Sunday, August 20, 2017

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Fuel Tank Correction

When I posted the first prototype build of the Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter, I heard about it!
Most comments were positive but a few let me know the wing fuel tanks were too small.
To be honest, I didn't have many dowels and grabbed what was handy. I bought larger dowels.

Above is the first prototype. It has quite a few stable test flights.

I cut off the fuel tanks and carved two larger ones. On the left is the size comparison.

The inset shows where the paint was scraped off to glue onto the wing.
Is this better? - hope so!
Compared to the OOP Centuri kit, this version is much closer to the truth.
Now . . . more test flights.

4 comments:

  1. Looks good, Chris. Hope it flies better than the actual F-104. The West German pilots nicknamed it the "Widowmaker" after a series of crashes. Apparently the stubby wings, while good for speed, do not lend themselves to low speed control and maneuverability (like during landing). Cheers!

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    1. Hi BAR,
      This version flies fine! Like the Centuri versions, these wings are set back farther than on the real jet. It still captures the feel of the real thing.

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  2. Hrm... if one doesn't add the wingtip tanks, but add an angled pod at the base of the vertical fin (also making sure the fin is the slightly wider type found on the F-104G/J type -- main visible difference is a different taper on the trailing edge), add USAF markings... NF-104A

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  3. New tank version look great Chris.

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