Norwegian Starfighter

[mirageiv]

Thanks James for the help, cleared it up greatly for me, gluing in stages seems like the way to go. I will put some weight in the nose. With my past F-104s I always added a bit and none of them are tail sitters so I'll do the same again to be sure. I have heard the TF-104 kit can be a tail sitter with no weight so best not take any chances imho. 

 

thanks again and look forward to more progress!

 

David

[Mountain goat]

I'm really liking this build already. The seat looks amazing.

 

-Jay

[franky boy]

Evening chaps.

 

So this is where we're at right now. The fuselage is all joined together with a bit of fettling here and there mainly around the main UC bay but it's all gone together well enough.

 

 

It's not a disaster by any means but the bang seat sits to high for the centre canopy section to sit flush. I've sanded as much off the bottom of the seat as i dare but due to a raised section on the cockpit floor it wont go any lower. So, the long and the short of it this will now be an open cockpit build. Not a huge problem.

 

 

And just a little view into the open cockpit. sorry about the dodgy photo. My i pad doesn't like getting this close. The piece of white plastic card is to give the canopy something to but up against when i come to glue it in place and will be painted grey by then.

 

 

Now onto the fuselage seams.

 

Until next time, happy modelling.

 

James

[modelling minion]

Nice work James.

These Hasegawa F-104's go together very well don't they.

 

Craig.

[franky boy]

Thanks Craig

 

Yes they go together very well which is good for someone like me who doesn't build many jets.

 

James

[mirageiv]

Nice work James, at least you will be able to see the resin seat properly! Looking forward to the NMF

 

David

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

Just a small update.

 

The last 10 days or so have been spent filling and sanding seams, a small amount of re-scribing and fitting airbrakes etc. I've also got the tip tanks together and now need to fill and sand the rivets on the fins.

 

 

 

Next job is to paint the interiors of the air intakes and fit them and then it's onto primer.

 

These pictures have made me realise what a mess my desk is!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

James

[mirageiv]

Nice work James, at a similar point myself. I don't know about you but those tip tanks took a lot of work to rid the of seams on mine (had quite a lot of flaws on them), wish Hasegawa made them more simple without all the inserts!

 

David. 

[franky boy]

2 hours ago, mirageiv said:

Nice work James, at a similar point myself. I don't know about you but those tip tanks took a lot of work to rid the of seams on mine (had quite a lot of flaws on them), wish Hasegawa made them more simple without all the inserts!

 

David. 

 

Hi David

 

Yes the tip tanks do seem as if they were added as an after thought which is a shame as they are one of the defining features of most Starfighters. Anyway they're nearly done now and it'll be good to get on with some painting.

 

Also I think you'll be able to answer this, is the Daco set worth the investment?

 

 Thanks 

 

James

[mirageiv]

23 hours ago, franky boy said:

 

Hi David

 

Yes the tip tanks do seem as if they were added as an after thought which is a shame as they are one of the defining features of most Starfighters. Anyway they're nearly done now and it'll be good to get on with some painting.

 

Also I think you'll be able to answer this, is the Daco set worth the investment?

 

 Thanks 

 

James

 

Look forward to the painting James!

 

On the Daco set. 

 

If you plan on building quite a few Starfighters, particularly ones with weapons (Hasegawa's biggest problem imo) or different versions such as the F-104S, RF-104s etc...it makes it very worthwhile, if not essential imho for a fully tooled up model. For example, the Hasegawa boxed F-104S isn't actually an S. The Daco set provides the correct fins, intakes, exhaust, tanks, GPS dome (later variants), pylons, missiles and probably more parts I cannot recollect. Doing that without the Daco set requires some good scratch building and purchasing, and having a jet only with tip tanks. Or the RF-104G, Daco provides all the different variant specific parts, external and internal cameras, the special late Marineflieger RF-104 system etc...that are not available to the best of my knowledge in any scale or anywhere else unless you again like to do a lot of scratch building. Also provides difficult to make bits such as the internal canopy defogging tubes, extra lights (specific German G ones too not in Hasegawa kit) and a whole host of other bits you will use for sure if you know you have them. Basically if you want to building specific versions accurately, with all the minor mods or extras and weapons each one has (which can be quite varied) it makes it a heck of a lot easier, especially when you can spread the cost of one set over probably 7 plus Starfighter builds. That is what I'm doing, I'll probably use most of it when done. 

