Rob K.

Can only agree with all of the previous comments. Great model 👍

Really like the paint work on this model. Quality build to my eye. Nice subtle weathering 👍

Great looking Starfighter 👍

Shaping up very nicely!

Lovely scheme, nice build report. Well done 👍.

Thank you Remy

Thank you James, so close to finishing, but I don’t want to rush it. Thanks for your feedback. Rgds, Rob

Thanks @Ad-4N, I used to struggle with the other well know metallisers and spray cans to create a NMF, but with the AK Xtreme Aluminium and Mr Color Super fine Silver products I find it a lot easier. The paint also doesn’t really peel off during masking different panels with these products. Nice and easy paints. Rgds, Rob

Hi, My regular work is calling, so I am going to have to put the Starfighter on the back burner for a while. Nevertheless, did make some progress since my last post and attached the wings and horizontal stabiliser/elevator with CA gel, followed up by very thin CA at the underside wing seam, where less noticeable. Windshield, Canopies and wing tanks all still dry fitted at this stage, (hence the canopy misalignment), but here is the result: To be continued at some point, That’s all, thanks for watching, Rgds Rob

Looks good so far Klaas. Ran into similar problems with my Kinetic CF-104 build regarding ejection seat and intakes. With my current (2nd) Kinetic F-104G build I know what to look out for. By the looks of it with the taller resin seat you also probably would not have been able to have the canopy closed. The kit seat just about fits, if you take extra care that the two small tabs at the bottom of the seat fit properly in the two slots in the tub. A dry fit with the canopy should work (unless you leave the hinged canopy open). Nice work so far. Rgds, Rob

Just read through the entire build. Nice thread. Do like the Eduard livery. Great project with quality finishes on all 3. Nice work 👍

Hi, With all the airbrush painting pretty much done, we are close to the decal stage. Couple more transparent parts by means of nav lights to colour and place. Still have to work on the sidewinders, pitot tube and arresting hook. Looking forward to seal the decals and apply (and remove) a wash to get all those nice details pop out. Unfortunately I have run out of MRP gloss and are awaiting delivery. I have only recently been using this product and really like the fact that it left the metal coat completely undisturbed and it sprays nice and thin straight out of the bottle. Anyway, the progress thus far: Windshield and canopy parts are all dry fitted at this stage and they fit perfectly. Great that this model allows you to place these parts last through a good fit. Glad I decided to mask the cockpit with tape instead of using the masked transparent parts as a cover for protection. Also contrary to my CF-104 built, the ejection seat does not touch the canopy this time. It certainly helps when you build a model for the second time. We are really narrowing down the choice of schemes at this stage. That’s all for now, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Good looking Hellcat. Like the painted pilot. 👍

Hi, Have been engaged in quit a bit of masking today, using various AK colours like titanium and pale burnt metal near the exhaust area, dark aluminium on the tail in combination with mr Color super fine silver 2 : Slight difference in shades near the lower electronics and gun bay using super silver 2, which is nearly the same as the AK X aluminium: In addition, I also painted the nose MRP Sky grey: During all of the masking I didn’t experience any lifting of paint. This AK Xtreme Aluminium is quite tough. However, due to my impatience and not allowing full curing time, I did ran into some tape residue settling on the Alu coating. I have experienced this before and by using some Sticky Stuff remover and a cotton bud I managed to carefully remove this. If touched very lightly it does not affect the metal coat. Made sure to gently wipe it clean with some soapy water afterwards. In order not too push my luck and with some more masking to do around the intakes an cockpit area, I have since applied an MRP gloss coat to protect the metal coat. Hope to finish the fuselage painting by tomorrow. That’s all, Thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Hi, Made some progress today. Restored all the lost detail, airbrushed Mr Color Ueno black prior to the application of the metal coat. Normally I apply AK Xtreme Polished Aluminium on the Ueno black coat. The polished Aluminium is however a rather dark shade ( almost dark Aluminium). Since I wanted to have a fuller range of contrasting and darker panel colours therefore this time I airbrushed everything with AK’ X regular Aluminium. Below the result: The tanks were painted a Duraluminium colour: Some of the other parts: Difficult to see the difference due to lighting, but the top wings were painted Mr Color white and the underside MRP Sky grey (non RAF). Thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Thanks James, leaning towards a NMF Starfighter at the moment. Not sure if it will be finished this week. My regular work starts again next week and if not completed I will have to pause the build for another 3 months or so. We will see how far we get. But did finish the primer coat today. Some detail restoration on the program for tomorrow morning. Cheers, Rob

