Part 2: The Build

"Daddy, is the Tiger plane done yet?" You would not believe how many times I heard this or similar questions during the month and a half I spent with the assembly of this model. There was genuine excitement around the house for a build. The Tiger Meet paint scheme is a pleasing detour from the usual grays and greens. The yellow on black over white is a beautiful contrast, and is a real attention-getter on the shelf. Hasegawa has done a wonderful job of capturing the F-104, and this model could be an award winner in any contest. For anyone building this model, the first bit of advice I would give is read the instructions, and then read them again. I put the control stick in the cockpit before assembling the fuselage. Later, when it was time to install the instrument panel, I had to remove the control stick with tweezers. It was clearly explained in the instructions but I ignored it, apparently Hasegawa knows their models better than I do. By following the steps in sequence the model does go together very well. The fit of most of the parts was near perfect, requiring light sanding and absolutely no filler. The exception to this was the wing tip fuel tanks. I'm not sure, since this could have been just my fat fingers squeezing small parts to hard. There was one fit issue that I did notice. If you intend to build the Starfighter with the canopy closed, check the fit of the seat against the canopy. Mine was a tight fit, and needed a little sanding on the bottom of the seat to correct this problem. The only major problem I had with the kit was the complexity of the paint job. There are spots on the aircraft where the black, yellow, and white must intersect with the decals almost flawlessly. The area of the tiger head decals is the most important intersection of paint and decal. To achieve as much accuracy as possible, I cut out the tiger heads with a pair of sharp scissors and laid them in place while I taped off the color sections. The black along the spine of the aircraft is also critical. If you do not get it right, the stripes will not lay in the correct position down the side and over the wings. The yellow of the tigers does not exactly match the box photo, but I was able to get a very close match with Model Master, Deep Yellow 2118. I can now say that I am a fan of Hasegawa. This model was a blast to build and while the paint scheme was tough to do, it was well worth the effort. I am proud of the final product and can't wait for the next club meeting so I can show her off. In the mean time, "the tiger plane" looks great on the shelf. I would like to thank Hasegawa and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build and review this kit.

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