Kartonowa Kolekcja 1:33 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter

[DavideV]

Beautiful!

[elliott]

The nose gear is shaping up nicely. You do very good work Erik.

[Erik Zwaan]

Thank you guys! Here a short update.

The nose gear is not difficult to assemble but it takes time and I have been trying to use every free minute in the past few days to make some progress. Main strut with wheel are finished now. I used a small piece of metal tube to act as hub for the axis and inserted this in the wheel. In fact if I had wanted to I could have made a revolving wheel out of it but as the main wheels are fixed there's no point in doing so.

The strut has been glued now to the rest of the model and everything levels out horizontally quite well. So, since last night at last the model fully stands on its own legs.

In the mean time the nose cone and pitot tube are also done but since the pitot tube is plastic and fragile I wait with gluing the cone to the aircraft until the very end. To position the pitot tube properly and to give the assembly some strength I fitted a small piece of metal tube inside the cone and slid in the pitot tube, which is in fact mounted on an extended piece of plastic rod with 0.7mm diameter. Had to use plastic instead of metal as I couldn't find metal with the right diameter.
A note on the cone: To make gluing easier I cut the connecting tab in half and installed them one at a time. A detail perhaps, but it gives better handling and ditto result.
A smart design detail: The longitudinal seem is right on the edge of the change in color, which makes it as invisible as possible. This has also been done on the fuel tanks.

Other nose gear details are ready to be installed next time. In the last picture one of the parts yet to be installed. Very small indeed.

Cheers,
Erik

[Dick]

I have never a fan of these "jet-pipes" but your F-104 is really amazing !
Regards,
Dick

[YOAVHOZMI]

incredible work my friend on the wheels and the landing geers.

greeting

YOAV

[ricleite]

Amazing work, Erik! A joy to follow

[milenio3]

Ah, I see the headlight and think of the one I made for the DC-9... same cone, different front screen - with clear acetate.

All the same, it looks really sturdy gear.

[Erik Zwaan]

Thanks again guys for your interest shown. Well, in the mean time the nose landing gear is finished and herewith some pictures.

I'm working on the canopy now and wing tip fuel tanks. Then, the only things left are a couple of details to the fuselage and the speed brakes at the aft part. The construction provided in the kit looks a bit flimsy and I'm doing a bit of home engineering to make things more rigid. Updates with pictures will follow later.

The last few pictures show the not finished yet fuel tanks at the wing tips, the orange color of the center section really stands out. The nose cone is not glued to the model yet. To give you an indication of the size of the model, it's about 50 cm (20 inch) long.

Well, that's it for now, time to start my daily duties in the office....

Erik

[Isaac]

So much detail work. Only you the builder can really appreciate it all.

But we too are enjoying your masterful work.


Eye candy


Isaac

[MacSongLi]

Magnificent detailed work Erik. Such a clean build. Thanks for the build tips too!

Gary