Small Scale Military Headquarters

Is this nose gear or main gear? And is the rest of the gear intact (strut, pivot, and locking arm)?

Dannyc....be glad to. First though, I need to know how and where the damage is. If you can, please include a picture. That way I can be sure the damage is the same as hat mine had.

It I hang it from the ceiling "in flight ", that detail will be visible..

That's the plan.

Okay folks....time for glamour shots. Udorn F-104 on the tarmac...

Absolutely right. The Voodoo spent time there in the early years too. Would love to have an 1/18 scale one of these!

Since I have this back on the bench, I've been working on dirtying the lower sections and accenting panel lines. There are alot of them, so progress is slow.

Three down and green again!

Oh the travesty...I drilled out the center and repaired it with a wire center shaft. Now to repair the left main that came unglued.

Well...it was bound to happen...knowing my luck with this F-104. As the picture above shows, she was hanging on the wall of my office (WAS is the right word for it) when I reached behind me for something and bumped it. That's all it took...the nose gear snapped and down she went. The horizontal stab...

We'll call this attempt #2 at making a data plate.

Small update. My first attempt at a data plate and finished taping the canopies and shooting the interior color.

One more...the main wings are together permanently. Now to get those data plates and placards, we might be tying everything together for good!

https://i.ibb.co/kBzmrWt/20200621-111014.jpg https://i.ibb.co/XW5hVWp/20200621-111042.jpg Small update...the battle to get the cockpit tub to fit properly has taken a turn. I think I finally found the culprit and did some filling to make one bulkhead easier to snug in. It seems to have worked...at ...

I've been asked why I do so many dry fittings, why not just get it over and glue the darn thing together. Let me explain a little bit. When you buy these things pre-built, most all the few parts (sometimes hundreds of them) in there are fitted for you ahead of time. Snap or screw a few major assembl...

More dry fitting....boy getting all those sub-assembilies to fit together is a bear!

Some light updates. Started the preliminary interior painting especially those hard to get places when everything is together.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I will be posting, of course, as I get farther along. Right now there's not a whole lot to show. Just some minor details and getting ready to enclose the cockpit tub completely.

Another update. No more cloudy dials on the panel...and seat/shoulder belts are done.



A better view of those belts...

Shoulder belts looking about right...

Rough but workable...

https://i.ibb.co/vv9G26B/20200614-014710.jpg Yeah!!! The metal landing gear came in today. WARNING.....you will have to do some work to make them retractable like the original plastic legs were. To start with, the plunger is cast into the top of the strut. Leave it there and it provides a solid anc...

Not much room for it I'm afraid. Not a bad idea though....

More detail has been added. The main and lower instrument panels are next.

Thank you sir....stay tuned...more to come!

I'm going to call the main switch panel done. I have to give credit to my wife Dusty for putting all those tiny markings around the switches. Thank you sweetie for your tremendous help when I needed it.