Popular Post mirageiv Posted September 6, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted September 6, 2016 Hi guys, here are my latest builds. They were built for the excellent NATO vs Warsaw Pact group build that finished recently, if your into jets and armour it is great GB if you haven't checked it out yet! First up, I decided on making the Vikings Starfighter display team from the 1985 season using a pair of Italeri 1/32 kits. With only a year left from retirement the jets were looking relatively weathered at this stage which I attempted to replicate for the particular airframes, not entirely successful but still on the whole 'weathering learning curve' atm! I used Airdoc decals as the kits ones simply are not accurate for these airframes. Thankfully compared to other German F-104Gs, later airframes modified with the Chaff/Flare dispensers as these are had comparatively very few stencils, it would have taken me weeks probably doing two fully stencilled jets. The Airdoc decals are the nuts though, I cannot ask anymore of a decal sheet. I will attempt to describe some the issues or particulars I did with these kits if it is any use to someone looking to do a similar build, please feel free to skip all the waffle though! Even though I like the F-104, especially in Marine colours, I could not make nearly the exact same model twice. I tired to differentiate them a little by having one all closed up with RBF/covers and the other ready to go. There was a bit of bad press about these kits, probably mostly due to the price tag in relation to the quality. I get it, they are not 'the' 1/32 Starfighter kit but they are still a relatively good kit, if you can find them for discounts and want a big F-104 I recommend them for sure! The biggest issue I had were the panel lines. They vary, are matchbox like in places and imho do take away some of the appeal of the jet. So I filled/rescribed a few of the main ones and sanded down a lot of the kits surface to get them finer. They still are not Tamiya quality but on the whole I think worthwhile the extra few hours needed for the job to tone them down. Bar the rear canopy not fitting too well (probs my own doing) the rest of the kit built up with little fuss and has some decent points to the design, though if you are planning a really heavy loaded example the soft plastic of the front landing gear will be sensitive. Accuracy wise I won't go on about it but something isn't quite right with the rear canopy (too short) or canopy area as a whole, the wheels are too big and the front gear strut needs to be shortened otherwise it depicts the jet nearly weightless, probably are other things but they were the most noticeable to me. For reference, here are the pair at Fariford 1985: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Germany-Navy/Lockheed-%28MBB%29-F-104G-Starfighter/504987/L Lets have some pictures, The particular ejection seat of these late German F-104Gs (with the large square-ish headbox) I could not find in this scale, but luckily most pictures showed the belts stored around the head box (therefore hiding it a bit) and clipped onto the rear seat rails. So I modified the Brassin seats in this way and added some extra belts here and there which were not present from the box, one seat has RBF bits and the other ready to go, best 1/32 aftermarket replica of this particular seat though imho! Detail was added to the front and rear cockpit coamings and canopy but the instrument panel and tub are from the kit. If you want towards 100% accuracy probably Aires is the best bet but not much is seen in this tiny cockpit when the largish seat is installed. There are some RBF bits/covers in this scale available, intake covers IIRC, but none of them are that accurate so I made my own, not very complicated for the F-104, even I can make them! The elastic bungee cord was made from cotton string of the roughly correct thickness and coated in Future to remove any lint, then painted, threaded through a little locating pin on the Aux air intake and glued so they are tight to the intake sides. I highly recommend the Brassin RBF tags btw, by far the best I have used yet, though maybe in future I'll go for a scale below the one I'm actually modelling in. The amount of wing guards seemed to vary so I added a modest amount from a pic I saw, with all of them in place the wings start to look like a Christmas tree imho ! With my other Viking jet from the Hasegawa 1/32 kit. One day I guess I'll make the other special scheme jet, though not for a while yet! That one is still my favourite even though it is an older kit, it just looks that bit more a Starfighter for whatever reason. Phew, hope you have a second wind . Diving back into 1/72, here is an early Marineflieger Tornado IDS with Cerberes II and drill Kormorans/Aim-9s. I used an Aires pit and grafted the front end of the old Airfix Tornado for a better nose profile, not 100% but close enough for me. Originally I had planned using the 'BraZ' resin nose but it came distorted and asymmetrical, could be a one off, but worth mentioning as it was pretty useless. Probably Airwaves/Flightpath is still the best aftermarket nose for this kit (not that you absolutely need it!). Decals came from about 6-7 different sources in an attempt to correctly decal these early jets, not one sheet had a full lot of correct stencils/colours etc..many hours spent trawling through images to find and match correct locations to get them close, not perfect but close. It is still a great kit though, of my three all had really bad canopies with specs and mold flaws all over them that no amount of polishing would sort out, the pictures are actually quite complimentary to it. Probably best to get an earlier IDS boxing with maybe better clarity of clear parts. All in all easily the best 1/72 Tornado kit out there. I wanted it relatively clean, this airframe was not very old in 1985, so not much weathering was done bar the noticeable thrust reverser tail mark. Detail was added to the canopy interior, its only a generalisation as lots of things on there on the real deal and 1/72 is pretty darn tiny for me. I made most of the probes, aerials, cannon muzzles as the kits ones were a little bit agricultural. When I have enough time that Tornado will eventually be done in 1/32 with the F-104s as it is pretty darn impressive in that scale. The Marineflieger collection as it stands, many more to go! If you managed to get through all that lot thank you for looking and I hope you enjoyed the builds! Thanks to the GB mods for hosting again, top work guys, look forward to the 70's, 60's etc.. Cheers, David. 