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Career Bookends - A tale of two Starfighter pilots


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This thread is dedicated to one person no longer with us - my late father - and one who is still a part of my life - my Uncle Dave.

The two men met in the late 50s in Bagotville, Quebec, when Dave was a pilot on CF-100s, and my father was a Nav on the Clunk. They ended up marrying two sisters from a large local family: my mother, and my Aunt.

Soon afterward, Dave went on to fly the CF-104, moving to Germany where Canada's operational 104s filled 12 squadrons worth of front-line NATO fighters.

Several years later, my father cross-trained from Nav to Pilot, and for his first tour he was assigned to fly the CF-104 in Germany. The Starfighter was a huge part of their lives, and also of our families' lives. When we moved to Baden Soellingen, my uncle and his family were living in Lahr, 70 km south of Baden. I still remember stepping off the bus on my first day in Germany, arriving from the airport in Lahr where the Boeing 707 had dropped us off that morning.

Dad had done the CF-104 course in Cold Lake while we lived in Regina, about 750 km away. He came home every second weekend, sometimes in an aircraft with my uncle Dave (who was in Cold Lake at the time as well). As a consequence, I never experienced the 104 first-hand, being in my early teens and living so far away from the jets.

So that's why it was a real eye-opener as I stepped off the bus on a hot, humid day in Baden. Two Starfighters arrived overhead the base, peeling off to land in a manoeuvre called an overhead break. What got my attention was the distinctive howling whine as the throttle was reduced in the break; that sound is a clear signature of the Starfighter.

This build will cover the beginning and end of my uncle's career on the 104. My father's stint on the aircraft was in the middle of its Canadian service. That's why I call it bookends; the first aircraft will be a natural-metal dual (called a CF-104D), in the early scheme circa 1962. The second one will be a variegated camouflage single, circa 1984.

Uncle Dave flew the duals on his training in Cold Lake, and again in Europe, in the natural metal scheme that all of our 104s had for several years, both in Cold Lake and in Europe. At the end of his flying career, he was Base Commander of Baden at the time the CF-104 was retired from service. I recall going with my cousin to visit his parents at Christmas of 1984 in Germany. We rented a ski chalet in Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland, where we spent one week skiing and sipping Glühwein (a hot, sweet wine). While there, I got to fly a Kiowa helicopter with a buddy who was stationed in Lahr, and I sat in a dual CF-104 as it started up, that unfortunately broke before we could take off on a maintenance test flight.

The kit is the Hasegawa CF-104 demo team in 1/72. It comes with a dual and a single. I don't often build in 1/72, but the subject matter was too compelling this time.

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I will be using Wintervalley's natural metal CF-104 decals for one of them - probably the dual if I can make the tail number work. If not, I'll do a single-seat variant with them.

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The other one will be done with Leading Edge's variegated scheme decals, including resin RWR bulges.

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ALF

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As I started putting together the cockpits, I realized just how small this scale is again. The Hasegawa kit has surprisingly good detail, though. Here is the single-seat tub and nose wheel well.

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The seat is the C2 version. CF-104s had them, while the massive Luftwaffe fleet (F-104G) had a Martin-Baker variant that looked a lot like the seat in the F-4 Phantom. Note the distinctive headrest and ribbed horizontal detail behind the headrest.

As I read the instructions, I remembered that the front and back seats had different vertical members behind the headrests. The rear seat is identical to the single-seat seat; the front seat does not have the horizontal ribs behind the headrest. See instructions here:

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The single-seat version is on top, while the dual is the lower portion of the page. I then searched through the sprues, looking for the seats. The single-seater was easy - one correct C2 seat.

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Also, if you look carefully, you'll see that the nose wheel well has two vertical slots; one fore and one aft at the sides. I carefully made sure to use the shorter end for the single-seater, and the fit was perfect as you can see in the pic above. Look now at the lower illustration, and you'll see that the wheel well is oriented the same way for the dual in the drawing. Hmmmmmmmm - seems to me that the nose strut is not in the same place on the dual as it is in the single. A quick check of references confirmed this. The single-seater has the strut at the rear of the wheel well, while the dual has it at the front. I started to wonder how Hasegawa would make this work, with the same part being used (same sprue letter, same part number, looking identical). Looking again at the illustration in the instructions, the part was clearly shown in the same orientation. Dry-fitting, however, revealed a big gap behind the rear cockpit floor and wheel well when installed this way. I then swapped the wheel well around, and found it fit perfectly. That would also allow me to install the strut at the front of the dual.

Look carefully at the pic below. You'll see the glue seams behind the seat locating points are in different places, and that the vertical slots are in different positions in the two assemblies.

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One small problem avoided!

