RAAF Lockheed F-104K
& RAAF CAC CA-31
Hasegawa & Uncle Les' Resins, 1/48
RAAF Lockheed F-104K
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was twice within a hair’s breadth of becoming the RAAF’s standard fighter/interceptor to replace the Avon Sabre, but finally lost out to the Dassault Mirage III. There were several reasons for the final choice, not least of which was the fact that in the early 1960s there were only three airfields in the whole of Australia that could cater to the Starfighter’s 315 psi tyres and long takeoff run! Nevertheless, history records that many other nations like Canada, Japan, Germany and Italy did buy into the Starfighter programme, so it certainly was a strong possibility. If the RAAF had gone with the Starfighter, it would most likely have been the more mission-capable F-104G equivalent (I’ve suggested the F-104K moniker).
The kit I used was the Hasegawa F-104G ‘Marineflieger’, which I picked up at a swap meet along with a Verlinden detail set. I also scored the Eduard photoetch set on the cheap, so unusually for me I went to town on the aftermarket options. As usual for Verlinden the bits didn’t fit easily and in places the fuselage is paper thin after constant grinding to get everything to squeeze in. The Eduard bits were much nicer to use, although I really like having the Verlinden photoetch ladder, which adds some character to the setting. The colour scheme I chose was based on that used by operational RAAF Mirages in the mid 60s – RAF dark green and dark sea grey over light aircraft grey – but it could also have been the SEAC scheme as used by USAF Starfighters deployed to Vietnam. The decals were from the spares box and a RAAF Mirage sheet, most of which fitted the F-104 quite well with a little slicing here and there.
RAAF CAC CA-31
In the 1960s Australia’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) proposed a small delta-winged supersonic trainer to the RAAF. This was meant to be for advanced training and operational conversion to the similar (but considerably larger) Mirage III. Although not proceeded with, the CA-31 did reach mockup stage (in fact, the mockups have recently re-emerged after being hidden by disappointed former employees for many years!).
When I heard that Uncle Les’s Resins had produced a CA-31 kit, I had to have one. It’s only got a few pieces and unfortunately there were a multitude of pinholes in the resin (some of which escaped my attention and can be seen in the final model). Overall, though, a bit of elbow grease and a Dremel soon had it looking like the plans; all I added was some detail to the wheel wells and some underwing pylons with SUU-20 practice bomb launchers and it was ready to paint. As this was meant to be a Mirage conversion aircraft I painted it in the same scheme as Mirage of the late 60s and added rather striking 2 OCU markings (from a Mirage sheet). It really is a very compact kit but has a nice sense of purpose – CAC in fact proposed various single- or twin-seat attack versions as well that might also have been quite interesting to model …
Text and photos Copyright © 2003 Peter Hobbins
Page created November 14, 2003