Wednesday 1 July 2020

F-104 Starfighter - Turkish Air Force

The next bit of pointy plastic to be rescued is this F-104 Lawn Dart.  Like the F-100 is is in the rather low key livery of the Turkish AF, though the green nosecone adds some interest.  The second photo is just to prove I painted underneath too....

10 comments:

Pete. said...

Nice work Tim- an eastern mediterrainan game in the offing?

Cheers,

Pete.

Peter Douglas said...

Lawn darts eh, is that a new LCW rules variant? Nice work on the fighter.

Chris Kemp said...

I read somewhere that the somewhat twitchy handling meant that the plane had a habit of rotating and batting the ejecting pilot with the wing. All this after they realised that the original downward-firing ejector seat was a really bad idea for landing or take-off emergencies.

Regards, Chris.

Reese Crawford said...

My grandfather was a USAF Air Policeman in the early 60's. He would tell stories of hot shot pilots in F104's missing the runway and burying them in cornfields. Evidently a fast but finicky aircraft.

Tim Gow said...

Pete
A trip to Cyprus c1974...

Tim Gow said...

Peter Douglas
Only when I drop the models...

Tim Gow said...

Chris Kemp
The more I hear about the '104 the scarier it gets!

Tim Gow said...

Reese Crawford
Thanks for the anecdote!
It seems that anyone who flew a Starfighter twice:
1. was very lucky to have survive the first flight (and landing)
2. had balls of steel!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Ahead of the VCoW post ;)
Brilliant work Mr Gow

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Ahead of the VCoW post ;)
Brilliant work Mr Gow