Amazing build and finish 👍

Great paint work. Like the scheme. The black hawk artwork on the tail looks really nice with the fuselage grey and black letters/serials. Super build!

Hi Fred, Nice to see a DC-2 in this very 🍊 Color. Great build 👍

Very nice result 👍

Really nice thread and built so far 👍

Hi, Whilst looking at the decals for the Norwegian version, I noticed that it was listed as an RF-104. Therefore had a look if I was required to use the kit’s gun blanking cover instead of the gun fairing part. Found an image of W-FN where indeed the gun is shown, so at least some clarity regarding that question. According to info on below website, most initial Norwegian Starfighters were delivered as RF-104’s after which they were quickly converted to F-104G’s and fitted with a gun: http://starfighter.no/hist-en1.html Am using the blanking plate temporarily fixed with blue-tack to prevent airbrush spray entering the cockpit area. There are not many images where parked Starfighter are shown with flaps down. However, I find flaps down a little more interesting and also remembered from my CF-104 build that with flaps up, there is some noticeable space between aileron, flap and fuselage. I know of an image of several Luftwaffe104’s with leading edge and flaps down when at rest. However, also managed to find a Norwegian Starfighter showing the same: Hence, I prepared the wings accordingly: Also there was the question of fuel and weapons loadout. Wondered if besides the wing tip fuel tanks the underwing tanks were fitted. Perhaps not that often, but did find an image, again from a Norwegian F-104: Therefore prepared all 4 tanks, which were filled with black CA and then sanded: With regards to weapons loadout, it appears that in Norwegian service the center sidewinder dual rail bracket was regularly fitted: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wNFN-E.htm I found the kit parts very fiddly and quite delicate to construct. Hence I reinforced the arrangement with a lot of thin CA. In the meantime I decided to permanently close the top electronics bay. This will hopefully show the sleek lines of the Starfighter. Used some thin black CA to close the gaps which were just a little too wide. Will describe the panel lines later. Current progress: In addition I also opted to close the air brakes. The black outline is just the thin Gunze SP black quick drying cement staining. That’s all, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Masterpiece!

Hi, In order to eliminate the errors I made with my previous Kinetic CF-104 build, I payed close attention and ensured the cockpit tub side edges fitted correctly in the grooves and taping the 2 halves together to ensure proper line up. Ensured that below support was flush on both sides: This will ensure that the top of the ejection seat will not touch the canopy. With the CF-104, I previously had trouble closing the top electronic bay. (I think in the end I omitted the entire electronic section part). Also on this occasion the cover did not close. Therefore I removed a little bit of material on the end of the spine which runs through the middle of the removable electronic units. In addition, the wall of the cover was thinned from the inside: The electronic bay cover and canopy now fit very nicely. Removing the transparent parts was troublesome due to the many tabs attached to the clear parts. Cleanup was difficult and the canopy glass was scratched which had to be sanded and polished out: Made an improvement on the fitting of the intakes compared to last time. There is however a small step which has to be filled, sanded and undoubtedly re-scribed: To be continued, Cheers, Rob

Thanks GR, This time I payed a little closer attention to the intakes by doing a lot of dry fitting. Looks better, with only a small step to attend to. Yes, the Norwegian scheme looks nice. Like the Belgian Camo version as well. It is an attractive scheme. It’s growing on me.