Reviewed by Darren Mottram

 
 

FirstLook

 

The Hasegawa 1/32 scale F-104 kit has been around for many years now and can still be found popping up in various reissues and reboxings from Hasegawa.

One area of the kit which particularly shows its age is the cockpit. Nice for it's day but a bit behind the times now. Black Box has addressed this shortfall with the recent release of this new resin detail set.
 
A majority of the components come packed into a small, zip top plastic bag. This could leave some of the smaller and more delicate pieces open to damage during transit, but I must admit that all of the components in this set did arrive intact. Some major parts such as the tub, seat and seat rails are wrapped separately in a small piece of foam sheet.

The level of detail on the parts is up to Black Box's usual high standards. The detail on the (C2) ejection seat with its moulded on harness is particularly impressive. The instrument panels and side console features are nicely depicted with finely raised detail.

The instructions are well illustrated and clearly describe the assembly and painting of the components. They also point out the requirement to remove the cockpit floor as the Starfighter didn't have one (originally being fitted with downward firing ejection seats). There are no details included for the area underneath this open area but I'm not sure how visible this would be with all the components fitted within the fuselage anyway.

The components have been moulded with relatively minimal excess resin casting blocks which should make the removal and preparation of the parts quite easy.

In view of the quality of this set it is somewhat surprising to find that some details have been omitted. Basically, there are no details for the canopy. The Starfighter has some quite distinctive piping and fixtures fitted to the inside of the canopy and framing which have not been included. Nor have they been mentioned or described in the instructions to enable the modeller to include them for themselves. This will, unfortunately, result in a nicely detailed "tub", instrument shroud and rear decking which is topped of by a very bare canopy and windscreen.

Another possible limitation is that the set only includes the C-2 type ejection seat and not the later Martin Baker unit. This means that the set could not (accurately) be used for German or Italian F-104Gs. Admittedly, a majority of users had the C-2 style seat as included. It is also possible that Black Box may have already covered this situation by releasing the set with a Martin Baker seat (it is after all a rather large component to include in the one set "just in case") in which case the modeller can simply purchase the set required for the version they wish to depict. I don't know if this is the case at this time.

The exact layout and details of the Starfighter cockpit are going to vary depending on the country and sub-type you choose to model but those of this set match those shown in the Verlinden Lock On volume quite nicely.

This set is going to make a very nice addition and improvement to a classic kit and, owing to the well thought out casting and mounting of the components, it should be a fairly straight forward process to prepare and install for modellers of all skill levels (It could even make a good "starter set" for someone who is considering making their first steps into the pleasures of resin detailing).

Thanks to Jet Set Models for the review sample

Black Box detail sets are available online from Jet Set Models website.

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