West German F-104G x 2

[modelling minion]

More great work David.

I think you have the underside colour spot on, as you say when you weather it later it will get a bit darker and you have had cracking results with this method on your earlier F-104s.

Sorry to see the problems you have had with the Basaltgrau, looks to me that the formula has been changed slightly which is causing the reactions you are seeing, hopefully the new paint and thinners will solve the problem.

[mirageiv]

22 hours ago, Hewy said:

Oh yes, i say, they are going to be the dogs doo daa's .top drawer painting there david

Glynn

 

Thanks Glynn! 

 

10 hours ago, modelling minion said:

More great work David.

I think you have the underside colour spot on, as you say when you weather it later it will get a bit darker and you have had cracking results with this method on your earlier F-104s.

Sorry to see the problems you have had with the Basaltgrau, looks to me that the formula has been changed slightly which is causing the reactions you are seeing, hopefully the new paint and thinners will solve the problem.

 

Cheers Craig, even if it is maybe a bit too bright later on I can hopefully still tone it down with a very thin light grey mixture (almost pure thinner) sprayed over the top, we will see! The more I look at it at the moment I think it is close enough, though only when the topside colours are on I  can gauge the contrast between the two. The new thinners arrive tomorrow so I'll try get a few more main colours on this weekend.

 

thanks guys,

 

David

Edited April 7, 2017 by mirageiv

[Cookenbacher]

That's very strange about the paint David. It seems they should be compatible, since they were in the past!

I've had good luck spraying all the enamels I've tried (Humbrol, Colourcoats, Model Master) by thinning them with plain old hardware store white spirit. You could give that go with the new Xtracolours.

 

The silver/grey undersides look fantastic.

 

 

[mirageiv]

I know Cookie, really strange . I did't get time to do any painting yet with the Xtracolor dedicated thinners but I tested them and it still separates, though you can thin the paint more than with the Revell thinners before this happens. It seems to be once past a certain paint/thinner ratio the Basaltgrau breaks down, even with some newer tins I just got. Quite strange but I think I can still manage with slightly thicker paint than I'd like to use, but should be ok . I have some white spirit and will give that a go tonight and see how it goes too, cheers for the heads up!

 

David

[Col.]

Sorry to see you're having problems with the paint David. I'd hate this to spoil your amazing work at such a late stage. Perhaps another source of the correct paint colour would cure this?

[mirageiv]

On 4/12/2017 at 9:50 PM, Col. said:

Sorry to see you're having problems with the paint David. I'd hate this to spoil your amazing work at such a late stage. Perhaps another source of the correct paint colour would cure this?

 

Cheers Col, I was able to spray it reasonably well after getting the correct Xtracolor thinner but it still 'broke up' as before with the thinning ratios I'd prefer to spray at, ah well at least the Xtracolor colour accuracy looks very good indeed . I have painted the greys only yesterday (they took much longer to mask than I thought!) so I'll wait to make a proper paint update when all the colours are on. 

 

My original plan was to try and use some salt weathering (would be a first for me on a model) on the Marine F-104 by painting with Gunze/Tamiya paints which are apparently good for this. Though as soon as I decided to go with Xtracolor enamel I ditched the salt idea and instead tried to do some patchy pre shading to help make (if I could) a similar appearence. Certainly not salt weathering but it has helped break up the topsides at least. The centre sections of the tanks will be RAL 2005 so I didn't bother there. 

 

 

I'm still painting some more greys on the Marine one but here is a pic of the Luftwaffe model with similar things done (and more to do I think),

 

 

This one I'm going for a cleaner appearance as they are seen in the above posted video. I'll hopefully have them painted next week, I forgot how long Xtracolor takes to dry. In the meantime I'll focus on the weapons I think.

 

Cheers for looking,

 

David.

Edited April 15, 2017 by mirageiv

[Mountain goat]

Bravo! I am enjoying this.

 

Jay

[Hewy]

Very nice david ,lovely contrasts,

Glynn

[Cookenbacher]

It'll be a shame to cover that mesmerizing preshading.

[mirageiv]

Thank you guys!  

