F104 triplet differently dressed
Hi all,
By the end of last year George @gblair came up with a wonderful idea and provided Spiros @fiveten and me with this amazing gift, the Italeri in 1/72 scale. The idea was to build this iconic aircraft in the colors of the countries where we originate from. Meaning that we would end up with a US, Greek and Dutch livery.
I'm not going to spend too much time in explaining the history of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, likely most of you do know this aircraft more than I do. For me this build was very enjoyable, especially since I grew up and became an aircraft enthusiast with Starfighters landing and taking off almost in the backyard of my parents house. I cannot recall how many hours I have spent at Volkel airbase.
Just a few pictures of each single aircraft are shown below, at a later stage each of us will present his build in more detail separately.
The build of this triplet can be found in the following thread:
https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/lockheed-f-104-starfighter-a-triple-plus-build/
Other wonderful Starfighters are still under construction in this thread, so please keep on watching.
Once again George, thank you very much for this amazing gift. It was a pleasure to build this one and I'm really happy to have another aircraft in Dutch livery on display.
The US livery by George
8 attached images. Click to enlarge.
The Greek livery by Spiros
8 attached images. Click to enlarge.
And the Dutch livery by John
8 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Beautiful models. The aircraft of the 1950s-1960s are the best.
Thanks @juanravi73!
@juanravi73, thaks a lot, Juan
Thanks, Juan @juanravi73. You are right. I have always liked the early Cold War planes.
Excellent models, but chauvinism forces me to say I like the one in the Dutch colors the most. 😉
@jaybiga, thanks a lot, Jay.
Thanks @jaybiga!
Thanks, Jay (@jaybiga). That Dutch camo does look good.
What a neat idea and great way to present a theme. Excellent modelling 👍
@thom, thank you, Guy.
Thanks @thom!
Thanks, Guy (@thom).
You never can have enough aircraft in RNLAF livery, John! @johnb
You did a wonderful job and so did George and Spiros with their respective Starfighters. @gblair @fiveten
Speaking of Volkel, my wife and I visited the castle in Wychen and we heard the F-35’s roaring above our heads!
@alfred, thanks a lot, Alfred. I agree on the RNLAF liveries, slowly my cabinet is being filled with Dutch aircraft. The castle in Wychen is really beautiful. The F-35's are passing Wychen regularly, can you imagine how noticeable those aircraft are with my house just 4km away from the runway 🙂
Hope the noise they’re making doesn’t bother you too much.
We had a few nice days in your neighborhood. Wednesday we visited Nijmegen. Thursday we went to Thermen Beerendonck. @johnb
Sounds like you had a wonderful time, Alfred @alfred. As an aircraft enthusiast that sound never bothers.
Thanks @alfred!
Thanks, Alfred (@alfred). I really had to boost my game to keep up with these guys.
Excellent work on all three Starfighters John! @johnb! This is one aircraft that has an amazing amount of different schemes to choose from.
@v1pro, appreciate your compliment, Bob. So many countries have used this aircraft in even more various liveries. I'm pretty sure I will build some more after this one.
Thanks @v1pro!
Thanks, Bob (@v1pro). I was a fun, 2-part process: first, find a plane that all 3 countries flew, then picking a paint scheme. It was quirk that I had a US paint scheme for an F-104G. My first assignment in the Air Force happened to be the training base for NATO F-104Gs, so I had some pictures to use.
Nice idea for a joint build, @gblair, three nice looking jets, but I have to say I think the Dutch colours suit it best, John.
@chinesegeorge, thank you, George. The idea of George @gblair was indeed fantastic, no need to think about his proposal to start this build.
Thanks, George (@chinesegeorge). It was a real pleasure to work with John (@johnb) and Spiros (@fiveten) on this project. It has been fun and we coordinated with each other to get to the finish line at the same time, although I think John and Spiros drug their feet a little waiting for me to catch up. After we sent all of the photos to John, he did all the heavy lifting to get the photos into Headlines.
@gblair, luckily the software did most of the work, George. You can do so much with imaging software these days.
Thanks @chinesegeorge!
@johnb, @gblair, @fiveten: They all look fantastic and it was great fun following the build and the chatting in the group! What do you guys have up in your sleeves next?🙂
Thanks @fxrob!