ALF

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I then had a bit of a minor cardiac event (hyperbole - don't call 911!). Scanning around the sprues for the dual, I only found (at first) one C-2 seat, and one F-104G seat. Checking the name of the sprue, it was clearly labeled F-104G/S and TF-104G. Note that part 6 is the F-104G seat. Oh no!

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I then decided to try and modify the G seat into a CF-104 seat. I used these two seats:

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Some surgery, and this is the result for the 3 seats:

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Not great, but in this scale, maybe... Then I decided to do something very radical. I read the part numbers on the instructions, and discovered that one of the C2 seats came from a sprue I hadn't even looked at. Lo and behold, it was a proper seat!!!! So now I have 4 seats, of which I'll only use the 3 correct ones:

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Obviously, I was working too late at night. It was time for a break.

ALF

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Hey ALF. Great to see another (2) builds. An relative of my GF's flew 104s in Cold Lake i think in the late 60s or 70s. I'm excited to see a few of these built, because I might be doing one some time in the future as well.

On that note I should post my completed photos and move onto build #3

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Hey ALF. Great to see another (2) builds. An relative of my GF's flew 104s in Cold Lake i think in the late 60s or 70s. I'm excited to see a few of these built, because I might be doing one some time in the future as well.

On that note I should post my completed photos and move onto build #3

Neu

What was his name? The "104 Mafia" was a small club - I might know him, or at least have heard about him. You can PM me if you don't want to name names on a public forum.

I have a huge 1/32 104 to build, with a resin cockpit and Wintervalley decals. These ones will be a warm-up; I don't know if it will get built during this GB or not. I also need to procure a 1/48 CF-104 or three or four... I just love these jets!

ALF

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey Alf I'll be watching this one, I too lived in Baden during the '80s and was lucky enough to see some 104s before the transition to hornets. Though there are no pilots in my family I do know of and miss that howl of the engines and loved seeing them scream overhead. Also as a side note a CF-104 was one of the first models my dad and i put together. You may remember the gate guard line up in Baden, the 104 is still in Germany, in a town near the base, can't remember the name of it but I was lucky to see it on a trip back in 2002, a lot of good memories. Cheers!

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Hey Alf I'll be watching this one, I too lived in Baden during the '80s and was lucky enough to see some 104s before the transition to hornets. Though there are no pilots in my family I do know of and miss that howl of the engines and loved seeing them scream overhead. Also as a side note a CF-104 was one of the first models my dad and i put together. You may remember the gate guard line up in Baden, the 104 is still in Germany, in a town near the base, can't remember the name of it but I was lucky to see it on a trip back in 2002, a lot of good memories. Cheers!

Tdogg

I remember the gate guard line-up. In fact, they installed the very first one while I was in High School at Baden Senior. It was the Sabre in the middle of the triangular area near the main gate. There was a huge wind storm soon after it was installed, and the Sabre's mount broke, causing it to nose in to the dirt when the stand pivot point bent. They hauled it away, repaired the nose, and reinstalled.

Years later (1988 and later), I saw the full line-up. The 104 is now in Sollingen, just west of the base. When we visited there as a family in 2010, we walked around the 104 and listened to the sounds of a beer tent somewhere in town - brought back fond memories of brätwurst and "bier".

Here it is, with its plaque:

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This is what the base looks like now. A commercial airport. Thanks to a very kind ARCer, I was able to take my family up in the old control tower (the same one, as you can see by the stickers in the stairwell). It was strange to see commercial buildings among the old hardened aircraft shelters, and how all the barbed wire and fences had disappeared.

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ALF (edit to repair image links)

Edited by ALF18
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Looks great so far. The 104 is such a cool jet.

Do you have any plans for the kit decals? I had that same kit at one time, but I ended up selling it. I've kicked myself ever since.

-Dave

Thanks Dave - to me, it's one of the coolest fighters around.

I have no plans for the kit decals - they're up for grabs, if you're interested.

ALF

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At long last, some progress.

I built up the fuselages together. The aft sections are identical. The forward sections are the same length, but of course the dual has the aft cockpit added in space that was normally filled with avionics and fuel.

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On one of them, I had glued the nacelle covers in place before fitting the aft and fore fuselage halves. Look at the huge gap!

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So I ended up prying off the nacelle covers, and mating the fuselage halves before reglueing the nacelles in place.

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The common heritage between this scale and the Hasegawa 1/48 versions is very evident in the way the main gear has its hydraulic lines represented. Fiddly little parts in this scale!

ALF

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Here are the two fuselages fully assembled.

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I then completed the assembly of the single (variegated camo), and the dual was stopped short of adding the horizontal stab and wings. The reason is that I can paint the Alclad everywhere, and paint the wings and tail with the white tops and grey bottoms, without masking.