 

David

[mirageiv]

Hi guys, after seemingly endless masking I think they are pretty much painted 

 

 I said I got the Master pitot probes because of their survivability, well it turns out they are stronger than a doorway but Hasegawa's plastic isn't! A pretty clean break, oops 

 

 

It just wouldn't be a Starfighter build without me busting one at least once, so this was filled/sanded with superglue ready for painting again. It still is very delicate because the contact surface is now so thin, must remember to be even more careful!

 

 

 

Here is the nuke model so far.

 

 

 

As noted I had problems with the Xtracolor Basaltgrau, the Gelboliv also tested the patience because it covered so poorly. IIRC it took about 6+ layers to build up any kind of depth on the tanks, quite odd for an enamel paint. This made be think it wasn't the best idea using this for the splinter camo as so many paint layers probably would leave paint 'ridges' between the two top colours. It was a little light too so I mixed some Revell 46 Nato olive (very dark), a drop of red and some white with the Xtracolor. Revell enamels have excellent coverage which helped a lot in getting the colour down like normal, it didn't spray so nice and dried semi gloss but I was happy enough. 

 

 

 

I'm going for a nice well kept F-104G. Most photos of jets from JaboG 31 are really pretty clean at this time (late 70's) compared to early pre hanger days, so paint fading etc...is quite subtle. I just looked at photos of the airframe I'm building and tried to replicate what I saw, maybe less interesting visually from a modelling point of view but I like it.

 

 

 

The nose is RAL 7035, I used Revell 371 which is bang on to my eyes. Additionally some more grey was added to reduce the contrast and add a little grime. The anti glare panel was sprayed Fs34079 from Xtracolor, I'll fade it some more with oils/weathering after the decals later. Also with luck the underside colour is not too shiney which I'm chuffed about as I was a little worried from looking at the pictures from my earlier posts. 

 

 

 

The tanks that will be used for the gallery. I like the orange ones but for the purpose of accuracy I painted up the two sets of tip tanks for this model.

 

 

 

One of the faded RAL 2005 Leuchtorange tanks with a seemingly 'average' amount of fading. They can be seen in almost every condition but what is noticeable on a few is the sharp-ish demarcation from the uppers in direct sunlight to the lowers. I used Xtracolor RAL2005 as a base and wow it is the most bright, dayglo paint I have ever seen. Out of the tin it is way too bright for the scale so I cut it with roughly 40% standard orange. Then the uppers were faded with mixes of white/yellow/orange/RAL2005. The colour is very hard to get a true photo of I'm finding (especially with the blue background and brightened photos) so please just take them as an approximation to what they are in the flesh. 

 

 

For something a bit different I made the other tank almost fresh RAL2005. In the flesh it looks not to far from the new orange on this photo: http://old.messerschmitt-bf109.de/gallery3neu/Waldemar-Winkler---Dia-Sammlung-Slide-Collection/Fiat-G-91-1852487932 . It is bright but not as bright as my photo is portraying. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another noticeable feature of the tanks is that the very tips wear revealing a rather matt, almost very light grey, aluminium. 

 

 

 

 

I replicated this by, after priming, spraying Alclad white Aluminium mixed with white and some grey acrylics. The enamel top colours thinned with enamel thinner over the top. Then with a cotton bud with a tiny amount of thinner on, removed the very tip of paint. I then slightly 'chipped' the surface with a sharp toothpick, the demarcation/chipping is almost perfectly circumferential on the real thing so the toothpick was used very very lightly. Ignoring the dust and fluff on the tank here is a close up,

 

 

A small thing I know but for me a first in chipping like that so I'm quite happy how they turned out.

 

Contrasting to the above for the Marine F-104G I went for a more weathered appearance. Something like this picture:  http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/2433.htm 

 

Though not quite as weathered, most MFG1 F-104G photos from the late 70's show pretty well kept aircraft. Only after MFG1 aircraft were transferred to MFG2 in the 80's did they seem to get really weathered, presumably as retirement was not so long away. Initially I used Xtracolor but it came out a bit too light (I lightened it too much) so I went over the top with Humbrol 79 (lightened also). The two slightly different different base greys have helped make a faded, Baltic sea, appearance even more.

