Continuing my Century Series build lineup, here is my F-104C Starfighter. The kit is by Hasegawa, and by my calculation, this kit was the oldest remaining in my stash until it made its way to my bench; I bought it when it was released back in the year 2000.
I've always found the Starfighter to be an interesting aircraft. I believe it was nicknamed the "human missile" or something akin to that. Certainly, the Starfighter does look like a manned missile. Plus, those stubby little wings appear to be an after-thought. I first built a Starfighter back in the '70s when Monogram released its kit, and then I really loved the portions of the movie The Right Stuff that focused on the F-104 (I'm uncertain as to which variant was depicted in the movie but will venture a guess that it was an "A" given that Yeager's character said it was the one they'd been waiting for).
This Hasegawa kit was mostly a joy to build. She went together stress-free until I reached the finicky landing gear, and I actually had some trouble getting the refueling probe attached. (Photos bear out that last part; I'll have to get back after that in the morning). One other thing that led to a bit of consternation was in the instruction manual. Following the instructions, you are to install the instrument panel after you have closed up the fuselage. Eh, whoever wrote that manual should be forced to build it him(her) self based on those instructions, as the IP is far too large to wiggle into the fuselage once the fuselage is assembled. Luckily, I had not allowed enough time to pass to allow for the Tamiya thin cement to fully cure, and I was able to pry the upper half apart just enough to get the IP into position.
This one was built entirely out of the box, including using Hasegawa's incredibly busy decal sheet. In an aside, is it just me, or do Hasegawa decals kinda suck? It seemed I had to soak each of those in water for way too long, and even then they fought me releasing them from their paper backing. In any event, I really liked both decal options, but when I found this photo
I decided that was my build. I found the markings to be whimsically colorful even though I knew that many of those decals were going to be patience-trying efforts to get into place. And, as it turns out, I mis-placed the forward colorful striping band and did not realize my mistake until it was too late to lift that decal up and place at the trailing edge of the nose cone. This mistake meant that everything else was mis-positioned as well right up to the air intakes.
Painting included Tamiya and Model Master Acryl (gunship gray, NATO green, khaki, semi-gloss black) for the cockpit, Model Master Metalizer Aluminum for the wheel wells, and Vallejo red for the tail. The primary metallic paint came from AK Interaction Xtreme Metal - polished aluminum, with the stabilizers white aluminum and a few other areas in dark aluminum. I used Mission Models burnt iron for the exhaust pipe and applied some Tamiya clear yellow and clear orange to replicate a slightly burned metal appearance.
I had intended to weather this one just a bit, but altered my plan to no weathering at all when I noticed that, in handling the painted fuselage while applying decals (I left the wings off until the very last step), I was rubbing off some of the polished aluminum paint. I did not seal the paint job with anything as I wanted to maintain that awesome shiny metal appearance, so now I need to research what sealant I should use with XTreme Metal paints. Since I clearly did not know enough about these paints, the last thing I needed to do (after doing all those decals) was to do my normal wash with either Flory dark dirt or Mig washes and then see the paint wipe away when I went to remove most of the wash.
Anyway, on to the build photos:
I found the idea of the white-walled tires to be fitting for this aircraft.
Next up in the Century Series is, of course, the F-105 Thunderchief. I will be building two of them, one Monogram's ancient 1/72 kit that came pre-painted, and the other of more recent vintage, Hobby Boss's 1/48 kit. Both are "D" variants.