Uncovering the Lockheed (T)F-104G Starfighter

by Danny Coremans & Peter Gordts

DACO Publications

Reviewed by David Couche

DACO’s fifth book in their detailed range "Uncovering the...", is the Lockheed F-104G and TF-104G Starfighters.

DACO Publications has produced a one-stop shop of the type, showing everything inside and outside of this famous jet.

Around 875 detailed colour photos are included.

The soft covered, 160 page book is 21 x 24 cm (8.25 x 9.50 inch), contains of 160 pages and has an additional two large foldouts (1 meter / 40" long) with highly accurate 1/72 and 1/48 scale drawings and the various cockpit layout drawings.

The contents of the book covers the whole aircraft, starting at the pitot tube/radome with radar detail and working its way down the fuselage to the tail.  The Vulcan gun is detailed as are the airframe panels, the exhaust nozzles, avionics bays, landing gear and respective bays. This book leaves nothing out in its photographic coverage.  I should mention that there is a blue tab in the upper outer corner of each page explaining the section you are looking at. There is no contents section provided as such.

There is a separate section of 16 pages for the cockpit which is incredibly detailed and incorporates the ejection seat and computers in the aircraft.

Moving on there is a complete section 24 pages are used to uncover the TF-104G two-seater separately.
Although no longer in the air since the mid '80s, you get 16 pages of maintenance pictures provided for those into detailing their model builds. The authors also cover the various specialised ground equipment used with the Starfighter which is very useful to the diorama builder.

And finally, you have 20 pages are showing all kinds of armament the Starfighter could carry, from missiles, rockets, bombs and dispensers to nukes. There is nothing not covered by this comprehensive book.

This book becomes particularly valuable with the recent and future releases of F-104G kits, especially in 1/32 and 1/48. The new detailed Kinetic kits and the future release this year of the highly detailed AMK kit will find this book great. Having got the Kinetic kit and awaiting the 2 in 1 kit with the TF-104G in it this volume will be used considerably. For those with the 1/32 AFV Club, Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell kits and the slightest inclination to do some extra detailing then this is the book for you. And in mentioning the above kits, it certainly would be useful for modeller of the myriad of 1/72 kits and the other older 1/48 kits for details as well.

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Thumbnail panels:

The drawing section at the rear of the book is so worthwhile if it was on its own. The 2 sections fold out to about 1metre in length with incredibly detailed drawings of all of the versions, fighter-bomber, interceptor and the dual seat trainer, covering all of the cockpit instrument panels, naming every instrument on them. As well there are a range of accurate drawings in both 1/48 and 1/72 of nearly every version of the F-104G as well as drop tanks etc. I have supplied one scan and a photo of one side of one of the fold outs (apologies for the bends but they wouldn’t straighten out), just to give you an idea of the contents. The scans I’ve given you give just a minute look at what is in this book.

This book has been deliberately produced for the modeller, providing an absolute wealth of reference photographs and detail and drawings one could wish for to produce an accurate (T)F-104G Starfighter. For me, this review sample came close behind my purchase of the new Kinetic kits and will certainly be used considerably in my build of these kits to ensure technical correctness. This is highly recommended to all wishing to build the (T)F-104G in any scale.

Thanks to DACO Publications for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2020 by David Couche
This Page Created on 20 August, 2020
Last updated 20 August, 2020

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