84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polo1112 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 FANTASTIC WORK !!! :goodjob: :goodjob: :wow: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbudde Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 The best scheme for a german Tornado and Starfighter along with Norm 72. Beautiful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Seeing these models again reminded me how amazing they were. Wonderful work The main benefit of being a GB moderator is knowing you've facilitated a situation that has inspired someone to build a particular model they've either had planned for a long time or suddenly decided to tackle; either way it's great to see the gang enjoying our hobby and creating works of art such as these. Thank you for taking part David. If you choose to participate in the 70s edition and hopefully after that a 60s follow-up I'd be delighted to watch more Marineflieger subjects being created. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza l Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Amazing work on all the models. gazza l 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Thanks for getting the photos up, it's excellent to see them in all their glory! The Tornado is superb and the Starfighters are stunning. I'm looking forward to your future Marineflieger builds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goggsy Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Those are truly superb. I don't often say this but it's hard to tell some of those pictures from the real thing. The weathering in particular is dead on, restrained but fully integrated to the kits so they genuinely look like they've had real wear. Proper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redcap Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Best 104's I have ever seen in model form - just superb. Gary 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 fantastic looking builds, both the starfighters and tornado look great, love the helmets on the Tonka just adds that little bit extra, may I ask who makes them???? but great job on the scheme and finishes on all of them and great little collection 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich G Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 (edited) Those F-104's in 32nd scale look so realistic in a few of those shots I thought they were reference photos! You really do a good job of getting a realistic looking aircraft, the weathering is subtle in places but the aged paintwork is spot on to my eye. I also have several of the Braz resin noses for the tornado's in 72nd and I've just had a look at mine, they appear to be perfect. Personally I find the SBS models noses to be better, they have a brass pitot tube that comes with them as well. Rich Edited September 6, 2016 by Rich G 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod bettencourt Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Really good stuff. I love the natural light pictures. Thanks for sharing. Rod 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Blimey - there's some excellent model-making there, topped off with beautiful paintwork! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr B Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 outstanding work rgds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil5208 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Damn fine work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlin Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Stunning collection. Fantastic paint job. /Bosse 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonbru1 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Stunning...very well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveyGair Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 What everybody else said ! Stupendous !! Got to do a Starfighter sometime, your models have inspired me 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary West Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Of course I kept a look in at your Group build but this is amazing work David! The collection of your MFG subjects is inspirational - awesome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reini78 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 gorgeous work, good pics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestFan Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Wow!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 David.. Absolutely IMPRESSIVE builds. Simply STUNNING and OUTSTANDING work Sir. I love the photos too.they are SPECTACULARLY taken. KUDOS 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aviano Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 just wow, brilliant....... Oliver 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Absolutely incredible work. For a moment I thought I was looking at the real thing. One of the best finishes I think I've ever seen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 Stunning model!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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