winglift

My Feedback: (10)

As a kid, one of the planes that I always admired was the F-104. When Viet Nam started I joined the Air Force and was trained as an Environmental Control Systems specialist. I worked on many aircraft, mostly fighters, including the F-4 Phantom, F-101, B-66, and occasionally T-33, B-52, and a few others. For a time I was stationed in England and once in a while the German AF would come to RAF Upperhaven in their F-104s. I don't remember if I got to work on them, but whenever they flew in I would walk around and inspect them. The leading edge protectors always led me to think of the engineers who designed such an airfoil on such a beautiful airplane.

I hope I haven't bored you. I build and fly RC airplanes, but never a jet powered one, much too expensive for me. I've never seen a RC jet fly in person, but I am sure it must be great.

I am retired now and still enjoy airplanes which has always been close to my heart. Again, I apologize if I have bored you.

Good luck on your build and flying.

dubd

Winglift, great post and thanks for sharing. I admire and respect service members like you. Stories and experiences like yours reminds why I love aviation so much. My Dad served multiple tours in Vietnam and was assigned to fighter and bomber squadrons. He retired 25 years later with me spending my entire adolescent life around jets, so I can appreciate the passion for aircraft.

bchapman

Thanks for sharing, I always like to hear stories of those who served our country and especially when they share their memories of all of those great aircraft of the USAF during those years.

I too always loved the F-104 as well and it's always been a hard model to find. This ARF looks like a nice machine to get in the air fast. I bet it's expensive though. I always wanted to get into turbines but still haven't taken the plunge.

I wish it was offered in a USAF version. Those colors are a little "loud" if you know what I mean.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

It's built to order so you can specify any scheme you want. Also to some extent the degree of pre assembly work that is done in the factory.

http://www.skymasterjet.com/104.htm

Alex48

Hi Winglift, thats not boring in the slightest. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Sean thats appreciated.

Just a note on the flap/slat linkage these will all be double horned with ball links on the surface side once finished.

Cheers, A;ex

Joe Dirr

My Feedback: (8)

Sean,
I just purchased a copy from eBay; you're right, what a fantastic resource for scale detail! You are now two-for-two regarding book recommendations; the first being the F-18 book by the same author. Incidentally, the Yellow F-18 is coming along nicely (thanks to Joe Westrich) and the book has been extremely helpful.

Thanks Sean,
Joe

Alex48

That is a good book thanks! I've ordered one also

While doing a bit of research today I found these pictures of the full size Ali's model represents. SM got the colour of the stab wrong but I think it looks good in black anyway.

marc s

No tip tanks by the looks of things on that Italian number...................

chrigui

this is one of the best italian air force special colour

Alex48

To be honest I prefer Ali's scheme but each to his own, If I got one I'd do one of the German camo schemes I remember building a plastic kit of one as a child thinking that it was the epitome of a jet fighter, it hung on my ceiling for years.

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Hi Alex,

Did the kit come with the tail hook and all three ventral fins?

Alex48

Hi, yes they come with the kit.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Thanks Joe....I have the one for the F-16 too...care to go three-for-three?

Joe Dirr

My Feedback: (8)

Sean,

Sounds good; the F-16 could be inline after the 104!(?)

Joe

chrigui

yes f-16 replaced f-104 in 2 wing.. now f-16 are out of service (returned to u.s.a)

Viper is repalced by EUROFIGHTER

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Alex,

Here is some info on the lights:

1. There is a flush white anti-collision light integrated into the UHF antenna. This is the tan colored section on the spine of the fuse aft of the cockpit. I can't tell if it's tan on your model, but it looks unpainted on the pics above of your full sized version.
2. Behind the inlet duct access doors there are flush round lights, red on the right, blue/green on the left. The front half of each lens is blacked out.
3. There is an integrated round flush navigation light on the outside of each tip tank just forward of the fins, red on the right, blue/green on the left.
4. German Starfighters had a red teardrop anti-collision beacon along the top fuse spine, roughly in line with the flap hinge line. They have another one under the fuse directly in front of the center ventral stabilization fin.
5. A the rear of the fuse, just behind the red J79 turbine warning line that rings the fuse (except on yours) there are upper and lower round nav lights. Again flush mounted. Orange on the top, white on the bottom. These lights are also blacked out in a slice of cake shape.
6. Some planes appear to have a couple lights under the fuse fore and aft of the UHF radio antenna on the cockpit access hatch.
7. There is a single landing/taxi light on the left side of the nose gear near the top of the strut inside the wheel well.
8. There is also a landing light inside each aft main gear door above it’s connecting rod to the LG strut.
9. There is a white round flush position light on the C/L of the underside of the fuse between the inlet ducts just in front of the two rectangular cooling air chutes. This may only be on the TF-104 (two seat version).

I didn't mention the wing tip lights because you'll likely leave the tip tanks on so those are hidden.

Now it may vary slightly between countries but that's the basic layout. I'm sure more accurate information will surface, no doubt immediately after you are finished installing them!

Alex48

Thanks Sean, thats just what I needed.

Cheers, Alex

Alex48

I hate it when the full time job gets in the way of building and flying toy aeroplanes but back on it again

I had a long chat with Geoff who's also building one of these which was very useful, thanks Geoff!

One of the things he mentioned was that the main gear doors don't close fully when the gear is down. Having studied a few photos this actually appears to be scale as you can see in the picture. Initially I thought it was just lack of hydraulic pressure as most of the photos are of the aircraft sat on the ground not powered but this is not the case. I think it will look odd on the model as when people see it they'll just think its a building error. What do you guys reckon, should I modify them to close fully on the model?

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

I'd keep them closed if it was me. We'll blame Ali before we blame the builder.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Btw, useful clip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhdAX8WHzBk&sns=em

Chris Nicastro

My Feedback: (3)

Love the clean silver wheels in that video.

I just watched SM's latest video of another 104 owner's maiden in Taiwan. Is it me or the video or what but this plane looks lightly loaded and almost a floater! He handled it great in the video, short take off and landing. In the air the turns looked too tight for comfort but it was fine. Pretty cool!

Ali

My Feedback: (5)

Looks tail heavy to me. [:@] Good to know how agile and abusable one of these can be though. Wow they were some tight pulls for a Eurosport, yet alone a 104!

Alex. One word... Closed!

Regards Al

757Driver

My Feedback: (90)

Scale jets should have scale doors! But that's the great thing bout this hobby. You can do it your way.

Alex48

Progress has been good, I'll try and update the build soon...

Heres a few photos showing the working HUD installed Hopefully Al will like it... Its transparent and animated so should look cool in photos.

Alex48

hmmm, the pictures I posted are crap, I still haven't worked out how to size the images correctly on my D800 files so it doesn't dump the exposure when I upload them to RCU. Have a look here for a better representation of what it looks like. It should link you to the last six pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater