Building the Lockheed Lancer

[mcollazo]

The Lockheed CL-12000 Lancer was a company funded project for the lightweight fighter competition of the 70's.   Lockheed had funded development of the CL-1200 Lancer as a competitor to the F-5E Tiger II for export sales. Compared to the F-104, the Lancer had a larger wing moved further aft and mounted higher on the fuselage.



In order to complete a model of this aircraft you will need:

• The diagram in the picture above blown up to the proper scale I used 120% whih came very close to 1/72" (2 copies)
• A donor or new F-104 Model (I used a donated F-104 from Italieri)
• Sheet Styrene I used .06 inch stock.
• A sheet of carbon paper (If you have no idea what this is ask your grandmother)
• Cyanoacrylate glue (gap filling preferred) and accelerator (kicker)
• Modeling saw
• Sandpaper
• Squadron White or Green Putty
• A Dremel Tool helps but is not essential

OK lets build this!

Lets start by the biggest modification to the fuselage the wings.  F-104 wings are mounted on the sides of the fuselage (normal) on the Lancer they will be mounted to the top of the fuselage using a larger wing extension that uses the outer panels of the F-104.  The other part we will be building is a new vertical stabilizer.

To modify the fuselage we need to make go away the fairing for the wing towars the rear of the engine intake and blend this into the fuselage.  Here is where the dremel comes in handy if not saw and sand.



In the picture above you will see the top fuselage half has the wing fairing blended back into the fuselage.  The bottom half is the stock fuselage I repeated the process for the both sides of the fuselage.  Here is a closer look at the blended fuselage.



Here is the blended bottom half of the fuselage prior to filling the gaps.



Notice that using a course drum on your dremel it will take out a lot of plastic work slowly at the slowest possible speed (that still makes the tool work) otherwise you will risk burning the plastic.  Other caveats no loose clothing, no loose jewelry and do use gloves while doing this work.  If the dremel does this to styrene you can imagine what it will do to fingers.  And ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS were proper eye protection while using powertools.

OK enough of Norm Abrahams (if you don't know who he is watch PBS more often).  Anyway you just removed a lot of plastic out of your fuselage so you have weakened its structure, now this is not critical but you need to do two things one reinforce it and two fill in the hole where the wing tab was going to go and any other holes you created while drilling.  So here is where your friend Gap Filling Super Glue comes in.  I filled the cavity and used the accelerator from inside the fuselage.  This gives a very even surface on the other side.  When I worked the second fuselage half I did this BEFORE I used the Dremel and that helped my confidence that I wasn't going to destroy the whole fuselage.  Here is what it looks like.




Symetry - A beautiful thing specially on airplanes

In order to make sure that both sides are the same I used rubber bands to hold both halfs together and I checked.  I redid the sanding accordingly until both matched.



TIP TIP TIP

I started working on other parts while things dried up.  Here the Ejection Seat is glued to the top of a piece of sprue so I can work on the paint.  I also use clothespins and large office clips (thank god for promo shows) to hold parts together.  Clothespins were reluctantly donated by my wife which has been questioning my sanity anyway.




In this terrible shot (not good enough on the closeup) is the blended fuselage fairing.  I used light ghost grey as a primer to spot for imperfections (No I did not have a spray can available). 



OK it's time to start building this sucker.  Assembly is basically the same as the model except for two little items.

• You need to remove the vertical stabilizer and replace it with a new one mine was donated by the sparex box and it is the horizontal stabilizer of a Tornado reshaped to match the drawings of the Lancer
• You also need to remove the F-104 bottom stabilizer fin as the CL-12000 did not have it.
• Oh well there are three things, you need to take the F-104 horizontal stabilizer/elevator and cut it in half each side will be come the Lancers HorStab.
  

Here is the finished results so far and how it compares to the Lancer's plans.





A plane without a wing is a ??

