mirageiv

Lovely smooth painting Werner, I'd go for the fuel tank too. I wonder what the top speed was with all those stores hanging off, it would do well to go past Mach 1!

Great work Chris, the German scheme on the RF-4E is one of the best imo! Are you still going with the Airdoc stencils? When I used them IIRC they were as good as decals get. David

It was a close call to shelve it for a few weeks James but I did that with my last one and two years later it was still there, not this time! Quickly going over old ground to me the photo in the last post doesn't look so bad, this one is more like how dark it really got and why I bothered to strip it (it was darker still in real life), pretty much Extra Dark Sea Grey opposed to the lighter Basaltgrau. I took the camera mask off btw, really pleased how it looked behind the oval window. Anyhow the model is now paint free, Unintentionally, I now get the fun of painting two models after only build one! I'm not sure I'll finish it in the deadline tbh, there are about two trillion Astra decals to apply and I have to repaint it yet, I'll give it a go however! Thanks for looking, David

Got to be one of the best Sea Kings out there! Rotory models really aren't my knowledge area but even I know there is something interesting to look at in every square inch of that model, super super work Glynn!

Fantastic Drakens Jens, they look perfect, I really like how to scale and sharp they look without lots of exaggerated weathering, awesome job. How were the Hasegawa decals for the Austrian Draken? I would like to build one someday. David

Nice post Rich 25 layers of paint and it still looks like a normal paint job with other paints (crisper even), really very impressive (the F-14D also!) In the not too distant future (maybe early next year) I'm hoping to have a new dedicated modelling area, well whole new set up (new AB, spray booth etc...) where I probs will go for a good chunk of MRP and retire a lot of my old paints. This will be my last model until then so I'm just kinda using what I have for now if that makes sense before going 'all in'. I can be supercritical of colours on my models, for me it is the most important part and gives 'the look' you think of when you first start your build so if I have to strip it to get there so be it, heck I've already removed most of the paint now so no biggie . BTW if you ever have to strip one again I recommend Mr.Color thinners or the Levelling thinners for this job, it doesn't harm the plastic or clear parts (they may need a gentle polish back up) and you can 'wipe' away the paint after brushing some thinner on, it seems a lot nicer to use than oven cleaner or whatever harsher stuff is out there.

Hi Terry, most Revell enamels I've found are fine but their matt enamel greys (I can't spray the water based acrylic versions with any success at all), like 79 blaugrau or 77 'Basaltgrau' (which I used in the mix) can do this with gloss clear. I've not used MRP but from what I've been told they are super thin so you can repaint something many times before details start being degraded, hmm I'll think about it!

I know what you mean Rich with Tamiya too as I've had it myself, however I've found Revell enamel can change a lot more even (not all but some), they can really shift colour and absolutely refuse to come back regardless how how much matt varnish they receive. I did know about this as I've had it bite me before but I failed to remember how much they can change, so much so when you apply the colour you need to go lighter than what looks correct in order for the final colour to look right, not the most error free way of painting imho. I've already sprayed 2-3 layers of colour, each with shading so plenty of paint, as I kept getting the colour wrong anyway and now the panel lines and fine rivets have suffered quite a bit, another layer of paint and it probably will not take a wash very well. If only I had used MRP this wouldn't have been a problem, typical! This photo is quite complimentary by my camera, in real life it is a few notches darker again, As disputable as it is comparing to photos with unknown light, camera settings etc...this real example looks a lot different to my eyes, I'm going to repaint it, time to break out the Mr.Color thinners! David

Thank you Craig for your kind words but I fear I may have strip the paint off the model after applying the Aqua Gloss tonight. My fault really as I've fell foul of this before and should have known better as when using some Revell enamels from my experience (for the top grey), they can darken considerably after gloss varnish and then not lighten back up for the final matt layers. It looked ok in the above photo and in the flesh but now after the gloss it just looks plain wrong to the point it will always probably bug me...way way too dark a grey now...Urghh , this is going to be tight to finish it now in the GB deadline.

A masterpiece in the making Glynn, really impressive!

I think your Hunter is perfect, what a model! I love the crisp appearance in particular, the above photo really captures the lines perfectly for me. If my Revell 1/32 kit comes out 1/2 as good I'll be very happy, really well done! David

Thank you and I'm glad you guys are enjoying the thread! Here is a quick (and not too great-sorry!) photo of the main painting mostly done. I've gone for quite a fresh look but with some of the more noticeable spray touch ups around commonly worked on panels and some fading in particular areas seen in photographs. I'll get some better pics soon, hopefully with the decals on too. Thanks for looking, David