 

 

For the tanks I did a similar thing (1 fresh 1 faded) but I faded the left one much more, it is more yellow and almost white at the top in real life, not sure why it still looks orange here? 

 

 

 

The fresh one that is causing havoc with my camera,

 

 

 

Again the underside WA has fortunatley come out just right to my eye,

 

 

 

Just a quick thing worth a mention between the two is that the demarcations slightly differ around the rear. Nearly all Marineflieger aircraft have it level or even slightly pitched up where as JaboG and especially JaboG 31 aircraft seem to have it taper down more. They are done by eye and took a lot of repeated attempts but their locations look ok in the end. looks like a little touch up is need at the tips.

 

 

 

I'm going to gloss them tonight so I can begin the decals this weekend, all two trillion of them from the DACO sheets. 

 

 

Thanks for tagging along and for any words of encouragement,

 

David.

 

 

edit..I must say I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the tip tank contrasts, 1 fresh 1 faded. I quite like it but I fear it might be a bit over the top and a little odd really. Though rare, I have seen some pictures like it.

Edited April 20, 2017 by mirageiv

[franky boy]

Top work David. I particually like the painting effects on the Marine aircraft.

 

I love the contrast between the two tanks, and if you've seen it in photos........

 

A quick question. What colour did you use for the fibre glass panel on the spine behind the cockpit?

 

Looking forward to more progress.

 

James

[JeffreyK]

Loving every one of those pictures!!!! 

[JayBee]

To work David, I really like your eye for small details like the different demarcation line, different weathering. Colors looks spot on!

 

For me the weathering looks perfect, I also like the look of the more or less painted bright orange tiptanks, looks real to me: KLICK

 

Kind regards,

Jürgen

[modelling minion]

Excellent work again David.

Your paint work looks spot on to me and I like the idea of one weathered aircraft and one nearly clean, makes for a nice contrast. Speaking of which I also like the job you have made on the tip tanks, especially the weathering which is excellent. The idea of used and clean tanks on the same aircraft is also clever, and as you say is an option I have seen on actual aircraft and makes for an even more interesting (not that they need it) model.

Superb work David, please keep it up.

[Hewy]

Most exellent, all that fantastic pre shading was well worth doing ,really good ,

Glynn 

[mirageiv]

On 4/20/2017 at 8:23 PM, franky boy said:

Top work David. I particually like the painting effects on the Marine aircraft.

 

I love the contrast between the two tanks, and if you've seen it in photos........

 

A quick question. What colour did you use for the fibre glass panel on the spine behind the cockpit?

 

Looking forward to more progress.

 

James

 

Cheers James, glad you like them so far. For the antennae panels I simply mixed up a cream/tan colour using Tamiya acrylics (white/yellow/tan/grey). The state and shade seem to vary quite a lot, as does how dirty they get. I'm hoping to do the same as this build,

 

 

Where I just used oils over the 'clean' antennae paint to look something like I could see in photos.

 

On 4/20/2017 at 8:32 PM, JeffreyK said:

Loving every one of those pictures!!!! 

 

Cheers Jeffrey!

 

On 4/20/2017 at 8:36 PM, JayBee said:

To work David, I really like your eye for small details like the different demarcation line, different weathering. Colors looks spot on!

 

For me the weathering looks perfect, I also like the look of the more or less painted bright orange tiptanks, looks real to me: KLICK

 

Kind regards,

Jürgen

 

Thank you Jürgen, I'm glad you like them so far

 

On 4/20/2017 at 9:06 PM, modelling minion said:

Excellent work again David.

Your paint work looks spot on to me and I like the idea of one weathered aircraft and one nearly clean, makes for a nice contrast. Speaking of which I also like the job you have made on the tip tanks, especially the weathering which is excellent. The idea of used and clean tanks on the same aircraft is also clever, and as you say is an option I have seen on actual aircraft and makes for an even more interesting (not that they need it) model.

Superb work David, please keep it up.

