Odd'l Rockets F-104 Recovery Suggestion

This is similar to a suggested recovery on the original Centuri Fighter Fleet Jets.

Alternative Recovery:

To have the jet recover horizontally and lessen the chance of fin or wing damage:

1. Glue the engine mount in so the engine hook is at the top, nearest the rudder.

2. Tie the nose cone onto the shock cord, leaving two inches of the elastic cord. Tie the parachute shroud lines to the end of the elastic.

3. Tie some excess shroud line (you will have some left over from the parachute assembly) to the engine hook. Then tie 

to the shock cord at the balance point, 

where the model hangs horizontally.

The string should be long enough to lay outside and down the body tube during boost. After the parachute and shock cord are in the body tube, the string will end up between the body tube and nose cone shoulder.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Instructions Omission

I got an email from Gary S. asking for a measurement in the F-104 Starfighter instructions. On the first run of the kit instructions were missing a measurement.
In Step 20, the back end of the intake nose cone half is glued 5 5/16" from the back end of the main air frame tube. Step 20 is shown above.
I've sold quite a few of these kits and haven't heard from anybody about the omission. Sorry for any confusion! If your build is a little off, it shouldn't matter. I've seen F-104s fly at club launches with no stability problems.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Kits On Sale at NARCON!

The Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter kit made its debut at NARCON! Here's the first nine kits at the JonRocket booth.
Roger and Bracha Smith (JonRocket.com) posted this picture on the NAR Facebook page.

They are also listed now on the Sirius Rocketry website: CLICK HERE
More kits will go to JonRocket.com when they return from NARCON.
Apogee will get their first allotment of F-104 kits sent out on Monday!

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Finished

This one looks much better in the Rusto Silver Metallic. I wouldn't use chrome paint. Chrome paints never dry and fingerprints will show.
Prototypes have flown very stable with A8-3, B6-4 and C6-5 engines. This kit should be released as soon as I take care of family matters in California after the first week of December.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 18, Canopy Gluing

Squeeze out a few drops of thin CA glue onto some scrap cardboard. Dip a toothpick tip into the glue puddle and let dry.
Center the canopy over the decal.
Dip the dried tip into the CA puddle again.
Run the glued toothpick tip around the edge of the canopy. Be sure there is a bead of glue all the way around the canopy.

Some of the first kits might have grey "Canopy Trim Decal" lines on the decal sheet. These turned out to be translucent over the clear plastic.

I ended up cutting some thin strips from electrical tape and placing them as shown here.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 17, Decals!

The canopy decal is set on the nose cone 1/8" from the rear of the shoulder.
The decals are a bit elastic and can be formed around the nose cone curve by rolling a damp Q-tip over the surface.

The long black triangle decal goes in front of this and centers down the nose cone. View from the front to check the alignment.

Here's the back end decal placement.

At the intake area are more decals.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 16, Silver Paint

I ended up using Rustoleum Silver Metallic on the model. The only masking was at the rear end to cover the chrome Monokote ring on the engine tube extending out the back.

I still did some light sanding between coats of the silver metallic.
On the first build of the F-104 I used aluminum paint. This Rustoleum Metallic Silver is much brighter.
The model would look best with a chrome finish but I've never got chrome paint to fully dry in the past.

Even though the humidity has dropped I still got some "bluing" and hazing of the metallic paint.

TIP: An easy fix to brighten up metallic paint is to use polishing compound. The rub out took about an hour but the finish results are worth it.

The nose cones are from Apogee and molded in yellow plastic. Be sure to prime and follow with a few undercoats coats of gloss white before the silver.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 15, Canopy Forming

On the left is the shaped canopy bottom. Notice the right and left sides curve up slightly.
On the right is the front view. You may have to make the front curve a little deeper (see last post) to fit the front end of the nose cone.

Here's a good fit of the canopy on the nose cone.
All edges are making good contact with the nose cone.

Don't glue the nose cone on yet, the cockpit detail decal goes on first.

Here's the decals included in the kit.
At the upper left are the canopy trim lines printed in grey. Those turned out to be almost transparent when set on the clear canopy. These lines won't be on the kit decals. The instructions show how to use thin electrical tape to do the lines.
I usually include some extra duplicate images. Use an "extra" decal first to get used to the soak time and slide transfer onto the model.

Start the water soak at about 15 seconds. Let the decal sit on a paper towel for another 15 seconds before trying a transfer slide onto the model.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 14, Canopy Forming

Relax and take your time on this step! A great fit and good glue bond canopy edge is do-able. 

Wrap some 220 grit sandpaper around the main BT-50H tube.
Sand back and forth in a straight line. Try not to squeeze the sides of the canopy or the edges could end up too high and away from the nose cone.

You know you are getting close when the pen lined sides hang off the edges. Use some 400 grit to knock off the hinged plastic strings.

Use some 400 grit to knock off the hinged plastic strings. It's a little like that thin layer that stays on when you file your fingernails.

Set the canopy on the nose cone. Look closely at the edge contact. There may be some gaps where the canopy doesn't touch.
Sand the areas that are touching the nose cone to reduce the high areas. This should close up the gaps.
When you get close, it takes very few passes with the sandpaper to get the final fit.