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Note that the grey on the single is way too dark. I repainted with a lighter shade. I am experimenting with Tamiya Acryl colours. This one is Dark Grey XF 24. I used Light Grey XF 66 later, and it came out much better. The green is Olive Green XF 58. The underside is Sky Grey XF 19

Pics soon of the variegated camo once it's further along.

ALF

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Looking good ALF. I never tire of seeing CF-104's!

It is also nice to hear about your family connections as you build the model. Makes for VERY interesting reading!!

Sean

Thanks Sean!

Speaking of family connections to these jets, here's a small story about that.

I got to fly twice in a CF-104. Neither time was with my father, but both were with close friends of his. Flying in the Starfighter was exhilirating. On both days, it was summer time in Cold Lake. The weather was a bit bumpy (turbulence caused by thermal activity, with puffy cumulus clouds). The Starfighter sliced through the turbulent air like a speedboat over tiny, choppy waves on an otherwise smooth lake. Solid. Powerful. And doesn't turn worth a hoot!

The funniest part was when I was on a course between 3rd and 4th years at RMC Kingston. We did something called the AOBO (Air Operations Branch Orientation), which started in Comox, and visited multiple bases across Canada. The idea was to show us all the different types of aircraft we would be flying after pilot training. In some places, like Trenton, we all got to fly in the Buffalos and Hercs. In others, like Cold Lake, there were only two slotted to fly in the 104, while two would fly in the CF-5, and the rest went up in the Dakota. In the weeks prior to the course, I had flown twice in the CF-5 with my father, so I knew that wouldn't happen.

So there we were, in the 417 Squadron mass briefing room, with all 20 of my coursemates. Capt (at the time) Dave Bashow, a very close friend of my father's (and the author of the Starfighter book years later), gave us all a briefing on the squadron and the aircraft. He mentioned up front that two of us would get rides, and the jockeying started during question period, with everyone trying to be noticed. I kept fairly quiet, because I had flown with another family friend in the 104 the previous summer, and foolishly thought I should allow others to experience the thrill.

Dave kept the suspense going, and at the end of his spiel, he said "OK, time to decide who will go fly". He pointed at me, and said "Danny, you're going... and... you" after lookin around the room and picking another guy at random. I got a few jealous looks, but I was very pleased. Everyone got up, and Dave crooked his finger at me. He took me to get suited up with my spurs and parachute, and we got into a silver dual for a great ride. Unforgettable. I didn't know it was to be my last CF-104 ride, since when I graduated from pilot training there was one slot for the 104, no slots for other fighters, and lots of instructor positions. It wasn't until 5 years later that I got into fighter aviation, so having had the chance to ride in a Starfighter was an opportunity of a lifetime. That, and the fact my father loved this aircraft, is why I have several 104s in my build collection.

ALF

Edited by ALF18
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Painting is pretty much done, except for some touchups here and there.

There was some trial and error here with the paint colours. First, let's talk about the variegated camo.

My first choice for the green was the NATO Green from Tamiya. Too light. So I painted over it again with the Tamiya Olive Green, which looks about right. The grey for the bottom is XF-19, Sky Grey, which is pretty close to the right colour - quite a bit darker than the modern FS 36375 Light Ghost Grey that I'm used to putting on many jets. The upper grey I used at first was too dark, so I settled on XF-66 Light Grey from Tamiya. Here it is with some of the paint masking, in progress. For the natural metal one, I painted the undercoat in Krylon black, from the rattle can (bought at Canadian Tire). The silver Alclad is Chrome. Because the Krylon black is not quite mirror-smooth, the chrome ended up looking more like polished aluminum.

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It took forever to mask off the back portion of the silver jet. You can see the camo jet is well along.

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Here I've painted the black on the antiglare and intakes, and the dark metal in the back. For the upper portion, I used Alclad Steel. It came out quite dark - maybe even a bit too dark, but not enough to change the colour. For the bottom parts, I used Alclad Stainless Steel. It looked quite dark in the bottle, but it sprayed on surprisingly light - looks almost like polished aluminum.

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Here you can really see how little contrast there is for the lower rear panels. Not enough.

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As an experiment, I tried colouring in with pencil - here's what it looked like. Unfortunately, a bit too light, and the pencil rubs off easily. Not wanting to seal it right away, I went with some Tamiya Metallic Grey (XF-56). Lower pic of these two has that colour.

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Future applied. Almost ready for decals - just a few touchups on the silver with a metallic silver pen, and it's time.

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ALF

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Nice work buddy. Bit of a bummer on the trial end error stuff but they're looking good. Gives me a hankering to build another one. I still have to finish my 414 Sqn Sabre and then I'm building another Sabre...go figure!...(48th scale from 401 (Reserve) Squadron) at St. Hubert for the National Guard / Reserves GB and then a big F-8 for the Size DOES Matter GB. Once I get those three projects done I'll break out a Starfighter and order a set of David's decals for a NMF build like yours.