Beautiful work, I love the smart camo job! David

Hi guys, I managed to start the paint recently . First a few little things I remembered to take photos of. Some details to the inside of the front canopy, dangerous work glueing these without cocking things up! Some antennae mounts, I drilled out the light and will just use Klear to make the lens here with a foil backing later on, Lots of masking for the canopies when spraying the various seals, also the small cover for the IR sensor in front of the canopy. The canopies were like the rest of the build, the fit was not too great and required some tricky filling and sanding then polishing. Canopies masked again for the top colour, oval SOB camera window mask, lights sprayed with various Tamiya clears then masked and Master pitot glued and blended in. I think it took a week in just masking off little things! Some preshading with Mr. Color EDSG, I'll do more weathering/fading when painting the main colour but it helps just break up things for me, Then the bottom colour, RAL 9001, using Xtracolor. I find this paint a perfect match, it looks maybe too metallic now but from prior experience using it after the weathering processes and final matt/satin layers, it tones down nicely to a grey-ish silver as this colour can be tricky to get right. I did obliterate the preshading with it so I'll weather it later on with very thin greys etc..after the decals go on. In preparation of the RAL 2005 (dayglo orange) tanks I first sprayed Tamiya white then yellow as a good base, levelling thinner gives a great finish for the matt paints. On a previous Marineflieger F-104 build I did a rather weathered and faded example. I like it, but on my shelf (where it spends 99.9% of its time) I find it looks a bit dull tbh, almost 'too scale' and maybe a bit bland if that makes sense and the Day-glo looses some of it's charm when it is heavily faded for me. Also as a side note I used the Xtracolor RAL 9006 on this build too and you can see how faded it becomes in the end. So this time I've gone for a fresh pair of eye-catching jugs, using Colourcoats RAL 2005. Trust me they aren't this bright as the photo shows but they are proper Day-glo, my camera is having mucho trouble here but the Colourcoats match I must say is very good in the flesh for some freshly applied RAL 2005. I had Xtracolor and also Revell but this got the orange and slight tiny hue of red just right. Maybe I will reluctantly have to tone them down later if they just look too bright, I will decide later, but they look pretty cool like this imho regardless of scale! Thanks for looking, I know not 'painted' yet but 'paint applied' at least . David

Nice etch details Werner, nearly there for paint!

Excellent work James, the faded paint work looks top notch! I like how you have really made the doors fit properly also btw, a little thing but it will give a subtle refinement to the inflight model for sure. David

Yes it is a great kit Rich, I've had a few in the stash for ages now just waiting for the time to build them, I think it will take me a long time as it probably will be my ultimate model build I love the subject so much. The only downside to the kit imho is the wings having no flap out option, paragon (If you can find them) or Flightpath to the rescue however!

Beautiful model Martin, you absolutely nailed it! David

Yep on UK ebay the prices are getting high, maybe the new Italeri rebox will be better hopefully, at least with some nice decals. I've been waiting for the 1/32 AFV kit for years, seems to be a very very slow development but I don't mind that if they make the 'ultimate' F-104 in plastic eventually, the Italeri kit is not very good imho, the Hasegawa 1/48 is much better.

Great work James, I really like how crisp and bright the pilot is. Did you cut up the decals on the instrument panels/consoles before applying to help position them better or did they just fit really well? They look way neater than I can paint, I think I'll try the decals next time! Do you know how you will pose/mount the model? I've often toyed with doing a Viking jet on a low takeoff pose like my profile pic, someday I'd like to do it I guess with a clear rod up the exhaust. David

Very nice cockpit and gear bay details, I'll look forward to this one!

Thanks for all the nice words folks, glad you like the progress! James--Yep I agree, also the surface details are more sloppy compared to my earlier boxings. The fit on mine isn't bad (far worse out there), just out enough though even after test fitting adjusting etc..to require some work. I've found if you can get hold of the earlier releases like the German Nato boxings etc...the quality is noticeably better overall. Even though the Hasegawa F-104 is a great kit, I could see one of the manufactures now doing one better for sure with more weapons/options etc...that are covered in the Daco set. A nice clip of the Vikings here btw! :

Wonderful work Chris, Norm 72 splinter camo is the bolloxx! I've used those Airdoc decals before, they are superb, if you can 'enjoy' applying stencils, it doesn't get much better than those! David

Thanks for the kind words chaps! Slowly getting there, I've missed my aim of paint last? weekend by some margin but soon hopefully. Oddly different from my previous Hasegawa F-104 builds, I found the fit not so great for a lot of the fuselage parts on this one. It is a pretty simple kit so I'm not sure why but I found I needed to fill and sand pretty much every join with super glue and quite a few panel line needed cleaning up, maybe this Eduard rebox of the Hasegawa plastic is showing the actual age of this tooling, who knows, anyways most of the boring stuff is now done. I added the other major airframe mod for this particular RF-104G version, the under fuselage camera housing. This Marineflieger variant had a larger bulge than normal RF-104Gs and was provided by the Daco update set, it looks bang on compared to the real thing. Below you can see the small aerodynamic fairings for the bulge attached to the nose gear bay doors, still need a little blending in. I also stripped the paint off my older fuel tanks (a very easy job with Mr.Color thinner) and then added some raised weld seams (or strength rings?) with stretched sprue and a few other things for a more 3D appearance, I might lightly sand the seams but will decide after some primer. Unlike the fuselage fit, the wings were perfect, no filler needed I think. I've pretty much filled most of the rivets on all the wing parts and added a few fine ones here and there, not that the picture really shows it tbh. Another little fit problem was the rudder was noticeable thinner than the vertical stab, I should have sanded the fuselage pieces a bit more to make a thinner join a guess. Anyhow to make less of a step I glued a thin bit of plasticard to one side to build up the thickness then offset the rudder slightly according to pictures, I might fill the join and scribe a new hinge for a cleaner look. That is one of the Daco chaff/flare dispensers also mounted on these late Marine F-104s, just test fitting, fits pretty well to the contours of the fuselage but I think I might make them a bit sharper. We are looking like this now. I think I'll paint all the control surfaces separately and attach them later which IIRC will make masking much easier than last time. Hmm what left to do, glue/fill canopies, master pitot probe and some small antennae mounts to make, so the next update hopefully I'll have it painted. I've began to scratch some German specific intake covers but I'll show them later. I think I'm just going to load wing tanks for a clean look. Thanks for looking, David.

Awesome build Dave, I really like this scheme and the heavy store fit. Always makes me wonder about the drag from the outward canted stores, must be insane in some of the flight regimes. David