 

Thank you Craig, your words are always very motivating and hopefully I'm on sort of the right track  

 

On 4/20/2017 at 9:15 PM, Hewy said:

Most exellent, all that fantastic pre shading was well worth doing ,really good ,

Glynn 

 

Cheers Glynn, glad to get the seal of approval from yourself  Kinda ended up obliterating most of the pre shading in trying the get the Xtracolor to spray on ok, most of the weathering is post shading with the airbrush, but the end result I happy with.

 

 

cheers guys

 

David

[franky boy]

Thanks David

 

That red, white and blue Marine Starfighter looks nice. I was toying with the idea of building that aircraft for STGB in November.

 

James

 

 

[mirageiv]

28 minutes ago, franky boy said:

Thanks David

 

That red, white and blue Marine Starfighter looks nice. I was toying with the idea of building that aircraft for STGB in November.

 

James

 

 

 

 

Cheers James, I posted a RFI and WIP thread on the forums here (WIP linked in RFI) if you are interested:  

 

 

It was the Hasegawa 1/32 kit, a lot of work and I could have done a few things better like the cockpit, but my most fun and satisfying build to date bar none, really a stand out in the cabinet. I ended up doing a quite a lot of research on them in this scheme so if you end up building one I'd love to help any way I could, probably my favourte scheme the F-104 ever had! I'm thinking of doing a similar build again, a 1/32 Luftwaffe special scheme for the STGB later this year, maybe this one: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Colors/2036sp.htm . Well that is one of the plans anyways

 

cheers

 

David

 

 

 

[Col.]

The carefull skill you are lavishing on the paintwork of these matches the detail you've packed into the airframes and is leading to another two beautiful results David.

[mirageiv]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

The carefull skill you are lavishing on the paintwork of these matches the detail you've packed into the airframes and is leading to another two beautiful results David.

 

Thank you Col, I'm happy you like them so far!

 

I gave the models some clear the other night. The Marine one with Aqua gloss and the Luftwaffe one simply brushed with Pledge Floor care to see any differences. I think I should have polished up the paint a bit on the Marine model first (the Humbrol enamel was quite rough) so it needed some good thick layers to get a decent enough shine, should be ok in the end. The Pledge was very nice to brush and probably has given the best surface I have obtained yet for decals. I applied a bit more layers than I would normally when using acrylics to double make sure the oil washes I use later will not eat the enamel underneath. The Marine one has darkened quite a lot, crickey I hope it lightens back up with the satin/matt varnishes later on 

 

 

Here are the DACO decals I will use, the codes and markings from the main sheets and two sets of stencils. This bit is probably the hardest part of this build more from patience and time than anything else, they are very accurate though and probably the most well researched decals I personally have ever used. 

 

 

 

and it begins,

 

 

 

Hoping to have them done by next weekend sometime, many evenings of decals awaits 

 

David

[modelling minion]

That really is a cracking decal sheet David, definitely worth investing in if you plan on doing a few German F-104's. Managed to add a TF-104 to the stash today (amongst others  ) for the F-104  STGB later in the year, if I can wait that long!

[mirageiv]

11 hours ago, modelling minion said:

That really is a cracking decal sheet David, definitely worth investing in if you plan on doing a few German F-104's. Managed to add a TF-104 to the stash today (amongst others  ) for the F-104  STGB later in the year, if I can wait that long!

 

True, maybe a bit overkill for one, think I have about 6 earmarked for it!  I read about your haul, excellent, I look forward to seeing maybe a few (and especially the TF-104/F-102) on here! Any ideas which user your TF will be? 

Edited April 24, 2017 by mirageiv

[modelling minion]

2 hours ago, mirageiv said:

 

True, maybe a bit overkill for one, think I have about 6 earmarked for it!  I read about your haul, excellent, I look forward to seeing maybe a few (and especially the TF-104/F-102) on here! Any ideas which user your TF will be? 

The F-102 might make an appearance on this GB, if I get my finger out with the MIg.

Not sure which scheme the TF-104 will be in yet, I am drawn towards a German machine (either Luftwaffe or Marinefleiger) or maybe Italian or Greek.

[Hewy]

Flippin eck  ,that has to be the most complete and complex decal set ever, they look to have took the gloss coat well, looking forward to seeing them in their decal finery, 

Absolutely class

Glynn