@fxrob, thanks a lot, Felix. Not a combined project in the planning yet, but for sure it will happen again.
Thanks, Felix (@fxrob). We are looking at another combined build next January, so we have plenty of time to find another plane that all 3 countries flew.
There's a neat idea for a group build that got us a "Hat Trick" of very nice F-104s to look at - Nice model results gentlemen.
Thanks a lot @flypastrush!
@flypastrush, thank you for this nice comment.
Thanks, Fly Past Rush (@flypastrush). The F-104 is so cool that it is hard to have too many of them.
True enough George, I have built a few CF-104s already and still have a couple in the stash to complete... hopefully one later this year. (Nice thing about the F-104 model is that it is not an overly complex jet to build either).
They all look great ! Nice work on them @gblair, @johnb, and @fiveten That was a great idea to have such a group build.
@ssgt, thank you, Jay. Glad you like them. It was really a lot of fun building this together.
Thanks @ssgt!
Thanks, Jay (@ssgt). It was fun to all build the exact same kit, but I had to work hard to keep up.
Great work on these guys! Love the result and the idea that you pulled off with this. @fiveten how did you pull off that camo scheme? mask? free hand airbrush? i'm trying to replicate something similar on my monogram F-105
@dbutlr, thank you, David.
This article and chain of comments are really what community can be all about. I' 've had a fun time following and building my F -104 with this build group and this old dog has learned a few more tricks in modeling because of it.
Thanks @dbutlr! The camo was freehanded.
Thanks, David (@dbutlr). I still can't freehand a camo with my airbrush, which is why I was glad all of my plane could be masked with tape.
Great result on these, guys. I really enjoyed watching these take shape.
@j-healy, thanks, John. It was our pleasure to have you on board.
Thanks @j-healy!
Thanks, John (@j-healy). Thanks for following along on the build. Your comments are appreciated.
Nice work all three of you and superb results.
Thanks @tcinla!
@tcinla, thanks a lot, Tom
Thanks, Tom (@tcinla). Appreciate the comments.
@johnb, @gblair, @fiveten - Fantastic work gentlemen!
@brithebuilder, thank you, Brian
Thanks, Brian (@brithebuilder).
Thanks @brithebuilder!
Beautifully done trio, great job gents.
Thanks, Robert (@roofrat). I don't usually build 1/72 models, but it was fun to do it this way.
Thanks @roofrat!
@roofrat, thank you, Robert
Just say “superb work” x 3! A pleasure watching all these Starfighters come together WIP- @johnb, @gblair and @fiveten.
Thanks for the kind words, Eric (@eb801). It was great having you stop in during the build.
Thanks @eb801!
@eb801, thanks a lot, Eric. It was a pleasure to have on board.
ALL very well done...in triplicate!
Thanks @gwskat!
@gwskat, thanks a lot, Gary
They're an excellent trio and what a very nice reason for building them. Great work on all of them.
Thanks @christopher!
@christopher, thank you, Christopher
Fine work. John, George and Spiros. All three versions are beautifully painted and finished. I like that they are all closed cockpit. I did my 1/48 Hasegawa CF-104 the same way. I just couldn't bring myself to mess up the beautiful lines of the 104 by having the canopy open - especially as it opens to port, which somehow looks wrong. I can't choose a favourite of the three versions, although I really like what George did with the NMF on the USAF example. The camo on the Dutch and Greek aircraft is also great airbrush work at such a small scale. The Dutch aircraft reminds me of a documentary I once saw about Moluccan terrorists taking over a train in the Netherlands in 1977 (a story I am sure you know, John). As part of the rescue effort, F-104s flew at super low level over the train to stun and confuse the hostage takers while special forces were able to use explosives at the same time to gain entry and free the captives. A very novel and effective way to make use of the 104's literally stunning power.
@coling, thank you, Colin. Yes, I do remember the train hijack at De Punt. The F104's did their best to confuse the terrorists. Unfortunately the outcome of the situation did not went entirely as planned and there was a lot of political discussion afterwards.
Thanks @coling! What an interesting story!
Well done you three, George, John and Spiros !
Thanks @kalamazoo!