I’m thinking of tackling an F-104… or several… it’s a classic jet, I love the shape, and possibly no other jet has ever been dressed in so many colorful paint jobs (okay, perhaps Danish F-16s… I think they get a new commemorative paint job about twice a week).
What kit do you all favor in a 1:48 Starfighter? Seems like everyone builds Hasegawa… in fact if you were to read through all the F-104 builds online you’d be forgiven for believing that Hasegawa was the only kit available. I know there are Revell/Monogram kits out there as well as a few others, though - and they tend to be much cheaper. Just curious what you all think.
You could build nothing but F-104s and never get to all the cool paint schemes out there… not to mention the NASA birds. I don’t build a lot of jets either, but I get dazzled by all those bright colors and want to build one. [:D]
I hear you about Hasegawa’s prices. They often sticker-shock me into buying something else. The Hase kits I have - all two of them - I bought secondhand on eBay for $10-20. [;)]
I’m building the Hasegawa F-104G right now (actually I’m converting it to an NF-104) and the kit is top notch. The RM offering is ok but not as good. The Testor’s F-104C is lacking any serious details and I would rate low in the pack. If memory serves the Monogram Pro-Modeler release (if you can still find one) is the Hasegawa mold.
I’ve got the 104s in the tiger meet paint job sitting in the stash and it looks very, very nice - great detail and it should fit together pretty well as most of their kits do. I’m not fussed really about the price of Hase kits as I know that I will get a great finished model out of it, but that’s just me maybe…
I’ve built two of the Monogram ones and I’ve been very happy with them, but I have to admit that the seam along the front fuselage is very difficult to hide.
I do have a Hasegawa F-104C, but I haven’t built it yet. The sheer number of parts has been very intimidating to me, so I keep putting it off. There’s about a bajillion parts to the landing gear alone!
Thanks for the responses everyone! I’ve been looking around and there are quite a few older releases of the Hasegawa kit that can be had cheaply… may pick one up soon. Cheers!