Keep on truckin!

Mike

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Nice work buddy. Bit of a bummer on the trial end error stuff but they're looking good. Gives me a hankering to build another one. I still have to finish my 414 Sqn Sabre and then I'm building another Sabre...go figure!...(48th scale from 401 (Reserve) Squadron) at St. Hubert for the National Guard / Reserves GB and then a big F-8 for the Size DOES Matter GB. Once I get those three projects done I'll break out a Starfighter and order a set of David's decals for a NMF build like yours.

Keep on truckin!

Mike

Thanks for stopping by, Mike

I will make sure to stop by and check your builds. I am really not sure what to build next for Living History. Being attuned to the CF-104 at the moment, I am sorely tempted to go with the 1/32 NMF with Wintervalley decals next. The dual is looking very nice, and in 1/32 I think it would be great. But then again, I could do it in size DOES matter...

Another option is a CF-5 in 1/48, using the Kinetic kit. What do you suggest?

ALF

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Looking pretty good Alf.... both look awesome and really makes me want to build them too! I should dig up more info on what my family member flew.

Neu

Thanks! I suspect he flew natural metal, but with post-RCAF markings, and the overall green scheme, based on what little memory I have of his age and when he was in Europe.

So more progress.

I have done most of the painting and decaling. Here they are before canopy installation. I wait until I do the clear coats before installing canopies.

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Note that I have deliberately left some of the different shades of green and grey on the variegated scheme, to simulate some of the weathered paint scheme look. Not a great facsimile, but frankly I didn't want to spend a long time making it look properly weathered.

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For some odd reason, the seat in the single is too tall. The canopy, which I wanted to close, does not fit as you can see in this pic. I debated whether or not to pry out the seat and shave it down to size, or simply glue the canopy open. Open won.

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Here the canopies are installed. All I have to do is finish the pitot boom for the single, and they'll be done. Clear coats used were Testors dullcote rattle can (camo) and Canadian Tire Krylon semi-gloss clear rattle can.

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ALF

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Thanks Neo!

I will take pics of the finished versions tomorrow. I'm so happy with the natural metal finish, that I just might do a bigger one right away.

ALF

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I'm calling these ones finished.

Here they are together. I really liked the Wintervalley decals for the natural metal dual. I also used one of the Wintervalley position light decals for the light on top of the fuselage-top panel behind the cockpit of the single. I realized afterward I used a red one where it should have been silver, but from a distance it looks OK.

I learned a lot about doing an Alclad CF-104 finish from this. Next up, I just might do the 1/32 Hasegawa in natural metal, with the same decal set, and an aftermarket cockpit resin set.

Thanks to AX365 for providing some extra RCAF number decals, to make sure I had the right numbers for the dual.

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ALF

Edited by ALF18
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Nicely finished, ALF. Now you've got me wanting to build ones to match these. Sorry about the blip that caused you to pose the canopy open. For some odd reason, it looks good that way too, instead of being buttoned up.

I was going to suggest the CF-5 but there's no problem with the big CF-104 either. Although the Size DOES Matter GB doesn't have its own thread yet, it started on 01 January. Why not do both?

And you're very welcome for the tail numbers. No imposition at all. If you're lucky, some of the larger numbers on the sheet will work in 48th scale.

Build away!

Mike

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Nicely finished, ALF. Now you've got me wanting to build ones to match these. Sorry about the blip that caused you to pose the canopy open. For some odd reason, it looks good that way too, instead of being buttoned up.

I was going to suggest the CF-5 but there's no problem with the big CF-104 either. Although the Size DOES Matter GB doesn't have its own thread yet, it started on 01 January. Why not do both?

And you're very welcome for the tail numbers. No imposition at all. If you're lucky, some of the larger numbers on the sheet will work in 48th scale.

Build away!

Mike

Mike

I have already started chopping off the excess resin bits from the big CF-104 AM cockpit... it's like potato chips, and Marc Messier's commercial: bet you can't eat just one! Like your obsession with Sabres, mine with Starfighters is not quite sated.

Thanks for the kind comments, buddy! The CF-5 will be next for this GB after the big 104, assuming I have enough time. You know how hard we teachers work... :woot.gif:

I think I'll participate in both this one and the SIZE GB with the 104.

ALF

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The NMF build looks great!

Out of curiosity, what numbers were you missing for the dual seater? While the instructions for that set focus on the single seat versions, I thought I'd included enough for the duals as well. Anyway, if you need more of that style of number let me know, I can send you some extras.

[edit] - I may update my instructions to include a layout for dual seaters. RCAF+3 markings for the dual show that there's only one ejection seat warning triangle per side. Lined up with the rear most frame of the forward canopy. Beyond that though, everything else looks pretty much the same.

thanks

David

Edited by RiderFan
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