 

A lot of fuss is made over the rivet-less wings, they are for me a minor point of the set. They are slightly larger than the kit wings (correctly) but they introduce fit problems with the tip tanks. Some superglue filler and you can have the kit ones filled in a few hours (if they bother you), plus on a painted airframe leaving the rivets on the rear fuselage when the wing ones are not present is a bit strange, they all are usually quite hard to make out on painted jets (not always the case however). A natural metal aircraft this would be ideal though as the rear fuselage rivets are very noticeable, the wing ones are smoothed out. Then there are also hard to find weapons and pylons such as the nukes and twin store carries, both for example can also be used on many other subjects. If you like opening panels the avionics bay behind the cockpit is very well done, as is the parachute pack at the rear. Then there are all the specific F-104A/C, TF-104, CF-104 mods the set provides. I cannot remember how many parts are in it, but it is a lot!

 

If you are only going to build one or two Starfighters, it will help greatly and allow the easy path to make some impressive Starfighters, but it will become quite expensive. Though when you look at other new 1/48 kits approaching three figures, it isn't so bad. Like most things, you get what you pay for I guess. I know when I opened my set for the first time I realised it was the best modelling purchase I think I have done yet, however it is one of my favourite subjects so I so I am certainly a bit biased  .

 

There are two downsides for me. The set provides only 1 or the pairs of some missiles, such as Kormorans or As.30. Therefore you have to buy two sets or order another extra weapons spruce with the set only from the Daco site. This is never the way to go about business imho, I'd rather they just included two weapons spruce in the original box and add a fiver to the overall price than the way they went, but you can see why they did it. Daft, probably put a few people off it. Plus a second pair of underwing tanks would have been cool too. Other than those, I can't fault it. It has to be one of the best, in terms of accuracy and completeness, aftermarket sets ever. 

 

I don't work for Daco I promise , I just really think the set (and the decals/books too) is absolutely worthwhile if you are into the F-104 and will certainly build more than one. I've yet to read about anyone disappointed in it. 

 

Those are my thoughts on it, sorry for the long response/mini review but hope it helps somewhat.

 

Cheers

 

David.

 

 

Edited March 24, 2017 by mirageiv

[franky boy]

David

 

Thanks for the great reply, thats exactly what I needed to know. I'm planning to build at least 2 or 3 more Starfighter's with one being an S model beginning with the STGB later this year so I'll go ahead and get the Daco set in due course. TBH i hadn't quite realised what an in depth set it is.

 

As far as the rivets in the wings go. This time I've filled them although next time i don't think i'll bother as it'll probably be a camoflagued aircraft and i also don't think I've quite got the stamina to fill all of the rivets on the rear fuselage as well. It's also interesting to know that tip tanks are not a great fit to the Daco wings.

 

I totally agree with your comments about the weapons sprue and to include an extra in the set. I did look at buying this direct from Daco but couldn't quite bring myself to do it as it would have cost about £20 with postage for one sprue! 

 

Thanks again for the info, looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

James

[mirageiv]

Nice to see you are catching the Starfighter bug  . I look forward to your F-104S, if there are two versions the Daco set really shows it''s worth, they are the F-104S and RF-104 series. I know what you mean with the rivets, I filled the first one and thought not doing the second might make them look odd side by side for mine, next time I'll probably leave them as under some paint I actually quite like them. If you are looking for the other missile, such as Aspide, As.30 or Kormoran, I can send you one of mine, they will be spare. 

 

David

[Lex77]

Catching up on some builds! Good to see some more F-104's.

 

I used the Armycast decals and the worked really well for me. Used the markings and the stencilling.

Looking forward to the painting part.

 

[franky boy]

Thanks Lex

 

Its nearly ready for primer. I just have to fit the air intakes once their insides have been painted and also finish rocket rails to go under the fuselage. It seems to have taken forever to get all the smaller parts sorted and also the wingtip tanks but it's nearly there now. Looking forward to some painting.

