1/32 Revell Lockheed F-104G Starfighter with B61 "Silver Bullet"

Gallery Article by Thomas Brückelt on Jan 23 2020

 

      

As a fan of the ´104 there should also be a big one (1/32) in my collection. Now here it is, the F-104G with Lizard (Norm 83) paint scheme and the scratch built B61 Silver Bullet atomic bomb. 

I added a pilot figure from PJ production to the cockpit (NATO pilot seated in a/c 1980-90). The figure from PJ looks really excellent and there are two heads inside the kit: One with opened and another with closed helmet visor. The ejection seat from the Revell kit looked more like the old C2 seat, so I modified it, that it looks like a Martin Baker Mk.7 seat. Further I added a thrust lever on the right sidepanel. The book "Danny Coremans & Peter Gordts uncovering the Lockheed (T)F-104G Starfighter)" from DACO Publications was very helpful there.

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I added a block of wood with a silicone tube inside the fuselage to fit the display later. The base of the display is out of aluminium. 

On the outside I added also some more details: The ACL in front of the vertical fin, the antennas for the EL-70 ECM-system, the small flat antenna behind the radom and the two angle of attack encoders beside the cockpit. With the EL70 ECM-sytem German Starfighters were equipped which were used as nuclear bombers.

The pylon to carry the B61 was also built from scratch out of polystyrene.

I made two B61 bombs. One for the F-104, the second one for a separated display. The bodies were made from rapid prototyping parts. The fins I made out of thin plastic sheet (0,5 mm). I printed the decals by myself. This walk around was very helpful:
http://svsm.org/gallery/b61

All was painted with brush and colors from Humbrol and Revell. Before I attached the decals I sprayed clear varnish from Mr. Hobby over the models. There were only the most necessary markings for the Norm 83 paint scheme on the decal sheet from Revell. So I ordered the complete markings from tailormadedecals.com ( https://www.tailormadedecals.com/index.php?language=de ). Those decals look really like painted on, when you use the mark softer which is delivered with them. Unfortunately the decals from Revell are silvering a bit.

I sealed the Starfighter with flat, clear varnish from Tamiya and the B61 Silver Bullets with shiny, clear varnish from Mr. Hobby. 

I enjoyed making this big model, which is placed on the show case in which my other F-104´s (almost in 1/72) are exhibited. To protect the large model from dust, I put it inside a show case from
sora.de (https://www.sora.de/).

Greetings from Germany

Thomas Brückelt

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Photos and text © by Thomas Brückelt