The front curve that goes over the front of the nose cone might require a deeper curve. Wrap some sandpaper around a BT-20 or engine casing to make the inside curve sharper.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 13, Canopy Forming

Well, I should have covered this step after the 6th build post. I'll edit the 6th post and a link to the canopy forming.

Use a ball point pen and trace around the indent line at the base of the canopy. The canopy is clear, this gives you a visible line to cut on.


With a sharp knife, lightly score around the entire canopy line. Don't cut all the way through.

To make the breaks easier, cut the outside plastic apart at the four corners.
Flex the plastic down the score line. If it doesn't easily crack, score the line a little deeper.

Here's the canopy with the outside plastic removed. Notice the pen line is still there, it'll be sanded off in the next step.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 12, Fillets and White Undercoat

After each undercoat had dried, I did some light sanding over any rough areas.

Two fillet passes were made over all the joints with Titebond No-Run, No-Drip (Molding and Trim) glue.

.

Now the model is ready for the silver metallic paint.

Notice the nose cone is slightly yellow. The yellow plastic is hard to cover.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 11, Fuel Tank Gluing

The wing tanks are glued on with the rear center tip of the tank 3/4" from the trailing edge of the wing.
The front of the tank overhangs the front of the wing by 1 7/16".

Here's the model so far with the long plastic nose cone inserted.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 10, Fuel Tank Forming

The ends of the fuel tank dowels are carved by the builder.

Mark the ends with a line around the dowels 5/8" from both ends.
Mark the centers.

With a sharp knife, make small chip cuts using the center mark as a spacing reference.

Continue the small chip cuts to shape the ends to a nose cone shape.


Sand and smooth the dowel ends with 100 grit.
Follow the smoothing with 220 then 400 grit.

Repeat with the other three dowel ends.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 9, Wing Gluing

The root edges of the wings have to be sanded at a 25 degree angle for the proper dihedral.
Use a sanding block for a straighter line.

Sand an opposite "mirror" image angle on the left and right wing root edges.

The wings are glued on the wing line, with the rear edge 1 3/8" from the rear of the main tube.

The front leading edge will probably butt up against the bottom of the intake. If it is too tight, glue the wings slightly below the wing line.




Here's the model view from the rear.
With the model resting on the lower stab, the outside edges of wing tips should be touching the table, or very close to it.

If your wings don't line up like this, don't worry. It won't affect the flight stability.

(Here the engine mount is slid far up inside the main body tube. It's not glued in place and the Kevlar line is hanging out the back. This picture is from an earlier prototype build, where the intakes weren't glued on yet.)

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 8, Intake Gluing

The back of the intakes are to be glued 2 1/2" from the rear of the tube.
Position and hold the intakes as you trace around them with a pencil.

I scraped off the primer inside the pencil line. 






Before gluing the edges of the intake, form them to a rounder shape if needed. They do tend to flatten out a little when sanding to the body tube contour.







A line of glue is place on the inside of the intake edges. Lay down a glue bead more to the inside of the intake, not directly on the edge.






In the upper picture the intake is a little flat and too close to the nose cone half.



Pinch the sides of the intake to even up the spacing around the nose cone half.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 7, Intake Cone Gluing

The rear of the cone half shoulder is set 5 1/4" from the back end of the tube.




Trace around the cone with a sharp pencil.

I scraped away the primer for better glue adhesion.


The cone is glued down the center line of the intakes.
Don't worry about how the back end shoulder looks. That will all be covered by the intakes.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 6, Upper and Lower Stabilizers

The fins and all balsa parts were filled with thinned CWF and smooth sanding.

Here they are stuck to masking tape on some scrap cardboard for a single, fairly thick coat of Duplicolor Primer/Filler.

The upper and lower stabilizers are glued opposite each other in a straight line.
The smaller lower stab is glued in line where the engine hook will end up.

In the kit instructions the horizontal stab is glued on first then the small stab cap is glued over that.

Here the horizontal stab is slid into the open slot between the two vertical pieces.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 5, Ends and Edges

Here's how the engine mount will look with the chrome trim extending 1/8" out the back. It's a small bit of trim but really adds to the look of the finished model.
Don't glue the engine mount in place yet -





The nose cone has a small raised bulb end molded into the tip. While it isn't necessary, I did sand it down to follow the line of the nose cone.





In the kit the intake nose cones are already split.
Wrap some 220 grit around the main tube. Sand the underside of the nose cone to the contour of the body tube. Sand back and forth in a straight line until the widest sides of the nose cone touch the body tube with no (or very slight) gaps.

Odd'l Rockets F-104 Starfighter Build, Part 4, Intake Dressing

There will probably be a bit of the glassine layer that will flop back and forth like a hinge. It's like the thin layer left after you file your fingernails. Knock it off with some 400 grit and light sanding.

Here's the cut and contour sanded intakes.
They are both as consistent as I could make them.
Like most any other building step - Slow down, take an extra few minutes in each step. The time you take will be reflected in the finished model.

Here's the underside of the intakes.
Look at the rear left, the edges ended up wider for a smoother transition against the body tube contour.