Well we need to get the wing built for our beauty here is where that second copy of the plans come in handy.  Using the plan, carbon paper, and the styrene trace the wing extension to the styrene.  Using an X-Acto blade cut the plastic out of the styrene (remember you are working with a knife if it cuts plastic guess what it does to fingers) you need to sand and shape to match the Starfighter outer panel.  If you traced all of the flaps and panels you can use the knife to scribe the styrene for the proper panel lines, once done attach the kits wings to it.  your result will be something like this:





Now you see on the picture above a weird looking tool on the background (yellow handle black curve) that's a knife sharpener, I used it to shape the knife edge of the styrene wing form.  If you have one great, if not sandpaper works.

At this point the rest of the model builds like the instructions of the kit, landing gear and pitot tubes etc.  I chose not to put the F-104 tip tanks but used from the spares launch rails for Sidewinder missles and a couple of sidewinders.  I used a paint scheme similar to an F-16 (the competitor) and this is the final result.






Think of the Lancer possibilities....

Let me know if you liked what you see in this post.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Well here we go again, requests were posted for the X-27 version of the Lancer, and even though that only made it to the Mockup stages of development I started working on another lancer that would closely resemble how X-27 would have looked as a prototype and not just a humble plywood mockup.

Here are the results.

Angle view on the bench befor LG doors were installed:



Side view still on the bench:



Tail view, notice that the exhaust has not been painted yet.



Love the square intakes:




Front Top View:




Now a more proper setting for a noble bird:















If anyone wants to build the Prototype X-27 you can follow the instructions here.  I will be posting a downloadable Decal Sheet that you can print on any color printer (inkjet) using decal paper and you can then get the same model posted here.

Blessings,


Manuel Collazo
Licensed Minister of Stewardship Education and Development
Christian Church in Florida (Disciples of Christ)
895 N. Jericho Drive
Casselberry, FL  32707
Phone:  407-699-5036
Cell:       321-946-0453
Fax:        866- 739-9257
email:   manuel.collazo@mac.com

[Rafael]

Wow!

Manuel, that's very good way of building a Lancer!!! Thanks for the step-by-step building process.

Rafa

[chrisonord]

Manuel, I do hope that you were wearing the obligatory red check shirt whilst doing this build, oh and a beard 
Excellent aircraft, it really does look the part.
Chris.

[Cobra]

Awesome Job!!!!! Sure you didn't work with Derek Meddings?? this has the Feel of a 'Thunderbirds' episode model or Guest Aircraft model to it!!!!

[mcollazo]

Manuel, I do hope that you were wearing the obligatory red check shirt whilst doing this build, oh and a beard 
Excellent aircraft, it really does look the part.
Chris.

Well I do have the beard!

[tigercat2]

The Lancer sure looks good in this line up of '104s!!  In my What If world, there would be thousands of Lancers, perhaps we can duplicate a very small percentage of that here.


Wes W

[GTX]

Great execution, especially in colour scheme choice!

Regards,

Greg

[tigercat2]

Here is a shot of the 104s and the Lancer from the other end.

Since I have eight 1/72 F-104s due in next week, many for conversion to Lancers, which is generally considered the best and worst kits of the Starfighter.   I would guess that the Airfix/MPC is probably not the best.

Wes W.

[Brian da Basher]

Excellent work, Mr Collazo! The paint scheme fits it like a glove!

Brian da Basher

[JayBee]

Manuel,
what can I say, my kind of WHIFing, i.e. more the build than the colour scheme. Sensational.
You are clearly a highly gifted builder, I salute you.
Oh, and I have the beard as well!
Again, sensational.

JimB

[GTX]

How about doing the P&W F-100 powered version that had the rectangular intakes:



Regards,

Greg

[mcollazo]

It's on the bench.



http://gallery.me.com/manuel.collazo#100322/IMG_0230&bgcolor=black

This link will take you to the X-27 On the Bench Gallery at my MobilME site.

Blessings,

Manuel

[The Rat]

It's on the bench.

I'm sure that I speak for everyone when I say that I can't sit still waiting for it! 

[BlackOps]

Nicely done Manuel. I'd never seen the Lancer before, pretty cool design.

[noxioux]

Superb.