 

 Thanks 

 

James

 

[Davek72]

Looking good James.

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

So i finally caved in last week and bought the Daco improvement set for this kit. I have to say i can now see why it's so highly rated.

 

 

So basically i spent most of my modelling time last week messing around with it and not making a huge amount of progress towards painting.

 

I started of by installing some the lights. Hopefully this will add greatly to the finished model. Only thing is i got a bit over excited and that orange one should have been a clear one. Never mind!

They just need a light polish and some Klear.

 

 

 

And also the lights on the tip tanks with the blisters.

 

 

And finally the Daco wings. I'd already made a start filling and sanding the rivets out of the kit wings but this was going to take forever to get them into a decent state and 11th June will round quick enough as it is.

 

 

That's all for now. Deffinately onto some priming next and then most likely some patching up and more priming..........

 

Thanks for looking.

 

James

[RMP2]

A nice job of the lights is well worth the few minutes involved.

 

But come on, this kit falls together, hurry up!!

 

[mirageiv]

Nice work James, I'm impressed how cleanly you installed those lights, top job. Btw I think the orange light you put on the upper rear fuselage is correct, unless RNoAF F-104Gs were different to other air forces, the Daco instructions say to place an orange one there. The port fuel tank might need a red one instead of blue though, only thought I'd mention it since you are doing a top job, please feel free to ignore me being pedantic and crack on however, look forward to more.

 

cheers,

 

David

[Col.]

Ooh some Daco bling! This is getting serious  

[franky boy]

Hi everyone.

 

Hope you all had a good Easter.

 

No photos in this update I'm affraid. She's had her first coat of primer, Tamiya light grey. A few small touch ups and then on with the second coat followed by some Alclad I hope.

 

I have a question if someone could be of help. On these NMF aircraft was the top side horizontal stabilizers left as NMF or were they painted as per the main wings. In Eduards NATO Fighter kit for this aircraft they state that the horizontal stabilizers should be painted grey, I assume ADG, i dont have them in front of me now so cant remember the colour call out exactly. It's not that easy to tell from the few photos I've seen.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

James

[Boman]

From Vingtor's excellent F-104G RNoAF 331 squadron instructions, #48-008 :

"Color notes: 
Prior to 1972 the Starfighters had highly polished bare metal fuselages, pylons and external fuel tanks. The wings were gloss white (FS17875) on the upper surfaces and light grey (FS16473) on the lower. The tailplanes could be dark grey (FS16118), light grey (FS16473) or white (FS17875). The radome and antenna cover on the fin was light grey fiberglass (FS16622 with a tint of green) the anti-glare panel was matt dark olive green (FS34079) and the beige panels on the ventral fin and behind the cockpit are natural fibreglass. The Canadair assembled aircraft had a pale grey forward fuselage, fin and tailplane probably Alumgrip Light Grey Enamel AA93-A-312 aka "Voodoo grey" close to FS16515."

Edited April 20, 2017 by Boman

[franky boy]

Thanks Boman

 

That actually answers a couple more questions.

 

James

[franky boy]

Hi everyone

 

A long overdue update from me to show that something has been happening even if it's a glacial pace!

 

So everything was primed using Tamiya fine light grey as usual and any bits and pieces tidied up.

 

 

For the darker and shinier panels around the rear of the fuselage i used humbrol gloss black which will be sprayed with Alclad polished aluminium. The matt black panels are Mr Surfacer 1500 black and will be sprayed in dark aluminium.

 

 

 

 

Then several coats of normal aluminium over the rest of the airframe. This coat has showed up a couple of flaws but I'm just ignoring them now. Overall i'm quite pleased with how this turned out.

 

 

 

 

I've since masked a couple of panels around the rear end and sprayed them duraluminium and next it's on to those black ones.

 

The upper surface of the wings have also been sprayed white.

 

By the way - has anyone reading this tried the new Vallejo metal coat gloss varnish? I was going to try this instead of Klear.

 

Thanks

 

James

 

 

[Hewy]

Looking very nice james, the alclad looks to have gone on really smoothly 

Glynn

[mirageiv]

That is looking fantastic James and I agree with Glynn, the finish is super smooth! I really look forward to the next update.

 

David