... Thank you my friend, I think I'll go with it....

Ok, short update... Decided to take a break on the tub PE and see what I was going to do with the Instrument panel... the Tub was easy to clean the detail molding from and although nice was a bit soft on the details... the Instrument panel on the other hand is extremely detailed, clean and crisp with deep details not easily removed... The debate I had was do I actually want to try to remove it or build a new instrument panel to accommodate the PE, (which looked flat in comparison to the moulded in detail) or detail paint the existing.... I figured it would probably be best to first see what the status of my ancient 5/0 brush skills were... This is what the real instrument panel looks like.... And this is my attempt to replicate that in paint.... My attempt to detail paint... Please, I would like to know what you guys think, remembering that it's going to be inside a cockpit and under the Hud shroud...

It was the first axial flow turbojet that wouldn't compressor stall in transition from sub-sonic to supersonic speeds... it was a revolution in engine tech... Also, depending on aerodynamic condition and throttle commands, the stators in the compressor would change their pitch automatically maintaining smooth airflows while increasing the volume of air almost instaneously... The built this capability to stop compressor stall which it did in all except the most extreme conditions, solved the aerial restart problem as well... What they didn't expect and surprised the heck out of them was the instant thrust response it gave them... Most jet engines have a delay between throttle up and thrust increase, it takes a bit of time for the compressor to spin up faster and deliver the increased airflow.... Variable stators in the compressor altered that to next to nothing.... instead of waiting five seconds for the increased thrust on throttle up, the increase in thrust was right there, now, almost immediately..... And yeah it wasn't carrying a B-17's worth of bombs slung under it's belly either...

Yep, until the Phantom II came along.... To be completely candid there were only two other aircraft ever built that could keep up with an A-12/SR-71 at speed... The MiG 31, and the XB-70... and as far as the MiG 31 went, SR-71 pilots said all they would have to do is push the throttle a little closer to the firewall....

Welcome aboard brother, I made sure there was room up there for you... I'm sure the goodies will be passed around with abundance in a bit.... And the brittle? At least I won't be shelled again.... {chuckle} Enjoy my friend...

It was a revolutionary aircraft when first built, pushing the edge of the envelope of aircraft engineering... Nasa flew several of them for decades as a research aircraft.... It really was a manned missile... It was chosen as the chase plane for a number of experimental aircraft including the XB-70... And when they did the highspeed runs with the experimental's, the starfighter was usually the last chase plane left behind... Welcome aboard Brother...

Welcome Gary, It's a gorgeous kit and the PE looks great as well... the finish I'm hoping comes out like the others show there are... Praying I don't muck this one up as well.. Thank you...

Yep, the F-104 had HAoA issues as well but they were more from the configuration of the wings, they eventually put a warning stick shaker on it and then a force return to keep the aircraft within it's flight envelope to prevent stalls, but pilots routinely disabled it... When the F-104 went into a stall, it usually did one of two things, started tumbling, or flat spinned... Both unrecoverable conditions... The first pilot to experience it was Chuck Yeager in the XF-104 he crashed from flight level 22.... He reported that the aircraft dropped like a anvil and there was no aerodynamic control from the control surfaces... He spent six months in the hospital recovering from the ejection experience.... The Air Force eventually made 1500 flight hours in supersonic aircraft a requirement to become a zipper pilot.... Thanks Brother, not having to rebuild the cockpit tub is a bonus with this one...