Hasegawa’s 1/48th scale F-104 kit has been around for a while and it is a very nice kit making the grade at many shows all over the world. One thing missing from the standard kit is any underwing pylons. Granted, there are a lot of pictures of F-104’s with any pylons attached but they were able to carry one under each wing and also a centerline pylon also. Eduard gives that option in spades with this newest release- a complete set of pylons for the entire airframe.

Inside the package, you’ll find 25 beautiful resin cast parts, a photoetch fret with 25 detail parts for the pylons and also a full set of decals. This is a very comprehensive set for $14.95.

Let’s take a little more detailed look at what the pylons are and what they are used for:

Applications

Airscale, as usual is a leader in making cockpit enhancing products and this is a new product to their line. Finally the modern cockpit has been addressed with these decals allowing a modeler to get just the right look of warning markings and dataplates. Trying to paint the cross hatch lines of two colors is extremely difficult and these decals make it easy to do so. There are also tri-color (black/white/yellow) markings in the selection. In addition to the striped markings, dataplates for the sidewalls and for ejection seats are also provided. There is a little surprise and a real bonus in this set, a legend giving the name of each placard and warning type.

The Parts

Scale Aircraft Conversion is known for making white metal landing gear replacement sets for numerous aircraft in multiple scales. I have reviewed a few of these sets before. Normally, the only advantages that I see are that these make for a sturdier model. However, this set I feel is different. The parts are exact replacements of the Airfix parts; instead of plastic, these are made of white metal. There really is no additional detail. The parts do not have the mold seams that the kit parts do, which is nice.

The reason I am very much for this set is that the Airfix parts are very finicky. What I found to be very useful of the SAC parts is the ability to bend slightly some of the parts so that you can fully assemble the landing gear. Once assembled, and thanks to the material (white metal), you are able to manipulate the landing gear so you get the perfect stance of your Wildcat!