Aussie National

It's not you, it's the way Revell have you build up the fuselage that causes the issues, it's something I noticed on their new tool Shackleton - consequently I ignored their instructions and got a much better fit on the fuselage halves!

wait wait you've missed off the wing outer panels, no way an aircraft had such tiny wings

 

I built an Airfix kit of this "missile with a man in it", a very long time ago. At the time I couldn't figure out how those thin tiny wings got the thing off the ground, but I agree it's still looks astonishing.

 

Slightly more recently than my kit build (1974 to be precise) the front man of rock band Hawkwind, the slightly deranged Robert Calvert, launched a satirical 'concept album' entitled "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters" which (sort of) told the story of the German Air Force's accident-prone experience with the Starfighter. "We'll call it the F104...........G. G for Germany!" says the Lockheed salesman, trying to talk the Germans into signing the contract. I still have the original vinyl LP and in more recent years managed to find the CD.

Old habits die hard, 46 years later I've just bought Deep Purple's brand new album (it's superb!)

 

Back to aircraft, I became an English Electric Lightning fan in the 1960s when my Dad took me to an airshow where one of these came hurtling down the runway, wheels up asap and as it got level with us the pilot yanked the stick back and it went up like a missile. My God, the noise - I was WELL impressed!

The F104 had another name with pilots, the Widowmaker. They were designed for high altitude IIRC but the Brass decided to use them for low altitude support and a lot of them crashed, more here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter

 

Cheers,

 

David

Thanks for all the feedback folks. Glad I'm not the only one who's struggled with the way Revell put their kits together! Not sure why they have taken this approach. 

Yes the F104 was pretty notorious for a while, especially in West German service. Very much the wrong aircraft for low level missions. From what I can make out, the Italians latterly only used them in the high altitude role they were originally designed for. Horses for courses....

 

Thanks 

 

Ken

The Museum at Speyer has several Starfighters, I'm  sure thats where I first heard the German joke 'How do you get your own Starfighter?'  to which to punchline was 'buy a plot of land and wait for one to crash on it' (it may be lost in either the translation or my telling! )

 

If you were painting inn the German livery, the view from above might have been useful - but just look at all those tanks hanging underneath!

 

The skeletal one has a couple of close ups - Lockhead had the advantage of being able to write their assembly instructions on the plane - in this case how to bolt the wings on!

 

Jon 

My school was once buzzed by a couple of Starfighters back c 1980.

 

I guess if you were in Germany this may not be that unusual, but I was in the middle of Manchester when they screamed overhead.  Turns out they were West German and had been over the UK on an exercise, gotten lost and were using railway lines as a guide but ended up low level over Manchester following the Styal loop.

49 minutes ago, jonhall said:

The Museum at Speyer has several Starfighters, I'm  sure thats where I first heard the German joke 'How do you get your own Starfighter?'  to which to punchline was 'buy a plot of land and wait for one to crash on it' (it may be lost in either the translation or my telling! )

 

If you were painting inn the German livery, the view from above might have been useful - but just look at all those tanks hanging underneath!

 

The skeletal one has a couple of close ups - Lockhead had the advantage of being able to write their assembly instructions on the plane - in this case how to bolt the wings on!

 

Jon 

Riding my BSA Bantam up a road in a valley on the North York's Moors one day in 1970, one of these passed me, lower down in the valley. I thought the BSA 175cc engine had disintegrated as the ground was shaking and the noise terrible as the German Pilot 'turned up the taps' and put it into afterburner. I swear he was laughing as he shot past me! I remember the Luftwaffe markings on the upper surfaces as I looked across, and down, at him.

On 15/08/2020 at 19:54, woodenhead said:

My school was once buzzed by a couple of Starfighters back c 1980.

 

I guess if you were in Germany this may not be that unusual, but I was in the middle of Manchester when they screamed overhead.  Turns out they were West German and had been over the UK on an exercise, gotten lost and were using railway lines as a guide but ended up low level over Manchester following the Styal loop.

I thought it was around the time of the Falklands. I saw them as they flew over my nanas house in Withington on way home from school (Old Moat). I was terrified as I thought we were still at war with the German and my mum probably thought WW3 had started. Someone has done a rather decent painting of the event. Says it was around 81/82 :

 

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/manchester-misshap-w-i-p/

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Jim76

23 minutes ago, Jim76 said:

I thought it was around the time of the Falklands. I saw them as they flew over my nanas house in Withington on way home from school (Old Moat). I was terrified as I thought we were still at war with the Germany and my mum probably thought WW3 had started. Someone has done a rather decent painting of the event. Says it was around 81/82 :

 

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/manchester-misshap-w-i-p/

 

 

It has also happened that if there was a Fly Past at the  nearby Woodford air show the pilots would by mistake do the fly past at Manchester Airport, the Americans were particularly good at doing the mix up ! 

You may want to move this topic to here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/42805-non-railway-modelling/

 

 

Rob